Page 39 of She's Like the Wind
I followed her gaze andfroze.
Yeah, that was Jonah,andhe was withmyNaomi.
My chest clenched, making it hard to breathe.
They were walking toward their table, the hostess ahead of them.
Naomi’s arm was tucked through Jonah’s. Her hair was pinned up, loose curls escaping around her jaw. She wore emerald silk—simple, wraparound…devastating.
He said something, and she smiled, unaware that she was slaying me from across the room.
“I wonder who’s the woman with him,” Sloane murmured. “He was seeing the mayor’s daughter the last time I saw him.”
I wasn’t even listening to her, there was a humming sound in my ears…like when a bomb goes off.
“But then, you know Jonah, he has the attention span of a housecat in a room full of mirrors. He goes through women like Kleenex.”
I suppressed a growl at Sloane calling Naomi fucking disposable.
Well, you treated her exactly like that, so keep it in your pants, asshole.
I forced myself to look away, to focus on the woman I was here with, on the reason we were celebrating. But the wine turned bitter in my mouth, and my chest burned like I’dswallowed fire.
The hostess seated Jonah and Naomi in my line of sight because the universe was fucking with me, punishing me by making me watch her while she was on a date.
I had no doubt that’s what this was when Jonah pulled Naomi’s chair out for her.
What a fucking gentleman.
I knew Jonah a little because we sat on the Jazz Festival board. But for the fact that I loved jazz, I wouldn’t have agreed to spend time in hotel meeting rooms with men in suits.
How the hell was she with Jonah? Didn’t she know that he was the kind of man who made a woman feel like she was the only one in the room, until she found out he made every woman feel that way? Wealthy, charming, and slick as hell—he was the exact kind of man I was proud not to be.
We ate our food—which was probably amazing—but it might as well have been sawdust.
If I’d only been half-listening to Sloane earlier, now I wasn’t hearing a damn thing. My mind had left the table entirely.
Had she seen me?
No?
Why the hell not?
Was she so entranced by her date that she couldn’t even look around to see who the hell else was in the restaurant?
So, she was over me now? It was all done?
I love you, Gage.
Well, love didn’t last long, did it? I thought bitterly when she smiled at Jonah, her face alight.
She used to smile at me like that.
Why the hell was she so happy to be with this asshole?
CHAPTER 14
Naomi
