AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 16
“Ican’t believe I met Ryan Perkins, Karina Black, and Virginia Valentine.” Dax’s mom leaned over and whispered in his ear as they took their seats at a table in the back corner of his restaurant for dinner.
He knew she’d been dying to say that to him since he and Ginny had walked into The Plate. At least she’d waited until Ginny was being seated across from her and most likely out of hearing range before she’d broken down.
Today, when Karina and Ryan had left the studio, his mom and sister had happened to pop in before going over to the spa after their yoga class. Needless to say his mom and Heather had lost their shit. Both Karina and Ryan had handled the whole thing like the pros they were. They’d posed for pictures, signed his mom’s hat and even recorded the outgoing message on his mom’s cell phone for her. He’d had a moment of embarrassment at the beginning of the interaction over his mom’s behavior, but then he realized that this moment was making his mom happy and she deserved happy. He loved her so much and seeing how much it meant to her, there was no way he could be anything but happy for her.
“I can’t believe I met Karina Black today.” Ginny said as soon as she sat down.
“I was just saying the same thing to Dax!” His mom exclaimed. “Except I included Virginia Valentine, too, of course.”
A light shade of pink rose up Ginny’s cheeks. “I don’t think I’ll ever think of myself like that. Like them.”
“And that’s why you’ll always be a star. Because you don’t think of yourself like that.” His mom reached across the table and squeezed Ginny’s hand.
“So what about you guys?” Ginny looked between Heather and his mom. “How was your day? Did you have fun at yoga? At the spa?”
His mom might think that Ginny’s modest opinion of herself was the reason that she was a star, but Dax knew that wasn’t the reason. The reason she was so special was because after spending a day in a recording studio with Chase Malone and meeting one of her idols, she still directed the conversation to his mom and sister and asked them about their day. And the kicker was, she really cared about their answer, she wasn’t just making small talk. That was what made her a star in his book. Her selflessness. Her generosity. Her sweet heart.
His mom took her inquiry as an opening to dive into a story about her masseuse and his “magic hands” that Dax would really rather not have heard. He sent his sister a silent SOS, but it didn’t help. His distress signal only caused Heather to egg her on more.
Deciding to tune out the descriptive conversation, he leaned back in his chair and watched the three women talk and laugh and his heart felt full. His entire world was sitting at this table and it felt right. It was in that moment that he knew that Ginny wasn’t just a girl that he’d been obsessing over and couldn’t get out of his mind. And after being with her last night, he knew that she wasn’t something that he could get out of his system. He knew now that all being intimate with her had done was make him want her more. He knew now that he would never get enough of her.
She wasn’t just the not-one-night-stand that got away. She was the one. She was it. He didn’t just care about her, he loved her. He was in love with her.
As the realization hit him, he had to stop himself from announcing it out loud. He wanted to tell Ginny, to tell everyone, even his nosy mom and sister, how he felt. But he couldn’t.
In less than two weeks she was leaving to go back to Nashville. Last night she’d made a point of telling him that she was young. She wasn’t looking for anything serious. She didn’t want to walk down the aisle.
So where the hell did that leave them?
He could ask her if she wanted to date casually. He could propose a long distance, non-exclusive relationship where he’d fly to Tennessee to see her when he had time and maybe vice versa when she could fit it in her schedule.
She might be willing to give that a try, but did he really think he could handle that? Could he handle turning on his computer, or walking into a grocery store and seeing photos of her at an event or on a “date” with the Derek St. Vincents of the world? Sure, she might be “breaking up” with him officially in a few days, but then what? Chances were another Hollywood type would step in and take his place.
He was saved from spiraling further into his world of unknowns when Nina, one of The Plate’s best waitresses, approached the table and took their orders. He wanted to say that he’d just stick with water. He honestly had zero appetite, but that would raise red flags with his mom and Dax wanted to fly below her radar for the remainder of her stay. It wouldn’t be easy since she was watching him like a hawk. He knew even as he ordered his medium-rare hamburger she was watching his every move from her peripheral vision.
When Nina left, his mom commented on how pretty she was and that sparked the conversation to turn to all three of the blonde and blue-eyed women confessing they’d always wished they had olive skin and dark hair like Nina. Then the conversation quickly circled back to Karina, who was Native American and they were off to the races recounting each of their shocks when they’d first laid eyes on her.
He studied Ginny as she animatedly talked about how she’d apparently stumbled backwards and had not been able to speak when she’d seen Karina. She talked with her hands a lot and he loved watching her. Her face was so expressive. She was so open. So sincere. So real.
Last night when they’d made love, he’d felt so connected to her. It was more than just their bodies that had joined together. Their souls had fused into one. After last night he understood what people talked about when they said they didn’t know where they stopped and their partner began.
What had happened between them was more than sex. He knew she must have felt it too, he’d seen it in her eyes. She wore her heart on her sleeve, and he didn’t need his mom to point out how Ginny looked at him—although that hadn’t stopped her from pointing it out at least a dozen times since she’d arrived.
Ginny had to know that what they had wasn’t casual. It was serious. It was special. It was what some people lived their entire lives and never had.
But then again, how would she know that? She hadn’t ever had a real boyfriend. And he was her first. He knew that she was it because he’d dipped his pen in enough ink to write War and Peace. He’d been with more than enough women to know that what he and Ginny had was as rare and precious as the Hope Diamond. But she didn’t. And that was just one more reason that they wouldn’t work.
She needed to experience things. To date. And as much as it killed him to admit it, she needed to be with other people.
“Right, honey?” His mom patted his arm.
He looked around the table hoping to pick up some clue about what they had been talking about or what the question was that was posed to him. When that failed he asked, “What?”
“See!” His sister pointed across the table at him as both she and his mom broke into hysterical laughter. Even Ginny was chuckling, although it looked like she was trying not to.
When Heather composed herself, she wiped the moisture that had gathered under eyes and said, “We were just telling Ginny that you never listen. And you weren’t listening.”
