He groaned and tightened his arms around my waist, and a moan slipped out from my lips that I hadn’t even intended.
“Bad news,” he said, pulling back.
“What?”
“I forgot my charger, too.”
“Do your parents have iPhones?”
He shook his head. “Fucking Androids,” he said with mock irritation. I giggled.
“We could go buy new chargers,” I suggested.
“Or, we could shoot off a quick text to those who might need us and give them my parents’ number for emergencies and then just, I don’t know, go off the grid for the next two weeks.”
Going off the grid with Jesse Drake? Yes, please.
“I love that idea,” I said. “What’s your parents’ number?”
He pulled their contact open and rattled off some numbers, and I texted my parents and both of my brothers. Work could wait, and Quinn would understand.
Jesse’s parents had gone to church, a place that Jesse said he used to attend up until his sister’s death, so we had the house to ourselves. Jesse made us omelets and I made some fresh coffee, and then we sat outside on the patio and ate while we watched the waves roll in and out.
We spent the day at the beach. It was too chilly for swimming in the ocean, but the air temperature was nice, and walking on the beach was absolute heaven. Jesse wore just a pair of khaki shorts, and since I was wearing sunglasses as we strolled in and out of the surf, I took the liberty of flat out staring at his perfect torso.
Some men with a six-pack stomach were overly bulky while others were too skinny, but everything about Jesse was, as I liked to say, absolutely perf.
He was toned and solid and fell right in the zone of perfection.
And that tattoo… I sighed just thinking about it. I had never been a huge tattoo aficionado like Quinn was, but something about the reason behind his work of art and the beauty of it made it extraordinarily stunning.
Staring at Jesse Drake. This was my kind of spring break.
We ate dinner with his parents and I fell a little more in love with them as I fell a little more in love with him. Each moment that passed brought me a moment closer to the time when we could finally be together in every way that mattered.
Jesse’s parents both had work the next day; his mom’s spring break didn’t start until the next week, and Dr. Phil had patients lined up for the next day, so they headed to bed early.
We sat on the patio with the three Bs: beer, Barry, and banter.
Barry was perched on my lap, sleeping, the occasional snort escaping him as he dreamed of Milk Bones and long walks. In one hand, I held my beer on the armrest, and my other arm dangled from the side of my Adirondack chair, as did Jesse’s. His fingers found mine and tangled together. I leaned my head against the back of the chair and stared up at the night sky, listening to the romantic and tranquil waves as they rolled rhythmically in and out. Aside from the completion of my split from Richard, I couldn’t think of a single thing on earth that would make me feel more contented than I did in that moment.
And then the very next words that fell from his lips after I’d had that thought made my already contented heart soar with love.
“You know how I told you that I’m taking a road trip in June?”
I turned toward him and nodded, not lifting my head from the back of the chair in complete and utter laziness.
“Come with me.”
I sat up in shock, apparently inconveniencing Barry, who sighed in bitter frustration the way only dogs can and jumped off my lap.
“Come with you?” I asked.
He nodded and sat up, mirroring me.
“Yeah, V. Come with me. And when your divorce is finalized, wherever we are, that’ll be our night.”
Our night.
I liked the sound of that.
I liked the sound of a month with Jesse. I liked the sound of traveling to Mexico and driving through California wine country with Jesse. And I especially liked the sound of celebrating my independence from Richard in a night that would be just for Jesse and me, a night that would be the start of many, many nights together.
“Yes,” I whispered finally.
“Yes?” he asked, and then I could see his grin in the moonlight. He stood up and pulled me up with him, and then he wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me up, twirling the two of us around a few times. Then he pressed his lips to mine, and I knew for sure that I had found the love of my life. I knew now that Fate had indeed stepped in, and this time I wasn’t going to fuck it up. I was going to be with the man with whom I was meant to be.
Our two weeks of spring break passed in the blink of an eye, and we were so contentedly happy being off the grid that we decided to stay through Sunday, cutting it close since we had to get back to work on Monday.