Page 92 of Love on the Vine
He stiffened, hesitating slightly, before replying. “I wasn’t planning to.”
His eyes ran over me, darkening. “You’re stunning.”
“Thank you.” I swallowed. We stood there like two awkward strangers making small talk. It was as if he’d never touched me, or laughed with me, or held me as I drifted off to sleep. I wanted to cry, but I didn’t want him to see how much he’d hurt me.
“I saw you dancing earlier. I didn’t want to interrupt.” He came closer, his fingers grazing my wrist. “Olivia, can we talk?”
Just as I started to respond, Levi reappeared with a small plate of food. “Liv, you have to try this dessert! I think there’s avocado in it.”
“Excuse me.” I gripped Levi’s arm and led him away before I had to introduce them. If Jake thought that Levi was my date that suited me just fine.
“Wait, Liv, was that him?” Levi finally turned his attention away from his food and glanced behind us. “Don’t you want to talk to the guy?”
I shook my head. Jake’s sudden appearance had knocked me off my axis, and I had to get my bearings if I was going to make it through the night. God, I was still so angry with him. “I can’t. Not yet. I didn’t think he’d be here.”
Levi narrowed his eyes at me and gestured at my dress. “Really?”
“Okay, I might have secretly hoped he would be here,” I admitted.
“But you won’t talk to him?” Levi raised his eyes toward the ceiling and sighed. “I will never understand women.”
“Come on, let’s dance.” I led him back onto the dance floor determined not to search the room for Jake. But as Levi spun me around, I caught a glimpse of him chatting with Anne-Sophie, the journalist who had interviewed him for the magazine. When she threaded her arm through his, I averted my gaze before the hot sting of jealousy I felt made me do something crazy.
You know this isn’t real, right?The words ran through my mind as they had a hundred times since that horrible argument.
Maybe he was right, and I had just needed to see him here to understand that I truly didn’t belong in his world. I hardened my resolve to make him believe I was fine. Because I would be after this.
Each time he tried to approach me I dragged Levi to the dance floor. By the end of our fourth dance, Levi held up his hands and glanced toward the bar where a pretty, auburn-haired woman was standing. She raised her champagne glass at him, and he smiled. “I need a drink. You want one?”
“No, don’t leave me alone,” I whispered as Jake approached wearing an annoyed and determined expression on his face. I clutched Levi’s arm.
“Liv, you can’t ignore him all night,” Levi said, removing my hand and making a beeline toward the redhead.
“Traitor,” I mumbled as I ducked through the crowd and slipped out onto the terrace. I took a deep breath of cool night air and stared up at the stars blanketing the sky. My mind flashed back to laying under the night sky in the garden with Jake. A homesickness for Moustiers came over me, so intense it made my chest ache.
You know this isn’t real, right?
“Olivia.” The sound of Jake’s voice behind me jolted me back into awareness. I turned around to face him. His eyes wereshadowed and his forehead creased. It was the same expression he wore each time he’d told me why we couldn’t be together. I couldn’t stand it if he said it again now.
Shivering, I wrapped my arms around myself.
“You’re cold,” he said softly, slipping his suit jacket off and placing it on my shoulders. It smelled like him and made me want to bury myself against his chest and feel his arms around me again.
“You don’t have to do this you know,” I said.
“What? Talk to you?” he asked, his tone incredulous. “You say that as if it’s some kind of annoying obligation.”
“Isn’t it?”
“No,” he said adamantly. “I’ve been trying to talk to you for the past half hour. You’re the one intent on avoiding me.”
I didn’t correct him, just turned my face toward the massive pyramid, glowing like a beacon in the courtyard.
Jake sighed, thrusting his hands in his pocket. “I saw you talking to Dominique Force.”
“Lucie’s trying to get me a job at her restaurant once I finish in the spring.”
“Is that what you want?”
