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“I’m great. The question is, how are you? And what are you doing here in Palo Alto?”
“Doing good, thanks. Just dropping some things off for Emma.”
Her eyebrows furrowed. “Why?”
Giving her one of his most reassuring smiles, the kind he employed on TV to relax everyone and let them know that he was a good guy they could trust, he said, “She’s moving in with me.”
Kate’s mouth fell open. “Are you kidding me?”
He couldn’t resist saying, “Surprised?”
Her open face grew uncharacteristically serious. “Whose idea was this?”
“Mine.”
“Don’t you think it’s a little soon to be moving in together?”
“Not really.”
She stared at him. “You love her that much, huh?”
He swallowed and forced out, “I do.”
“Uh-huh.” He could tell she didn’t believe him, and he was trying to figure out a way out of the conversation when her pager and cell phone both beeped.
“Crap. I’m late for a meeting. Two, actually. Tell Emma I’ll call her tonight.”
As he watched Kate run off in impossibly high heels, Jason began to feel like Emma’s social director.
Steven and Kate could pass their messages on to Emma themselves.
Emma kept busy while Jason was gone, but after an hour had passed she started to worry. What if he’d changed his mind about everything and decided to head back to Napa without her? She hated how
insecure she felt, but she couldn’t help it.
It was only during those moments when she was in Jason’s arms, when he was kissing her and making her feel like the only woman he’d ever want, that she felt truly safe. But all the befores and afters kept her on shaky ground.
Even now. When there was absolutely no reason for her to be worried anymore.
Well, except for the small matter of his not having said “I love you” yet. Looking at things in that light, putting her house up for sale and moving to Napa seemed extremely premature.
If she were brave, if she had any faith in herself at all—or in their relationship, for that matter—she’d say that very thing to him.
She heard his footsteps coming down the hall and relief washed over her. He’d come back. In the back of her mind she foresaw a hundred nights of waiting at home for him. Was she going to live the rest of her life worried about whether he was truly committed to her?
He smiled as he plopped down on her bed, but something seemed different about him, something seemed to have changed in his eyes and the lines of his face in the past hour.
“Is everything okay?” she asked, barely brave enough to turn her fears into that very general question.
Granted, it wasn’tAre you sure about us? Or,Do you think we should take this slower?
“I haven’t driven around Palo Alto in years.”
She cocked her head to the side. Now that wasn’t the reply she expected at all. Especially since Palo Alto was all she knew. She’d grown up here. Gone to school here. Married and bought a house here.
“Does it feel strange to be back?”
He shrugged, then said, “It does, actually.” Piercing her with his gaze he said, “Lots of memories I hadn’t expected.”
Emma wanted to comfort him. But the only way she knew how to do that was with her body. And she knew that having sex with Jason in the bed that she and Steven had shared—or anywhere else in her house, for that matter—would be horribly wrong.
They needed to get back on level ground, go back to Napa. He’d sacrificed another day at his restaurant and made the drive to support her in clearing out her things, in saying good-bye to her old life. She’d be forever thankful, she realized with sudden clarity.
This really was good-bye. To a home that never really was.
Besides, he wasn’t the only one who wanted to leave this mausoleum. A couple of hours in this house was more than enough to convince her that selling was the right thing to do.
“I’m all done here. Let’s go back to Napa. Right now.”
He gestured to the two suitcases by the door. “That’s it? That’s all you’re taking?”
She took a deep breath and scanned her bedroom once more. “I never realized how little everything in this house meant to me until today.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, but she didn’t want him to apologize for making her see things straight.
“Don’t be. How many people get a chance to start fresh? This is my second chance.” She turned to him and ran her hand over his beautifully square jaw. “Thanks to you.” Going up on her tippy-toes, she gently kissed his lips. “Ready to get out of here?”
“Hell yes.”
He lifted her into his arms, carrying her out of the house and into his car. She felt like a blushing bride, even though she’d just been taken away from an old home, rather than brought into a new one. A minute later he threw her luggage in the trunk and backed out of her driveway so fast he left tire tracks on the beige pavers.
It seemed a fitting good-bye.
Nineteen
Marvin’s tail wagged excitedly as they walked up Jason’s front steps and plopped her bags on his porch.
“He must know you’re staying.”
Emma smiled. “Go to your restaurant. I know you’ve got work to do.”
Jason seemed confused by her non sequitor for a moment. And then he smiled. “You sure?”
She nodded. “I’ve got some things to take care of as well. Mind if I use your home office?”
“Sure.” She followed him inside and he flipped on his computer. “It’s always online, so you’re good for the Internet. Got some important business to take care of?”
She licked her lips, wondering if telling him the plan she’d come up with in the car on the drive back to the wine country was going to freak him out.
“It’s a big secret, huh?”
She grinned, finally deciding that since he was the one to suggest she sell her house, informing him of her next set of plans shouldn’t be enough to make him run.
A voice in her head wondered,What exactly, then, will be enough to make him run? but she forced it away, chalking it up to nerves over the huge steps she was taking to change her life.
“No, not really. I just figured that since I’m selling my house, I might as well move the bulk of my business to Napa as well.”
Something froze in his face and she stopped breathing. Oh God, he thought she was coming on too strong. Maybe he’d expected her to live in Napa but commute to Palo Alto or do her work over the phone.
