“Is it done now, though? The business, I mean.”
His nose wrinkled as he shook his head. “We’re having dinner at his resort tomorrow night. It’s an impressive place. You’ll like it, but still. I was kind of hoping we’d get through everything they wanted to talk about in this meeting.”
I glanced back at the exit we’d just walked through, taking in the place again. “Is his resort more impressive than this one? Because let me tell you, this is the stuff dreams are made of.”
Jesse smirked. “You’ll see. If this is the stuff dreams are made of, that’s paradise. Not that it matters. I’ll still be working, which I apologize for in advance.”
I chuckled, glancing up at him as we walked. Now that he was out of that room and getting back to himself, relaxed, easy, and slightly irreverent, it was like a switch had been tripped.
“Don’t apologize. There’s no need. I’m impressed, actually,” I said, the words jumping out of me before I could think the better of it. “You’re really good at this, conducting business like a boss man and then just… snapping out of it.”
He blinked hard, like he hadn’t been expecting a compliment, but then his cheeks warmed. It wasn’t a full-on blush, more just a slightly rosy hue rising to his regal cheekbones, but it was enough for me to notice it—and it was delightful.
I slowed, leaning in as a smile spread on my lips. “Are youblushing?”
“No,” he said immediately.
“You are.” I looked a bit closer, amusement and something much less welcome warming my insides. “Jesse Westwood, you absolutely are. You’re blushing.”
He scoffed. “I’ve never blushed in my life. Not once.”
“That’s statistically unlikely.”
He scowled before sliding his sunglasses over his eyes. “Don’t get excited. It’s just the sun.”
“We only got outside a minute ago.”
“What can I say? I’m really fair-skinned.”
I laughed and shook my head. “You’re notthatfair-skinned. We’re still in the shade.”
“And you’re making things up,” he murmured, but he sounded almost shy all of a sudden. “Have you decided yet what we’re doing now?”
I smiled, turning my face toward the breeze. We kept walking and I decided to stop teasing him. Clearly, blushing made him uncomfortable, and while I honestly didn’t understand why, I let it go. “Yes, I have actually. We’re going snorkeling.”
Deep inside, tension thrummed through me when I made the suggestion, but Jesse didn’t even blink. He didn’t hesitate, scoff, sigh, or do any of the things Thomas would’ve done, like I was asking him to personally fund an expedition to the Arctic Circle instead of a simple activity.
Instead, he grabbed my hand and grinned. “Now you’re talking.”
Real, actual joy burst through me, spreading like wildfire through my veins. “Are you serious? We’re going snorkeling? Just like that?”
He sent me a little frown, seeming genuinely confused by the question. “Yeah? Why wouldn’t we? The snorkeling here is incredible. It’d be a crime to miss out on it.”
With that, he dragged me toward the car and gave the driver the name of a place. We climbed in, then quickly changed in a public restroom once we arrived at a little cove. I hadn’t even noticed the bag Jesse had stashed in the back of the car when we’d left the house, but he emerged in purple swimming trunks with watermelon slices printed on it, sunglasses covering his eyes, and not looking at all like the corporate raider he’d been just a minute ago.
In order to distract myself from ogling him, I pulled my shoes off and tossed them in his bag, along with the dress I’d swapped for a cover-up. “I can’t believe we’re actually just going to do this. I’m so excited.”
He frowned at me again, but I ignored him this time, not really in the mood to rehash some of the lowlights of the last eight years of my life. It was much too beautiful and much too sunny to get myself down talking about the mistakes I had made in the past. I needed to be in the present for this experience or I would regret it later.
We were on a beach that wasn’t private, but rather a wide, public stretch of sand leading into a calm, impossibly blue cove where people were already out in the water, floating, laughing, and dipping beneath the surface.
Jesse was a step ahead of me, stripping off his shirt like he intended to walk straight into the ocean without so much as a second thought.
“Whoa, hey. Absolutely not.”
He stopped moving, turning to look at me over his shoulder. I was lifting my cover-up over my head. Standing before him in only a bikini, I made a mental note that he hadn’t let his gaze drop beyond my face at all, like he was holding back for some reason.
“What?” he asked, his voice a little harsh for the circumstances. “I thought we were going snorkeling. The gear is over there.”