That was really the only way this was going to work. It wasn’t a bad deal either. She could scratch her itch, have phenomenal sex, and… Well, a more relaxed Jake didn’t seem like a bad thing to her. Hell, he’d just said ‘fuck’ and didn’t even wince when she said it now.

“All right, short stuff,” he said, turning away so they could keep walking. “It’s a deal.”

Since he couldn’t see her expression, she stuck out her tongue at his muscular back. If he thought he was going to bother her by giving her a nickname based on her small stature, he was going to be super disappointed. That was really kind of a sad effort when it came right down to it. The nicknames she came up with were so much better.

“Sounds good, Captain.”

She smiled innocently as he shot her a look.

Since Sharon hadn’t been free, Jake said yes when his mom texted to see if he wanted to come over for dinner that night. His dad had a yearly tradition of making Hoppin’ John for New Year’s Day and, even though Jake followed the exact same recipe when he tried to recreate it, it never tasted quite the same as his dad’s. Plus, his mom wanted the family together to celebrate Lexie and Patrick’s engagement.

So maybe it was for the best that Sharon couldn’t come over tonight.

It would also give him a day to try and get his head on straight when it came to her.

He didn’t think he’d ever had a ‘fuck buddy’ before. One night stands here and there, sure, they happened. Especially when he’d been deployed. But a non-relationship relationship with someone he saw on a regular basis? That was new and different. He didn’t think it would be too much of a problem though.

While he might lust after her, she was not the kind of woman he saw himself ending up with. He wouldn’t want to bring her to a family dinner. Just the thought of her being her usual blunt self or even dropping an ‘f’ bomb in front of his mom made him want to cringe. It wasn’t that he was a good-two-shoes as Sharon liked to say, but he did feel there was a time and a place for everything.

Still, he couldn’t pretend this wouldn’t be a little strange for him, especially since she was part of his group of friends. He was used to being pretty affectionate with the women he dated.

It was going to be weird to be regularly sleeping with a woman he wasn’t dating.