“You and Juicy Jesse Yummypants. Who would’ve ever thought?”
“I knew all along,” I said smugly, and Quinn laughed.
The waitress delivered our wine and we chatted and giggled.
“It’s good to see you laughing again,” Quinn said.
“It feels good, too. It was hell not knowing when I’d get to talk to Jesse again.”
“I can imagine. You two are good together.”
I nodded. “We’re better together than we are apart.”
Quinn paid for our drinks, and then we headed to the airport. I checked in for my flight about an hour and a half before takeoff (which was a little before midnight), and I walked toward my terminal. In a few short hours, I’d be back in Jesse’s arms.
I dialed his number as soon as I found my departure gate and settled into a chair by the window. The terminal was fairly empty; it seemed like ours was one of the only flights taking off so late.
“Hey, baby,” he answered, his voice sleepy.
“Hey, you,” I murmured.
“It’s nice to hear your voice.”
“Did I wake you?”
“Yeah. Trying to catch a few hours of sleep before it’s time to come get you.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Go back to sleep.”
“Next time I get into a bed, it’ll be with you.”
“I can’t wait.”
“Neither can I.”
I blushed. He didn’t even have to be in the same room as me to make me blush. Or the same state, for that matter. “I love you, Jesse Drake.”
“I love you, too, Veronica Freemont. And tomorrow I finally get to show you how much.”
We hung up and I warmed over at his words. I was ecstatic to begin my life with Jesse.
The flight took off and landed on time, and when I exited the terminal and headed toward baggage claim, I saw Jesse standing at the bottom of the escalator waiting for me, holding up a sign that read “V. Freemont.” He was gorgeous, literally taking my breath away for a moment as I waited impatiently for the escalator to bring me to him. I wanted to push the people in front of me out of the way to get to him, but I managed to restrain myself.
I smiled when I spotted him, drinking in his dark eyes that crinkled at the corners with a smile, his full, luscious lips that would soon be dragging themselves across my skin stretched into a wide grin, the silky, dark hair that was, as always, styled into manscaped perfection, the adorable excitement of a kid on Christmas morning lighting up his face. He was looking up at me, and his eyes never left mine. Even from 200 feet away, I could see the love he had for me in his eyes, and I knew that the same love was shining right back at him.
When I got to the bottom of the escalator and it was my turn to get off, I ran into his open arms.
He buried his face in my neck. “I missed you, V,” he murmured as I breathed in that scent that now somehow represented love, hope, home, and the future.
“I missed you more.”
He brought his lips to mine and kissed me softly, and then he leaned his forehead against mine. “Welcome to California,” he said.
“Good to be here,” I murmured, backing away from him to stare into his loving brown eyes and all the promises he held in them.
He took my hand in his and we walked to baggage claim. He pulled my luggage for me when it came around on the belt, and then we walked out to the parking garage and headed toward the hotel in the big black truck that still gave me flutters.
He knew we’d both be exhausted; it was three in the morning, so we went to a hotel close to the airport and crashed. “Our night” would be the next night, a time when we were well-rested and could spend as much time as we wanted just focusing on each other.
We woke up a little before noon, and my playful Jesse was back. He was spooning me, and he pushed his hips into my backside, demonstrating to me just how ready he was for action. I was ready for it, too, but not before I brushed my teeth, and not in an airport Holiday Inn Express when we had romantic wine country within an hour drive.
We got up and I showered, taking my time to shave my legs carefully and clean all the bits and pieces really well. Jesse took a little longer than normal getting ready, too, and then we checked out and went on our way.
Jesse informed me that Highway 29 was the home to most of the wineries, so we decided to drive along until we found one we wanted to tour. There were nearly 300 wineries in the area, and he knew how much I loved wine. I took in the beautiful landscape on our drive before we started seeing wineries. Jesse pulled into the parking lot of the third winery we passed and paid for a guided tour, and the two of us walked through the gift shop and chose souvenirs while we waited for our tour group to be called.