Jack had never been very big on public displays of affection, but Paige made him want to keep her close. After a few days of not seeing her, he missed her, missed the contact. He felt connected to her, and the attraction was more than physical. He cared about her well-being, cared about her future, cared about her health, her safety, her girls, her happiness.
Did he want her? Absolutely. She was gorgeous, and when she laughed, he wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her. When she was worried, he wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her. The fact was, he just wanted her in his arms, because when she was close, he felt pretty damn complete.
“I’m looking forward to going on this trip with her,” he said. “I think it will tell us a lot about how we are together. If we work together. Because I can’t imagine giving up international programs and studies. I can’t imagine not traveling, not working. For all I know, Paige may get to Arusha and hate it. She might be incredibly uncomfortable, and not like the climate or the food, or the pace of it, and it would change things. I hate to say it would change everything, but my heart is in East Africa. I just don’t know that I could give it up for anyone.”
“I don’t know why you’re even going there yet.” Oliver’s expression firmed. “Give her a chance. She told me earlier that she’d been to Paris and Cancún, and that was it. Don’t assume she won’t like Tanzania. Maybe she will. Maybe she’ll fall in love with it like you did.”
Jack turned and looked at Paige where she was sitting inside at the table with Andi and Elizabeth’s friend—Martha? Margaret? They were having dessert and coffee and talking nonstop. Paige looked comfortable, relaxed.
As if feeling his gaze, she suddenly turned her head and looked at him. Their eyes met and held. She gave him a small, private smile that made his chest grow tight and his body ache.
He desired her, there was no question about that. In fact, he wanted her more every day, but the wanting wasn’t just a physical need. He craved time with her, wanting her thoughts, wanting her smile, wanting her company. He’d spent years on his own, and yes there had been women, but no one was like Paige. He didn’t even know what it was about Paige that set her apart, but he was comfortable with her, as well as more hopeful.
She made him feel young. She made him want more out of life. She was good for him.
He glanced at her again, thinking she looked beautiful in her crisp navy linen dress with the sparkly bracelets on her wrist, her long hair loose, hanging in a gold curtain down her back. She was sophisticated and stylish. But as beautiful as she was now, she’d been perfect at Yellowstone in jeans, T-shirts, and sweatshirts. He loved her Converse shoes and the oversize hoodie. She looked like the California girl she was, and it had blown him away.
Mara had been intelligent.
Camille was intelligent.
Paige was intelligent, too. But Paige had something else, a magic something that just worked . . . resonating within him. He wished he could articulate it, because he’d felt the same connection in Paris, even before they’d ever spoken. He’d watched her from afar, intrigued, drawn by her energy. As the weeks passed, he’d grown increasingly determined to meet her, and then when they’d finally talked, at the end of the program, the real-life connection had been better than his imagination.
Kismet.
Fate.
But then she’d left.
Sometimes he wondered if she hadn’t run away, if she’d stayed in Paris with him, would they have stayed together? Could they have made it work?
He didn’t know, but the fact that he was just as attracted to her now, thirty years later, said something. The fact that just kissing her made him want so much more time told him he was invested, and yes, just possibly in it for the long haul.
* * *
“I think you better bring me up to speed,” Andi said between bites of pecan pie, a pie she’d brought since it wasn’t Thanksgiving without it. “I had no idea you and Jack were together.”
Paige’s fork hovered in the air. It took every bit of restraint not to turn and look at him again. “It’s a very new thing,” she said carefully. She trusted Andi not to talk to anyone in the math department about Paige seeing Jack. Getting romantically close to colleagues wasn’t forbidden, but Paige was private, and she didn’t want her peers, or students, to know she’d gotten close to Jack.
“He’s only been here a couple months,” Andi answered.
“I actually had a date with him thirty years ago.” Paige blurted the words and then mentally kicked herself when both Andi and Margot looked at her with avid interest. “In Paris,” she added self-consciously.
“It just gets more intriguing all the time.” Andi cut into the flakey crust. “You were what? A teenager?”
“No. I was twenty. Almost twenty-one.”
“How old was Jack?”
Paige flushed. “Twenty-five.”
“And you had a romance?”
Margot was looking back and forth as if watching a tennis match. Paige felt slightly queasy. Was it a mistake to share that she’d known Jack before? Again, Andi wouldn’t say anything to anyone, but still, it’d been a secret until now. “It was just one night.” Paige managed a smile, and then her smile faded when she realized how that sounded. “All pretty innocent.”
Andi smiled, a very knowing smile. Margot continued to silently follow along.
Paige wished Elizabeth would sit down and save her, but Elizabeth was nowhere in sight.
“You told me last year you weren’t interested in dating again,” Andi added, taking a ladylike bite. “But I’m glad you changed your mind. You didn’t have a happy marriage. You deserve to know what a good one is like.”
Paige almost choked on her sip of tea. “We’re not getting married. We’re dating.”
“Why wouldn’t you get married?”
“Why should we get married?” Paige countered just as quickly. “Marriage is not the end all, be all.”
“I wanted to get married,” Margot interjected quietly. “Badly. It never happened.”
Relieved to be off the hook, Paige turned to Margot. “Was there never anyone special?”
“No, there was. We met in New York, fell head over heels. We lived together for ten years, we were engaged for the last five years, and then, nothing.” She stared across the table, lost in thought. After a moment she shook her head and pushed a lock of faded brown hair behind her ear. “He just changed his mind.”
“I’m sorry,” Andi said quietly. “That’s heartbreaking.”
Margot looked at Andi, expression pained. “He married someone else within a year. I shouldn’t have hung on so long, hoping for the wedding, hoping for the family and the children. I should have realized he wasn’t ever going to marry me. But he was a screenwriter, really talented, at least, I thought so, and I never wanted to put any pressure on him.”
Andi clasped Margot’s hand. “That’s rotten. And most unfair. But you’re young, you still have time.”
“I’m in my forties.”
“Just a baby,” Andi replied with a wink. “Don’t get discouraged. You’ll meet your Prince Charming one day.”
“I don’t think I want a prince,” Margot answered grimly, “just a nice boy next door would do. Someone kind, honest, dependable.”
Those words, someone kind, honest, dependable stayed with Paige even as she finished dessert and then went looking for her daughter so they could say their goodbyes.
Yes, that’s what Paige wanted, too. Kind, honest, dependable. But also, someone smart. Someone funny. Someone really comfortable, as well as good in bed.
Was that asking for too much?