Page 40 of It's You
“Then, listen to me. I want to help you understand. I know this is a lot to absorb at once, and you probably want to believe that we’re a random coincidence. Two kids who met in high school and kissed. And hey, I show up here twenty years later, and we have that short, sweet history. But there’s a lot more than that between us, and it’s not random, and it’s not a coincidence.”
She took a big gulp of wine, feeling her heart speed up and her face flush hot and red. Tears pricked the back of her eyes because she knew he was right, and it frustrated her that it wasn’t logical, that it defied explanation.
“So…what? What are you saying? That we kissed once in high school, and we’re now somehow cosmically bound to each other for life? That’s crazy. Seriously, Jack? That’s totally insane.”
“I know itsoundscrazy. But it’s not.” He stared into her eyes. “Darcy, did you ever forget me? Did you ever find happiness with someone else? Find completeness with someone else? Doesanything feel as good as being with me? No, no, no, and no. I know the answers, because mine are the same.”
This doesn’t make any sense.
You’re right.
It troubles me.
I know. I’m sorry.
Hold me, Jack?
In a flash, he was sitting beside her. He put his arm around her, drawing her up against the solid warmth of his chest. As she rested her cheek on his chest under his chin, his other arm encircled her, and she closed her eyes against the comfort he offered.
“We’re complicated,” he said quietly against her hair.
There had to be better answers than the ones he was offering. She was determined to track down every book on Métis legends and pore over them to try to understand what was happening between them and make sense out of it. But she’d had enough of it all for now.
“I came here wanting answers, but I don’t think I can handle any more tonight.” She leaned her head back, tilting her chin up. “Do you think we could do something?”
“What’d you have in mind?”
“Could we…Could wepretendthat we’re just a couple of people who haven’t seen each other in years, and we’re having a first date? I mean, could we shelve the Métis legends and the soul flight and the binding and all the rest of it? Just for a little while? Just have dinner, and talk, and get to know each other? Could we do that?”
He brushed his lips against hers. “Yes.”
“Yes?”
“Absolutely.”
She smiled at him. “Okay.”
He sighed and twisted his wrist to check his watch. “Dinner’s ready. I set the table in the dining room, but I could just scoop it into two bowls, and we could…” He gestured to the fire.
“I’d love that.” She leaned forward, dropping her feet to the floor. “I’ll help.”
He handed her a blanket from the back of the couch. “Make yourself useful, Turner. Why don’t you spread this out in front of the fire? I’ll get the Coq au Vin.”
“Coq au Vin? Wow, Jack!”
“Crock-Pot,” he tossed over his shoulder as he sauntered to the kitchen. “Don’t be too impressed.”
She watched him go, the way the top of his jeans hugged his hips and fit over his firm backside. The way his untucked, white button-down shirt moved with him, showing the contours of his back as he walked away from her. He looked a lot younger than thirty-seven years old. He was perfectly built. Insanely male. A shiver went down her back with the force of her attraction to him, and she felt the blanket slipping from her slack hands. She shook her head and quickly gathered it together, spreading it in front of the fire just as he returned with two steaming bowls of French chicken stew.
She reached for her wine and sat down on one side of the blanket, cross-legged, accepting the bowl he handed to her. He took one of two silver spoons from his mouth, handing it to her with a sexy grin.
“Sorry. I only have two hands.”
She raised her eyebrows at him and put the spoon in her own mouth, holding his eyes with hers as she sucked on it.
He stared at her, cocky smile fading, and she watched his eyes ignite in an instant, his expression changing from playful to hungry, and not for Coq au Vin.
“Better quit it.”
