Page 11 of Embracing the Change

And with that, Jamie Oakley straightened and walked away from me.

Sadly, I wouldn’t reconnect with him in any meaningful way for years.

And when I did, we would both pine for the days when there was just a trace of forlorn to be felt.

CHAPTER 2

CAROLINA HERRERA

Nora

Present day…

My phone vibrated in my hand with a text.

I didn’t look at it, at first.

I was in a state.

It had been two weeks since Jamie and my kiss.

Two weeks during which I hadn’t seen him. Two weeks where I hadn’t heard from him. Two very long, very alarming, very terrifying weeks.

Granted, I hadn’t reached out to him.

I also hadn’t walked out on him telling him to “grow up” and saying that kiss we shared—which was not “just a kiss”—was just a kiss.

We had not been apart for that long since three months ago, when he’d had to go on a multi-leg business trip.

And even then, shortly after week two began, he’d texted and asked if I wanted to fly to Florence to join him for the weekend before he had to head to South Korea for more meetings.

I’d flown to Florence.

The shopping was excellent there.

But that wasn’t why I’d boarded a plane.

Before that, well…

It had been years.

Now, Chloe had gotten a wild hair that, before she and Judge had their first baby, and before Alex and Rix got married, which, according to Chloe, heralded the Baby Making Years where we wouldn’t be able to do this kind of thing, we all needed to go on a family vacation.

She’d said, “Before you know it, Sasha, Sully, Gage…even Cadence will be hitched or shacked up, and it’ll be decades before we can do something like this again.”

This was entirely untrue. I’d taken many a vacation with my children when they were younger, including doing it with friends when they’d had children.

But Mika and I had discussed this with Genny, and we thought perhaps Chloe was feeling a little panicked about their new arrival, so against my better judgment, I’d agreed to go.

I loved Chloe (who happened to be Jamie’s daughter-in-law, married to Jamie’s son, Judge).

I loved Mika (naturally, as she was my best friend), her husband Tom (Chloe’s father, Genny’s ex-husband), and I loved Mika’s darling daughter Cadence.

And with Tom came everyone else, all of whom I loved.

Including Jamie.

God, why had I agreed to this again?

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