CHAPTER 13
“Evening,” the doorman greeted Jess as she walked back into the hotel.
She smiled at him and then rushed toward the elevator. Her trip to the store had taken so much longer than she’d expected. What would’ve been a twenty-minute errand in Whisper Lake had turned into a two-hour excursion in Chicago.
She and Ali had never made it to dinner. When they left the bridal shop, Ali started feeling dizzy. Jess insisted that they go back to the hotel and she was glad they did. When they got up to the room, she realized that Ali was really not feeling well. They’d watched a couple movies to see if she’d rally, but when Jess noticed that she had a fever she’d headed out to get supplies.
A mile in downtown traffic was no joke. She probably would’ve been better off walking. She’d bought every single medication for cold and flu symptoms that she could get her hands on. And she’d also stocked up on saltine crackers, 7UP, and Gatorade.
As she rode the elevator up to the tenth floor, she realized how badly it sucked to be the one on this side of illness. All of her life she’d been the one that had to be taken care of. She’d thought she had it bad, but now she was second-guessing that perspective. It sucked feeling both helpless and responsible. And she was taking care of a friend, an adult with probably nothing more than a cold. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like if Ali were a child with a serious illness, with her life hanging in the balance.
Her parents truly were saints.
The doors slid open, and she jogged down the hall. When she was at the drugstore, she’d started to call Ali and ask her what flavor of Gatorade she liked and noticed that her phone had died. She hoped that her friend hadn’t been trying to call her.
She was fumbling to get the card out of her purse when the door opened. She looked up, expecting to see her friend, “I’m sorry it took so…”
It wasn’t Ali.
It was Ethan. And he looked…dangerous. She knew that was an odd descriptor, but seeing him standing in the doorway, wearing a black shirt, dark jeans and at least a few days’ worth of facial hair growth he had a bad boy vibe that was really working for her. So much so that she forgot where she was or what she was doing. It took her a moment to remember she was in the city.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came up—,” Ethan started to answer.
“Wait. Is Ali okay?” Jess pushed past him when she remembered why she’d gone out. When she did, she saw that her friend wasn’t in the bed where she’d left her. She spun back. “Where’s Ali?”
“With Kade. They’re on the way back to Whisper Lake.”
“Kade’s here?”
“He was. I drove him up here so he could drive Ali back. She didn’t want to get you sick or for you to feel responsible for her while you were at your conference tomorrow.”
“Convention,” Jess corrected as she looked around the room. Ali’s bags were gone.
“She tried to call you. I did, too, but your phone was dead. I was about to go out and look for you.”
“In Chicago? You were going to look for me in Chicago?” Jess couldn’t help but smile.
Ethan ignored her question and walked toward her. Her body responded before she could tell it not to, and she started to heat up.
He stopped a foot away, hooked a finger in her bag, and looked inside. “Wow. You really went all ou-”
“I know.” Jess cut him off defensively, but then she softened her tone as she explained, “I didn’t know what she might need.”
Jess felt out of sorts. She’d been so worried about her friend and now Ali was in good hands, Kade’s hands, on her way back home.
Ethan was here. In Chicago. They were alone. In her hotel room.
She looked up at Ethan hoping to get a clue as to what he was feeling, but his expression was completely unreadable. The last time she’d seen him was at their dance lesson. They’d said goodbye in the parking lot and she’d wondered if he was going to kiss her again. He hadn’t. She was wondering the same thing now.
Was he going to kiss her again?
Was he ever going to kiss her again?
Did he even want to kiss her again?
He had a question of his own, but it wasn’t kiss-related.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
As if on cue, her stomach growled.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” His mouth lifted in a crooked grin.
“Don’t you need to get back to Whisper Lake?”
The traffic was only going to get worse the later he waited.
His face was still unreadable as he said, “I’m not going back.”
“What?”
“I’m your ride.”
“My ride?”
“I told you, I drove Kade here so he could drive Ali back. And I’m driving you back.”
“I’m not leaving until Sunday.”
“I know.”
“It’s Friday.”
“I know.”
It seemed as if Jess’s heart started playing Double Dutch at that moment. “Where are you staying?”
Ethan glanced at the queen bed that Ali had been lying in when Jess left.
Ethan shrugged. “I tried to get a room, but everything is booked because of the conference.”
“Convention,” she corrected again. Her voice shook, but she hoped that he didn’t hear it. “There are other hotels.”
“Are you scared to have a sleepover with me?”
Damn. Why did that question have to sound so freaking sexy coming from Ethan’s perfect lips? The lips she’d been fantasizing about kissing again ever since she’d felt their magic. And that’s what those lips held. Magic. His kiss had some kind of voodoo power over her. They were like Pringles, and now that she popped she couldn’t stop. She craved them.
And she didn’t trust herself to be alone in a hotel room with him. She might resort to begging for him to put her out of her misery. But she couldn’t say that.
So, she lied. “No. But if you snore, I’m going to smother you with a pillow. I need my sleep.”
“I don’t snore,” he spoke with a calm authority that had her insides doing somersaults.
“We’ll see.” She shrugged and set the bag down on the table as her stomach growled again.
“How does Winston’s sound?”
Jess’s mouth watered at the mention of the name. It was the best steakhouse in the city. Kingston had told her it was near impossible to get a reservation. Which meant there was no way that they were going to get a table.
“Amazing. But it’s Friday night, and we don’t have a reservation.”
Ethan didn’t blink. “It’s not a problem.”
Jess couldn’t help but smile. “How is it ‘not a problem’?” she asked, mimicking his voice.
The corners of his mouth twitched. “Do you have to know everything?”
“Yes.”
He sighed. “Carter’s aunt and uncle own it.”
Jess had met Ethan’s partner, Carter, a few times. He was funny and laid back, the exact opposite of Ethan.
