She pulled back a little and looked at him. He wasn’t smiling anymore, but his eyes were warm and welcoming. So familiar.
“Here we are, having a nice friendly coffee,” he whispered. “No bedrooms involved.”
Not yet, at least. But, oh, how she wanted to kiss him again...and more. She wasn’t sure how long she could resist, but she owed it to herself to try, at least for a little bit.
“I just think we should talk a little,” she said, inching away, “and not about the past. Just catch up, be around each other. See if we even still like each other.”
“I’m pretty sure I still like you,” he said with a smirk.
“Being attracted to someone is not the same as liking them.”
He opened his mouth like he was going to argue, but then he shook his head. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
She ordered a coffee, and Jace tried to pay but Selena insisted they each buy their own. Like friends. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment. They made their way to the corner table, and Selena kept her head down as they found their seats. The table was small, and their legs tangled together in a very un-friend-like way, but she didn’t pull back. The truth was that she was happy to sit like that with him. It felt likethemin the best way possible. She drank her coffee in silence, just watching him, and his gaze was fixed on her, too. With anyone else this kind of staring would be uncomfortable, but with him it didn’t seem to matter.
But she came here to talk, to slow this down a little, to try to be friends, so she broke the silence. She asked him about the garage, his family, his house, and he asked about her life in Boston, though they both skirted around the topic of Darren. And the more she sat in that quiet corner of the café, together with Jace again, the more the happiness simmered inside.
After a pause, Jace opened his mouth, hesitated, then spoke. “Do you think your parents knew how serious we were back in high school?”
“Maybe,” she said. “Maybe they were willing to look the other way as long as I didn’t get pregnant went to college.”
“They got their wish.”
“Still, here we are.”
“Yes, here we are,” he echoed. He looked out the window. “What would they say if they saw us here together? They thought I was a bad influence.”
“You were,” she said, smiling. “Do I need to mention Friday nights again?”
Jace laughed. “That’s fair.”
Selena considered his question. “Honestly, I think they’d be fine. My mom used to give me updates about you when they still lived in Sacred Harbor. I think a part of her wanted us to find a way back to each other.”
His eyes blazed bright as he looked across the table at her. “She can get that wish. If that’s what you want.”
She swallowed back the lump in her throat. But they needed more than just feelings. Before she let the idea oftheminto her head, they needed to consider what path they could take together.
“What are your dreams these days, Jace?”
He blinked in surprise and then the corners of his mouth hitched up. “Not the first question I’d ask afriend, but I’ll go with it.”
His smile faded, and he looked out the window, quiet for a while. “This last year has been so much about my dad’s stroke. He was really depressed, and running the garage has been a big part of his recovery but…” He paused and ran his hand through his hair. “But with the garage all on my shoulders, his happiness so wrapped up in it, I’m not sure how long I can hold that up. I’m going to try for him, but my dream is that my life could be a little more than that.”
She nodded. Back in high school, when his dad had leaned on him for relief, Jace didn’t seem to mind. But now, when the business rested on his shoulders alone, she could see why it would be different. She and Jace were still so young. Did he, too, wonder what this long stretch of life in front of them was supposed to be about?
“Your turn, Lee,” he said, his voice gentle. “What are your dreams?”
“I’ve always wanted to make my parents proud. It sounds strange to be an adult and still thinking about that, but it’s true. My parents gave up a lot for me. And I think my divorce was just as hard on them as it was on me.”
Jace frowned. “I doubt that.”
Maybe he was right, but her parents had struggled to understand her divorce. Why would she leave a life that was everything they’d wanted to give her?
“I don’t mind hard times, and I’m okay with struggling,” she said after a while, “but I want to know that it’s for something worthwhile in the end.”
Jace was watching her the whole time she spoke, she felt he was really listening.
“There is a lot of disappointment in life,” he said softly.
