20. Gisele
Miracle and I were already making our way down the front steps when Jamison pushed his way through the front gate. To say I was surprised when he messaged me earlier in the morning asking if Miracle and I wanted to join him for a picnic lunch. However, what surprised me more was the ugliest but cutest little dog that was at Jamison’s heels.
Laughing just because I was happy to see Jamison after a week of not seeing him, I let go Miracle who was shaking off my hand so she could run to what looked like a … Pug?
“Hey, you, who is this fury creature you have with you?” mentally making myself walk slowly towards him and not give into the urge to run and jump into his arms.
An urge I only started having since Jamison came to town.
Jamison gave me a big sexy smile, one that made my heart go pitter patter. Today his scruff was longer than the last time I saw him, and my fingers itched to scratch through it. Instead, I concentrated on watching my daughter roll around with the dog whose tongue seemed to live outside of its mouth.
“This is Optimus, my extremely ugly, and grumpy Pug,” Jamison introduced his dog who was busy letting Miracle love all over him. Ugly most definitely, but grumpy? Not that I could see.
Jamison let out a chuckle, one that again did weird things to my heart, “He is grumpy with everyone except Miracle, something I discovered last night at guys night.”
Oh lord. All night I tossed and turned worrying about what went on at guys night. When dad came back to the house with a sleeping Miracle in his arms, putting her to bed for me he had nothing to say. Not a single damn word. I called Claudia this morning and she said Josh had been the same. Ditto with Dani. It was the Blessing women who were meant to keep secrets and scheme, not our men. Not that Jamison was my man, no way, but … I really, really liked him. And him spending time with Jock gave me heart palpations and not in a good way.
“Yeah, I heard you got an invite,” I hedged, biting my lip, deciding whether to interrogate or simply ask how it went.
“Lose the frown Gisele,” Jamison laughed, “I survived the night just fine. See,” he held out his arms letting me see his magnificent tee shirt covered chest. “No bruises, no stab marks.” I wished he would take off the shirt, you know to confirm for sure, but maybe not in front of my kid.
Getting a glimpse of the picnic basket hanging from one very muscular arm, I felt a zap of excitement. He was serious when he said a picnic lunch.
“So, we really are going for a picnic?” I echoed my thought out loud, unable to keep the incredibility out of my voice. Never had I ever been asked out, let alone on a picnic.
“Gisele,” Jamison sighed frustrated, putting the basket down on the grass, bending at the knees enough so our faces were level. “I never ever say anything I don’t mean. I don’t offer to do something I don’t want to do, and more importantly I don’t play games with people’s emotions. If I say I want to take you and Miracle on a picnic I mean it. Got it?” His blue eyes as serious as I had seen them so far.
My lungs refused to let out a breath, hearing such amazing wonderfully truthfulness, all I could manage was a nod and a strange squeak.
Smiling at me, he picked up the basket and handed the leash that was attached to Optimus to Miracle and to me he held out his hand.
“Ready?”
It took me all of two seconds to accept his hand and smiled when his fingers laced through mine.
“Ready,” I croaked. This was all so new to me, I secretly hoped like hell Jamison meant every word he said, because I wasn’t so sure I would survive if it turned out to be a line he used on other women. I’d been crushed once and that had been the end of relationships for me. Jamison was different, for the first time since I was sixteen, I didn’t want to run away in the safer direction. This time I wanted to run in Jamison’s direction.
“You know I have never seen a town set out the way Blessings is,” Jamison commented looking around the park, taking in the gardens and the rotunda my great grandfather-built way back in the day.
“I told you my dad’s great grandfather came down from Queensland when he heard there was a tapped gold deposit in the area, right?” I asked and receiving a nod because he had just taken a huge bite of the massive meat sandwiches he ordered from Dani’s.
“Well, he decided to build this town in a similar style as the one he grew up in. It’s why most of the houses are Queenslanders, and the main street is halved into two by the park. The side of the street our grocery and houses are on is one way only and the other side of the park where the firehouse and school is also one way. The roads at the end connect so there is no need for U-turns, traffic lights or roundabouts.”
“And the bridge? It really is the only way in or out of Blessings?”
“Yes, again my great, great grandfather’s idea. According to Jock, his dad told him that his grandfather was a nosy old bastard and liked knowing who was coming and going at all times. It’s the main reason we don’t get semi’s coming through town. The bridge was well built but no way will it hold a semi-trailer.”
“So how does the town get its supplies. Your grocery store?” Jamison was really tossing out the questions and I was enjoying answering them. I was known unofficially as Blessings historian, years of being left alone at school at lunch and recess meant I spent a lot of time in the library with old Mrs Hogg. She knew my grandfather when they were in their teens and even had a little fling together before he met and married my nana.
