Classic Naomi, changing the subject before the emotional explosion.But he was okay with it.“Do we have a contingency plan?”
“Order a few cakes from her bakery and doctor them up, turn them into a wedding cake.That or hope she hated Ida as much as Abe did, and likes either my cousin or my sister as much as Batya does.”
“Anything else?”
Naomi raised an eyebrow.“Not much else we can do, unless you have any pastry favors in your back pocket?”
Jason shook his head.“Pastry was never my forte.And the favors I’d have, though out of town, are for Charlotte.”
Naomi nodded as if she understood.“Judith’s boss is expected back into town just before the wedding.”
Which meant she did, in fact, understand.“That’s who my cards are with.And his wife would have anybody’s head, including her husband’s, if he broke the no communication rule they agreed to for this trip.”
“Yep.Actually,” she said, “it was Jacob who put Tom Walker into my orbit the first time.”
“And Samuel sustained it, hm?”
Naomi nodded.“Friends helping friends, and family and networks and all the things.”
“All of which is the reason we’ll be driving out to the island tomorrow morning.”He paused, thought about things.“We should have the advantage of going the opposite direction to the commuting traffic.”
“Which is the tiniest of victories,” she said with a grin.“Still horrible traffic.”
“Maybe, potentially slightly less than horrible.”He paused.“I don’t expect to hear from Jacob, but we might get some kind of something, whatever it is, because we’re going to Rockcliffe Manor.And talking to Charlotte.”
Naomi nodded.“He’s protective of his people.I don’t think he liked Ida either.”
“Ida didn’t like people who didn’t fit her view of the world,” Jason said.“Not to put too fine a point on it, but her existence would have destroyed your reputation if you weren’t…”
“What?”
“You.If you weren’t you, Ida would have chewed you up, spit you out and tossed you away.But you’re you.Which meant she could do absolutely zero of those things, including turn you into a carbon copy of her.People who hated her held their tongues because they knew that you were doing all of the work, not only behind the scenes but in the front as well.”
He waited, stopped talking, and watched her.“I guess,” she said.“I felt broken.I felt very lost.But I couldn’t let the waves overtake me.Like you said, I couldn’t give up.”
“Even before she dropped you, she let you hang on your own,” he said.“And I’m so very lucky to be a part of your life and your world.”
And when he pulled her close and kissed her, something fell into place.
They’d been physical, they’d been emotional.But not like this, not in this way.
His mind immediately went to the conversation he’d had with Abe.
“I can see it in your eyes,” Abe said as they stood outside, in the slowly dwindling daylight amidst the beautiful smell of hickory and oak.“You’re on the precipice of falling completely for her.Don’t fight it, let it happen.But.Be very careful.”
He looked up at the other man.“What should I be careful about?”
“There’s a difference between a couple being on the same page, and the first time you’re admitting you’re in the next chapter.Don’t eventhinkthose words you’re heading toward, until you’re sure.
So, in the dark of the night, with her in his arms, in his bed, under the covers, hours before they would test their luck on Long Island with Charlotte Liu, he tested out the words that desperately wanted to gallop out of his mouth.Instead of letting them, though, he whispered,‘I love you.’
He wondered if she heard him.It didn’t really matter; they’d been said.And he meant them.Every single word.
And this time he wasn’t running from what those words would do to his relationship with Naomi.
Chapter Eighteen
Wedding scavenger hunt (N)
