“Like I said,” he whispered in her ear, “totally worth it.”
Chapter Nine
Rosemary woke long before her alarm was set to go off. A glance through the blinds of her bedroom window had her smiling. The sky was almost completely cloudless and rapidly turning from pinkish gray to blue. After taking care of Ambrose, she disappeared into the bathroom where she lingered too long in a hot bath.
The reason for her escalated level of excitement wasn’t hard to find. Being with Jase was why she was so happy today and not being with Jase was why she’d been so miserable yesterday. How had he become so much a part of her thoughts and actions in such a short time? Because she’d ignored the cardinal rule of a holiday romance: don’t get attached to the other person.
Maybe that would have been easier to do if Jase had just been another good looking guy and hadn’t possessed so many qualities she admired. It was impossible to remain indifferent to a man with an unselfish, caring heart whose quiet confidence and sense of humor enabled him to look outward instead of being fixated on himself. It was even more so when that same man could make her aware of him with so little effort and make her feel at peace with everything else.
With an impatient movement, she finished drying her hair and walked into the bedroom to get dressed. This time in St. Marys was just a temporary escape pod, a bubble of happiness meant to be enjoyed without expecting it to last. The ending to this story had already been written. With a final glance around her room, Rosemary went downstairs, told Ambrose to behave, and left the house.
Jase was sitting on the steps leading to Quinn’s house when she arrived. Across the distance of twenty feet, their eyes met and clung. Her heart expanded so tightly in her chest that it hurt to breathe. For the second time in as many days, something Mrs. Jenkins said went through her mind: one day I realized I was thinking about Wendell even when I wasn’t at work.
Before she could unbuckle her seatbelt, he had the door open. “I missed you yesterday,” he said simply. The sweet kisses that followed only increased the turmoil raging inside her. How was she supposed to go back to Nashville and pretend this didn’t matter?
“I missed you, too,” she told him when at last he let her go. “You smell nice, like an evergreen forest.”
“You can thank Ellen. She gave me this cologne for my birthday. Have you eaten breakfast? There’s a bakery not far from here. I go there at least three times a week.”
“Sounds good to me. I just need to get gas first.”
Ten minutes later she was listening to Jase joke around with the older woman behind the counter. “Don’t toy with my emotions, Dinah. I can’t live without your salted caramel muffins.”
The woman laughed. “I made sure we have a few left.”
“We’ll take the baker’s special and two large coffees.”
“Coming right up.”
Dinah grabbed a box and began filling it with muffins. Jase turned to Rosemary. “The baker’s special is one of every kind of muffin they have for sale.”
Rosemary glanced at the bins stacked behind the counter. “How many muffins is that?”
“It’s usually about eighteen.”
“Are you sure that’ll be enough?” she asked, trying not to laugh.
He caught the teasing note in her voice and grinned. “It should be.” Once they were in the car, he held out the box. “Ladies first.”
“I think I’ll try this one.”
“Good choice. That’s blueberry cheesecake.”
She peeled away the paper liner and took a bite. “It’s delicious.”
“I’ve never had anything at Dinah’s that wasn’t delicious. She and her husband make everything they sell. In case you care about such things, they don’t use anything artificial. Everything’s organic.”
“Even better. I may not be able to stop at one. Or two.”
“That’s how I feel about kissing you.”
She started the car. “You don’t have an ‘off’ switch, do you?”
“Not around you. What does your brother think about having a famous sister?”
“He says it gives him something to brag about at school.”
“I can understand that. There’s a part of me that’s in awe of who you are and what you’ve been able to do. You’re surprisingly grounded for someone who’s accomplished so much.”
“I think that’s because deep down I’m still that little girl you met at my grandmother’s house. I write songs and sing because it’s what I always wanted to do. I was doing it long before anyone paid me to do it, and I’ll be doing it long after this fairytale ride is over.”
“Right after I quit my job to write full-time, my dad asked me why I wanted to give up something certain for something risky. I told him it was because I couldn’t not write. It’s a part of who I am.”
“I understand completely. My mother is still upset that I dropped out of college to move to Nashville.” She drew up to a traffic light behind a line of cars. “Which way do I go here?”
* * * * *
Jase reached into the box for another muffin. “Go straight through this light and turn left at the next one. That road will take us all the way to Kingsland. I bet your mom’s not as upset as my dad was when I decided not to go to medical school. It was months before he could talk to me without losing his temper.”
“That must have been hard.”
“It didn’t help that I’m not the most tactful person. As Quinn says, I have no filter.”
“I know. It’s one of the things I like about you. I’ve never met someone so comfortable in his own skin.”
“Maybe I’m too comfortable. Some people prefer a level of formality in their social interactions.” He reached for his coffee. “What do you like most about singing?”
“This is going to sound ridiculous, but it’s a sense of oneness with the music. I feel a part of something larger than myself.”
