Page 141 of Play With Me
“I’m really sorry, guy. I know this isn’t cool, but please, can you get the fuck out? I’ll pay for your food.”
It’s this that has Richard snapping his jaw shut. “I don’t need assistance with the bill,” he huffs. “Is he serious, Nora?”
“It sounds like it.”
“Is this the other man?” Richard stands up abruptly. He leans in, whispering harshly, “Would have been nice to know before I went to the trouble of procuring you a ticket for this absolutely exclusive event.”
Then he spins on his heel, and storms from the room.
I think I know why he didn’t have a date two days ahead of this thing. I feel guilty, somewhere, but when I turn back to Jude, it washes away like water.
“Can I sit?” Jude asks.
I nod.
He slides his long, lean form into the spot where Richard was sitting.
“Jude, what are you doing here?”
“I came because it’s not okay.”
“What’s not okay?” My heart thunders in my chest.
“When you left. You said it would be okay.” Jude reaches across the table but hesitates. “Can I—?”
I nod.
He takes my hands in his. They’re warm and dry and make my skin zing with the current of our connection. I knew I would never feel this way with anyone else. I knew it with my whole heart.
“Nora, I was scared shitless. Still am. It was one of those bad times where I didn’t know what to say. But I’ve done a lot of thinking—and talking—over the past three weeks and I know what to say now.”
He leans in, and the simple gesture of speaking low enough so the rest of the restaurant doesn’t hear is so thoughtful, sohimknowingme—that I feel my heart fall like a rock in a river, tumbling through clear water to its rightful place in the stream.
“Can I tell you or do you want to say anything first? You can say anything to me, Nora, anything. Evenget lost.”
He winces slightly at those words, but I know it’s true. He’d do whatever I want, I know it in my heart that’s already his.
“I don’t want you to get lost,” I whisper.
“Okay then.” He gives me that broad smile and those kind eyes with more depth than anyone gives him credit for. “Well, here it is. I love you, Nora Albright. I’m in love with you and I have been for a long time. I just didn’t know it, because I didn’t know what love was. Or I was in denial. I think it’s why I kissed you that day you said you were leaving. It’s why I made every excuse I could to walk by that screen when you were talking to Cap, needing desperately to get just the barest glimpse of you. It’s why I want to kiss you now, and it’s why I want to kiss you for the rest of your life, to when our hair goes silver and every part of our life together is a warm and beautiful memory.” Jude swallows. “I want you to be my son’s mom, and I want to make more—” He cuts himself off. “I want to make more babies with you, Nora, but I know that’s a lot, especially when you haven’t said anything because I’ve been rambling this whole time and—
I stand up then, nearly knocking my glass over as I reach across the table and grab his suit lapels. I pull Jude’s handsome face toward mine and when my lips are only inches from his, I whisper, “Tell me again. The very first thing.”
Jude grins.
I melt.
“I love you, Nora.”
“I love you too,” I whisper. Then I pull him hard against me, pressing my lips to his. This is the man I love, and I’m brave right now not because he loves me, but because he helped me remember I already was.
“Damn, Shotgun Annie,” he says after I break the kiss. “You realize everyone’s staring at us, right?”
“And they’re too damn polite to applaud,” I say.
So Jude backs up and does it for us, clapping like a madman while I laugh, my cheeks hot with embarrassment. “Oh myGod,Jude.”
“Sorry.” He grimaces. “Forgot I was supposed to play it quiet.”
