Page 58 of A Journey For Jasmine

He looked at Jasmine and saw the eye roll and figured he’d find out more about that at some point, remembering that Ivy said she’d recently split with someone.

“There is someone out there for everyone,” he said. “It’s just finding them. Shall we go in and get dinner?”

He held his hand out for them to move ahead of him, Jasmine reaching for his palm and touching it softly, then whispering, “Thanks.”

The three of them were seated and their drinks ordered. “What did you two ladies do today? Anything fun and exciting? And do you have plans for the next two days?”

“We went shopping today,” Ivy said. “To the Olde Mistick Village. It was awesome. This area is so small and quaint compared to Dallas. I can see why Jasmine loves it so much.”

“It’s that,” he said. “I’m from Tampa and it’s a huge change of pace. A much-needed one though.”

Jasmine smiled at him. “Sometimes life in the slow lane is the way to go.”

“Definitely.”

“Tomorrow Jasmine is going to bring me to her shop and introduce me to her bosses. I signed up for one of those nighttime sails. It’s a few hours long and has dinner included. I told Jasmine she doesn’t need to entertain me. I’m good on my own. She doesn’t need to stay with me either. She can stay at your place or whatever you guys normally do. Pretend I’m not here.”

He saw Jasmine’s face flush a little. “If you’re free tomorrow night,” he said. “And don’t mind leaving your sister, why don’t you come to my place? Stay,” he said.

It might have been the push he’d needed too.

He knew he wanted her with him all night, but he felt the one time it came up was awkward. That he didn’t handle it well. Then he lost his chance to ask her after and she hadn’t brought it up.

“I’ll let you know tomorrow,” she said.

“That’s fine,” he said. Maybe she wasn’t ready and it was for the best. They had to figure it all out on their own.

“How is the weather here?” Ivy asked. “Right now it’s so much cooler than Dallas. I’m loving this. But what about the winter? How much snow do you get?”

“Yeah,” he asked. “How much should I expect to have to deal with?”

“I find it funny you didn’t look into any of this before you bought the marina. I figured with as driven as you were, that you’d want to know everything there was about the place you were moving to.”

He grinned. He had to. There was no way he was going to say this was all a last minute thing.

That though his mother and he knew they were changing their careers or doing something with their lives, this was never on their radar.

It was only by chance that he’d been thinking of Noelle and found vacation pictures of Mystic that he’d looked into the area again.

He wasn’t even doing anything other than looking at real estate. Maybe a summer home. Not a marina. No way.

When he saw it was for sale, he’d called his mother. Again, not sure why he'd done that either.

His mother said she felt it was a sign they’d been looking for and did some digging too.

Within days they reached out to the realtor to ask some questions and the ball was rolling.

He’d had no time to think of anything else and they were signing their names. He was leaving his job, his mother doing the same. They were trying to find a place to live on top of it.

It all happened so fast.

He didn’t regret a minute of that decision either.

“It wasn’t a priority,” he said. “Or not the first thing on my mind.”

“It will be when you’re shoveling snow,” she said. “Or not, because I’m sure you’ll have someone take care of that for you.”

“Yes,” he said. “I don’t have time.”

---