Page 75 of Fixed Asset

“Don’t need to. I’ve never taken a woman home from this bar.”

I didn’t need to probe or prod, I believed him.

But he’d said “this bar.”

“Will I be running into your women from other bars—”

“There were no other women. Not in Idaho and not here, not since I met you. There was only my hand and you in my mind.”

Nine months.

He’d gone nine months with no woman. And I didn’t think it was because he was waiting for me, when he said himself he never thought he’d see me again.

“What about you?”

I didn’t miss his hands on the table curling into fists, bracing for my answer. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t send happy tingles up my arms.

“No one.” His relief was palpable, but there was a small detail I needed to be honest about. “I did go out on a date.” His gaze journeyed to mine, and his eyes narrowed. “Before I moved to Arizona. A friend asked me to go with her on a double date. I went, mainly because I was bored, but I also wanted to test the waters, see if I could get over you. He was a cool guy. Interesting, high-speed job, driven, ambitious. But five minutes into talking to him, there was nothing. Then I spent the rest of the dinner pissed off and missing you. We said goodbye at the restaurant with a handshake.”

“High-speed job?”

“He flew Hornets out of Oceana.”

“An F-18 pilot.”

I didn’t answer because there was no need. Jack obviously knew what a Hornet was.

A slow smile pulled at his lips. “Good to know I beat out the sky jockey.”

I rolled my eyes.

“You ready to get out of here? Pete’s place in Jamul is about forty-five minutes away.”

No, I wasn’t ready. This was nice, it was normal, just me and Jack eating lunch.

A date.

I was on a date with Jack Donovan.

The absurdity of that hit me. I’d slept with the man. I’d admitted I loved him, wanted to have his children, we’d already named one, and here we were on our first date.

He reached his hand across the table, pulled mine closer to the middle, and commenced tracing my fingers with his.

“It’s funny,” he said.

My eyes flicked from our hands to his face.

“We did it backward.”

It was a little freaky how he could read my mind.

“We did,” I confirmed.

“I like the way we did it.”

My lips pulled up into a smile. “I bet. You didn’t even have to buy me dinner before I gave up the goods.”

Jack’s eyelids slowly lowered. The gesture would’ve worried me if his shoulders weren’t shaking with silent laughter.