“I know what it was.”
“Then why can’t you understand why I’m worried?”
“Is this our first fight?”
He paused in front of the door and took a deep breath. In a low voice he said, “Please, Kate. Please wait until I get back to take a shower.”
“Only if you’ll join me.”
A tiny smile touched the corners of his mouth. “Only if I can shave your legs.”
“Fine.” I rolled my eyes.
That night I let Jamie shave my legs in the shower. It was intensely erotic, or at least he made it seem that way. Damn tease. He still wouldn’t go any further than kissing me in bed. He showed great restraint; I’ll give him that, but the caretaker act was getting old.
At my follow-up appointment, Dr. Coco gave me permission to resume normal activities. I made him write it down so that I could wave it in Jamie’s face every time he tried to do something for me or every time he tried to prevent me from doing something normal. Every day since I was home, Jamie asked me if I wanted to try and ride the subway. The answer was always no.
We spent one Saturday cuddled up on a bench, sipping hot cocoa at Millennium Park.
“Christmas is in four days. Can you believe it?”
“No, it’s so soon. Are you going to go back to Napa for the holidays?”
His jaw clenched. “Why would I do that?”
“Well, I don’t know, you have Susan and Guillermo there.”
“They have families of their own.”
“Don’t you have things to take care of at the winery? And what about your organization in Africa?”
“The winery and organization run themselves. I do a lot when I’m there, but it runs smoothly when I’m not. My first priority is you. So what are we doing for Christmas? Should we get a tree and decorate?”
“That would be fun. I haven’t done that since I lived with Rose.”
He squeezed my hand. “What do you want for Christmas?”
“I want you. I want to make love. I don’t want you thinking about my head injury while we’re kissing. Do you think you can manage that?”
Smiling, he reached over and fluffed the back of my hair. “I’ll see what I can do, even though you still have this silly hair to remind me.”
I punched him in the arm. “Jerk.”
The next day, Jamie let me go shopping with Beth. He made me go through a checklist before I left, asking me a hundred questions to make sure I was up for a long day away from home.
“You’re not gonna spy on me while I’m shopping, are you?”
“I might. If you feel the slightest bit dizzy or nauseous, call me.” Jamie had started to use a cell phone again, but he never texted on it. I knew why. “What’s the plan for tonight when you get home?”
“I want to write a little, but my computer has a glitch. It keeps crashing, and I’m worried I’ll lose work. I have another older laptop in the closet. I might try and get that one working.”
“Okay, and what about dinner? Do you want to stay in or go out?”
“Let’s stay in.” I walked up to him and slipped my hand down the front of his sweats. I grabbed him and squeezed. He gasped. “Maybe we can go past first base?”
“I think I can arrange that,” he said.
The doorbell rang. Jamie quickly darted off to my bedroom. I swung the door open to a smiling Beth.
“Let’s shop till we drop.”
“You’re being sarcastic?”
“Yeah, I hate shopping. Jamie practically begged on his knees for me to go with you.”
“You mean he asked you?” She shook her head up and down dramatically. “Jamie, you’re in trouble!” I shouted.
“Have fun, ladies!” he yelled back. I grabbed my new purse off the table.
“I need to go by the bank first; I haven’t gotten my cards back. Do you mind?”
Before Beth could answer, Jamie shouted again from the other room, “I put a credit card in your purse.”
“Hold on one sec,” I said to Beth.
I stalked off to my bathroom and found Jamie standing completely naked in front of my sink, brushing his teeth.
I marched up to him. “You!” He spit toothpaste into the sink and turned toward me, exposing himself. He grinned arrogantly.
“Yes, dear, what is it? Have I upset you?”
“I have my own money . . . and you have toothpaste on your lip.”
He grabbed both my wrists, held my arms down, and bent so that we were face-to-face. “Can you get it for me?” I squirmed and tried to break my arms away, but he held them firmly.
I leaned in and sucked all the toothpaste off his lip, then I bit him. He pulled away and released my hands. “Ouch, feisty little thing.”
“That’s what you get. Hey, seriously though, I don’t want to buy gifts for you with your money.”
“It’s our money. You’re gonna marry me, right?” He smirked.
“Jamie, I said I thought we needed some time to get to know each other.”
“Okay, let’s get to know each other tonight.” He pressed his body to mine. I felt him hard against me. I got lost in his kiss and then I heard Beth whistling “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” in the other room.