Page 2 of Jasper

“Who knows?” She loops her arm through mine and tugs me out the door. “Maybe I am.”

We take the elevator down to the lobby and follow the signs for the restaurant. Knowing my dad, he’s already saved us a table and is halfway through the bread basket. The reviews of North Haven’s newest restaurant are stellar. I’m hoping the food will help ease the blow of everything I have to tell him tonight. Including why David, the man I know he wanted me to marry, isn’t in North Haven with me.

“There he is,” Erin points to a table in the corner.

Dad sees us and waves.

But I don’t wave back.

I can’t.

“Oh, that liaison is cute. It’s too bad you don’t date military guys.”

I’m paralyzed.

The liaison isveryfamiliar.

I can’t breathe.

“It’s Jasper,” I whisper.

“Wait, what?”

“It’shim.”

“It can’t be. Your mystery man is in the restaurant business. Not the military.”

“Yeah,” I say regaining some of composure and feeling it replaced with anger. “He has alotof explaining to do.”

2

JASPER

When the admiralgave me the festival liaison assignment last week, the panic didn’t immediately set in. As the only pilot with a sprained wrist and grounded until further notice, I practically had a target on my back for this type of bitch-work. It was predictable, and I had accepted my shitty fate.

Then he mentioned I’d be glued to the hip of the woman running the show—his daughter.

The panic hit me like a fucking Mack truck after that.

The admiral has no idea that his precious Vanessa and I once shared a very intimate weekend in Cape Cod. If he did, he’d probably have sent me out on a boat until this whole festival was over just to keep me away from her. Instead, he introduced us like we were strangers and insisted we all take a seat at a very intimate corner table.

All throughout dinner, I keep waiting for Vanessa to blow my cover. To throw her napkin down and announce that she can’t work with me. She was never what I’d call the shy or reserved type. Her boldness and take-charge personality were what drew me to her in the first place.

But each time she seems close to losing her cool, she reins it in. It might be the way her dad praises me up and down—something he certainly would regret if he knew just how much of that long-ago weekend I spent naked with his daughter. Or maybe she’s waiting to rip me a new one in private to prevent a public scene.

“Color me impressed,” the admiral says, folding his cloth napkin and dropping it on top of an empty plate. “If the food vendors don’t hit the spot for the festival, at least the hotel guests have this place. My only regret is waiting so long to dine here.”

“I haven’t had a steak that good in months,” Erin, Vanessa’s personal assistant, says. She’s been eyeing me off and on the entire meal, but the interest I sense doesn’t appear to be her own. Not with the way she keeps looking at Vanessa each time. It might be too much to hope I have an ally in the Vanessa Wheeler department, but I’ll take all the help I can get.

I haven’t stopped thinking about the curvy beauty in the four years since I’ve met her. I’ve tried to move on, but every date has been cut short when the realization dawns on me: no one compares to Vanessa.

“The food vendors at the festival will hit it out of the park,” Vanessa reassures, sounding all business. Tucking her dark, wavy hair behind her ear. Exposing a neck I have fond memories of nibbling on. I can practically hear the sexy little coo she makes when I hit the hollow spot that drives her wild. “They’re all carefully vetted.”

Food vendors. Safe topic. Focus, Jasper.

I wonder if Vanessa had a chance to vetRocco’s Tacos. That local food truck has gone in and out of business for the past couple of years now. Though the rumors as of late are that they’ve made a decent comeback, I can’t help but forget the horrid food poisoning my buddy Jordan suffered a couple years back. I’m about to ask when the admiral cuts in.

“Say, Vanessa. Where’s David?”

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