“I didn’t. At least, I never wanted to. Not until her.”
“And her is?”
“I told you about her before. My sister’s best friend. Her name is Jade.”
“That’s a very pretty name.”
I nodded. It was a pretty name. It was perfect for Jade. It sounded like warmth and caring and giving.
“So is Jade why you came in here, then?”
I nodded again. “Yeah. I scared myself the last time we were together.”
“How so?”
“We…had relations.”
“You mean you made love.”
I gulped. “Yes. Why is that so hard for me to say?”
“Because you’ve probably never made love to anyone before.”
“I’ve had plenty of experience.”
“You’ve had plenty of sex, you mean.”
I nodded. She was right.
“So what happened? You were making love…”
“Afterward, we were lying together. And I…fell asleep.”
“Okay. Nothing unusual about that.”
“It was for me. I don’t sleep very well. And I had never slept with another person before.”
“Never?”
I shook my head. “When I was in Iraq, I shared tents with the other guys sometimes. But this was…different.”
She smiled again. She had a nice, warm smile. No wonder Jonah had the hots for her.
“I would hope it was different.”
I couldn’t help a small chuckle at that. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep. Or maybe I did. I was going to stay with her through the night and through the next night as well.”
“Why?”
“It’s a long story. The guy I beat up was in town, her ex. He had taken her to dinner, which really pissed me off. So I didn’t want to let her out of my sight until this morning when we had court.”
“But you did let her out of your sight.”
“You know I did, because I was in here yesterday.”
She nodded. “Why?”
“When I fell asleep, I started dreaming and…” My skin compressed around my muscles, my nerves on edge. My legs cramped up, and I clenched the chair’s arm again.