Page 107 of A Heart Worth Finding
“What do you want me to say?” he asked. “That I’m happy for you? Iamhappy for you, but…I’m not happy for us.”
“I knew this was a bad idea,” she muttered.
“What? Telling me you’re leaving? Being with me?”
“All of it!” she exploded, rising from the bed to pace at its foot.
“You don’t mean that,” he said
“Don’t I?” she said. “Tell me you don’t think that every day, Jack. Tell me you don’t think of how much easier this whole graduating and moving on and pursuing our dreams thing would be if we hadn’t gotten back together.”
“Nothing would be easier without you, Jessica.Nothing. Don’t think for one second I want to give this up simply because you’re moving clear across the planet.”
Jessica stilled, gaping at him, and he experienced a spark of satisfaction that he’d managed to surprise and shock her silent.
“Do you mean that?” she asked, taking a tentative step toward him.
“Of course I do,” he said, closing the distance between them and crushing her to his chest. “We’re going to figure whatever comes next out together. I won’t have it any other way.”
“I love you,” she said into his shirt, and he smiled. He would never tire of hearing those words.
“I love you, too,” he said into her hair.
“But I can’t…”
“You can’t do what, Jess?”
“I can’t ask you to give up on your dream for me. And I can’t give up on mine for you.”
As he reached between them to cup her hands in his, he relaxed. The truth was he didn’t want to give up on his dreams any more than she did. That wasn’t to say there wasn’t a lot that Jack wouldn’t do where Jessica Daniels was concerned, but asking that of each other? That was too much.
Hockey was the very air in his lungs, and he’d worked too damn hard every day for the past four years—hell, every day for the past fourteen—to give up now.
She pulled one of her hands free of his and reached up to press her palm to his cheek. Jack closed his eyes and leaned in to her touch, inhaling deeply.
His eyes sprung open, and he held her at arm’s length.
“Why do you smell like…” He’d been about to sayMexico, but it was more than that. Something about the blend of her lotion, or maybe it was perfume, triggered something in his brain. It was like smelling apple pie and being reminded of when his grandmother would bake one for every Thanksgiving and Christmas when he was growing up. This scent was attached to a core memory, wrapped so tightly around it that he’d never be able to separate the two.
“Sunshine and citrus?” she finished for him.
“You smell like…you.”
Her face softened, as if she knew the deeper meaning behind his words. “You’re just now realizing this?” she asked. “We’ve been back together for almost three months.”
“Why do you smell like that, Jessica?” he asked, turning them and gently pushing her down on the bed, then crawling up between her thighs.
They’d just come back to Earth after marathon sex and still, Jack instantly thickened, reading for round…whatever it was.
“I have that lotion,” she whispered.
“Still?”
“That little shop has a website,” she said with a shrug. “I’ve been ordering from them for years.”
“Why?”
He already knew the answer. At least, he thought he did. But he wanted—no,needed—to hear her say it.
