I’m sure there’s a story there, but I’m more interested in another detail. “My dad knew, didn’t he?”
Jasper nods, reaching for his stout again.
“You didn’t have to do that, Jasper,” I say, dropping a hand to his thigh. Is it dangerously high? Maybe. But dammit I want this man. I want to skip whatever sightseeing event he has planned after this dinner and spend the rest of the day in his bed, tangled in his sheets. And I don’t want to leave until my flight boards Sunday.
“I know,” he says. “But I wanted to.”
If only Jasper weren’t military, I might allow myself to fall for him without abandon. I reach for Mom’s necklace and hug the heart charm against my chest wishing things were different. Wishing there was a way not to break my most important promise to her.
Why was the perfect man for me the one I can’t allow myself to have?
And the only one I want?
11
VANESSA
“Tell me the truth,”I say to Jasper as he pulls into the driveway of a ranch style home. Though he mentioned stopping at his house before we hit the road for a late-night sunset viewing, I’ve been secretly hoping this is our last stop tonight.
“About what?” Jasper asks, putting his truck into park.
“Were you really jilted at the altar?”
Red dusts his cheeks, and dammit if it doesn’t make him adorable and sexy all rolled into one. “Not quite.”
“What happened?”
He seems thrown by my easy acceptance.
Fuck, I’m thrown too. Though it would be so easy to hold another lie against him, I know better now. All of hislieshave been rooted in half truths. This time, there is no fantasy to uphold. I’m experiencing his life in real time. It’s…oddly comforting. It hurts my brain to sort all of this out, so I don’t try.
“I was dumped,” he says, reiterating the importance of that element of truth as I follow him to the front door.
I realize now I have yet to see the inside ofhishouse. I’m both excited and nervous at what I’ll find. Will it be a cold shell of aplace or a total dump? I don’t think I could handle it if Jasper turned out to be a slob.
“Dumped?”
“Yeah. She broke up with me on the dance floor at a friend’s wedding. But she wasn’t my fiancé. Just by a girlfriend who was never going to stick.”
“Why not?”
He pushes open the door and waves a hand for me to step inside first. His words follow me across the threshold. “I know now it was because she wasn’t you.”
My heart stutters and skips.
It’s too much.
And yet, it’s not enough.
I know if I’m not careful, I could fall really hard and fast for Jasper Steele. I could fall all the way in love with him. And where would that leave me? I might be giving up my event planning company, but I have no intention of sacrificing the very comfortable life I’ve established in Houston. Not to mention the promise I made Mom on her deathbed to steer clear of military men. There is no future here.
But there is right now.
“It’s tacky, isn’t it?” he asks.
“What?” My vision goes from blurred to focused. It’s not the cold, uninviting space I expected of a single man. It’s a cozy cottage feel that reminds me a whole lot of Cape Cod. It has a very distinct rustic seaside cottage vibe. It’s exactly the way I planned to decorate the house that’ll soon be mine. “This is…”
“Embarrassing.”
