Page 44 of Isabelle & Jason
Who was he kidding? She already had it.
At some point, Isabelle had taken everything he was capable of giving.
Their kiss could have lasted hours. It could have been seconds. He didn’t know. Time lost all meaning. But then Isabelle pulled away. Her tentative smile did something to him. It stirred the growing feeling up in a whirlwind. Jason reached for her face, framing it in his hands. Without bothering with words that wouldn’t do his feelings justice, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. Then he walked her to her front door.
She gave him one last lingering look before she disappeared inside.
Jason galloped down the steps and headed for the wranglers’ cabin.
“You’re treating her like a child,” a low voice shattered the warm feeling that hung in the air.
Jason startled and turned to find Mark seated in the shadows on the steps of the cafeteria building. He rested his forearms on his knees. There was no telling how long he’d been sitting there. Jason slowed, frowning at his friend. “What do you mean?”
Mark jerked his chin toward the house where Jason had just left Isabelle and got to his feet. “Kid gloves. You act like she’s fragile.”
Lips curling with irritation, Jason crossed his arms. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His friend huffed. “If a girl has to beg you to kiss her when the two of you couldn’t be more obvious in your feelings for each other, then you’re not doing it right.”
Jason bristled. He pointed at the house and snarled, “You don’t know what she went through.”
“Neither do you. You don’t know what she’s thinking or how she’s feeling. But you’re doing her a disservice if you can’t treat her like she’s normal.”
Scoffing, Jason turned away from his friend. “I don’t have to listen to this.”
“You’re right. You don’t. But you really need to think about what you’re doing. She’s not going to get any better if you baby her. Healing means growth, and growth is hard. It’s painful.”
“Yeah?” Jason snarled, turning toward his friend once more. “And what would you know about that?”
Mark opened his mouth, then shut it and shook his head. When he made it clear he wasn’t going to say anything else, Jason made a disgruntled sound and stalked toward the cabin. Mark didn’t know what he was talking about.
16
Isabelle
For the second time that Isabelle could recall, she didn’t have a nightmare. Instead, she dreamed of lying beneath the stars with Jason. That didn’t stop her from waking up at four in the morning, which was the official time she went running with Jason these days.
Normalcy seemed to come easier for her, too. Suddenly, she felt lighter. Waking up the day after their date felt like coming up for fresh air after being suffocated by the heaviness of her past. She wasn’t under any assumption that she was done with the nightmares. And anxiety would be a constant battle. But for today, she was going to appreciate how it felt to feel like she was still floating.
She stretched, reaching for her toes as she bent over. Jason hadn’t emerged from the cabin yet. And if he didn’t come out in the next couple of minutes, she refused to go looking for him. After that kiss a few hours ago, she wasn’t sure how he’d react.
Jason didn’t seem like the kind of guy to get all weird. At least she didn’t think he was. She hoped he wasn’t.
Isabelle straightened with a frown and glanced over at the entrance of the building.
No. Jason wouldn’t ignore her after last night. She’d felt it in the way he kissed her back. He wanted to be with her just as much as she wanted to be with him. And now that they’d gotten past that first hurdle, they could stop dancing around each other.
A familiar tickle in the back of her mind threatened to turn into something more volatile. Anxiety had become a well-known companion whenever she felt her control slipping. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath.
Then the tell-tale sound of the door opening and shutting echoed in the early morning quiet. She smiled without opening her eyes or turning toward the sound of his steps approaching. Moving into another stretch, she told her heart to settle.
Jason was her safe space. He was the one who made her feel normal. One day, she could see herself settling down with him. There was no one else.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he said so sweetly at her side that the hairs on her arms lifted.
Isabelle’s eyes opened and she looked over her shoulder at him. “Speak for yourself.”
He quirked a crooked grin at her as he started stretching, pulling his arm across his chest. Neither one of them had to speak a single word for her to know what they were both thinking. That kiss last night had knocked down the last wall of her defenses. Whatever this was between them had changed.
