Page 43 of One Time Only (One Time Only 1)
Just need to get some vittles. “Fine. So I’m as hungry as a lion for a horse.” I pat my belly. “Owning it. Want dinner? Like, now?”
“You’re not going to wait for Zane?”
I shake my head as my stomach growls again. “Lions can’t wait. I’ll tell Zane we’re getting sushi. The avocado rolls are the best.”
I grab my phone and text my brother that I’m heading to Konu. As we walk, my phone pings with his reply.Zane: This is going to take me longer than I thought. Start without me? Just tell me where to meet you in forty-five minutes.Stone: But I’ll be missing you the whole time.Except that’s not entirely true. Because the best parts of my days lately start and end at four and midnight, and I’m still in that delicious window of time.
Putting my phone in my pocket, I clap Jackson on the shoulder and say, “You are my dinner date.”
Jackson barely cracks a smile as I indicate the path to the sushi joint.
But a bright idea lands a few seconds later. I stop in my tracks, and he halts alongside me.
“Wait.” I meet his eyes and tip my head toward the other end of the long hallway. “Since you’re my date, let’s do Italian.”
And the smile he barely cracked? It splits wide open.After fifteen minutes and a text to Zane with the new location, we’re in a quiet corner of Rosa’s, all the way in the back, far from crowds. Not quite a private room, but definitely a nook that’s out of the way of prying eyes.
Jackson orders chicken parmigiana, and I opt for the penne pasta and a glass of red wine.
We thank the waiter, and when he leaves, I run a hand across the back of my neck, still getting used to the absence of hair there. The haircut this week was the best trim of my life. And it had nothing to do with the way I look and everything to do with the man across from me.
From the way he looked at me in the mirror.
How his fingers slid through mine.
And from his offer to cut my hair if I need it.
I need to get it together. Need to focus on reality, not on my runaway imagination.
Jackson’s hazel eyes follow my hands. “How are you managing with the new look?”
I drag my palm along the back of my head. “I think I’m used to it now. She was good with the scissors.”
He clears his throat. “She was good with talking too. I have been meaning to ask. You and Lola . . .”
I fill in the gap with a question. “Are you jealous?”
He rolls his eyes. “Man, why don’t you let me compliment you?”
I set my chin in my hand and bat my eyes. “Oh, I’m all ears. I had no idea you were heading down Compliment Road. Do continue.” I cup my hand around my ear.
He shakes his head in amusement. “I was going to say you were great with her. You have a real ease with talking to people. I hope you don’t mind that I heard most of your conversation.”
“Not at all. You were right there just a few feet away.”
Jackson scrubs a hand across his neatly shaved jaw, taking his time with his words. “You’re very attuned to people,” he says, and there’s vulnerability in his tone, a sound that I like a lot from him.
I take the compliment and save it in a special place. “I’ve always tried to be. Thanks for noticing. Means a lot to me that you did.”
He exhales deeply, like he’s processing all this. “I don’t think I realized it at first. How connected you are with people.”
“At first? What do you mean?”
“Early on, when I started with you.”
“That I try to listen? To pay attention?”
He lifts his water glass, takes a drink, and sets it down, like he needs the liquid courage to say the next thing. “I didn’t . . . see it at first.”
“Maybe you didn’t want to realize it?” I offer that up gently. There’s no gotcha in my tone.
Though I have a damn good feeling why he didn’t want to see that side of me. But I’d rather hear it from him. So I stay quiet, letting him lead this conversation around the next bend, since he’s the one taking it out for a stroll. I’m simply the guy enjoying the walk.
Jackson strokes his chin, like he’s considering my statement. “That sounds about right.”
“Why’s that?”
He heaves a sigh. “It was easier, to be honest. Easier not to realize that about you.”
I pin my gaze to his because I don’t want to let this topic go. I want to parachute off this cliff, see where we land. “Easier to see me as self-centered?”
“It was a lot easier for me.” He doesn’t look away, and the intensity in his eyes speaks volumes.
