“Open your eyes,” he whispered, stroking her cheek with his thumb. Rainey slowly obeyed. He was staring straight into her. “I’ve had the best day today, and it just got better. Thankyou.”
Rainey sighed. She hadn’t at all planned to let him know she’d Googled him. A website and a Facebook page had told her where he’d be playing for the next week, and the gallery of pictures had kept her mesmerized for the better part of thirty minutes. She’d planned to keep that little search to herself, but when Casey North started giving Jacques crap about the loss of his band, Rainey hadsnapped.
Well, a little humiliation was worth it. Jacques, at least, seemed pretty thrilled about the wholething.
He ran his thumb along her cheek again. Maybe he was weaving some kind of spell over her because she no longer felt all thathumiliated.
“So if I looked you up, what would I find?” heasked.
The magic spell broke like a bubble. Rainey pulled back just a little, and Jacques dropped hishand.
“Not much,” she saidflatly.
What’s the point of posting to social media if you don’t have a sociallife?
He tilted his chin up just a fraction, narrowing his gaze at her. “No book blog? Or music blog?” His brow arched at this possibility. “It would probably take you two years to cover everything in thatcollection.”
Well, that was true. And Rainey liked how much he was clearly payingattention.
“I used to post a lot of reviews on Goodreads,” she saidabsently.
“Why did youstop?”
His question pulled her up short. Rainey hadn’t consciously examined why, but the underlying sense she had was that putting her thoughts down for others to read didn’t really matter all that much. But admitting that aloud would sound pathetic, so she justshrugged.
And she thanked God an instant later when their server set down two soup tureens and two bowls. She took the interruption as a chance to shift the focus fromher.
Rainey grabbed the ladle from the pot of Pho Chicken and began filling their bowls. “Tell me about your newband.”
* * *
It was nearingten o’clock when Jacques walked her up the drive to her house. Not a late night, but he said he still had to work and would probably be driving for a few hours. Rainey couldn’t imagine that. Years of living as a hermit meant that she almost never stayed uplate.
For a twenty-three-year-old, it was kind ofsad.
Rainey studied Jacques out of the corner of her eye, wondering if he’d guessed how small her life was. And if he had, what did he think? Did he feel sorry for her? Did he assume she was desperate? Or did he see her as achallenge?
Before she could look away, he glanced down and caught her staring. He stopped at the foot of her steps. “What are youthinking?”
Rainey gulped and shook her head. “Nothing.”
He narrowed his gaze at her. “It didn’t look likenothing.”
“It was nothing important,” sheamended.
He didn’t press, but he didn’t take his eyes off her either. Up close, his height was imposing. It could have been intimidating, but instead of feeling dwarfed, she felt shielded. Rainey also felt like she couldn’tmove.
“Wh-what wereyouthinking about?” She heard herselfask.
He didn’t flinch. And he didn’t look away. But the seconds stretched on.Endlessly.
“I was thinking that I want to kissyou.”
How could they be standing outside when there was no air? She could hear wind in the trees. The spring night was alive around them. Clouds floated like ghosts across a waxing moon. But no air for her lungs could befound.
Jacques’s knuckle met her chin and tipped it up. He leaned in, and for the second time that day, Rainey was certain she was about to bekissed.
His whispered breath feathered over her lips. “When was the last time you were kissed?” His question threw her, demanding too much of her brain that was now focused on his proximity, the heat she could already feel from his body, the way his dark eyes now looked like blackpools.