“Seriously? You think you can get us in?”
“I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”
Jess hesitated and had no idea why she did. She was starving. It would get them out of the room. It was one the most popular steakhouses in the city. These were all positive things.
Then, like a lightning bolt of sanity, it hit her.
Going to Winston’s, with Ethan, without an audience would feel like a real date, not a fake one. Would her brain be able to differentiate between the two? Her hormones and emotions certainly had not been up to the task so far. They were in full teenage-crush mode. They were listening to love songs on repeat and writing his name on notebooks and circling it with hearts.
But what was the alternative? Stay alone in the hotel room with Ethan and order room service?
“Give me twenty minutes.”
* * *
Ethan remained quiet as Jess threw open her suitcase and grabbed some clothes and a toiletry bag before heading into the shower.
He hadn’t been sure what her reaction to finding him in her hotel room was going to be. On the drive over he’d known that whatever her eyes said in the split second she saw him would determine whether or not he’d be staying.
In his years in law enforcement, he’d learned that people had a tremendous capacity to lie, even to themselves. Once their critical thinking kicked in, they could fabricate stories so convincing that they themselves believed them. But there was a brief moment, a one or two second window, when a person was faced with an unexpected situation and the windows of their soul didn’t have the shades drawn. In that short, fleeting moment, no one can hide what they really feel.
That’s what he’d been looking for. If Jess had looked irritated or upset, even worse utterly indifferent to his showing up, he would’ve let her know what was going on with Ali and been on his way back to Whisper Lake with the promise of picking her up on Sunday. But, thank god, that hadn’t been the case.
When she’d seen him, her eyes widened, her breath hitched, and her lips had parted and curled up in a half moon. She’d been happy to see him. Surprised, but happy.
As expected, she’d immediately pulled the shades and gone on the defensive. But just like he knew that the moment they’d shared during their kiss had been real, and the moment they’d shared when Miss Penelope had asked them to connect had been real, he knew that the moment she’d seen him had been real.
The swooshing sound of water rushing in the shower filled the empty hotel room and Ethan did his best not to think about the fact that Jess was naked, water streaming down her body, less than ten feet away from him. He stared at the door and wished that he had x-ray vision.
Needing a distraction, he grabbed the remote and turned the television on. He stood in front of the flat screen and flipped through the Pay-Per-View movies before turning on ESPN. When he saw that the Cubs were playing the Cardinals he couldn’t believe the game had slipped his mind.
He had planned to shoot hoops with Kade and then head to Lanterns to watch it, but once the opportunity to see Jess had presented itself, Ethan’s vision switched to tunnel and he forgot about the game.
Jess had that effect on him. Whenever she was in the picture, that was all he saw. Nothing else existed. Just her.
He wondered if they did get together, for real, if that would ever change.
Anticipation filled him for the future and the possibilities it held, starting with tonight. Jess had agreed to go out with him, and it wasn’t because of their arrangement. Of course, it was possible that she’d only said yes because she was so obviously hungry.
Speaking of, he figured he better call ahead and see if he could come through on his promise of Winston’s. Carter’s aunt and uncle had been making him promise to stop by the restaurant when he was in town for the past five years that they’d owned it and he hoped they’d been serious.
He pulled out his phone and saw that he’d missed a call from his grandma. Since she had an aversion to leaving voice messages, he had no idea what it was about.
After a quick call to the restaurant, he was assured by a very excited Aunt Reba that they would “take care of him,” he called his grandma back.
It didn’t even ring before it was answered. Skipping any formal greeting, she said, “I was going to ask you to take me to dinner, but I heard that you skipped town.”
It still amazed him sometimes just how fast news traveled in Whisper Lake. “Where did you hear that?”
“Don’t worry about where I heard it.” Nana never liked to reveal her sources.
If he had to bet he’d say that it was Mrs. Weathersby. She’d been in the parking lot when he and Kade left and had asked them where they were going in such a hurry.
Ethan heard the shower cut off. “I’ll take you to dinner when I get back in town.”
“I wasn’t really calling for you to take me to dinner.”
“I know, Nana.”
“Have fun. Tell Jess I said hi. I love you.”
“Love you too, bye.”
He disconnected the call and caught his reflection in the mirror. He was glad that he kept a Dopp kit and change of clothes in his truck. He’d learned early in his rookie days that the job wasn’t nine to five and he needed to be prepared to clean up anywhere.
After Kade and Ali had taken off, he’d rinsed off in the shower and put on fresh clothes, but he hadn’t taken the time to shave. He rubbed his chin. His schedule had been so crazy lately. It had been a few days since he’d taken a razor to his face. His grow out was somewhere between stubble and full beard.
“I like it.” Jess’s voice came from the direction of the bathroom.
He hadn’t even heard the door open, but when he looked up, there she was.
“The stubble,” she pointed toward his face. “I like it.”
Ethan would typically return the compliment, but when he opened his mouth to speak, nothing came out.
Jess had changed into a form-fitting black dress with white polka dots. It hugged her curves and accentuated the flare of her hips. Her hair was pulled off of her face, but there was some that fell loose around her shoulders. Her lips were a bright red and they were calling to him like a siren of the sea.
“You look….” He tried to put into words what he saw when he looked at her. Her beauty, her confidence, her essence was so sexy, so alluring, so magnetic. But he couldn’t find the right words to articulate the magnitude of her appeal.
She lifted her arms and spun around. That’s when he saw that the dress left her entire back exposed, showcasing several tattoos that complimented the slender slope of her spine.
“Wow,” he breathed.
He must’ve successfully communicated all that was behind that “wow” because a faint blush rose on Jess’s cheeks and she dipped her head. He’d never seen her shy before.
Every second he spent with Jess cemented what he’d always known in his gut. She was it. She was the one. She was his one.