Page 15 of Kissing in the Rain
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Gabe watchedJillian pull away and disappear, and damn if that didn’t leave a gaping hole in his chest. Heading back to his Jeep, he pulled out his cell phone anddialed.
“Hey, sis,” he said when his sister answered herphone.
Lorelai squealed on the other end of the line. “You’re alive! Oh, thank God. Are you okay? Is Jillianokay?”
Despite his bad mood, he smiled. “Yes, yes, and yes. Any morequestions?”
“I was so worried about you two. That was one horrible storm lastnight.”
“I am in the Coast Guard Reserves,” he reminded her. “I know how to handle a little squall.” Even though last night’s storm had been surprisingly strong. “The sailboat Jillian was in didn’t make it, though. May it rest inpeace.”
“Bummer.”
“It’s okay. The main thing is that she’s safe. How’s Kimberly?” heasked.
“Missing heruncle.”
“Ditto. I’ll give her a big kiss when I pick her up thisafternoon.”
“You’re probably exhausted. You don’t have to—” Lorelai started toargue.
“I want to.” He checked his watch. It was still early in the morning, and he had several hours before the elementary school dismissed. “Listen, Lorelai, I need to go home and shower, but I was hoping I could meet you for lunch. Think you can getaway?”
“Probably not any farther than the hospital cafeteria for a coffee and bag of chips, but sure. Is somethingwrong?”
“Not exactly.” He cranked his Jeep’s engine and pointed it toward his small one-story house on the water. “Just something I need to discuss withyou.”
“You’re scaring me again,” she said with a nervous laugh. “This is twice in twenty-fourhours.”
“How about I bring you takeout from The Landing to make up for it?” The Landing was a popular restaurant in town that his cousin Sam’s wife, Abby,ran.
“Deal. Just text when you’re in the hospital parking lot, and I’ll meet youdownstairs.”
“Will do.” He hung up the phone and continued driving. Jillian was right. Telling his sister about Todd’s email inquiries was the right thing to do. Jillian was as smart as she was beautiful. Her decision to end things today was probably the right decision too. And he respectedit.
Even if he didn’t likeit.
After showeringoff at Lorelai’s place and then packing her things, Jillian left Lorelai a note thanking her for her stay this week. She would love to stay a lot longer, but she had a life to get back to. A job. A lonely townhome and several potted plants that needed to bewatered.
She frowned as she drove out of town. Ever since she’d left Gabe in the parking lot earlier, there’d been an overwhelming ache settling over her body. Maybe she’d caught a cold out in the wind andrain.
Or maybe it was something more serious. Maybe she’d done more than fall out of a sailboat lastnight.
Which was stupid and crazy. You didn’t fall for someone over the course of one night. Unless you already knew them. Unless you’d spent several years as a teen girl watching him. He might have rejected her once, but he’d been nice to her a million times. He’d helped her with her homework and had taken her side against a bully at the bus stop once. Her feelings for him had never gone away. Last night, she’d realized they’d only been inhibernation.
She made it as far as the COME BACK SOON sign as she left Blushing Bay and then she made a U-turn in theroad.
She didn’t want to go back to Asheboro. Or her boring corporate job. She’d found herself again in Blushing Bay. She’d felt a whole lot of somethings, which had been her goal in cominghere.
Pulling along the roadside, she looked up a local real estate agent’s number anddialed.
“Hi, I was hoping to take a look at the little coffee shop and bookstore, Mocha Books,” she told the agent. “Is it still for sale?” she asked hopefully. It’d only been a day since she’d gone in as a customer, and now she was considering buying so much more than coffee and a fewbooks.
“It is. I can meet you in an hour if you’re available,” the woman told her on the other end of theline.
“Perfect.” After hanging up, Jillian dialed the Sawyer Water Recreation and Sports Center and made an appointment for a private sailing lesson with Gabe tomorrow. Jonathan hadn’t asked for her name or number, and she hadn’t offered it because she wanted it to be asurprise.