“The bridge holds smaller light trucks, and we also have an airfield behind the woods and old gold diggings. That’s how the town’s petrol is delivered, Josh runs the mechanics and has three pumps as well. It’s different way of doing things, some might say a bit backwards, but we like it.”
I was only halfway through my first half of my sandwich when Jamison finished his second one. Miracle was busy feeding her lunch to Optimus, whom I feared she was going to con me into letting stay at our house. I was pretty sure the pub owner was going to have a problem with letting the Pug stay for as long as Jamison was in town.
“I don’t blame you,” Jamison said breaking into my silent thoughts. He was staring at me with so much … interest, it made me squirm both in a good way and a bad way.
“Why do you do that?” Jamison asked suddenly, “you seem uncomfortable with me looking at you, but your eyes and the pulse at your throat tells me you like it.” His directness was something I wasn’t used to, but I appreciated it. Normally people of Blessings stuttered and stammered around me, never looking me in the eyes as if they might be struck down by the curse.
Feeling my face redden with my ever-present blush, I avoided eye contact, but Jamison wasn’t having any of that. Using his thumb and index finger he gently lifted my chin and turned my face, so our eyes were level. I was starting to get that he was an eye contact kind of person, probably due to his job but it was going to take a while to get used to.
“You have the prettiest blush I have ever seen,” he whispered, his face so close to mine I could feel the warmth of his breath.
“I do it a lot according to my family,” I admitted softly, enjoying his touch and his sweet compliment.
“I don’t want you to feel uneasy around me Gisele, I know I can be very direct but that is because I don’t believe in bullshitting. In my thirty-three years I’ve had two serious relationships, both ended because of my job, and I’ve already told you I don’t play games, so there hasn’t been the time or the inclination for a one nightstand.”
Nodding, I let Jamison continue without interrupting him.
“I like you, Gisele. I have since the minute I laid eyes on you. Seeing you half naked the other day is all I can see when I close my eyes. The way you looked at me, like you wanted me to touch you. Damn that memory will stay with me till I close my eyes for the last time. I mean it Gisele; I really like you.”
“Same,” I admitted shyly but this time holding eye contact with him.
“I know I’m here for reasons that may or may not involve foul play. And your family is part of the investigation, but I want you to know I don’t believe for a second Jock or Elle or anyone in your family has anything to do with Cunningham’s disappearance. I don’t know how long I’m going to be in Blessings, but if you are interested, I would like to spend a lot more time with you while I’m here. And with Miracle.”
Out of everything Jamison just said to me, all of it amazing, it was that he included my daughter in his interest to get to know not just me better but Miracle as well. Her own father could barely manage to spare two days every fortnight with his daughter.
I loved Jamison’s forthrightness, and his honesty about his previous relationships. The no games, no bullshit was also really amazing. So, could I do the same and be just as open and honest about my feelings and the insecurities I carried around with me most of my life?
Being honest meant telling him about the Blessing women curse also. Not a fun conversation to have with anyone let alone the man I really, really wanted to do wicked things to me. Things I’d only read about, considering I’d only had sex once in my life and that had not exactly rocked my world, just knocked me up.
Taking in a deep breath, I dug down deep inside me and found that piece of me I kept hidden. Mirroring Jamison’s hold on my chin, except I allowed my fingernails to do what I had been aching to do since I met him. The scruff covering his chin and jaw was softer than I imagined it to be. Though I had no idea why I had such a thought. Touching him like this was so much different than a handshake or him putting his hand gently on the small of my back when he guided me through a doorway was so much more.
Jamison eyes held me captive while his fingers covered mine holding them in place.
“So, yes?” he asked me, his tone hopeful.
All it took was that hope, and his lips curling into a smile under my fingertips for me to jump.
“Yes.” I whispered, happiness bubbling inside me that only my baby girl and my had the power to do. “Absolutely yes.”
Very aware that we had an audience, I dropped my hands and sat them on Jamison’s broad shoulders.
“Maybe our first kiss should be without my child watching us?” I suggested with a laugh. “The first thing she will do is run and tell Georgina, and that is something you are not ready for Detective Jury, trust me.” Just the thought of Georgina hearing that Jamison and I kissed would drive her into a wedding stupor. It gave me the shivers just thinking about it.
“Fair enough,” Jamison agreed, smiling over at Miracle who was still busy feeding the pug anything and everything from the picnic basket.
“Ellie is going to super pissed when she finds out Dutch, her pampered Chihuahua has some major competition,” I laughed then suddenly a thought hit me, making me laugh even more.
“Care to let me in on the joke?” Jamison quired looking amused and delighted all the same time.
“Your dog is named Optimus.”
“And?”
“My cat’s name is Bumble, after Bumble Bee.”
Jamison took all of two seconds before joining in with the laughter, even Miracle thought it was funny. Her little shoulders shaking up and down.
One day my sweet girl, one day you will let me hear you laugh and when you do it will be the second-best day of my life.