Page 54 of Promise of a New Beginning
“Both.” He took a sip of his wine. “I’m sorry he cheated on you. That must have been very hurtful.”
Savannah lowered her eyes and shrugged. “It’s kind of my fault. I should have stopped seeing him. I don’t know why I didn’t. I didn’t even really enjoy being with him for the last year or so, but…”
“You’re a little competitive. Maybe you thought you could change him, or you wanted to prove you could.” Jack didn’t know where the thought came from. It had been years since he’d assessed other people’s motives. He realized that parts of himself he hadn’t even realized he’d lost were coming back to him. After Linda’s death, he’d blocked out everything but the pain, anger, and guilt. As he relinquished those harsher feelings, it left space for his old self to fill itself in, and he was glad for the reminder. He felt like an old friend had stopped by to say hello, and he hoped that friend would bring more friends and stay longer.One day I really might be whole again.His response came naturally, and as he dissected it, he realized that Savannah was competitive, and he might be right on target. But when they were in the mountains, he’d also learned that she was sensitive and very, very feminine, and those traits would have left her hurt no matter what her motivation might have been. And he wanted to steal that hurt away forever.
“Maybe. I honestly don’t know. But after being with you, I don’t think that I’ve ever been in a relationship where I was this happy.”
He turned in his chair so he was facing her. “I feel the same way. I’ve never felt so fulfilled or so alive.”
“And you have a cabin in the mountains?” she asked.
Jack nodded. He’d been dead set on not revealing that fact, but when Aida asked him where he lived and he felt Savannah’s eyes on him, he answered honestly. “I do. I’ll take you there one day.”
“I’d love that. You’re so different than you were when I met you. Has something changed?” Her eyes searched his for the answers.
“Everything has changed,” he said honestly. “You sparked something in me that made me want to live again, Savannah. We haven’t really had the time to talk about what’s been going on, and there’s a lot I want to share with you.” He looked at their uneaten food. “Do you want to eat?”
She shook her head.
“Want to take it home for later?” he asked.
She shook her head with a different kind of hungry look in her eyes.
Jack knew that the minute they got inside Savannah’s apartment, there was no way he could stay away from her sweet lips, much less the rest of what was beneath that body-hugging fabric, and he’d never forgive himself if he didn’t stop taking her every chance he got and treat her like she deserved to be treated.
“It’s a beautiful night. Want to go on a carriage ride through the park?”
Her eyes lit up. “I haven’t done that in years.”
“It’ll be a first for me.” He put his hand on her lower back, and as they walked toward the park, Jack thought about how many firsts he’d already experienced with Savannah and about how many more were yet to come.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
SAVANNAH SNUGGLED AGAINST Jack’s side. She loved being wrapped in his muscular arms, and as she watched Jack’s sharp edges soften, she felt like the luckiest woman on earth.
“I can’t believe you’ve never done this,” Savannah said.
“There are a lot of things I haven’t done, and I can’t wait to do them with you.” He kissed the top of her head.
Theclop-clopof the horses provided a gentle cadence to their ride through the park. The last time she’d ridden in a carriage was with Matt, and they’d spent the whole time talking about kids—and how he never wanted to have any. The carriage ride with Jack was softer, more intimate than it had been before. She felt the gentle sway of the horses’ gait, and if they did nothing else that night, just went home and went to sleep, she’d go to sleep happy and content.
“I emptied Linda’s closet and gave her clothes to her sister, Elise,” Jack said.
His confession came out of left field and his words were tentative, as if he were testing the waters for her reaction.
“Oh, Jack.” She sat up so she could look into his eyes. “You kept them for all this time?”
He nodded. “I rarely went into the bedroom after her accident. It was too difficult to face. But after we came back from the mountains, I realized that I’d been hiding from it all, and I knew it was time.”
“I’m sorry, Jack. I hope I didn’t push you in that direction.”But I’m glad you’re moving forward.
“You have yet to push me to do anything, but being close to you was the catalyst. It was the nudge that I needed. I’d been feeling a little trapped within my own mind, and I didn’t know how to break free. But that all changed when you and I came together. And as hard as it was to do, it was also freeing.”
“That’s good, then, right?”
Jack took her hand and brought it to his lips. “Yes, very good. At some point I would like to show you where I live, but I’m just not there yet.”
“You’re doing so much all at once, Jack. There’s no rush.”You’re the most honest man I know, and I love that.
