fantishu
27
She chewed that lip, the bottom one that I loved to suck. “I can tell.”
As she was about to elaborate, the waitress came to our table and asked what we wanted to drink.
“Does red work for you?” I asked Jo.
She nodded. “Sounds delicious.”
I ordered one of their highest-priced cabernets and handed the waitress the wine menu.
As soon as we were alone again, Jo said, “Listen, I consider myself a pretty observant person, but you don’t have to be into detail to see how independent you are. That tells me you were either in the wrong relationship that kept you tied down and prevented you from exploring, and that’s why you can’t stop now, or you haven’t found a bird to be caged with.” She tilted her head while she stared at me. “I suspect it’s the latter.”
Air came huffing out of my lungs. “Jesus …” There was something so fucking sexy to be under her microscope. “You’re not wrong.”
“I know.” She winked. “I was just trying to be nice with my first guess.”
I chuckled.
She had an adorable sense of humor.
Kind but honest.
I liked that.
Nah, I fucking loved that.
“You know what’s interesting, Jenner?” She took a drink of her water. “You’re not looking for a relationship, you don’t want to be tied down, yet you’re here, with me, just a day after returning from Vegas.” She moved all her hair to one side, the locks hanging well past her tit. “I must be one lucky girl. Not only did I get you for a week in Vegas while you were with your friends and brothers, but now, I also have you for three nights while you’re in Florida.”
I thought about every word she’d said.
I processed each one.NôvelD(ram)a.ôrg owns this content.
And as they resonated, I learned something.
Jo was right.
I didn’t need three nights with my client. I extended the trip to give me more time with her. And as soon as I’d found out about Miami, I’d called her-the hesitation hadn’t lasted for more than a few seconds.
“Jo …”
“I hope you don’t mind, but I brought Bordeaux glasses,” the waitress said, her approach cutting me off, placing the long-stemmed glasses in front of us.
“Not at all,” I voiced. “It’s what I prefer.”
She showed me the bottle, earning herself a nod, and then she began the process of opening the top and pouring a sample.
But the entire time, my eyes were on Jo.
And as soon as the waitress filled our glasses and left, I held mine toward the center of the table. “To more time together.”
Jo smiled. “Interesting … I’ll cheers to that.”
We both took a drink, and she placed her wine on the table, holding the stem between her fingers, twirling the thick rod so the dark liquid sloshed against the sides.
“I want to know what you like to do, Jo. Where you want to visit. The things you dream of when you close your eyes.”
“Hmm. Good questions.” She paused, her face a mix of thoughts. “I like to see things I’ve never witnessed before. Things that take me by surprise. That make me smile. That make me cry.”
“You want to cry? I don’t think I’ve ever heard a woman say that before.”
She leaned in closer. “I want to be rendered so speechless that I only have tears to shed.”
“Has that happened?”
“Yes.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Tell me about it.”
Her chest rose and fell several times before she started. “Monica-my best friend you met in Vegas-has a brother who’s in the military, and he’s been stationed overseas for the past two years. The calls aren’t as frequent as her family would like. He can never FaceTime because his location is confidential. I happened to be at her parents’ house when he returned for a visit.” Emotion was moving into her eyes. “He told no one he was coming; he just walked through the door while we were all in the dining room, eating cake for Monica’s birthday.”
She looked down at the top of the glass, the wine now still. “Seeing the way her parents wrapped their arms around him-that’s a scene that makes you speechless. That fills you with tears because there are no words to describe that kind of love. I swear, I watched her parents take a breath like they hadn’t breathed in two years.” She halted again, appearing to fight whatever was threatening to come through her eyes. “Two days later, he left. He’d only had a couple days off, and he’d made the long trek home just to celebrate his sister’s twenty-first birthday.”
I exhaled, shaking my head. “All right, you won that round.”
She took a long pull of her wine, holding it in her mouth before swallowing. “It’s those kinds of moments I want to see. The ones that teach you, that show you another side of yourself.” She broke our connection to glance around the restaurant, eventually returning to me. “As for travel, I was fortunate to grow up with parents who liked when I tagged along, and they took me on most of their vacations, but there are so many places I want to experience. Like boating down the Yangtze River in China and soaking in a salt pool in Egypt. I’m dying to see the waterfalls and cliffs of Milford Sound in New Zealand.”
There were standard answers-Rome, Paris, London, Dublin, the regular European and UK tourist traps that I almost always heard whenever I asked this question. And then there were people like Jo and me who wanted to go off the radar and see the deeper parts of the world.
Not even my brothers were game for that.
But she was.
I held the glass of wine against my chest, staring at her before I took a sip. “What do you dream of?”
She took a deep breath, breaking our contact once again until she spoke. “I dream about making someone overwhelmingly happy. About becoming a mother. About having a successful career, where I can make a difference at the company, where I can make a name for myself. I don’t want to just fit in. I want to be remembered.”