“You did a great job in there tonight.”
She snorted softly. “It’s not like it’s hard.”
“It’s not?”
“You’re a man,” she said simply.
I frowned. “Okay?”
“All I had to say was that we met, you saw everything you’ve ever been looking for in my eyes, and I moved to Chicago to be closer to you.”
I stared at her. “That’syour story?”
“That’stheirfavorite story,” she corrected. “All I had to do was give them the basics and they took it from there.”
I huffed out a laugh, shaking my head as I pulled away from the curb. “Remind me never to underestimate you.”
“Too late.”
We drove in comfortable silence for a minute until something nudged at the back of my mind. I glanced at her and decided to just ask. Holding back wasn’t exactly my style, and if we were really going to do this, I needed to know. “What would your family back home think about this?”
She didn’t even flinch before she was shrugging. “They’d probably be happy for me.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes. It’s been a while since I’ve had fun and that’s all they want for me, to start fresh here. To get out and live a little. This counts, right?”
Something warm settled in my chest as I processed her response.So I was right. She does feel the same way I do when we’re together. Well, maybe not quite the same, but she is definitely having fun.
I pulled up outside her building a few minutes later, shifting the car into park as she reached for the door, but I stopped her before she could climb out. “Hey, you might want to start packing.”
She paused and looked back at me, a confused furrow appearing between her eyebrows. “What?”
“We leave Thursday morning,” I said. “That only gives you four days.”
“Four days until what?”
I grinned. “Just pack a swimsuit.”
She arched an eyebrow at me. “You haven’t even told me where we’re going.”
“It’s a surprise.”
“Jesse—”
I shook my head. “A surprise is a surprise, Jacque. Good night. Thanks again for everything. You really were amazing.”
She finally sighed and got out of the car, and I pulled away from the curb before she started questioning me again. Looking in my rearview mirror as I drove away, I caught one last glimpse of her through the glass, annoyed, incredulous, and, unless I wasn’t imagining it, she was also smiling.
Yeah. This is definitely going to be fun.
CHAPTER 14
JACQUELINE
Jesse hadn’t been kidding. He really did have a jet. We were lucky we hadn’t actually flown to France during our drunken bender.
I shook my head the moment I saw the sleek, gleaming, absurdly expensive-looking machine that apparently belonged to him. It was idling on the tarmac at a private airstrip just outside the city. As the driver he’d sent for me pulled up to it, I felt like I’d somehow fallen straight into a dream.