Her heart did a little flutter-dance.Even from two thousand miles away, he could still touch her. And even though she hadn’t seen him in the flesh in two months, she still burned for him. Rainey heaved a longsigh.
And her breath caught in her throat when she read his nexttext.
Jacques:Open thedoor.
She staredat the screen for a disbelieving threeseconds.
Jacques:I said open thedoor.
Aknock shatteredthe silence in her house. Archie startled from his nap and ran barking to the front door. Rainey’s hand flew to her mouth, and then she flew across the room. She yanked the dooropen.
And there hewas.
“Jacques! Oh, my God! Oh, myGod!”
It was on the second “Oh, my God!” that he swept her into his arms, laughing, she knew, at her stunned expression and the tears that already swam in hereyes.
“Hey, baby,” he murmured, clutching her close and surrounding her with his scent and heat. “God, you feelgood.”
She held on tight, afraid to let go. “What are you doinghere?!”
Before Jacques answered, he planted her lips with a closed-mouth kiss that quickly became an open-mouth kiss. And his affection poured through her like honey, leaving her slow-moving and tinged withsweetness.
Jacques drew back just enough to smile down at her. “I came to get you,” he saidsoftly.
Rainey blinked. “Wh-what? Get me? You’re supposed to be inMaine.”
His arms tightened around her middle. “Like I said, I missedyou.”
The executive functioning of her brain must have taken a lunch break. Rainey shook her head. “But you have a show tomorrow night inBoston.”
“Yep.” He nodded, grinning that self-satisfied, lopsided grin. “And I have to be at TD Garden tomorrow by 1:30 eastern time, so pack a bag, baby. We have a plane tocatch.”
“You’re joking,” she blurted. A boxing glove to the head would have stunned herless.
Jacques chuckled, looking even more self-satisfied. “Surprising you is so much fun.” Then he leveled her with his gaze. “We leave here in one hour. Let’s head upstairs. I’llhelp—”
“Wait. Wait. I can’t just leave,” she said, pressing against his upper arms to get some much-neededdistance.
His frown was playful. “Whynot?”
“I-I-I… Holi might needme.”
Jacques’s smile gentled. “Holi and Ash expect you to be gone by the time they get back from work.” His deep, rumbly voice was somehow as soft as a caress. “Holi’s better now, and I think she and Ash are looking forward to finally living likenewlyweds.”
He had a point. Holi had returned to work two weeks ago, and she had overheard her sister and Ash talking about booking their long-awaited honeymoon. Then a thought made her stomachclench.
“But I have class tomorrow.” There were a handful of girls who came every week. These girls didn’t have a whole lot of bright and hope in their lives. Rainey knew they needed not only the peacefulness crochet offered, but the camaraderie, the community of sitting together, talking, and sharing the pride in making something new and beautiful with their barehands.
Jacques pressed his lips together and nodded solemnly. “You do have class, but it’s not here,” he said, a hint of mischief dancing in his dark eyes. “Here, you have a sub for the rest of thesummer—”
Her eyes bugged. “The rest of thesummer—”
“But you are teaching a crochet class tomorrow at the Charlestown Street Boys & Girls Club inBoston—”
“What?” she shrieked, not believing what he was saying. What itmeant.
Grinning, he just kept going. “It’s exactly one mile from the arena. You can Uber from the hotel, teach your class, and have plenty of time to grab a bite to eat before theshow.”
