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“Is it okay with you, sweetheart?” Jace asked me in a low, sexy voice.
“Yes, of course,” I said, echoing Sheryll and trying not to tremble in the cold house. “I’m just surprised. We’ve never…I don’t think we’ve ever been on a dinner date.”
“Hey now—I believe I bought you a beer at a fine local establishment that night you tried to break up with me.”
My stomach leaped at his retort. “Tried to?” As I remember it, I very definitely broke up with him and spent a miserable week vacillating between sadness and anger. Maybe he meant we’d never broken up in his heart. That we would never break up. But I was reluctant to ask. I didn’t want to break whatever spell had been circling my heart, protecting me and pushing me forward the past few weeks.
Despite Sheryll’s dream of a happily ever after for Jace and me, I didn’t quite know for sure where we stood. He’d told me he loved me—I remembered it vividly— but we’d barely spoken about the day of the fire since he woke up in the hospital. I hadn’t wanted to burden him, and he seemed content with focusing on his physical health. We’d kissed, and there’d been sexual banter. But between Oren’s confession, the cemetery, the first hospital stay, and then the fire, we’d never had time to discuss whether we’d officially gotten back together as a couple. And after everything he’d been through, if I were him, I’d run away screaming.
“I think you’ve forgotten…I don’t have any of my clothes,” I finally said. “I don’t have anything to wear, only just practical stuff.”
“Ah, but I thought of that too, my sweet. My mom should have delivered an outfit to our bedroom. It’s on the bed. We’re leaving at six—be ready.”
Ourbedroom. My eyes clouded with tears at the thought that he was finally home.
Jace strolled into the kitchen to talk with his mom while I practically sprinted to the bedroom to find a dress bag carefully laid out on the duvet. It was no secret that I loved clothes, probably because that’s one of the ways—the only way really—that my mother showed me affection. But a man buying you clothes was…intimate. I couldn’t wait to see what Jace had picked out.
Inside the bag were a strapless pink mesh teddy, a beautifully made pink tulle mini dress that tied in bows over the shoulders and featured an embellished bodice and skirt that would make a ballerina stand up taller, and a delicate pair of nude stilettos. Louboutins.
These were beautiful, delicate, designer pieces…it was too much.
“I hope it’s okay,” Jace said from the doorway behind me. “I forgot to order a coat.”
“It’s more than okay…it’s gorgeous. How…how much did you spend?”
“However much it was, it wasn’t enough. You saved my life.”
“I see,” I replied, my heart sinking. So, he felt obligated. I turned away, determined not to spoil the evening. We took turns showering. I kept my makeup light, accenting my eyes and lips with pink shimmer, and swept my hair up high into a bun to show off the dress’s beautiful straps.
I was more than okay wearing the heavy rubber raincoat and boots—my only quality purchase since the fire—and tucking my delicate shoes under my arm to put on closer to the restaurant. It was raining so hard I was worried I’d step into a puddle that reached my knees and ruin them. With the wind picking up, we might not make it to the restaurant at all.
Jace met me at the door, tall and handsome in his dark suit and white shirt. He’d lost some weight in the hospital, but he was such a beautiful man that the thinning of his face, shoulders, and his discolored hands only enhanced his sharp features. I liked it when he dressed up, his shirt buttoned, his chest covered by a jacket. I knew he’d been with so many other women in the years we’d been apart, but sometimes I felt like I was the only one who knew what was beneath his clothes—all those tattoos and now the scars.
“You can take that off,” he said, nodding to my coat. I noticed the cell phone in his hand. “The restaurant just called. They’ve lost power in the storm, as has every other restaurant brave enough to open tonight. I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
“Don’t be sorry.” While I was disappointed no one would see me in this dream of a dress, I was relieved we wouldn’t be driving in this rain.
I unsnapped my jacket and carefully pulled it off my shoulders, holding it away from my dress.
“Just let me go change, and I’ll see what we have in the cupboards. I went to the store earlier this week. It’s too bad your mother already left—”
“No changing. And I think it’s great that my mom left—I think it’d be inappropriate to ravage you on the dining room table if she was here.”
I smiled, only now noticing how his eyes moved over me in the dress, flashing like black diamonds in his lean face. “God, you look…but not yet. Don’t change,” he repeated. “I’m going to build a fire, and we’ll eat…something. And I have something for you.”
My heart picked up speed, thumping against my chest wall as I stood frozen, unsure what I wanted to say next.
Was he going to propose?
It wasn’t that I didn’t want him to—eventually. I couldn’t imagine a world where I wanted someone other than Jace, especially after everything we’d been through. But that was just it—we had been through so much. Too much to be making major life decisions right now. I needed time. Stability. We needed to grow into our relationship.
I busied myself emptying some soup into a pot on the stove, careful not to splash soup onto my new dress, while Jace built a roaring fire in the glassed-in living room next door.
We carried our steaming bowls of soup and slices of crusty bread to the teak coffee table and sat close on Jace’s tufted leather couch. I tucked my legs up under my ballerina skirt. Neither of us was hungry. Together, we listened to the rain.
“I wanted to wait to do this for a more romantic moment, but I can’t wait any longer,” he said, his face unreadable.
I steeled myself to say no to what I was sure would be my dream proposal. I wanted him, but we had a lot of things to work out first. Maybe I could stop this before it ended in disaster.