“It’s not ridiculous at all. There’s a freedom in being able to express yourself.” He slipped his arm out of the sling, letting it rest on his leg, and wiggled his fingers. “I need to give my neck a break.”
“I guess your arm does get heavy after a while.”
“It does,” he said with a grin. “It’s because I’ve got big biceps. I’m sure you’ve noticed.”
Rosemary turned to look at him. “Oh, I noticed all right. It was the second thing I noticed about you when I saw you standing at the counter in the airport.”
His smile grew. “You were checking me out, huh? What was the first thing you noticed?”
“Your voice. It reminded me of warm syrup on pancakes.”
“That’s an interesting way to describe a voice.”
She laughed. “That’s all I could think of. You speak slowly, almost lazily. When you throw in the deep voice and the Southern accent, it’s hard not to notice.”
“And after all that, you hid behind the magazine and refused to be sociable.”
“I didn’t know who you were then. Or how sweet you are.”
“Sweet? That doesn’t sound very, um, manly.”
“Your level of manliness has never been in question, but you also have a gentle side that’s very attractive.”
“I guess mimicking Quinn is starting to pay off.”
“I don’t think you had to mimic anyone. You were sweet at eleven, too.”
“So you liked me before I had the muscles? That’s very important.”
“I’d say so. I wrote about you in my journal.”
“Really? What did you write?”
“That you were nice, and that I didn’t think kissing you would be yucky.”
He sent her a shocked glance. “You were thinking about kissing me at eleven? That was the last thing on my mind.”
“I was only thinking about it because one of the boys in my class had kissed me at a school picnic a few weeks before. It was awful. His lips were wet, and he had no idea what he was doing.”
“Well, no wonder you’re so
much better at it than me. My first kiss didn’t come until I was in high school.”
“I’m not better at it. I just really like it when you kiss me.”
“We better start talking about something else. I’m losing interest in the car show. How did the baklava making go?”
“Everything was fine until Mrs. Jenkins took a nap. My lone attempt to make homemade filo was a disaster. Every time I tried to stretch the dough, I tore it. I used it anyway. The result was edible, but not very attractive.”
He closed the box of muffins and stretched out his legs. “I never could take naps, even when I was young.”
“Oh, me, either. The neighbor who kept me at her house after school until my parents got off work always made me rest. I think she did it so she could watch soap operas. All I did was lay there on the bed and stare at the ceiling.”
“I would sneak into Quinn’s room as soon as my mother went downstairs. He was usually in there doing homework. Besides getting to talk to him, I also got to eat candy. There was always a bag of something in his desk.”
“Maybe if I’d had a ‘Quinn’, I wouldn’t have minded so much.”
Into his mind came a picture of a young Rosemary all alone in her neighbor’s guestroom. It was silly to wish he’d been there with her. “I was nine when Quinn left for college. I lived for the times when he came home. He was the one person I could tell everything, good or bad. He made me feel as if what I had to say was important.”
“I had that kind of rapport with my dad and then again with my friend Collette. She didn’t have the best home life. Her father went through women like some men go through socks. Because of that she spent a lot of time at my house. We’re like sisters. She lives in New York now.”
“I think that’s what makes the idea of marriage so appealing. You have this person who’s closer to you physically and spiritually than anyone else in the world. They know and accept all of your faults and love you anyway. They don’t try to change who you are. They’re beside you whether you reach the mountaintop or never leave the valley.”
“That’s what marriage should be. They don’t all reach those heights.”
“No, but it’s a goal to shoot for. Where do you live when you’re in Nashville?”
“A few years ago I bought a farmhouse built by a state senator. It already had the privacy fence and the security systems in place, and I was fortunate enough to retain most of his grounds staff. The house sits in the middle of a thousand acres of pine woods and is bordered on two sides by a wildlife management area. I have some of the most spectacular views out my windows, and it’s only a half hour from downtown.”
“So you’re not all alone out there in the woods?”
“I’m never alone. The last few weeks are the most I’ve been by myself in years. There are usually about six or seven people on the grounds at all times, and when I’m in residence, my personal assistant practically lives there, too. That was the position April held for three years. Carl’s sister Willow is doing it now.”
“Carl is your new agent?”
“Yes. He and Willow have been in the music business for fifteen years. Carl isn’t as charismatic as Randall, but his client list is impressive and he’s never been involved in a scandal.”
“What about your band?”
“They’re all back with their families right now enjoying some much-deserved time off.”
“Are you hard to work with?”
She laughed. “I don’t know. You’d have to ask the people who work with me. All I can tell you is that I haven’t had anyone quit. They’ve been with me since the beginning.”
“That answers my question. Sage is responsible for quite a few people. That’s a lot of responsibility and pressure for someone so young.”
