CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
After introducing Tish to the boutique owner, who was eager to help, JJ waited in his Bentley as he fielded calls from the judges under his command and other associates weighing in. But he was adamantly refused all calls from the press.
Forty minutes later, Tish came out, accompanied by the owner and three salesladies, as they stuffed JJ’s trunk with all of the bags of clothes he had purchased for her. They also placed her hanging clothes on the backseat.
JJ continued on the phone as Tish thanked the ladies and then got in on the front seat in a beautiful, above-the-knee sleeveless black dress that made her gorgeous skin
sparkle. JJ stopped talking mid-sentence when she sat on his front passenger seat. The way that dressed hugged her curves made her look like the sexiest woman alive to him. Especially when he thought about what he did to those curves in his bedroom and in that shower. “I’ll call you back,” he said to the associate he was talking to, and then ended the call.
Then he smiled. Tish grinned. She truly enjoyed her shopping trip.
“You look all grownup now,” JJ said. “More like my age now.”
“I look that old?” she fired back.
She said it so unexpectedly that JJ wasn’t sure if she was joking. Then she smiled that angelic smile, and he knew she was.
“Now let’s go turn this mother out,” she said, and JJ laughed out loud. She made him giddily happy. No woman, ever, had managed to do that.
When they arrived at the exclusive Scottsdale Golf and Country Club, and before he allowed the valets to open their doors, he turned to Tish. “Assholes can be everywhere.”
Tish nodded her head. “I know that’s right.”
“But what I want you to know is that they’re in abundance here.”
Tish looked at him.
“Remember your term farty tardy?”
She smiled. “Yes, I remember.”
“On steroids here. In every way. And not just class issues either. You understand?”
“In other words,” she said, “they don’t have any members of color here.”
JJ exhaled. “That is correct.”
Tish continued to stare at him. “And you don’t care?”
“Of course I care! I would have preferred diversity. But Scottsdale isn’t very diverse to begin with. And members must live in Scottsdale.”
Tish understood that. So why was he going out of his way to tell her that? “Okay.”
Although she had that tough look about her, and JJ liked that, he also could see in her eyes that she was tired of being forced to be tough all the time. “You want to leave?” he asked her.
“No way. We just got here. I’m not letting them run me away because of their hangups. I’m good. Just so long I know who I’m dealing with, I’m good.”
“You’re dealing with assholes, as I said,” JJ said and Tish laughed. “But don’t worry. I’m the richest man in town. They won’t disrespect you.”
Tish gave him the side eye. “I didn’t know judges were that rich.”
“They aren’t. I was a very successful K Street attorney before I left that life behind and moved to Florida.”
Tish had heard of K Street before, but she didn’t know much about it. “Isn’t that in DC?”
“The place where they capitalize on capitalism, yes. I made my fortune there then got the hell out before I lost my moral compass, which would have been easy to do.”
Tish stared at him. “Your morality is important to you.” She said it like a statement, rather than a question.
JJ nodded. “Very important to me. I was only thirty when I left. I had just been named one of the top attorneys in America. But that place, and that frenetic pace, was rotting me from the inside out. I moved to Florida and then a year later I was a judge. And I never looked back.”
Tish smiled and shook her head. “You’re layers and layers thick.”
“You aren’t exactly thin yourself,” he said, and they both laughed. Then they got out and went inside.
It was worst than JJ had prepared her for. As soon as he walked in with her, it seemed as if all eyes turned to them. The music didn’t stop, but the conversations became muted as everybody watched them. Some even pulled out their phones to take snapshots. They’d undoubtedly saw Manny Davis mouthing off about them, and all of that craziness on social media, but Tish held her head high. The one thing she never did was cower around bullies. Especially the kind who thought, by accident of birth, they were better than her. She followed the ma?tre d to JJ’s table like she was to the manor born and never knew any other life. JJ inwardly smiled. She was a breath of fresh air in the place, and he was honored that she was his.
Or was she?
Was he taking it too fast too soon?
Was she going to turn out to be another wolf in sheep’s clothing?
His inward smile kind of eased up. Take it slow, he said to himself. You’re still getting to know this woman. Slow your roll.
When it was clear to the watchers that they were enjoying the show, too, they stopped watching them and went on with their evening. And JJ and Tish had a blast. They ate, they danced, they laughed. And Tish realized, as they were on that dance floor slow-dragging to Celine Dion singing the Horner/Jennings-penned My Heart Will Go On, that once they ignored the gawkers, they stopped gawking.
They kept looking at each other as they danced slowly to the agonizing tune. And suddenly, their look turned from fun and games to what they could only describe as love. And they both felt the turn. Something inside of JJ connected to something inside of Tish and in that moment, maybe only for that moment, they felt as if they were one. Dancing together. Floating together. Feeling together. It was a feeling they both wanted to bottle up and keep for eternity.
“Near.
Far.
Wherever you are.
I believe that the heart does go on.
Once.
More.
You open the door.
And you’re here in my heart,
and my heart will go on.
And on.”
But then the song ended, and reality set in, and they wondered if that moment would even last the remainder of the night.