Page 98 of If Tomorrow Never Comes

In mid-October they went back to his favorite trees, and she brought her camera. As Jamie promised, the leaves had turned a brightorange-red, standing out in stunning contrast against the green grass and blue sky. She printed and framed two copies of her favorite shot, hanging one on the wall of her room and giving the other to Jamie.

She shared several meals with his family—some with his mom, and some with Blythe and her husband and son. She had yet to meet his dad or brother, but knowing how Jamie felt about them, didn’t mind him taking his time on that front. Getting to know the people who were important to him meant more to her, anyway.

She’d also gone to the cancer survivor group again, had a coffee date with Keri, and hadn’t struggled quite as much with anxiety, even on the weekend Jamie had traveled to visit an old college buddy. She’d signed a six-month lease on her apartment and started looking for one of those coworking office spaces to start using when working with clients.

Elliott knew what it was to have family who took care of her, but she’d never known the dedication and attention of a lover. A passionate one, at that. Nights spent in his arms were her favorite part of the day, followed closely by getting ready beside him in the morning.

“What do you say we have a date night tonight?” Jamie asked one such morning. His toothbrush hung out of the side of his mouth, and Elliott leaned close to the mirror, applying mascara.

“Sounds like a lot of work,” she said, only half joking.

He laughed. “Counter proposal: How about we roam around a bookstore for a while? Then get takeout and come back for ... other stuff?” He waggled his brows.

“Where did I find you? I literally can’t think of a better way to spend the evening.”

“Are we nerds?”

She grinned at his adorable, unconcerned face. “If we are, I don’t care.”

Her happiness was reflected in his return smile. “Me either.”

Eight hours later, they were on their second lap around a local bookstore, Jamie hefting around a basket growing alarmingly full of books.

“I might need a new bookcase,” Elliott observed.

“Excellent investment if you ask me.” He put down the basket at the end of a row and slid his hands into his pockets as he regarded the shelf. After a moment he reached up and grabbed one. “What about this one?”

She glanced over. “Questions for Couples: Get to Know Each Other? Do we need help in that area?”

“No. But it might be fun to talk through some of this stuff.” He flipped it open. “For example, I’d probably never think to ask what fruit and vegetable you’d combine to create a fruitable.”

“Yeah, because that’s a super weird question.”

He consulted the book again, then glanced up with a gleam in his eye. “How soon did you have erotic thoughts about your current partner?”

Sooner than she wanted to admit. “When you ate our soufflé and made all those sexy noises.”

His throat bobbed on a heavy swallow. “You started it.”

“Is that your answer, too?”

He shook his head. “Before that.”

She felt the tingle that shot through her from the top of her head to the backs of her knees. How many feet separated them across this aisle? Two? Three? “When?”

“When you argued with me about pies at the bar.”

The urge rose up to ask him to describe those erotic thoughts in detail, but she tabled it for later. “You still like arguing about that.”

He grinned. “I do.”

They stared at each other for a prolonged beat, and she huffed out a breath. “What else you got?”

“What’s your most treasured possession?”

“A vintage nineteenth-century copy ofPride and Prejudice.” She’d been so scared it would get lost or damaged in the move that it was still at her parents’ house. “I bet I can guess yours.”

“Oh yeah?”

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