The Temporary Roomie: Extended Edition (It Happened in Nashville #2)

Bonus Epilogue

Drew

Let me tell you something: forty-eight-hour shifts at the hospital, delivering babies, and performing emergency C-sections really hit different when you have two kids at home who never sleep. I understand the baby’s lack of sleep. Graham is only four months old, so he’s excused. But Jane . . . she’s three years old now. Three. I’m beginning to wonder if that child doesn’t even need sleep. She’s a new, terrifying super-breed of human that runs on the sleep-deprived tears of her parents. And it’s not fair that she’s so adorable. I immediately forgive her all of her sleepless transgressions the minute I look at her little round face and bouncing curls.

Basically, nothing makes sense anymore. I’m sleep-deprived and mad at my kids for never sleeping, and yet I’m hightailing it up my driveway because I’m eager to spend time with those very same children who are bound to wake me up a hundred times tonight.

And Jessie . . . my wife. A man shouldn’t miss a woman as much as I miss her when I’m gone for two days at the hospital. But I do. I’m dying for her. Deprived of her smiles and playfulness. Her achingly beautiful curves and the sweet peace she drenches my life in. Jessie has been a miracle, and I can’t wait to get inside and relax with her after a hard weekend.

Except, when I open my front door, I can’t find my home. It’s been replaced with a horrifying glitter explosion of a winter wonderland. My eyes immediately land on my wife, frozen in the middle of the living room holding one of our Christmas decoration tubs, and my sister also frozen, kneeling in front of a Christmas tree, mid-ornament hang.

We three stare at one another and blink.

“Stay very still, Luce,” Jessie stage-whispers. “I don’t think he’s seen us yet.”

I close my eyes and breathe, counting to ten. Did I say Jessie fills my life with peace? That must be my delirious sleep deprivation talking. I meant chaos. Marriage to Jessie is one long string of shenanigans. And it doesn’t help things that my sister is her best friend. The two of them get into more trouble together than a pair of burglars.

“Jessie,” I say slowly, opening my eyes to glare at my guilty-faced wife. “What in the hell has happened to my living room?”

She sets down her plastic tub and slowly walks toward me. Her blond hair is piled on her head, and black leggings are hugging her sexy body. Jessie has gotten curvier with each child, and damn, am I a lucky man.

“Hi, honey. You’re home!” She wraps her arms around my neck. I do not reciprocate the hug. Or the sparkly smile.

“Jessie . . .”

“Okay, don’t yell or you’ll wake the kids. I just got them down for naps, and they haven’t napped at the same time in days.”

I frown. “When have I ever yelled?”

“Well, you look like a man who’s about to start.” She’s playing with the back of my hair. It’s a tactical move. Seduction. She’s trying to butter me up with physical promises for later, but I’m not biting. I’m strong. I can withstand this.

“Do you want to go back to our room with me and change out of these scrubs while I tell you all about it?” She’s dropped her voice down to a sultry tone.

My sister snickers beside the Christmas tree.

“No, I do not,” I tell Jessie sternly. “I want to know what all this is, and I want you to tell me it has nothing to do with a scheme of any kind.”

She scrunches her nose and sucks in a breath through her teeth. “Really wish I could, but . . .”

“It’s definitely a scheme!” Lucy says gleefully. She’s wearing a sweater covered in jingle bells.

I drop my gaze to Jessie. “Woman. I am running on zero sleep. I am hungry. I am grumpy. I am in no mood for games. Please tell me what all of this is about.”

“It’s a good thing I bought you the Jack Frost sweater to wear tonight,” she says playfully, but then she looks at my glare and backtracks. “Okay, fine! I’m sorry! Lucy and I—”

“Oh, no! There’s no Lucy and I!” my sister interrupts, standing back from the tree to put her hands on her hips. “I had nothing to do with this plan other than agreeing to come help you set up after you told me about it.” That’s usually the way it goes with these two.

Jessie air kicks Lucy. “You’re a terrible best friend. I hope Santa brings me a new one this year.” She turns back to me. “Okay, well, you remember that sweet lady, Ms. Dorothea, who Grandaddy met on his walk around the neighborhood the other day?”

I nod slowly, already not liking where this is going.

Jessie can tell, so she takes my hand and drags me with her toward the kitchen. “Well, I could tell by the way that Grandaddy talked about her that he really liked her, but he’s been out of the game for too long now and isn’t sure how to approach seeing her again.”

“Did he say this to you?” I ask suspiciously.

“Well . . . not in so many words.”

“So no.”

“Technically not, but trust me, he likes her. And so anyway. As luck would have it, I randomly ran into her this morning at the post office, and the two of us got to talking. Turns out, she’s new to the area and pretty lonely.” Jessie pours me a cup of coffee and puts it in my hand. When I just stare at it, she mimes how to drink it in case I’ve forgotten. I roll my eyes and take a sip.

“I think I can see where this is going, and I don’t approve.”

“You never approve; that’s why I don’t tell you my plans until they’re already in motion.” She takes the cup from my hand, satisfied that I’ve gotten a small dose of caffeine, and then wraps her arms around me and slides her hands up the back of my shirt. I want to groan at how good her hands feel against my skin, but I refrain because I don’t want her to think she’s won. “So anyway, I had the best idea ever on how to get her and my Grandaddy to meet again. They just need a friendly group gathering to be invited to—and so I invited her to our annual Christmas in July party happening tonight.”

