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“Oh,” I say. The wordpleasurecoming from Jack’s lips threatens to make me blush.
“How have you been?” he asks.
“Good. Up to my ears in grading, but that’s nothing new.”
Our waitress comes by to take our order. As soon as she leaves, Jack looks at me seriously, his eyes focused intently on mine.
“I’m so sorry it took me this long to get in touch with you, Claire,” he says. “I had every intention of contacting you sooner. I don’t want to make excuses, but some urgent stuff came up in the school district, and it’s been a mess trying to sort everything out these last couple weeks. Time got away from me.”
“Oh,” I say. “No, that’s…” I press my lips together. I need to just get this over with. “Look, Jack, I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. But I thought that what we had was a one-time thing. You’re wonderful.Reallywonderful. But we live so far apart.”
Jack’s gaze remains steady. “Are you saying you don’t want to give us a chance?”
”I…I don’t know. I guess I already accepted the belief that there wasn’t going to be anything more between us. I thought you felt the same way.”
“I don’t.”
“Oh.” It feels like the room is swirling a little. “Jack…did you come out here just to see me?”
Jack takes a sip from his water glass. “I did.”
I don’t know what to do with that information. I don’t know how to process what I’m feeling right now. Part of me wants Jack more than anything, but the other part of me doesn’t understand how this could possibly work.
“Claire?”
I meet his gaze again. “Yes?”
“You don’t have to give me an answer right now. We don’t even have to talk about it anymore while I’m in town. I just need you to know how I feel. I need you to know what I want for us.”
I nod and let out a breath, relieved. “Okay.”
Somehow, the rest of our conversation that evening isn’t awkward in the least, even though the question of our future remains hanging in the air. We enjoy our meal; we talk; we laugh; after dinner, we go for a walk down by the water, and even the stretches of silence between us feel comfortable and nice.
Eventually, Jack walks me back to my car. I pull my keys out of my purse, but I don’t unlock the door yet.
“Tonight was lovely,” I say. “Thank you, Jack.”
“Can I see you tomorrow?” he asks.
“Sure. That’d be nice.” I hesitate. “Where are you staying?”
“Downtown.”
“Ah.” Flashes of our night together flit through my mind. The possibility of experiencing that with him again is…well, to be blunt, it’s arousing.
But I know we shouldn’t. I don’t want that to influence the decision I have to make.
“I think we should say goodnight, Claire,” says Jack. The corner of his mouth lifts in a smirk. “If we stand here for much longer, I’m not going to be able to resist kissing you, and if I kiss you…”
I bite my lip. “Yeah. Understood.”
“All right. Goodnight. I’ll text you in the morning and we’ll make plans?”
I nod. “Sounds good.”
Chapter Seven
Jack
