Free Our Time by Jessica Wilde Page A

fingers in the process and making my stomach clench, then
brought it to her lips and wrapped them around the cold cream.
    I watched, hypnotized, as she
licked her lips and moaned quietly.
    "Mmmm, that's
delicious."
    A part of me grew anxious to get
the ice cream back from her so I could put my lips where hers had been, but
another part of me never wanted her to stop darting her tongue out to lick the
melting drips of chocolate.
    I heard Maddy snicker from across
the picnic table and finally moved my eyes away from the most arousing thing I
had ever seen. She was smiling and waggling her eyebrows at me, obviously aware
that I had been ogling Jocelyn with my tongue practically hanging out of my
mouth.
    Before she or I could say
anything, Jocelyn handed the ice cream back to me and excused herself to go
clean Liv up who had demolished her treat.
    I took a few deep cleansing breaths,
clearing my head of the fog that had overwhelmed me.
    Just friends…
    Just… friends.
     
    Jocelyn
    After that first week, Andrew and
I saw a lot more of each other. The zoo was a blast and the kids got along
really well. Andrew couldn't get enough of Olivia's expressions every time she
saw one of the animals up close. When we got to the reptile house, I pretty
much had to drag him in with us. Who would have known that a man as big and
strong as he is could be terrified of a tiny snake. I'm not saying I like the
creepy creatures, but he was constantly latched onto the back of me when I
lifted Liv to see inside the cages, thinking I could protect him. It made
Olivia giggle so who was I to say anything?
    When we got home, we were all
exhausted and Olivia wasn't going to wake up for anything. He carried in the 2
giant stuffed animals, a giraffe and an elephant, and the 5 other small stuffed
animals that he insisted on buying for her while I carried her up to her room
and laid her in the crib.
    We said our goodbyes with a
promise of hanging out again soon and the most perfect day I had experienced in
a long time came to an end.
    He made sure he was around a lot
after that. If we didn't have plans for a day, he would stop by before leaving
for work and make sure I had everything I needed and if not, he would make sure
to stop and pick up anything for me. He was still a little hesitant
around me, probably because I was trying to stay guarded around him, but I
decided that if we were going to be friends, I could ease up on him. I was
extremely comfortable around him and found myself gravitating to him whenever
we were together.
    It helped that he always smelled
so incredible and his warmth was so inviting and calming.
    Ben was really the only good guy
friend I had ever had. His friendship had always been more of a brotherly
thing, though, so spending time with Andrew could have been extremely awkward.
I didn't want to see him as a brother, but I didn't really want to think of him
as anything else. Too bad my mind and my heart were on completely different
pages. Was I attracted to him? Yes. Could I have a platonic relationship with
him? Of course. Did my heart feel like slapping me in the face because of that?
Yep.
    We found out that we liked a lot
of the same TV shows and since I didn't have a television, yet, he said I was
expected to be over to his place in time to watch them with him.
    "I feel stupid sitting there
laughing all by myself or yelling at the TV because someone did something
stupid. You would do me a great service by joining me," he had pleaded.
    Of course, I gave in, but only
because I was tired of keeping up on the shows by watching them on my computer.
My internet made the download take forever. That's the only reason. I swear.
    "Plus," he added,
"you are the only person I know, besides me, that actually gets excited
about watching reruns of The Big Bang Theory. We are perfect TV show
buddies."
    Again, I didn't argue.
    I did, however, want to jump in
his lap every time we sat down to watch a show and ended up asking way too many
questions