‘Not at all.’ I put the phone back in my pocket, determined not to let my mother ruin my mood.
Besides, there was nothing she had to say that I wanted to hear. Now or ever again.
Before I could turn back, though, my phone buzzed again. I should have just put it on silent.
‘If you need to get that –’
‘I don’t.’
Incoming call: Unknown (Cassie Fletcher?)
One tap and then another put the thing on silent. When I looked back up at Jessy, curiosity was written on her face. But she didn’t ask the question she clearly wanted to.
‘I wish I’d known you back then,’ she said instead.
That got my attention, though my brain was still busy with wondering why the hell Cassie was ringing me again. ‘Then?’
Jessy nodded, pushing her plate forward slightly as her cheeks flushed. ‘Back before you were famous. When you were just Patrick, not the lead lyricist of These Exiles.’
That was an interesting thought.
‘You think we would have got on?’
‘I think I would have been far too intimated to talk to you.’ Man, I loved the way she blushed.
I leaned forward, the last of my spaghetti forgotten. ‘Why?’
‘Why do you think?’ She rolled her eyes before looking at me intensely.
I swallowed.
This woman – she did something to me no one else ever had. My whole body came alive when I was kissing her – not like I was taking possession of something, but like I’d been gifted something so incredibly special instead.
Now, just sitting opposite her, I could still taste her on my tongue.
And I wanted more.
‘I don’t know. Why?’
Jessy’s freckles only became starker as her blush deepened. ‘You have a mirror.’
‘So do you.’ My voice dipped low. Didn’t she know she was beautiful? Didn’t she know what she did to me?
Well, the important thing was not to spill my guts and tell her just how often I’d daydreamed about her. About the sundresses she always wore, the way her hair gleamed in the summer sunlight. The way I’d tasted her lips but yearned for a taste of something sweeter – the kind of sweetness that came with a bed, warm skin and soft gasps into the air.
‘Patrick?’
I blinked.
Jessy was grinning. ‘Lost you there for a moment.’
‘You could never lose me,’ I said before I could stop myself.
‘Good.’
Something stirred deep within me. Ever since we’d agreed to stop pretending, the chemistry between us had only heightened. The desire that had felt like a deep wave pulling me in now felt like a tsunami smashing through me. My every thought was consumed with Jessy.
‘Thank you.’ Jessy smiled politely at the waiter who had come to collect our plates.
