AllFreeNovel
Share Us
There it was. The unwavering faith she had in him. All these weeks she’d been showing him that faith in so many different ways, both big and small. He’d just been too blind to see it until it was almost too late.
“But I don’t think I can do any of it without you,” he admitted. “I know it’s a lot to ask.”
She surprised him by planting a full, hard kiss on his lips. He immediately reacted by pulling her even closer. A hairsbreadth separated them.
“Oh, Jordan. I’m so glad that you’re asking it of me.”
He dropped a kiss to the top of her head. “Who else would I ask it of? But the woman I seem to have fallen in love with.”
* * *
Jess wanted to stop time, to somehow make this moment last for all eternity. She settled deeper into Jordan’s embrace. If it was up to her, she’d ask that he never let go.
His words from a moment ago echoed through her head. He wanted her by his side as he navigated the challenges of parenthood. Only her.
He’d fallen in love with her.
And she’d been falling for him since the day she’d thrown a wet paintbrush at his silk white shirt.
They stood that way for several minutes, the analog clock on the wall behind them loudly ticking away the time. Finally, the pinging sound of an incoming text on his phone broke the silence. Jordan looked at the screen and a small chuckle escaped his lips.
“What is it?”
“A reminder from my little sister.”
“About?”
“I promised her I’d make a stop at Bimby’s for some ice cream on the way home. Guess I better not keep her waiting.” Before he got far, his gaze suddenly dropped to the sketch pad that had been sitting on the coffee table the whole time. Jess had forgotten all about where she’d dropped it upon discovering Jordan at her door.
Jordan picked it up and studied it. “Is that...?”
“It’s the photograph from your apartment,” Jess admitted with no small amount of apprehension. There was a chance Jordan wouldn’t appreciate what she’d drawn. He might even feel resentful. Well, there was no turning back now.
“I sketched it for you. To give you when the time was right.” Only she’d foolishly left it lying around so now the decision was out of her hands.
He rubbed a finger down along the paper as if outlining the image. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Please know that I wasn’t invading your privacy that day. I was just looking for something to sketch with and I came across the photograph.”
He didn’t look up from the pad for several moments, and the blood turned cold in her veins. If he was upset with her for drawing it, her heart might shatter in her chest.
“I’m glad you did,” he finally said.
Jess blew out the breath she’d been holding in relief. “You are?”
“Yes. But what compelled you to do this?”
There was no real good way to explain. She took a deep breath, grasping for the right words. “I felt like I knew you better once I saw that photograph. Does that make any sense?”
The way his eyes searched her face gave her the answer to that question. She tried again. “That photo manages to capture who you were as a boy. Your hopes for the future are almost written right there in the way you look at the camera. But when I look at it closely, I can also see the man that boy becomes. With all his strengths and all his weaknesses. It’s all there, in the set of your features, the expression on your face, the look in your eyes. I saw the man I was falling in love with when I found the photo that day.”
His response was another lingering kiss that set her skin on fire. “That’s amazing,” he whispered against her lips afterward.
It took a moment for her to find her voice. “I don’t know about that. It’s just what I see. I had to re-create it on paper.”
“You’re pretty amazing yourself, Jess.”
She didn’t allow herself to dwell on the compliment. She didn’t feel amazing. Some sketches simply came easier than others. “It’s just a simple pencil sketching.”
“I mean more than your artistic talent. I mean the way you paint elaborate castles on walls for children you haven’t even met yet. The way you delight in watching a theater production but your immediate thought is that you want your young students to be able to watch it also. The way you take time out of your weekend to help your boss with her budget woes. Not to mention the way you seem to have found your way into my heart when it was the last thing I was expecting.”
