away after handing over his keys and taking a ticket.
A second later, he was at my door, opening it for me, then offering a hand to help me out. The gentlemanly thing wasn’t something I was familiar with, but I had to admit, I could get used to it.
Once we were inside, Jacob gave his name to the hostess, and she beamed up at him before grabbing two menus and leading us to a table in the back. I followed her, with Jake’s hand on the small of my back, trying not to let my mind wander to the conversation we’d had that morning at the coffee shop. Part of me was embarrassed that I’d gone off on a tangent about happily ever after. It wasn’t like I’d been thinking about it.
Okay, so I’d been thinking about it, but not in the I’m-eager-to-see-if-this-morphs-into-happily-ever-after kind of way. I liked Jake. I enjoyed his company, enjoyed looking at him, even enjoyed talking to him. But I didn’t expect anything from him. And I knew I’d sounded ridiculous, so I was grateful that he’d changed the subject. Then, we’d spent the better part of the day together, having fun and talking.
Now, though… Well, now we were going to sit down for a romantic dinner, and the conversation would likely be more intimate than it had been, which made me incredibly nervous.
Jake pulled my chair out for me and I eased into it, thanking him. He took the one on my right.
“Can I get you something to drink tonight? We’ve got an impressive wine list.”
Jake looked at me and I shook my head.
“No thanks on the wine, but I’ll have an iced tea,” Jake told the waiter.
The man glanced at me and I asked for water.
“Are you all right?” Jake asked, his voice low.
I knew I owed him an apology. Considering we would be spending the weekend together, I figured it would be best to get it out of the way now. “I’m sorry about today.”
Jake frowned.
“About my freak-outs.”
He still looked confused.
“At the coffee shop this morning. The happily-ever-after stuff.”
His eyes lit with recognition.
“And again at Book People. I shouldn’t have reacted the way that I did.”
“Did it bother you?” he asked.
It was the same question he’d asked me earlier in the day, and although I’d told him no, he deserved an explanation. “The truth is yes, but not the way you think. It wasn’t you or those women that bothered me. It just brought back some bad memories and I panicked a little.”
“Adrian?” he asked.
It was my turn to frown. The last person in the world I wanted to talk about was Adrian, but I decided to answer anyway. “Yes. Since he’s somewhat of a local celebrity because of his band, there were numerous times when he shoved me aside. A few times he even got a little too cozy with some of them.”
“I would never do that to you.”
“I know that.” And I did. Jacob Wild wasn’t that kind of man. And he damn sure wasn’t Adrian.
The waiter returned with our drinks and we ordered. Since I wasn’t familiar with the restaurant and didn’t want to go through the whole vegan spiel—trying to figure out what had eggs, what didn’t, what had dairy, what didn’t—I opted for a salad, dry.
Jake ordered a steak, and when the waiter disappeared, he took my hand in his.
“So, how do you know Josie?” I asked, wondering if I sounded as jealous to him as I did to myself.
“She’s a friend of my sister, Paige. When I came back to Texas, my editor, Liz, insisted that I get an assistant to help me take care of things. When I told Paige, she mentioned Josie.”
“She’s young?” I tried to phrase it as a question.
“Twenty-six, I think. She used to work in a salon with Paige.”
“Paige does hair?”
Jake nodded. “She’s really good, but she’s had issues keeping a job. Her ex likes to interfere, get her in trouble.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah, well, what can you do?”
“And Abby?”
Jake met my gaze. “Abby’s fifteen and she’s technically the reason I came back to Texas.”
I didn’t prompt him to continue, but I continued to watch him, hoping he would. I had gathered that his reasons for coming back had been personal based on our conversation at the ice cream parlor the other night, and I secretly hoped he would open up to me a little.
Jake sat up, took a drink, then rested his elbows on the table, his full attention back