Page 63 of A Journey For Jasmine

“I’m going on a dinner sail tonight that I booked by myself. I thought it’d give Jasmine and Wesley a night to themselves. I feel bad knowing how busy they both are and taking time away from them.”

Mona smiled. “That is very sweet of you. And it gets my son out of here too.”

Jasmine hadn’t said she was going to spend the night with Wesley yet. Tonight they would talk about it more when she went there for dinner. He said he wanted to cook and she wanted to talk.

She was going to bring her clothes just in case, but she had to know why he actually asked. The last thing she wanted was him to do it because her sister put him on the spot.

If he wasn’t ready, pushing him to do something wasn’t good for either of them.

She was seeing that with her sister. Ivy hadn’t been ready to leave home and she wondered if everyone had pushed her out and now her sister was floundering.

21

Just Existed

Wesley pulled the ground beef out of the bag along with the makings for his burgers tonight. He’d stopped at the store on the way home to get food for dinner.

He hadn’t been positive Jasmine was coming over. She’d told him she’d let him know and though they’d been texting back and forth today he didn’t know if she was spending the night. She hadn’t even said anything about dinner until she stopped to see him with Ivy after lunch and said she’d see him later.

She’d be here in about thirty minutes so he took a quick shower and made sure everything was cleaned up. Not that he had to worry. He didn’t seem to be home enough to make a mess.

It’s funny how he was starting to notice those things. That his house wasn’t lived in. He just existed in it.

But when Jasmine was here, it didn’t feel that way.

It felt more like a home. There was laughter to be heard. Meals to be cooked.

Maybe even some love to be felt.

He might be struggling there more than he thought, but he’d told himself he couldn’t fight it anymore.

The doorbell went off and he went to answer it. “You don’t need to do that. Just come in.”

“I wasn’t sure,” she said.

“Why?” he said. “I knew you were coming.”

“True.”

He didn’t see a bag with her and figured that meant she wasn’t staying. He should let it go but decided that they should talk about it.

“Hungry?” he asked.

“I’m starving. I spent the afternoon trying to figure out what is going on with my sister and I didn’t get anywhere. I asked questions and she evaded. Then she wanted to talk more about things to do here. She was excited about the boat ride tonight so I stopped.”

“Maybe there isn’t anything wrong other than her wanting to get away,” he said. He pulled the ground beef out of the wrapper, opened it and started to season the beef in a bowl to mix and make patties.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I think there is more to it and I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Ask her,” he said. “Point blank. I don’t picture you the type to shy away from a conversation.”

“I’m not,” she said.

Yet she put her head down just now as if she had something on her mind.

“Want to help me get dinner going?”

“Sure,” she said. “I’ll finish the patties if you want to start the grill. What else are we having with this?”

---