Page 40 of Twenty Years Later

She gave me a shrug. "Not bad, Alex. Not bad."

Man, she cracked me up. Her words may have been nonchalant, but her flirty smile afterwards gave it away. Clearing my throat, I asked, "So where's Audrey? With your parents?"

"Yeah, she's spending the night." She sighed. "I don't know. I just decided maybe it was better to wait till tomorrow to introduce her to you both, you know, when we have a full day and everyone has more time to adjust."

She sounded a bit unsure of herself. "I think that's actually a good idea," I reassured her.

Nodding, she turned a corner and jumped the curb. "Oops, sorry about that. So that's another thing I'm not very good at."

"Driving?" I asked, gripping the edge of my seat.

"Um, yeah. I do okay. But I get flustered easily."

"Really? You seem to be doing all right. Well, except for that poor curb you just murdered," I teased.

Shooting me a quick glare, she said, "I think it's because I didn't drive much for a very long time when we lived in New York, and I sort of lost my confidence. But I'm loving this SUV. I feel much, much safer."

"Maybeyou'resafer—" I started to say, grinning.

But her sudden hand on my knee stopped me. "Don't you dare finish that sentence!"

The sound of her laughter went straight to my chest, and I couldn't take my eyes off her.

"Hey," she said, "so how'd it go on the plane? How was Gabby?"

"Great actually."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Are you freaking serious?"

"Absolutely." I nodded, feeling proud that we'd made it through unscathed. "She played with all her stuff the whole time and did great changing planes, taking off, landing, all of it. She was just excited about everything."

"Show-off," she said under her breath, giving me a sideways look and nudging my knee with her hand. "I'm just kidding. Really. I'm glad to hear that. She's a little trooper."

"She definitely is."

I took a second to glance around outside and realized how gorgeous Portland was—kind of quintessential New England with lots of brick buildings and old trees. Definitely no palm trees here.

Jayda looked over at me as we entered a residential neighborhood. "So this is the West End area where we live. It's an older area with quite a few historic homes. And what's great is we're near downtownandthe water."

"Wow, it's really nice."

"Yeah? You like it?"

"I really do." Honestly, I did. Surprisingly. It was different but stunning. She slowed down at a beautiful house covered in weathered wood shingles. "This is where you live?" I asked.

Pulling in to the brick-paved driveway, she answered, "Yep. The ol' homestead. Would you believe it was built in 1835?"

I shook my head, amazed by the history contained in such a home. "You're kidding me."

"Nope. Pretty cool, huh?" she said, putting on the parking brake.

"Very cool. I love it."

Right when I opened my door to get out, Gabby made some noises, and I realized my respite was over. I sighed, wishing she had slept a little longer because seeing Jayda... I just wanted to kiss every inch of her delicious body. But I guessed that would have to wait.

To say Gabby woke up cranky would be an understatement. "At least you're not on the plane right now," Jayda said as she struggled to take a screaming, flailing Gabby out of the car seat.

"That's so true. Thank God." I laughed over the noise and grabbed my luggage from the trunk. "You want me to get her?"

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