“Last call for drinks and karaoke,” the bartender shouted with his hands cupped over his mouth.
“Do you want another drink?” Jack asked.
“No, not if I’m going to get up bright and early for our morning run,” Lizzy said.
“How about another song?”
“I’ll pass on that, too.” She gingerly placed the tips of her fingers on her throat. “I sang so much, I’m losing my voice.”
“I think I’ll sing one last song,” he said, flipping through the songbook.
“Oh, God. I don’t know if my sides can handle any more laughing.” Her stomach muscles already felt sore from all the laughter. She was going to hurt like she’d done a hundred crunches tomorrow morning.
“I’ll take it easy on you with this one.” A corner of his lips lifted in a crooked smile that made her heart trip.
They were among the last customers left at the sushi sports bar, but everyone focused on the stage when Jack stepped up to the mic. Even his silly dancing theatrics couldn’t detract from his smooth-as-butter voice. She’d always loved listening to him sing, but now it sent shivers of awareness down her spine.
“What would I do without your smart mouth?” Jack sang, and silence descended in the room. “Drawin’ me in and you kickin’ me out…”
No one was ready—least of all her—for the seductive croon. She used to listen to John Legend’s “All of Me” on repeat on those days she felt especially lonely. It spoke of a love so true and beautiful that it filled her with hope and determination to find it for herself one day.
“’Cause all of me loves all of you…”Jack captured and held her eyes, and his voice vibrated through her body.
She knew the words coming out of his mouth weren’t his. And she knew they weren’t meant for her. But she wished… in that moment… oh, how she wished they were true. So she held her breath and listened and pretended that the words were his and they were meant for her. She let the warmth, the pain, and the beauty of the love fill her.
The thundering applause brought her out of her heart-wrenching dream. Her cheeks were wet with tears, and she quickly wiped them away before Jack approached the table. He had practically begged her to take things slowly, and here she was daydreaming about love and happily ever after. He would freak out if he found out.
“Thirty isn’t too old to go onAmerican Idol,is it?” she quipped while she got her wayward emotions under control.
“I’m not sure how to take that comment.” Jack narrowed hiseyes at her. “It’s like you’re insulting me and complimenting me at the same time.”
“I’m cautiously optimistic that you’ll take my comment in the way most agreeable to you,” she said, giving her most lawyerly nonanswer.
“Does talking straight shorten a lawyer’s life span or something?”
“By big, hulking chunks.”
“We can’t have that.” Jack chuckled and waved down their server. “Carry on with your word games, then.”
Lizzy smiled in answer, neither denying nor confirming her intent to play word games.
“Oh, you’re good,” he said, wagging a finger at her. “No wonder you make the big bucks.”
After paying the bill and tipping generously, they made their way to his car. Jack didn’t push her up against it to kiss her this time. He just opened the car door for her like the gentleman he was, and she dropped into the passenger seat with a forlorn sigh. The effects of the dress seemed to have worn off.
Their drive to Weldon Brewery was quiet but not uncomfortable. She drummed her fingers on the door panel in rhythm with the song playing on the radio and reminisced about the eventful night. They pulled into the brewery’s parking lot to find her car to be its only occupant. Jack parked right next to it and turned to her.
“I had fun tonight,” he said, reaching over to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.
She shivered at the slight touch. “That was the goal, right?”
“Fun is always a worthy goal to strive for.” He drew close to her.
She leaned toward him as though pulled by a magnet. “Kissing should also be up there as far as life goals go.”
“Way, way up there,” he whispered.
She closed the remaining distance between them and kissed him with a little moan. She’d been dying to kiss him since he’d sung “All of Me.” She wanted to kiss the lips that had formed those beautiful words—to feel the words on them… to absorb them into herself. But once their lips met, all she could think about was Jack and this moment. He tasted like lemons and smelled like those woods they had hiked through—fresh and masculine. And she wanted more.
