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“I get that. How about your parents?”
“They’re the best. I don’t have anything to complain about. I think that surprises people. Usually, a woman who is still single at my age is thought to have daddy issues. I’m the opposite. My parents are amazing. They moved to Florida a few years ago, so I don’t see them as often as I’d like, but I make my way down there a few times a year.”
“You love to travel.” He pushes away a tendril of hair from my face so casually that it’s like he’s done it a million times before.
“Very much so. I’ve been to every continent and many of the most famous cities more than once. Paris, London, Dublin, LA, Dallas, New Orleans—”
“What is your favorite place you’ve been?”
I sigh and look up at the moon, white lit and waning. Choosing my favorite place in this great, big world is difficult.
“It’s not so much a question of which city is my favorite, but the experience I had there. Bathing an elephant at a rehabilitation sanctuary in Thailand is up there. This beautiful animal was abused and mistreated, and now, he is at a sanctuary where he feels safe and loved.”
“You traveled halfway across the world to stand in mud.”
“In Paris, there’s this small bistro hidden in a little alley. The menu is preset, and that particular evening, soup was the first course. The waiter handed us a piece of dark chocolate and instructed us to let it sit on our tongues, but not to eat it. We then drank this lobster bisque, and while it passed the chocolate, it infused the soup. It was delicious, like nothing I’d ever tasted.”
“Maybe it was because you hadn’t tried it before that it became so unique. I wonder if you ate it at my kitchen table every night and not at a quaint little bistro in Paris if it would lose its appeal.”
“You’re a real buzzkill—you know that?”
“I do.”
With a slow smile and a pinch to my eyes, I ignore his comment.
“In Vegas, I went on a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon that landed next to the Colorado River. You’ve never seen anyplace as majestic as the red rocks of the canyon. It’s so beautiful and vibrant, but it’s also scary as hell because I was convinced one of the helicopter blades was gonna hit the canyon. Your depth perception is way off in there.”
“Do you travel alone?”
“I do. My mother likes to travel, and I have some friends who are looking for a getaway. My friend Jillian has gone on a cruise with me. Melissa’s done spa weekends, and I went with her and the kids to Disney. For the big trips, the long flights, if no one’s around, I have no problem with going by myself. Why sit at home, waiting for someone to do things with, when I have this perfectly awesome built-in travel companion who loves to try new foods, never complains about walking too much, and will go on any tour even if it’s boring?”
“You.”
“Yes, me. I’m quite a lovely travel companion, I might add. Highly recommend.”
His throaty chuckle croons in the air. “Good to know. I’ve never left the East Coast.”
“Shut up. Never?”
His shoulders rise with indifference. “I got married at twenty-three. Had my son the following year and was working fifty-hour weeks. After Molly was born, I started my own business. There was either no money or no time off. Next thing you know, you realize you worked your way through life and missed out on a lot of the important things.”
I nod, yet there’s this fleeting feeling radiating in the air that he’s talking about more than vacations. Rob has said he doesn’t miss his wife, yet I wonder if she wanted to return to him, to rebuild the life they’d had, would he take her back?
“I can see how time slips away from you.”
He looks at me with a curious eye, and then his attention turns up to the night sky. “You look at the stars a lot when you speak.”
“Not the stars. The moon. It reminds me that no matter how wildly things change, there is at least one thing that is reliable.”
Rob smiles. “It’s pretty amazing how we’re all connected, even under a vast sky. I like your theory on the moon. Something you can always trust to be there.”
There’s a comfortable silence between us. He reaches over and entwines his fingers with mine, the warmth of the connection palpable. He gives a gentle tug, and I stand, walking myself over to his seat and gently falling onto his lap. My legs curve up and over the armrest as I sit sideways across him.
His lips touch mine in a feathery kiss.
“I like the taste of bourbon on your lips,” I tell him.
“You hate bourbon.”
