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Then my befuddled brain remembers Cade introducing himself as ‘Jake’s father.’
What the hell!
Putting my tongue back in my mouth, and shaking my head to clear the lust running rampant, I finally respond, “No that’s fine, I don’t mind.” I thought he would sit opposite me, but instead he takes the chair next to mine, across from his son. I breathe in, and boy, does he smell good.
“So, what have you two been talking about?” Cade asks.
I smile at him, realizing I haven’t given him my name. “I’m Rona Jameson and your son was telling me you’re on your way back home to Jackson Hole. That’s my destination as well, so I guess we’re on the same flight.”
Jake had also told me he’d just gotten out of the Marines due to an injury. He seemed more resigned to the fact than happy about it. But from what I’ve heard and read about the Marines, once you’re a Marine you’re always a Marine, whether still on active duty or not. When I’d spotted him approaching me earlier, nothing seemed visibly wrong with him. But he’d been telling me about his injury when his father had started to approach us, which had distracted me.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Rona. Are you visiting family in Jackson Hole?”
Just as I open my mouth to speak, Jake interrupts.
“Some bastard practically left her at the altar, so she’s taking her honeymoon trip on her own.” He sounds angry at this announcement.
Cade appears speechless and just looks at me.
I meet his gaze, unfazed by the look on his face. It isn’t pity, exactly, which is what I’ve been seeing since the news. Instead of allowing myself to feel like the broken girl everyone thought I was, I tell him exactly what I realized during my flight from Ireland to Chicago. “My ex decided, with no prior warning signs, that getting married at thirty was too young for him. I think maybe he’s met someone else, but I don’t really want to know. To be honest, it wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. Nick doing what he did made me realize my feelings for him were not what they should have been. I was planning to spend the rest of my life with him and all I could muster up for that thought was a lackluster acceptance.”
I look out toward the hallway of the airport and watch the people rushing by, in a hurry to catch their flight. And there I was, in such a hurry to catch my destiny that I latched on to Nick and the notion of marriage. Taking a deep breath, I continue, “Once I’d calmed down, I realized I was more upset at having to cancel the wedding than him actually leaving me. I think I was more in love with the idea of having a family than I was with Nick.”
After a few moments of stunned silence, Cade asks, “You said you were more in love with having a family than him. Don’t you have any family?”
“No, my parents were killed in a plane crash ten years ago. I went to live with my grandmother, who passed away nearly two years ago.”
I sip my coffee, still finding it difficult to believe that Cade is Jake’s father. They have similar features, and at first I presumed they were brothers, but Cade doesn’t look old enough to have fathered Jake.
Jake is tall like his father with the same dark hair, except Jake’s hair is cropped shorter to his head. Military style. Jake has a narrow waist, and broad shoulders that make him stand out in a crowd. He’s clean-shaven with dimples that attracted my attention from the moment he sat down at my table. But it’s his father who holds my interest on a more basic level.
His father!
I tentatively ask, “You’re really his father?”
Jake snickers at my comment. “He certainly is. He’s forty-five and a hell of a lot older than me!”
“Less of the old. Twenty years isn’t that much older.” Cade grins at me.
“Well, you sure don’t look forty-five. I actually thought you were brothers.”
Laughing, Jake says, “So you know I’m twenty-five. How old are you? I’m guessing twenty-one.”
I smile. “Don’t you know it isn’t polite to ask a lady her age?”
“Never heard that one before.” Jake smirks.
“Well, as you asked so nicely.” I laugh and realize how good it feels. “I guess I’ll tell you, I’m a year younger than you.”
&nbs
p; He chuckles. “Just the right age.”
I’m about to ask Jake ‘right age’ for what, when Cade changes the subject.
“Are you planning on staying in Jackson Hole?”
“I’m not sure yet. A friend of Nick’s owns a cabin out there, but in no way do I want to spend the next four weeks in debt to a friend of his. Plus, it was supposed to be a wedding present. I’ll find a hotel for a couple of nights and then look around for a short term rental.”
