Chapter Text
Since Jason met Jillian Marshall, he felt something unspoken between them after pretending to be a married couple.
Internally, Jason knew where he wanted this complicated relationship to lead. But admitting it out loud would be difficult.
He’s had many relationship attempts in the past that went south, like almost eloping with Tasha. The thought of it makes him wince.
What was he thinking back then?
Jason has always been confident when he worked in the secret agent field and even after leaving the agency. He’s flirtatious unintentionally, but when it comes to Jillian, he doesn’t know how to act. She’s spontaneous and spunky and the absolute opposite of him.
In the first few weeks of Jillian working at J&J Antiques, Jason viewed her as this annoying blonde girl who couldn’t get to work on time and didn’t know the meaning of literally. But people change, and the recent reveal of Jillian’s secret cover changed everything.
He has changed too. Jillian has pushed him out of his comfort zone. No more tightlipped and impatient Jason. That’s all because of Jillian’s presence in his life. They make each other better.
★
Jason walks into White’s End and sees Connie at the counter, typing on her computer.
“What are you working on?”
Connie turns her computer around to face Jason. “Wedding pictures. Remember Claire and Caleb’s wedding?” He nods.
“The wedding package they asked for includes a scrapbook with photos of the wedding. I’ve been so busy recently that I haven’t gotten to it until now. Oh, here’s a photo of Jillian and you at the rehearsal dinner!” she says, pointing to the photo. Jillian is wearing a blue silk dress, and her curled hair is in a low bun. They are dancing together. It feels like he’s right back on the dance floor…
“You look good tonight.” He whispers.
“I’m shocked that you are capable of compliments.”
“Very funny Marshall.”
His arm goes around her waist instinctively as they both walk to the dance floor.
“What are we doing?”
“Scouting, so we can figure out what our plan is to talk to Caleb.”
“I’m not that good at dancing.”
“You’re doing just fine, don’t look down at your feet. Look at me.”
Their eyes are locked into each other as they move across the dance floor. He notices a stray hair fall from her low bun.
It’s not weird to fix it for her, right? We’re pretending to be a married couple so it doesn’t matter.
Jason tucks the stray hair behind her ear, she looks flustered. He doesn’t want to take his eyes off of her, but the point of them being a fake married couple wasn’t to dance but to get information out of Caleb.
★
“I gotta say, you really sold the entire married couple look.”
Jason nods. It's like wherever he goes Jillian ends up on his mind.
“I didn’t mean to bother you with wedding photography stuff. Do you want something?”
Jason forgets what he even came into Whit’s End for.
“Uh, no. I’m gonna head out.”
When he gets into his car, he stares at his steering wheel. Allowing Jillian into his life and work at Triple J Antiques may have caused him much more heartache which he didn’t intend to happen when he hired her for this job. He loves her and it’s too late.