Chapter 35
NORA
“So that’s when I told them, ‘You can call me that when I’m an OBE!’”
The man across from me at The White Cloth chortles at his own joke.
He just told this long-winded story about how his father is an OBE—Order of the British Empire, which apparently is a low-rent kind of knighthood—and how it’s his primary life goal to not only become one himself, but apparently tell everyone he knows all about it for the rest of his life.
“Did you know you can sign your name ‘Richard Hatfield, OBE’ once you have the designation? It’s a silly thing, I know, but I rather like it.”
This date was the worst idea in the history of dates.
Not only is Richard a pompous ass, but he’s taken me to the stuffiest restaurant in the city, where everyone scans each person walking through the door as if to assess their value, before turning their noses up and picking delicately at their food.
The only exception is the little boy and his parents on the other side of the restaurant. They seem to be laughing and having a good time, even though their neighboring tables keep giving them withering glances for daring to have a child in the restaurant.
I’m going to personally throttle Sasha when she gets back home, for hooking me up with him.
Christian, too, whenever I see him again.
My brother was the one who suggested I go on some dates to cleanse my palate of Jude.
Sasha, meanwhile, sent me this guy’s info.
She’d apologized that she didn’t know him, but as the friend of a friend, could vouch for him not being a creep at least.
“Are you not enjoying the food?” Richard Hatfield, future-OBE, asks, seeming to notice me for the first time in the past ten minutes. He glances left and right as if worried other people might notice.
“Oh, the food’s fine,” I say. “I’ve just suddenly lost my appetite.”
“Excited about tonight then?” he asks, relaxing. “I’m so glad you reached out.”
My stomach turns at the reminder that I was the one who instigated this thus-far disaster.
Richard is supposed to be taking me to some gala his parents are hosting tonight. When he’d suggested it over email, some small, sad part of me had hoped it would be like a fairy-tale ball, that I could wear a ball gown and meet a prince—because I knew only a prince could hold a candle to Jude.
I should have known better.
The gala, Richard informed me after I’d already agreed to go, wouldn’t be a black-tie affair but a “business casual gathering” with several of his dad’s cronies.
Now I’m trying to think of a way to tell him I’m definitely going back home before midnight, because if this is what Richard’s like, I can’t imagine anyone at the party being any better.
I stop rearranging my food in front of me and lay my fork and knife down on my plate. “Richard,” I begin, knowing I need to just nip this in the bud.
But across the room, that little boy with his parents, dressed up in an adorable sweater vest and trouser situation, catch my eye. His dad, I notice for the first time, is wearing a matching bow tie.
And all I can think of is Cap and Jude. That’s totally something Jude would do.
But I know I can enjoy my life without Jude. That day with Cap and Farrah, even with reminders of Jude right in my face, was wonderful. A thousand times better than tonight.
“Richard, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to be able to come to your party tonight.”
Richard laughs. “That’s a laugh. Keeping me on my toes, eh?”
“No, I’m serious,” I say.
Richard’s face falls. “Why not?”
My first thought is the one I didn’t think I was thinking but comes up bright and shiny to the forefront. Because I’m in love with Jude Kelly.
The thought is so real, Jude appears before me like an apparition, making my heart clench.
“There’s someone else,” I blurt out. I’d planned on making something up, but now I can’t stop staring at the man I thought was Jude who’s just burst into the restaurant from outside. What can I say, I’m inspired.
“Are you serious?” Richard’s hissing the words at me, leaning down and shading his face with his hand.
But I’m not looking at him. I squint, the words I was looking for drying up in my throat, because the man who just came in is crossing the restaurant, and if I’m not mistaken, he’s heading directly for us.
“Nora!” Jude shouts, so loud that the heads that weren’t already turned his way have now joined the rest.
“No,” I whisper. I’m so stunned I can’t say anything. He’s here. He came. For me.
Jude arrives at our table, leaning on it with his fingers, his eyes pinned on me.
His expression is filled with an intensity I’ve seen before on him, the last time we spoke in my hotel room.
Only it’s different. There’s no angst there.
No confusion. They’re clear. He smiles at me and my heart flutters like a bird.
I almost laugh, it feels so free.
Jude looks over at my date, then back at me. “Is he important to you?”
