My Way Swoon

✨Chapter Ten✨

I felt awkward with Jake still. I had so many questions. I didn't feel like I could be the same with Jake as we had been lately. Not in front of Nell, and definitely not in front of Sammy.

I felt a little bit like Nell and I were intruding, but they were the ones who offered.

I grabbed a glass and filled it with ice. Then I went to the sink and filled it up with water from the tap.

"I was thinking about grilling some zucchini," Jake said to Nell.

"Grill master Jake," Sammy joked.

"So, just zucchini?" I asked sarcastically.

"Shut up, Lena. There's salad stuff in the fridge and I can make some couscous," Sammy muttered.

"How can I help?" Nell asked, standing up from her perch at the dinner table.

"Why don't you help me with the salad?" Sammy suggested.

Jake came over to where I was leaning up against the sink.

"I can help you look for your keys," he offered.

"That's okay. Maybe you should get started on the zucchini," I told him.

"Ooh I have that balsamic in the trunk!" Sammy remembered, crossing the kitchen and walking out the front door.

I went to follow him. Jake went to step out of my way, which was the same way I went to step out of his way. Were we really doing this again? I looked up at him, holding his gaze.

"Are you playing a game with me?" Jake teased.

"Oh, are you having fun?" I asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

I kept eye contact. His smile was spreading a little. I folded my bottom lip into my mouth, partly because I was nervous, partly because I thought it might look sexy to him.

"Kiss her!" Nell shouted, reminding us she was right there.

"Nell, shut up!" I yelled back, feeling my cheeks growing red from embarrassment.

Jake bent down and kissed my cheek. It wasn't a peck either. He had cupped my face and gently pursed his lips against the hollow of my cheek. I was taken by surprise. I couldn't tell whose mouth had dropped wider, mine or Nell's.

"Happy?" Jake asked her.

"Well, actually I meant on the lips but I guess that'll have to do," Nell shrugged.

I walked out the front door and unlocked my car. I touched the pad of my index finger to my cheek, tracing along where Jake's lips had landed. I looked around the front seat and the passengers seat but I didn't see my wallet.

I pushed the seats all the way up and by some miracle found it lodged underneath the drivers seat. I pulled it out and carried it back into the house.

"Find it?" Sammy asked.

"Yeah," I told him.

"In your car?" Nell asked.

"It was under the driver's seat."

"I'm glad you found it," Sammy said.

"Me too. That's a weight off my shoulders."

I sat down at the kitchen table. I opened up Instagram but I wasn't actually looking at anything. I was thinking about the last few days. Sammy's birthday with Laney, yesterday with Jake.

Sammy and Nell were busy chopping vegetables. I looked up from my phone and saw Jake standing at the barbecue. I had the urge to go out there and hug him from behind. I wanted to feel my cheek on his shoulder blade. I pushed that image down and stood up, pulling the sliding glass door open.