Chapter 19

Jay had been wrong when he'd said that he'd be back sooner than I'd know. The last day and a half before he returned, were the worst. They dragged on and on and just didn't want to end.

I spent the first half of the day on Wednesday teaching my mother and Zoe accounting and for the second half, I waited tables.

Unlike my dad who had nearly ruined the restaurant a few years ago with his terrible bookkeeping and unwillingness to learn, my mum and Zoe were eager learners and picked everything I taught them up quickly. But even though the training was going well and the customers at the restaurant were friendly and lovely, I just wanted to be done with all of it.

Since I had taken up work again on Saturday, every day at the restaurant had been excruciatingly mundane. I had resumed the daily routine that I'd followed before I'd met Jay and witnessed him and his team work. But because I had caught a glimpse at my ideal private and work life, my former life just wasn't good enough anymore.

I knew that Jay would be back in just a few hours and that I'd be starting at the police academy the following week, but until then, I was stuck in my old life and it became so dreadfully apparent to me that I'd spent years in a daily grind that had brought me no happiness, no fulfilment.

On Thursday, after training a new waiter whom my parents had hired earlier that week, I went home in the afternoon to spend the evening with Jay.

We had made plans to have dinner at my place before meeting the rest of his unit at Molly's. I had invited Will and Zoe too, and both had said that they would come by.

When I left the restaurant, I got a text from Jay telling me that they'd started their trip down to Chicago which meant that I had a little over two hours to kill. I was overflowing with excited energy which made sitting still while waiting for him impossible. So I turned on some loud music when I got home and began cleaning.

After I had vacuumed my entire house and cleaned the kitchen, I took a long shower and got ready for the night out. I got dressed, put on a little bit of makeup, and added some curls to my shiny blonde hair.

I was combing my fingers through the curls to loosen them up when the doorbell rang. My breath hitched and my heart jumped with joy. Beaming from ear to ear, I raced down my stairs, taking two steps at a time, and skipped through my kitchen to the front door, feeling light as a feather. Without losing any momentum, I threw the door open and flung myself at Jay, wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his hips. The impact thrust him back a step, but he caught me securely and enveloped me in his embrace. I buried my face in his neck and held on to him tightly, silently vowing to never let go.

When he'd left Chicago, he had taken a part of me with him and left me behind feeling empty and incomplete. By locking him securely in my embrace, sensing both of our heartbeats hammering in our chests, and inhaling his scent, I was slowly becoming whole again. He held on to me so tightly that he stifled my breathing, but it only made me hug him tighter in return.

We stayed on my doorstep for a few minutes, not speaking, not moving, just relishing the moment and our reunion. Eventually, Jay stepped into my house. While I reached out and closed the door, he carried me through the hallway and up the two steps to the kitchen, kicking off his shoes while walking. He set me down onto the kitchen island, and we loosened our embrace just enough to look at each other. Jay ran his hands over the sides of my face slowly, and the touch sent tingles up and down my body. I studied his face closely while my hands held on to his lean waist. He looked different. He'd let his beard grow out over the past one and a half weeks, and slight dark circles hung under his eyes. However, his expression when looking at me had remained unaltered. Sincere and boundless affection glowed in his green eyes as they bore into mine. He inched his face closer while maintaining eye contact until I closed my eyes and felt his lips on mine. The kiss wasn't passionate. It was slow and tender, soft and gentle, but it held all the intensity and profundity of our emotional connection. We lingered in the simple touch, taking our time to experience the sensation to the fullest.

When Jay pulled back, a little smile crept onto my face, "Watch out, you'll get cooties," I murmured.

The corners of his mouth twitched up. "Out of all possible childhood stories, Will just had to tell you that one, didn't he," he groaned and chuckled softly. A playful glint appeared in his eyes. "The worst case of cooties couldn't keep me from doing this," he breathed and leaned in for another, even longer kiss.

This time, I pulled back and gently reached out to run my fingertips through his beard which had tickled my face during the kiss. "I like it. It suits you," I whispered, then let my fingers wander up his face to the cut in his brow from the accident. I traced around it, then cupped his cheek in my hand and stroked my thumb against his cheekbone. He closed his eyes and leaned into the touch, expelling a soft breath.

"I've missed this," Jay mumbled and let his hands run down my back to my hips to slide me closer against him. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders again while he buried the fingers of one hand in my hair, pulling it back so he could place a kiss just below my ear. "And this," he muttered, then trailed kisses down my neck, to my collarbone. He tugged on the sleeve of my T-shirt to bare my shoulder and continued his path. I leaned my head back as I felt heat radiate through my body and let a sigh escape my lips. Attracted by the sound, he raised his head back up, "And that."

A blaze ignited in his eyes as he took in my flushed face. Electricity hummed between us, and our breathing picked up. My gaze zeroed in on his mouth and in a flash, his lips were on mine, moving against them with a certain urgency. His hands clasped the back of my neck and the small of my back to pull me even tighter against him. I let my hands slide across his broad shoulders, held on to the collar of his shirt for a moment, then undid it's top button. As the kiss continued and deepened, I worked my way down the buttons and pulled the shirt off his shoulders. His hands briefly left my body as he freed his arms from the fabric and let it fall to the floor. Then his hands found their way back to me and moved under my shirt on to my waist where his thumbs traced along the bottom of my rib cage. While my fingertips explored the naked skin of his shoulders and back, Jay let his fingers trail up my torso, pulling my shirt up with them. I raised my arms to help him, and he discarded my shirt on the floor behind him. We studied each other's bodies, softly panting from the intense kiss. I wore a lacy black bra that flattered my figure. Our eyes returned to each other's faces at the same time, and both our mouths curved up into smiles as we took a second to savour this moment of true happiness and appreciate the fact that we'd found each other.

