“Come on,” he says. “It’s nice out. How about a little walk?”
“Right. Sure.”
He grins and takes my hand. It feels so effortless, so normal. He leads me through the dining room, smiles at the hostess, and we step out into the afternoon sun.
He doesn’t drop my hand. I don’t want him to. I kept telling myself this was just some normal lunch, but that’s clearly not the case.
God, what am I doing? Is this for the investigation, or is this real?
We start to walk. He talks about the first time he saw New York, how big it was. “I grew up in a mansion on the edge of a small Virginia town,” he says. “And then I went to boarding school in New England. You’d think I’d be a little more cultured, but the first time I really saw the city, I was blown away. Just so many buildings and so damn tall.” He laughs a little bit.
It’s endearing, his vulnerable honesty. “I felt the same way about here,” I admit. “I grew up in the suburbs. Then I came here and it was like… a new world.”
“Right. It’s strange to admit. I don’t normally tell people. I have a reputation, after all.”
I laugh a little and instinctively touch my bag. I look inside and realize my phone’s missing. “Shit,” I say, stopping and dropping his hand.
“What’s wrong?”
“I left my phone on the table.”
“Oh, okay, let’s go get it.”
He takes off. I have to hurry to keep up. It’s like this little setback is no big deal, no problem at all. Like I’m not cutting into our short, precious time out in the very gorgeous afternoon sun.
We reach the cafe and he steps inside. I follow him. He speaks briefly to the hostess then heads back. I stick close and nearly run into him as we reach the back of the room.
“Hey,” he says.
I look around his shoulder. A man’s standing next to our table, slipping something into his pocket. He’s wearing jeans and a dirty sweatshirt. He’s pale with dark hair and dark bags under his eyes.
The guy turns away.
“Hey,” Jacob says again. “Did you just take a phone?”
The guy runs.
Jacob doesn’t hesitate. He takes off after him.
“Jacob!” I say. “Hold on, wait!”
But he’s not listening. The guy runs to the back of the restaurant, back where the bathrooms are. He stumbles over some extra chairs then slams into the emergency exit. He flies out the door and into an alley.
Jacob is right on his heels. He bursts through the door and disappears out after the guy. I hurry after them, shouting Jacob’s name. I hit the door and step out into the alleyway, expecting the guy to be gone and Jacob to be looking around, winded and angry, but instead I find the guy thrown to the ground and Jacob standing over him.
“Did you take that phone?” he growls.
The guy shrinks back. “It’s fine, I just, I found it, man. I found it. I didn’t mean to do anything.”
“You mean, you stole a fucking phone because the opportunity presented itself.” Jacob stands over him menacingly. “Give it to me.”
The guy takes the phone from his pocket. My phone, definitely my phone. Jacob snatches it and holds it toward me. “Yours?” he asks.
I take it and press the fingerprint sensor. It unlocks. “Mine.”
Jacob punches the guy in the face. The man’s head cracks back and Jacob leans over him. “Don’t take what isn’t yours, asshole.”
He steps away. I stand there, stunned, heart racing. Jacob looks back at me and smiles, and for a second I feel a thrill run through my body. It’s the most handsome smile I’ve ever seen. He just ran a guy down and punched him, all because of my phone.
He did that for me.
“Come on,” he says, steering me away from the guy down on the ground, groaning and holding his nose. “Let’s try to enjoy the day, shall we?”
I stare at him. “You just… you just…”
“I just punished some piece of shit that stole from you,” Jacob says. “No big deal.”
“No big deal? You could’ve been hurt. You could’ve been…” I trail off and stare at him.
He laughs as we turn the corner onto a more crowded sidewalk.
“But I wasn’t. I’m not the kind of man that lets someone take something from people I like, Valerie.”
I bite my lip. “You like me?”
He looks a little surprised. “I thought I was making that obvious.”
I turn to him and we stop on the sidewalk. I’m standing against him, facing him, looking up into his eyes. He puts his arms around me and leans forward.
I tilt my head and he kisses me.
I didn’t expect it. I didn’t plan it. And I definitely shouldn’t do it.
But his kiss tastes like ecstasy. Like grass and dirt and longing. I sink into the kiss, letting it shift from something easy and light to something heavier and deeper. He holds me tight against him and finally the kiss breaks off. He looks at me with a little smile on his face.