Page 11 of Rebel Heart
“Beau?” Jules’ sweet and curious voice broke through the thoughts swirling in my head. I blinked to clear away the lingering fog.
“Yeah?”
“Is everything okay?”
I barely jerked my chin down. “You’re twenty-four.”
Nodding, she confirmed, “Yes. What’s wrong with that?”
“The last time I was at Westwood’s, I was older than you are right now.”
Her breath hitched as her head jerked back. For several moments, Jules didn’t say a word. She merely allowed her eyes to roam over my face, searching for answers to the questions she clearly had. Finally, with a hint of a smile playing at her lips, she said, “So, you’re an old man?”
Humor.
She was finding humor in this.
“Idon’t know if I’d say I’m an old man, but I’m significantly older than you.”
Jules leaned forward, propped her chin on her hand, and asked, “Can I guess?”
And now she was turning it into a game. “How old do you think I am?”
Squinting, she considered her answer. “Forty?”
“Are you trying to insult me?”
“So, younger?”
I gave her a nod. “Yeah. Much younger.”
“For the record, you don’t look old. Not at all.” Her eyes drifted down from my face to my shoulders, chest, and arms. If I’d been standing in front of her, I didn’t doubt her gaze would’ve journeyed much lower. “Alright, I’m going to go with thirty-five.”
“Close. I’ll be thirty-five next January.”
Jules ran her fingers along the front of her throat. “Wow. That is old.”
My eyes rounded. “What?”
“I’m surprised you don’t have a cane to help you get around, or something to put your dentures in.” Her eyes were dancing, her fingertips covering the smile on her face.
She was teasing me.
I cocked a brow. “You are not funny.”
Jules tossed her head back, laughing hysterically in the middle of an upscale restaurant. I didn’t try to stop her, glad she was enjoying herself so much. When she got her laughter under control, Jules said, “It’s only a nine-year age gap between us, Beau. I don’t think it’s a big deal.”
“You don’t?”
She shook her head. “Do you?”
I honestly didn’t know. All the women I’d ever hooked up with were younger than me, but Jules was easily the youngest. Was it a problem? Should it have been? It wasn’t as though she was eighteen and still fresh out of high school. And the reality was that I wasn’t looking for something that would last a lifetime. This was casual for me. Fun.
I smiled at her. “I don’t think it’s a big deal, either.”
“For a minute there, I was starting to reconsider my stance.”
“Oh?”
