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"Jason?"
"Hmm."He’d been nibbling between the collar of her winter jacket, upward to the lobe of her ear.
"Should we take off our coats?"
He laughed."Great idea.I'll pour us some wine before the grand tour."He hung both in a spacious closet in the foyer."White or red?"
"Red please."
"Perfect.I only have half a bottle of white."Jason stepped toward the kitchen, then pivoted."Would you like to see the menus while I wash up?Charlie left his slobber all over me," he said with a wink."Menus are in the drawer of the entry table."
"Of course."The table and menus were exactly where he’d said.Must be a half dozen at least.Did the man ever cook a meal?She was no better.Their life together would include a lot of takeout since neither of them liked to cook.
Steph was leafing through the stack when a letter fell to the floor.She intended to put it back in the drawer.It was unopened, the return address from a well known organization.Doctors Without Borders.
Had he signed up already?Was this what he’d meant when he’d said he could practice medicine anywhere?If so, why had he left it so vague?Her stomach felt jumpy.She was sure he had been honest with her from the moment he walked into the bookstore.
"Hey," he said, handing her a glass."We should make a toast."
That turned her nerves into butterflies.
"Yes."She raised her glass and touched his."To Henry, and his kidney."
He grinned."To Nicole.May everything fall into place for her transplant and reuniting her family."
“That’s nice.”
Jason didn’t lower his glass but kept his gently connected to hers."And to us, and our second chances."He drank and she did too.
Her eyes searched his, looking for answers to the unspoken questions about the letter.Was he leaving this as a surprise for her, anticipating this one special night?Her butterflies plummeted.What would the heroines she wrote about do in a situation like this?Wait for his explanation?Or be direct.
Direct.
"Are you going overseas?"
"What are you talking about?"Jason set his glass on the coffee table and slid his arm around her waist."If that's an invitation, I'll happily say yes."
She sighed.Why didn't she simply invite him if he'd been thinking about it all along?
"I was going through the menus and a letter fell to the floor.”Miscommunication had torn them apart before.She wouldn't allow it to do so again.“I picked it up...and, well...maybe I saw something that I shouldn't have."
"What is it?"Jason studied her, not hiding his confusion.
"The letter from Doctors Without Borders?Had you been planning this all along?"
Jason gave a sigh of relief."That's easy to explain.As I said my family are all in Florida now and after nine years in California I wanted a change of scene.I was bouncing ideas around, checking places on the East Coast, but not in a large city.Boston wanted me, but I didn't want it."He took a deep breath and reached for her hand.
"But this doesn't explain the letter."She needed to understand, and hoped she wouldn't be disappointed again.
"Truth is, before I even saw you again, I had toyed with the idea of Doctors Without Bounders.It seemed like the right thing to do, but when decision time came up I realized that I was not ready to handle war zones right yet.As it turned out Nicole took a turn for the worse so I decided to move here and help her through it.Then you came along and no way in hell was I going to leave."
He held her gaze without a flinch.She had to trust him and had no reason not to—besides her own insecurities.
She sipped from her glass.“That sounds very adventurous.Is that what you were thinking of when you mentioned our home base in Paris?”
"It only occurred to me after hearing you talk about it so much, and I was and am afraid of losing you."
"Oh, Jason.It's not that...
