“What kind of thing?” Jessica asked, confused.
“The thing where I got us a hotel room for tonight so we didn’t have to worry about roommates.”
“That’s a bit presumptuous of you.”
“Fuck,” Jack breathed. “I’m so sorry. I should’ve asked first. It’s just…it’s been so long, and I wanted our first time—again—to be special.”
Jessica burst out laughing, and Jack tore his eyes off the road to shoot her a confused, my-girlfriend-is-crazy look.
“I was just kidding,” she said. “I willhappilyspend the night at a hotel with you.”
“Oh, thank God,” he said.
“Itisyour birthday,” Jessica reminded him. “I think I can put out for that.”
Jack tipped his head back and laughed. “How gracious of you.”
“The pleasure is all mine,” she said.
“It will be,” Jack told her, his wide grin dimming a bit from amusement to mischievousness.
All Jessica could say in response was, “Hurry up.”
Jack had booked a room at the Marriott that sat smack dab in the middle of downtown East Lansing. When they pulled up, he ran inside the check in and when he came back out, he handed her the key.
“Why are you giving that to me?” she asked. “Aren’t you coming with?”
“Of course,” he said. “But I’m going to bring my truck home so I don’t have to pay to park it here. Plus I have a present for you that I forgot to grab.”
“Jack…” Jessica started to protest, but he cut her off.
“I don’t care if it’s my birthday,” he said, taking the words right out of her mouth. “Tonight, I want to spoil you.”
And she couldn’t very well argue with that, could she?
Though she had no luggage with her, no overnight bag or really anything else save the clothes on her back and her teeny-tiny clutch, she strode into the hotel lobby with her head held high.
Their room was on the very top floor, and when Jessica pushed inside, she was greeted by an incredible bird’s-eye view campus. From here, she could see the top of the football stadium, Munn, and the basketball arena, as well as the well-lit paths traveled by students as small as ants. Below, the city was sparkling.
After turning on one of the bedside lamps and pulling the curtains closed, she kicked off her heels and stretched her feet. Right as she was about to drop onto the bed and lounge until Jack showed up, he knocked.
When she opened the door for him, he walked in and held out a bottle of champagne, a potted lily, and a small, black velvet jewelry box. Jessica didn’t know which to grab first, but Jack decided for her when he set the plant and champagne on the nearby table, extending the box out to her.
“Before you open this and freak out, I want you to know something.”
Jessica swallowed hard, afraid of where this was headed. “Okay,” she croaked.
“I have spent every day since Mexico subconsciously wishing for this. For you to be here, in my arms again. And I know the road ahead is going to be difficult, but I need you to know that I cannot go through the pain of losing you again. Not when the universe has brought us back together like this. So this,” he said, popping open the ring box to reveal to Jessica a simple rose gold ring with a flower engraved on it, “is nothing more than a promise. It’s not a promise ring in the sense that I want you to wear it on your finger and promise to marry me one day. It’s…a symbol of our promise to each other. To love each other. To give ourselves a real chance at this. Is it soon? Yes. Are we probablytoo young to make these kinds of promises to each other? Also yes. But I lost you once, and I’ll be damned if I let it happen again. There is no version of my future that doesn’t include you, Jess. If that’s something you want, too, then I want you to wear this. I don’t care which finger. But if you’re not ready, I understand that, too. I just want you to know where my head is.”
She knew he would’ve continued to babble if she let him, so she put them both out of their misery by whispering, “Yes.”
“Yes?”
“Of course,” she said. Instead of sliding it on a finger, though, she unhooked her necklace—the one her grandma had given her when she graduated high school with a miniscule diamond resting in the hollow between her clavicles—and added the ring to the chain. “I want all of those same things. I want them with you.”
In the next moment, Jack had her backed against the wall, maintaining only a foot of space between them.
Far enough away that she could still breathe, could still maybe keep her wits about her if she wanted. Because that gleam in his eye—that was new. Wicked. Possessive. The kind of look that told her, wherever it was this night was about to take them, she would be irrevocably altered because of it.