As we closed the small distance between us again, Jay pressed a kiss onto my smile and slid his hands under my thighs to lift me up. While I placed a multitude of kisses up and down his neck, he carried me up the stairs to my bedroom where he let us fall onto the bed. His body hovered above mine as his lips moved against my mouth, and I traced my fingers down his back to the waistband of his jeans. Soon, the rest of our clothes had found their way onto the bedroom floor.

My heart hammered in my chest, and the usually coy butterflies raged in my stomach. I switched my mind off and surrendered myself completely to the sensations my body was experiencing. I stared into Jay's burning green eyes, felt his soft and gentle touch on my skin, smelled the infatuating scent of his cologne in my nose, heard the sound of our rapid and ragged breathing, and tasted his lips on mine. Our bodies fit against each other perfectly, and we moved in flawless unison until we riled in ecstasy.

"Where have you been all my life, Hailey?" he wondered quietly, playing with my hair with his fingertips as I lay next to him with my head resting on his chest.

I leaned my head back to look at him. "I'm here now," I whispered, "and I'm not going anywhere."

He smiled and placed a soft kiss on my temple.

The corner of my mouth quirked up. "I mean that quite literally. I'm never leaving this bed again."

"Sounds good," Jay chuckled and reached out to grab his phone. "We have to be at Molly's in an hour though and should eat something before then unless we want to be flat-out drunk after just two drinks."

I buried my face in the crook of his neck and wrapped an arm and a leg around his waist. "I hate that you're right," I groaned.

Neither of us moved for a while.

"What should we have for dinner? I had planned on cooking, but now I'd rather stay in bed. Should we order something?" I mumbled against his neck.

"Pizza?"

I nodded.

Jay dialled a number and ordered two plain cheese pizzas while I nibbled at his neck. He pinched my waist to make me stop so he could concentrate, but it only spurred me on. Silently, I pecked my way up his jaw. When he opened his mouth to give the person on the other end of the line my address, I caught his bottom lip between my teeth which caused him to slur the first word of the sentence. I let go and dug my face into the pillow to muffle my laughter while Jay cleared his throat to gloss over the incident and started the sentence anew.

"Pizza will be here in ten minutes," he informed me once he'd hung up the phone. "Which gives me ten full minutes to take revenge on you for what you just did," he snarled and flipped us so he was lying on top of me.

He grabbed both of my wrists in one of his hands and restrained them above my head while the weight of his body pinned me down. He held the fingers of his other hand by my waist, ready to pinch me again, and gauged my face, waiting for my reaction. I pouted defiantly, pretending not to care if he went through with it or not and turned my nose up. He beamed mischievously and began pinching me. I squirmed and wiggled underneath him but refused to show any sign of weakness and kept my nose in the air, trying my best to keep my face straight. When I didn't give him the response he was hoping for, he also bit my cheek. I loved and hated it at the same time. A distinctively strong pinch to my side made me squeal and break my facade while begging him to stop in between laughs. His teeth let go of my cheek, and his hand ran over my waist soothingly while his grip on my wrists weakened. His bright eyes sparkled with joy as he regarded me for a moment, then leaned down to brush his lips against mine. I kissed him back, then took advantage of his waning grip on me and freed my hands to roll us over until I'd taken his place. He puffed out a surprised breath and chuckled.

"A few weeks of police combat training and you'll be an equal opponent," he joked.

"Yeah, right," I chuckled doubtfully. "I might use you as a practice dummy though."

He raised his eyebrows. "A dummy that fights back," he stated and quickly and skilfully manoeuvred me off him and onto my belly where he pinned me down.

"Not fair," I laughed. "Okay, maybe not a practice dummy but more of a practice partner and teacher," I reconsidered.

He placed a kiss on the back of my shoulder and let go of me. "That's better," he agreed.

The doorbell rang, and Jay climbed out of bed and retrieved his jeans off the floor to grab his wallet. He shot a quick smile my way before he left the room to get the door.

When I was alone, I took a glance around the room scattered with clothes and dropped my head back onto my pillow. A burst of happiness bubbled up inside me, and I dropped my hand onto my forehead, closed my eyes, and laughed quietly.

"What's so funny?" Jay asked from the doorway.

Slightly startled, I looked over at him standing in my room in his boxers, holding two big boxes of pizza. "Nothing. I'm just happy."

In response, a heartwarming smile spread across his face as he walked over and sat on the bed with me and opened the boxes.

I turned on the TV, and we ate the pizzas while discussing and joking about the show we were watching. When the pizzas were gone, we got fully dressed again, and I headed to the bathroom to touch up my makeup.

"Should we walk to Molly's?" Jay called from the bedroom.

I walked out of the bathroom and patted my pizza belly. "Yeah, wouldn't hurt to walk this off a bit," I stated, grinning.