Page 56 of The Ground Beneath Our Feet
“Mikey?”
“Yeah, Mom?” I was strolling to my car from the clinic, getting ready to go pick up Jessica to go to her boss’s fiancé’s house for dinner when my phone buzzed. As I got out the keys, I saw the line forming for the soup kitchen next door.
“We’re planning a trip to Italy this summer. Do you want to come with us?”
“Of course.” My parents went back to Italy just about every year. While I’d been a dozen times or more, I’d happily go back.
“Do you want to take Jessica? Or is it too early to ask?”
I opened my car door and plopped down in the driver’s seat, still sore. It was too early to ask, but I didn’t want it to be. She was getting there. My girl was getting there.
When she came to me, so meek, I’d have never believed she was a lawyer. Children’s librarian? Maybe. Lawyer? No.
But now?
With each run, she grew stronger, but it wasn’t just her body. It was her mind and her spirit. Given my reaction when I first saw her, I hadn’t thought it was possible to be more attracted to her, but with every step she took to become more “Jessica,” she burrowed her way deeper into my heart.
“You trying to marry me off again, Mom?”
“She’s such a nice girl, though.”
“But that doesn’t mean I take her to Italy. I just met her.”
“I have a good feeling about her.”
I did, too. Starting my car, I talked with my mom on speaker as I drove home, then hung up. When I got there, Jessica skipped out of the house wearing an off-the-shoulder black sweater and jeans, got in the car with a huge smile, and told me all about her day. Apparently she’d had some major breakthrough with the project she was working on. “That’s awesome,” I said, thinking how Jessica enthusiastic and sharing lit up my whole world.
As she sat beside me on the drive down the coast, I reached over and held her hand. She didn’t flinch. Instead, she squeezed my hand and kept it there.
When we stopped at a light, I looked over at her. Her eyes shone bright, she’d just licked her full lips, and I’d do anything to lean over and kiss her. The way she looked at me, I thought she wouldn’t mind.
But I wasn’t sure. The restraint was killing me. Still, I wasn’t going to do anything until she gave me a clue that it was okay.
Be patient, I reminded myself.
We pulled up to the beachfront mansion of Ryan Fielding, parking in a garage next to a McLaren, a pristine old truck, and an SUV.
Damn, son.
But when he came out, lean, with a raspy voice, I thought, here’s a genuinely good guy. He shook my hand and gave Jessica a hug, then invited us in.
After welcoming us, Amelia hooked her arm through Jessica’s to go outside, saying, “He likes to cook.”
“So do I.”
While Jessica and Amelia sat on the patio and looked at the waves, I hung around Ryan who was busying himself in the kitchen.
“Beer?” asked Ryan.
“No, thanks. Don’t drink.”
“Mind if I do?”
“Not at all.”
The doorbell rang, and a short, pregnant woman named Lucy, and a tall lawyer named Jake from Jessica’s office, came in. They’d just been married, and were so starry-eyed, I’d almost be sick to my stomach, except that was how I was feeling myself about the girl I’d brought with me.
She was quickly becoming my world.