“It is a lot of pressure. As you know yourself, creativity and stress don’t go together. I’ve been running on empty for months. I came to St. Marys hoping to refill the tank.” She reached across the console and touched his arm. “Imagine my surprise when I found you; someone who makes me laugh and reminds me of what’s important.”
Later when they were strolling hand in hand through the crowded aisles looking at cars, Jase remembered those words. He kept telling himself to enjoy the day and stop thinking about how lonely he was going to be when she left. The one time he really could have used his ‘never look ahead’ attitude, he couldn’t get it to work. All he kept seeing was a calendar with the sixteenth circled in black marker. Time was slipping away, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
They ate at Dom’s on the way back to her house. As he sat across the table from her, he wanted to turn back the clock and start the week over. He felt as if the two of them were drifting along on a boat that was getting closer and closer to a waterfall.
As soon as they stepped into the foyer, her phone rang. She looked at the screen and then at him. “Do you mind? I need to take this.”
“Of course not. I’ll go take care of Ambrose.”
The cat followed him into the kitchen and made a beeline for the bowl sitting next to the refrigerator.
“You’re nothing if not consistent.”
After he fed his companion, Jase went outside on the porch to wait for Rosemary. Instead of going to the steps, he sat down in the rocking chair and tried to ignore the uneasy feeling building in the pit of his stomach. It was almost a half hour before she came through the door. He took one look at her face and knew something was wrong. Without a word, he drew her down to sit on his lap.
“One of my band members was involved in a motorcycle accident about three hours ago. He’s in critical condition.”
He rubbed his hand gently up and down her back. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
She leaned her head on his shoulder. “His wife is days away from having a baby. Can you imagine how she’s feeling right now? She’s dealing with her husband being injured and at the same time getting ready to bring a new life into the world.”
“Maybe having the baby will give her something positive to think about.”
“You and your silver linings. I’m going to miss that.”
He knew what she meant. He wasn’t even going to get until the sixteenth. “Are you going back tomorrow?”
“My flight leaves at eight in the morning.”
He tried to ignore the desolation sweeping through him. This was too abrupt. He hadn’t had time to prepare himself for her leaving. “Don’t worry about Ambrose. I’ll take care of him for you.”
“My time here ended sooner than I wanted.”
“I don’t know about you, but the last week has been the best of my life.”
“Mine, too.”
He tilted up her chin so he could see her face. “This probably isn’t the right time to tell you, but I may never get another opportunity. You need to know that I’m falling in…” She put her fingers on his lips.
“Don’t say it, Jase. It will only make this harder than it already is.” She sucked in her breath. “I feel it, too; this thing between us, but what if it’s just an aberration that will pass. It’s easy to mistake other things for love.”
Jase kissed her softly. “But it’s hard to mistake love for something else.”
She put her arms around him. “Nothing about this trip has been normal. We’ve been interacting within a set of circumstances without any kind of interference from the outside world. Who knows how we’ll feel next week or next month? I don’t want either of us to say or do something we’ll regret later.”
“There’s a simple solution to that. If by the time you come back to St. Marys you’ve forgotten all about me, then there won’t be any need for me to finish what I was going to say.”
“It may be months before I get back.”
“Then you’ll have plenty of time to make up your mind. But no matter what you decide, Rosemary, we’ll always be friends. Nothing will ever change that.”
Chapter Ten
Rosemary’s head was pounding by the time she boarded her
flight, something she attributed to the fact that she’d spent most of the night crying. The anxiety over her drummer Norton and his wife Maci mixed with the suddenness of her departure and Jase’s startling revelation hadn’t made sleeping easy. Adding to her misery was the knowledge that her decision not to see him this morning before she left had been a mistake. It hadn’t made leaving easier; it had made it much, much worse.
As she stared out the window of the plane, Jase’s words floated through her mind. It’s hard to mistake love for something else. Could they really be in love? They hardly knew each other, in a real sense. Some people have these swift inexplicable flashes of attraction which usually depart as quickly as they come. Would that be their fate? Or had they stumbled onto the kind of love they’d always dreamed about?
There was little doubt that she carried baggage from her experience with Randall. But Jase wasn’t Randall. She didn’t need more time to know that there was no comparison between the two men. Jase didn’t pretend to feelings he didn’t have, and he didn’t play games with the feelings of others. He believed in laying his cards on the table and putting the ball in the other person’s court.
When she passed through the gate area in Atlanta where four weeks ago she caught her first glimpse of Jase standing at the counter, she felt tears threatening again. Little had she known then how ineffective hiding behind a magazine would turn out to be. It was as if when he touched her hand, he reached all the way into her heart.
In spite of the circumstances that had brought her home so suddenly, Rosemary couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her assistant waiting for her when she came through the tunnel at Nashville International. Willow was wearing skinny jeans with fur-topped leather boots and a form-fitting cashmere sweater that matched the lavender knitted cable hat Rosemary had made for her.
Love at Last (Finding Love Book 6) Page 12
