“Nope,” I said, pulling it back and grinning. “You said I could look.” Glancing down at the page once more, I laughed. “You were drawing me.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
“That’s me,” I said, pointing to the picture as I leveled my gaze at her.
“Whatever,” she said, laughing.
It was a damn good resemblance of me, in fact.
I liked that she’d drawn me; it meant she’d been thinking about me.
“I’ve got an idea,” I told her. “Let’s go somewhere today.”
“Where?” Her forehead creased and she sipped her coffee, staring at me over the cup.
I thought about that for a moment. “I’ll take you to my favorite place in the city and you can take me to yours.”
Her smile lit up her face. “I hope you’re not planning to take me to a strip club, Jacob Wild.”
Laughing, I shook my head. “Definitely not my favorite place. Although I’m sure there’s at least one in my top ten.”
Her smile widened and this time it touched her eyes.
“Then what is?” she questioned.
“Finish your coffee and I’ll show you.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Presley
When Jake had mentioned he wanted to take me to his favorite place, I couldn’t deny that I’d been intrigued, so I’d finished my coffee while he had continued to glance through my sketchbook, studying the pictures rather intently. He made a few comments, asked a few questions, and it made me feel good that he was interested in my work.
“Do I need to change?” I asked, glancing down at myself when we got up from the table.
“Nope. That’ll do just fine.”
When we stepped out onto the street, Jake took my hand and led me in the opposite direction of our building. “Where’re we going?”
“I left my car at your shop last night,” he said, taking my hand in his. “You don’t mind walking over to get it, do you?”
I shook my head. “I don’t mind,” I told him. “That’s one of the things I enjoy most about living in the city. I can walk wherever I want to go. Not to mention, I’ve got an aversion to exercise, so this helps.”
He smiled as he stared down at the concrete, almost as though he was trying to focus only on what I was saying.
“You didn’t grow up in the city?”
“Nope. Suburbs. And after I graduated, my dad bought a cabin on the lake and moved us there. It was as far from the city as I was willing to go.”
“A cabin, huh?”
“Yeah. I still own it and go there from time to time when I need to clear my head.”
Jake stared down at me and the warmth I saw in his eyes made me relax somewhat. From the minute my eyes had opened a short time ago, I’d been on edge. I couldn’t quite pinpoint why, but I knew it had to do with the feelings I was starting to have for this man. Although I’d only known him for a short time and interacted with him only a few times, I was beginning to really like him. And not in the way that I liked Gil or Gavin, either.
And when he looked at me like that, it didn’t help.
When we finally made it to the shop and got into his car, I was even more relaxed, but I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
“So where’re we going?” I asked when he pulled out onto the street.
“It’s a surprise,” he replied.
“Your favorite place in the city is a surprise?”
“It is.”
“Would you tell me if I guessed?”
His eyes cut to mine briefly. “Maybe.”
“Hmm. Well, I know it’s not a strip club.”
“It’s not a strip club,” he confirmed.
When he took a right at the light, I thought ahead to all of the places we might pass on the way. “Is it the UT campus?” I wasn’t sure why he’d be fond of the University of Texas campus, but you never knew why someone chose a place as their favorite.
“Nope.”
“The capitol building?”
Jake shook his head.
To my surprise, he headed out of the city toward the highway, but then he turned back around.
“I thought you said it was in the city.”
“Technically, it is in Austin.”
“Not fair,” I told him. There was no way I could guess at this point. “So why the turnaround?”
“I like to keep you guessing.”
Jake took my hand in his and rested his arm on the center console. I stared down at our linked fingers for a few minutes, wondering when the last time I’d held someone’s hand had been.