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“It sounds like we agree then. We take some time to see where this goes before we do anything permanent.”
“What about Eric?” She asked wearily. “And everyone else?”
“We don’t need to involve anyone until we know what this is. This is between you and me. That’s it. Maybe we fizzle out in a week, and no one is the wiser. Maybe not. We’ll figure that part out when we need to,” I argued.
“I’m not so sure we can keep it just between us for very long,” she said, and sighed. “But…okay. Let’s do this. For now. We can always change our minds.”
I wanted to stand and pull Jillian into my arms. Actually, I wanted to yank her into the bedroom. I restrained myself. We hadn’t talked about the nature of our relationship yet, and I didn’t want to push her.
“How do you want to do this?” I asked, calmly.
Jillian looked around her living room helplessly. “I guess we go on a date? See how things progress from there?”
“Sure. I’d love to take my wi—” I cut off mid word when a throw pillow hit me squarely in the chest.
“Hey. I’m agreeing not to unmarry you right now, but I’m putting a firm moratorium on the ‘w’ word and ‘h’ word. And all other similar words. It’s way too weird,” she said frantically.
“Fine. Agreed.” I wondered briefly about the ring, but swiftly changed the subject to what we should do on our first date. I wasn’t all that bothered by the semantics. Not yet.
Plans made, I got up to head out. Our talk had turned out so much better than I had ever anticipated. After over a year of constantly regretting my missed opportunity, and then stumbling into our one in a million encounter in Vegas, I was finally getting to go out on a date with Jillian.
Nothing could ruin that.
CHAPTER9
Jillian
By Friday evening being with Dean was as effortless as breathing. We’d gone out every night since agreeing to try the whole dating thing and every subsequent night only got better. Our dates weren’t anything crazy elaborate or overly romantic, just dinner, and movies, and miniature golf. Earlier tonight we had gone to a street festival, and then opted for a moonlit walk along the beach. We were still in the ‘getting to know you phase,’ so we talked and texted constantly about everything.
Of course, talking wasn’t all that we did together. I had intended on taking things a bit slower now that we were giving it a real go, but Dean was hotter than the sun and I already knew what he was like in bed. Tuesday night when he left my place, we shared a sweet kiss that left me craving more. Wednesday night we’d made out on my couch like horny teenagers for over an hour, enjoying and hating the torture of not taking it any further. Thursday night we ended up in my bed, half-naked, and on a roll.
At least until a call from my work came just in the nick of time.
I had no illusions of anything stopping us tonight. Nor did I want it to. We’d done better than I had anticipated already. We were like magnets, unable to stay apart for long. Or possibly it was run of the mill lust. Either way, I was done resisting.
Reading my mind again, Dean reached over and grabbed my hand. It was such an innocent gesture yet made my stomach flutter. It was strange how something so small could still get to me after the much more scandalous things that we had done together. Everything with him made me feel simultaneously perfectly at ease, and yet wildly out of control.
I’d never felt anything like it.
As we walked, I wondered for the millionth time if it would have been like this if we had done this a year ago, before I ever started dating Eric.
Given our newfound comfort with each other, I decided to find out. “Can I ask you something?”
“Mmmhmm,” Dean answered.
“When we first met at the restaurant last year, before I met Eric, were you ever interested in me?”
Dean stopped dead. He still held my hand but stared intently down into my eyes. Like he was searching for something deeply important. “I…Why?”
I rolled my eyes at his deflection. Sometimes he was the stereotypical guy after all, unable to talk about actual feelings. I would have to be the one who brought it up, apparently.
“Because…I liked you back then. That’s why I kept coming back. I was hoping you’d ask me out. But you never said anything, and then I started dating Eric, and I assumed that it had been one-sided. All in my head. After last weekend, though, I’m not so sure. This couldn’t have come out of nowhere, right?”
We started walking again, slowly, while Dean presumably tried to figure out how to answer my question. He had smiled briefly at my admission but had then clammed up. Considering we were married now, I hadn’t thought it was that big of a deal to talk about innocent crushes, but he seemed to be taking it quite seriously. I was about to poke his side to get him to say something, anything, when he looked over at me and spoke.
“No, it wasn’t one-sided. I liked you too. A lot.”
It should have been flattering. Or a vindication of sorts. My intuition hadn’t been off. I’d sensed it even then.