“We’ve never had a Christmas in July party.”

“Right. But every annual party has to have a first one. We simply don’t plan on telling Dorothea that this is the first. Or that I came up with the idea this morning while talking to her at the post office when I saw that Santa Claus mailers were half off.” She slides her hands a little lower down my back. “Please play along. Please. I want to see my Grandaddy happy.”

I grunt.

She grins and slides her hands over my butt and squeezes, widening her eyes playfully. “Wow, buns of steel! Have you been adding more weights at the gym?” Another series of quick, firm squeezes. “I’m getting so hot. Take me now, Dr. Marshall.”

Don’t smile, Drew. Don’t do it.

I smile. And then I shake my head, giving in to wrap my arms around my ridiculous, kooky, scheming, sexy, wonderful wife. “It won’t work, you know. You can’t set people up like in the movies.”

“I think I dispelled that theory,” Lucy says, stepping into the kitchen just long enough to pour herself a cup of coffee too. She glances between me and Jessie with a smirk. “Jessie . . . why do you think I worked so hard to make sure you were never too comfortable at our place while your house was getting fixed? And Drew, I practically threw Jessie into your path every chance I got.” She rolls her eyes. “It’s embarrassing you never realized you were set up.”

And without a backward glance, she walks out of the kitchen, leaving a stunned Jessie and me in her wake.

“What . . .” I blink down at her.

“Did your sister successfully dupe us? The King and Queen of Dupes?”

I let out a fake groan. “Don’t ever tell her that, or she’ll be unbearable from now on. She’ll expect diamonds for her birthday every year, and on our anniversary posts she’ll always comment how glad she is that she set us up.”

“You’re so right.”

I lean down and whisper against her full lips, “I’m always right.”

I feel her grin rather than see it. “Except for when I am. Which is all the time.”

My lips press into hers, and for a minute I forget how tired I am or that my sister is in the other room or that I’m apparently throwing a Christmas party in a few hours. Even after almost three years of marriage, kissing this woman still affects me like it’s our first. One press of her lips, and she’s swirling through my veins, slamming into my heart, and commandeering my focus. I put up a fight because it’s fun, but I would do literally anything for her, and she knows it.

“Has Lucy told Cooper yet?” I say after reluctantly peeling my lips from hers. “He’ll agree that this is a terrible idea.”

Except, the front door opens and Cooper steps inside wearing a festive sweater of prancing reindeer and holding a sheet cake. There’s a Santa hat on his head too. “I picked up the North Pole cake from the baker; Levi is with your mom making the cookies they’ll bring over later, and I brought our snowman inflatables from home. What else am I forgetting?”

“Your dignity,” I tell him before taking another sip of my coffee.

He smirks at me but addresses his wife. “Luce, you hired a real-life Grinch to attend the party. Such a nice addition.”

“You can’t seriously be okay with their scheme?” I ask him.

Cooper walks through the living room and into the kitchen to set down the cake while Jessie leaves my side to go help Lucy with the tree. “Not only am I okay with it, I encourage it.” His eyes twinkle with another layer of mischief.

“I’m afraid to ask why.”

He taps my chest and the little pompom on the end of his Santa hat bobs. “Since I’m in the Christmas spirit and feeling benevolent, I won’t make you ask. It’s because when Lucy helps out with romantic schemes, it puts her in a very romantic mood too. And since it’s fake Christmas, I got her a present and left it on our bed at home. It’s a red—”

I grimace and shove his shoulder. “In what world do you think I want to hear what sort of sexy present you got my sister? I don’t care if you’re married; my gut reaction is still to rip your arm out of its socket.”

He laughs, enjoying pissing me off way too much. “The other reason is, I don’t feel like sleeping on the couch. And I’m smart enough to know when to fight something and when to look on the bright side that I get to eat cake and cookies all night.”

I’d probably have a more charitable approach to this spontaneous party too if I weren’t running on fumes. Better start guzzling this coffee. “I have to give them credit though. This definitely goes down as one of the most creative schemes for getting two people together. And I want to see her grandaddy happy too.”

Cooper smiles wide and then pulls something from his back pocket. “It’s good you feel that way, because I got you a matching hat.” He slaps the tacky red thing on my head and the pompom hits me in the eyeball. God, I’m too tired for this. My self-pep talk from a moment ago fades as I rub my eyeball, trying to get it to stop burning.

I’m seconds away from hallucination and consider telling Jessie that I hope they have fun, but I can’t help out. I know she’ll be okay with it if I explain how truly tired I am, but just as I’m about to rip off the hat and break the bad news to her, I hear her laugh filter through the room.

It’s her laugh that makes me weak. Her laugh that I know accompanies the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen. Her laugh that tells me she’s truly happy and enjoying this to the fullest. I’m addicted to that laugh, and hearing it reminds me that there’s nowhere I’d rather be than at her side tonight—tired or not.

I look over my shoulder at my wife, who is buzzing around the living room, pulling decorations from bins and placing them on various shelves and then hitting her best friend in the head with a Santa Claus pillow. No way would I miss out on this with her.

“JESS!” I yell from my spot in the kitchen. “Where do you want me to hang the mistletoe?”