Page 55 of Bursting With Love
Jack watched her pull away and felt a little lighter as he crossed the driveway and headed back inside. He’d never cried so much in his life, and he felt as though he’d been drained of everything inside of him— his blood, his energy, and surprisingly, his anger. He closed the door behind him and waited for the ominous feeling that usually followed him into the house to return, but it didn’t come. He glanced cautiously toward the kitchen, expecting Linda’s image to be looking back at him, and when it wasn’t, he felt a tiny shock of sadness and a larger pulse of relief. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He needed air.
He cranked open the casement windows in the living room, and then he opened the glass doors in the dining room that led to the deck, and the brisk night air swept through the small house. The smell of autumn filled his senses and brought a smile to his lips. He closed his eyes again and recalled the feel of Savannah in his arms, her breasts pressed against his chest, her soft lips on his. He’d fought the urge to think about her since he’d left her the message earlier in the evening. He’d wrestled with guilt over what they’d done and where he was in his life, and since she hadn’t returned his call, he worried that he’d blown the only chance he’d get at being with her. The world had passed him by hour by hour for months on end, and he hadn’t even noticed, and now, every second he believed he’d never see Savannah again felt like a lifetime.
The cordless house phone rang, startling him out of his thoughts. Jack carried a cell phone, but he rarely used it, and he never gave out the number. As he listened to the house phone ringing for the third time, he wondered what Elise had forgotten to tell him, or if she was calling just to be sure he really was still there.
“Hello?”
“Jack?”
Before he could stop himself, he gasped a loud breath. “Savannah.” Her voice was so sweet and tentative that he wanted to crawl through the phone and see her beautiful green eyes and wrap her in his arms.
“Hi. I got your message,” she said.
Jack’s eyes darted around the room. He didn’t know what to say. He just knew that he needed to see her, to be with her. “Sorry I rambled.”
“I like rambling. How are you?”
He heard the smile in her voice, and his heart soared. “Good. A little better, even. Savannah, can I see you?” He didn’t mean to be so blunt, or to say it so forcefully, but he had no control when it came to Savannah. Her allure was too strong.
“I thought you had to deal with your life.”
Jack paced. “I am.”
“In a day?”
He pictured her arching her perfectly manicured eyebrows, and it made him smile. “I didn’t say I was healed. I said I was dealing with it. Savannah, I can’t stop thinking about you.”
She lowered her voice to a seductive cadence. “That’s because we did all those dirty things, and it’d been so long since—”
“No, Savannah, it’s not, so you can just stop right there. I’ve never been a guy who gets off on sleeping around, and that part of me hasn’t suddenly changed. There have been plenty of women who tried to bed me. It doesn’t take much to find a person to fool around with if you want to.”
“To bed you?” She laughed, but Jack could tell she didn’t think it was funny.
“You’re so frustrating. You know what I mean. There have been opportunities, and if that’s all I was looking for—hell, if I’d been looking at all—I’d have hooked up with them, but I wasn’t looking.”
“Are you now, Jack?” Savannah asked.
The question threw him for a loop, and before he could configure an answer, honesty slipped from his lips. “No, I wasn’t looking then and I’m not now. Jesus, Savannah. I have no idea why or how you got to me, but you did, and that’s something, isn’t it?” Isn’t it? Or was he so out of touch with his emotions that he didn’t even know what was real anymore?
“I wasn’t looking either, Jack.”
He shook his head and covered his eyes as a different type of tears filled his eyes. What the hell is wrong with me? Jack’s stone-faced facade cracked, and he didn’t know how to handle it. He lowered himself onto a chair, and with a shaky voice, he said, “You weren’t looking, and you called back. I couldn’t stay away. Maybe we were fated to meet.”
“Fated,” Savannah whispered.
“I want to see you.”
Her voice took a seductive turn. “I want to see you, too.”
“Forgive me for being lame, but it’s been a long time since I’ve done anything like this.”