“Excuse me!” Richard says, aghast. “Sir—”
“With respect, I wasn’t talking to you,” Jude says, sparing him a quick glance.
Jude’s wearing a suit. It’s black and trim and damp at the shoulders from the rain outside. His slicked-back hair, too, is glistening with beads of water. Rain even clings to his beautiful full eyelashes.
“No,” I say, my voice cracking. “No, he’s kind of dull.” I look across at Richard. “Sorry.”
Richard moves his mouth like a fish.
“I’m really sorry, guy. I know this isn’t cool, but please, can you get the fuck out? I’ll pay for your food.”
It’s this that has Richard snapping his jaw shut. “I don’t need assistance with the bill,” he huffs. “Is he serious, Nora?”
“It sounds like it.”
“Is this the other man?” Richard stands up abruptly. He leans in, whispering harshly, “Would have been nice to know before I went to the trouble of procuring you a ticket for this absolutely exclusive event.”
Then he spins on his heel, and storms from the room.
I think I know why he didn’t have a date two days ahead of this thing. I feel guilty, somewhere, but when I turn back to Jude, it washes away like water.
“Can I sit?” Jude asks.
I nod.
He slides his long, lean form into the spot where Richard was sitting.
“Jude, what are you doing here?”
“I came because it’s not okay.”
“What’s not okay?” My heart thunders in my chest.
“When you left. You said it would be okay.” Jude reaches across the table but hesitates. “Can I—?”
I nod.
He takes my hands in his. They’re warm and dry and make my skin zing with the current of our connection. I knew I would never feel this way with anyone else. I knew it with my whole heart.
“Nora, I was scared shitless. Still am. It was one of those bad times where I didn’t know what to say. But I’ve done a lot of thinking—and talking—over the past three weeks and I know what to say now.”
He leans in, and the simple gesture of speaking low enough so the rest of the restaurant doesn’t hear is so thoughtful, so him knowing me—that I feel my heart fall like a rock in a river, tumbling through clear water to its rightful place in the stream.
“Can I tell you or do you want to say anything first? You can say anything to me, Nora, anything. Even get lost.”
He winces slightly at those words, but I know it’s true. He’d do whatever I want, I know it in my heart that’s already his.
“I don’t want you to get lost,” I whisper.
“Okay then.” He gives me that broad smile and those kind eyes with more depth than anyone gives him credit for.
“Well, here it is. I love you, Nora Albright. I’m in love with you and I have been for a long time.
I just didn’t know it, because I didn’t know what love was.
Or I was in denial. I think it’s why I kissed you that day you said you were leaving.
It’s why I made every excuse I could to walk by that screen when you were talking to Cap, needing desperately to get just the barest glimpse of you.
It’s why I want to kiss you now, and it’s why I want to kiss you for the rest of your life, to when our hair goes silver and every part of our life together is a warm and beautiful memory.
” Jude swallows. “I want you to be my son’s mom, and I want to make more—” He cuts himself off.
“I want to make more babies with you, Nora, but I know that’s a lot, especially when you haven’t said anything because I’ve been rambling this whole time and—
I stand up then, nearly knocking my glass over as I reach across the table and grab his suit lapels. I pull Jude’s handsome face toward mine and when my lips are only inches from his, I whisper, “Tell me again. The very first thing.”
Jude grins.
I melt.
“I love you, Nora.”
“I love you too,” I whisper. Then I pull him hard against me, pressing my lips to his. This is the man I love, and I’m brave right now not because he loves me, but because he helped me remember I already was.
“Damn, Shotgun Annie,” he says after I break the kiss. “You realize everyone’s staring at us, right?”
“And they’re too damn polite to applaud,” I say.
So Jude backs up and does it for us, clapping like a madman while I laugh, my cheeks hot with embarrassment. “Oh my God, Jude.”
“Sorry.” He grimaces. “Forgot I was supposed to play it quiet.”
“It’s okay. You can embarrass me just this once.”
The diners look much more mortified than I feel, all except that young boy in the sweater vest. He’s grinning like a little angel. His parents are too.
Jude sees where I’m looking and gives a little salute, and the parents gasp as they must realize who he is.
Then Jude takes my hand, squeezing it tight as he leads me from the restaurant. “Come on, Annie,” Jude says. “You think that was embarrassing, wait till I show you the rest of our lives!”