"He wants me to go back to making money," Jax said dryly.
"Can you do that? You said your career is over."
"He's cooking up some scheme that might change that. To be honest, I can't imagine it would work, but he wants me to think about it. Can we do this some other time, Kaia? I know you want more details, but I had a tense conversation with Clay, and you had a rough conversation with your dad. Why don't we just enjoy lunch?"
"We could do that," she said, feeling too mentally exhausted to get into what needed to be a more serious discussion. "But you can't put me off forever."
"I know. Look, our food is here."
"Saved by the fajitas," she said lightly.
As the sizzling platters arrived at the table, she suddenly felt ravenous, and for the next few minutes, they dug into their meal, filling the soft tortillas with spicy meat, beans, rice, and all the extras. The fajitas were just as good as the guacamole and chips, and their conversation drifted to nothing as they concentrated on eating.
By the time they'd finished lunch, it was almost three o'clock. The day was flying by, but she wasn't ready to go home, and neither was Jax. The wind had picked up, cooling the temp, so it was pleasant to stroll down the street and check out the shops.
They wandered into a tiny gallery filled with handmade ceramics and colorful desert paintings. She paused in front of a sculpture shaped like a cactus and painted in bright shades of teal and orange. "I haven't seen a cactus with these colors, but I like them."
"The artist took some liberties with that," he agreed.
"This would stick out in my apartment. It wouldn't fit at all."
"Which is why you want it."
She laughed softly. "Maybe. Let's come back to it. We'll see what else is here. As they got to a bin of old, framed concert posters, she rifled through them, pulling out the last one in the bin. It was a poster of a bear strumming a guitar. "You could put this in your apartment."
"I don't think so. Not my style."
"You don't have a style; your walls are bare."
"Well, I'm not going to put that on the wall."
"It's fun." At the definitive shake of his head, she put the poster back in the bin. Continuing on, she paused in front of a jewelry display from a local artisan. She picked up a pair of earrings made of sea glass, with shimmering colors of blue, aqua, and pink in the rough-edged stones. "What do you think about these?"
"They're very you."
"What do you mean?"
"Sea glass survives the battering of waves. It stays strong and shines through with bright, mesmerizing colors. You're a lot like that glass, Kaia. Battered but never broken."
She felt entranced by his words, delivered in a husky voice that carried her away. "That was beautiful, Jax. Is that the way you write your songs, with that kind of imagery?"
"I suppose."
"I really need to hear one of your songs."
"Well, in the meantime, you should get those earrings."
"I think I will. And the cactus, too, because it's unique, and I like things that are different."
"Me, too," he said, gazing into her eyes.
It felt like a dozen unspoken words followed that look, but he wasn't ready to say what he was thinking, and maybe she wasn't ready to hear it.
After an afternoon of shopping and an early evening gelato, they headed back to Ocean Shores, arriving shortly after eight on Sunday night. When they entered the courtyard, they ran into Lexie and Grayson sharing a bottle of wine with Emmalyn and Hunter.
"Where are you two coming from?" Lexie asked.
"The desert," she said. "My dad had to go to the hospital."
