chapter EIGHTEEN
Therapist: You’re an addict.
Jay: And I’m not ashamed of that. Not anymore. I’m accepting who I am.
Therapist: Why?
Jay: My town, my people, the ones that matter never stopped accepting me for who I was. So, I’m learning from them.
Jay
Mikka wanted to act like nothing had happened. She passed me in the hall with a look of uncertainty in her eye. I pinned her up against the wall and took her mouth in mine. She relaxed immediately and let me taste her.
“I’m going to be doing that a lot lately,” I said. “Get used to it.”
“Jay, we’re jumping into uncharted waters,” she said, smoothing my t-shirt on my chest.
“That’s where I want to be,” I grumbled and then walked away.
She’d warm to the idea. We had time. Another two weeks in a small town with me pushing her would change her mind. I had no doubt.
I would make sure of it.
Lorraine sent us to the grocery store. I massaged Mikka’s thigh the whole drive. “You game for pulling over and making out on the side of the road, Little One?”
I saw her lick her lips, saw the blush rise to her cheeks. She shook her head, but she was smiling. “Absolutely not, Jay. I’m not doing PDA around here. You know everyone in Greenville will talk.”
I shrugged and pulled over anyway.
Her mouth tasted as good as it had just hours before. I wondered if this was what being committed was. Or being committed to who you were meant to be with.
When we pulled up to the small parking lot, Mikka gasped. “Why is everyone here? There’s no parking spots left.”
I chuckled. “Greenville Village Fest starts tomorrow. Everyone’s buying last minute supplies.”
“Oh my God. We should have come earlier. This is why I need my planner.”
“How would your planner have helped?” I asked as I relaxed into the seat, waiting for the ridiculous answer she was about to conjure up.
“I could have added in the dates, made note of what we needed over the past week.”
“You wouldn’t have known to get it early. Your planner wouldn’t have told you that.”
“I need the lesson of the day!” she countered, grasping for any reason.
“I’ll give you Jay’s lesson of the day.”
“Oh God.” She sighed, pausing for dramatic effect.
“Don’t overthink it. I got you.”
“That’s so stupid. You don’t have anything! No groceries whatsoever.” She yanked open her car door and hopped out on a new mission. “We have to hurry. We aren’t going to get everything for Lorraine’s pie with everyone else buying up all the stock.”
“You don’t think they bought all the pie crust, do you?” I asked with pretend trepidation in my voice.
She didn’t even look back at me. She just grabbed my arm and yanked me toward the shop. “I bet they did. I can’t believe you guys didn’t think of this. We are going to have to drive to the next town or something.”
“Meek, I got it, it’s fine,” I said to her back.