Page 7 of Jasper

“They’ll be plenty busy nursing all the hangovers.”

“Did you grow up here? In North Haven?” I’ve been very careful to avoid personal questions. Now that the truth is out in the open about Jasper being in the military, I’ve started to question everything else he told me in Cape Cod. I don’t know that I trust him to be truthful now. Yet I can’t seem to resist the temptation to learn more about him.

There’s also the small matter that I never told him I was an admiral’s daughter. Seems we both had our white lies back then. Would a fresh start be so…crazy?

“The truth?” he asks.

I let out a soft laugh, feeling the earlier tension between us dissipating. “That would be a good change of pace, don’t you agree?”

“Yes.” The firmness in his tone does something to my insides. Something that makes them too melty with so little effort. It doesn’t seem fair, yet I have no desire to fight the feeling. “No more lies, Vanessa. I swear it.”

“Okay.”

“Only the truth. From both of us from now on.”

He’s waiting for me to agree, and I hate how vulnerable that makes me feel. Because I don’t want to talk about David or the big bombs I have yet to drop on my dad. “Fine, okay. The truth. But I reserve the right to not answer questions I don’t want to.”

“Fair enough.” He takes a slow sip of his coffee, and dammit if I don’t find myself jealous of the mug’s rim. “Yes, I grew up in North Haven.”

“And your parents? Are they really in the restaurant business?”

“No.”

“So that whole elaborate story about scouring the east coast for the best clam chowder recipe was a lie?” I don’t know why this disappoints me so much, other than I really loved the story of his parents. It was the single detail that explained his presence in Cape Cod. Being the son of restauranter parents who sent him on a mission to try as much clam chowder as he could. To bring back ideas to freshen up their recipe.

“Not entirely.”

“I don’t understand.”

“My parents?—”

“Jasper!” an enthusiastic female voice announces, turning most heads in the diner. Including mine. The slender woman has both hands thrown up in the air like she’s cheering about arecent touchdown. She sets her sights on Jasper and practically tackles any diners in her way to get to him.

He stands just in time to catch her in his arms.

A pang of jealousy stabs me square in the gut. The irrational urge to rip her off of him by the arms—and maybe that beautiful black mane of hair—is overwhelming. But whether anyone in this diner realizes I’m in town to head the North Haven Festival or not, it would be bad press to get into a fist fight in a public setting. Not exactly the best way to go into retirement.Dammit.

“I didn’t know you were coming home,” Jasper says as he pries her tight arms from his neck. He slides back into the booth, making room for the woman. What the actual fuck?

“You think I was gonna let mamma run that food truck all by herself?” The woman waves for the server, though it’s not necessary with the entrance she made. “She pretends she’s got it all under control, but this is the biggest event she’s ever served.”

“What about the resort?”

“It’ll run without me for one weekend.” The woman turns her attention to me, her eyes sparkling. “Jasper, you didn’t tell me you have a girlfriend!”

“I don’t?—”

“I’m Annie,” the woman says, holding out her arm across the table. “Jasper’s little sister.”

Sister. Instantly, every tense muscle in my body—of which there are apparently many—relaxes. I see the resemblance between them now. The black hair. Blue eyes the color of the ocean. Their slightly upturned noses. Definitely related. “Vanessa.”

“You must be pretty damn amazing,” Annie prattles on.

“Annie—”

“We were worried Jasper would be a bachelor forever. The man is pickier than anyone I’ve ever met.”

“Annie—”

---