98. Chapter 98
“Help me, Jason,” she begged the night.
Alone on the patio of a hotel room steps from the ocean, Lindsey was desperate for guidance from the one man who knew Jase best.
She reserved the room online and had the paperwork and room keys in her hand before Jase pulled cash from his weathered wallet.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he had asked.
“I got it covered,” she’d said, passing slyly behind him. “Wouldn’t want you to lose a kidney.”
She thought she was being clever reserving the room, a strong woman taking charge of her life to get the kind of night she wanted.
At least, until Jase made out with the bartender at Chums who was the piecemeal version of someone who belonged on the back of his bike, and who was already a part of his world.
While Lindsey was showering, Jase hollered through the steam that he had to leave and would meet her at the pier in an hour. Her imagination had plenty of ideas about where he went.
He’s probably smoothing things over with Chloe right now so tomorrow they can pick up where they left off.
Lindsey’s new dress swayed in the breeze around her legs.
She was at the edge of the world, the farthest from home in body and mind she’d ever been.
Home. It didn’t even sound the same, and nothing would be the same after she got back.
She couldn’t have known when she left Ohio how much she was really leaving behind.
“You’re probably rolling over in your grave by now,” she said to the night sky, to Jason.
“I’ve really gotten myself mixed up in something.
If you were alive, I’d never admit it.” A sudden gust of wind cooled her cheeks with salty air.
“I can see you in your study shaking your head, saying I should’ve known better.
Your wife didn’t though, did she? If she saw what I’ve seen out here, she would’ve been scared to fall for you too. ”
No answer. What was she expecting anyway? Another message in the journal? A lost book to fall into her lap?
“I just wish I knew what you were thinking, sending me with them. If you had a plan for Graham, then you knew I’d end up here. With Jase.”
She stepped around the patio railing and stared down the beach at the carnival lights on the pier.
Falling for Jase—and she was, wasn’t she?
—was a scene out of a Roadrunner cartoon.
Toppling headfirst over the edge of a cliff, she suddenly understood the coyote’s wide-eyed fear knowing he was about to hit the ground.
Poor, stupid thing never stood a chance.
If she spent the night with Jase the way she wanted to before the telltale lipstick, the ground would be rushing up to meet her in the morning.
And if she found him at the pier with more stains, smelling of another woman’s perfume…
“This one time, please just tell me why I’m here.” She looked the other way at the hotels dotting the shore. “Tell me what to do.”
Smoke from a cigar trailed from the down the beach, triggering the memory of last Christmas, the first time she met Jason Sr. They had shared a cigar and a glass of bourbon in his study.
She could see the books lining the shelves, lanterns flickering on the walls, and Jason behind his desk, looking curious.
“Why do you suppose it’s taken Graham so long to bring you around?” he had asked.
“He probably hasn’t made up his mind about me,” she had admitted.
“Have you made your mind up about him?”
She’d decided not to lie and said, “No, not really.”
Jason had laughed so hard he choked on cigar smoke. He’d cleared his throat with bourbon and said, “You know? I have a son you should meet.”
On the beach, a chill crept up her spine. She hadn’t given his offhand comment a second thought at the time. But tonight?
I have a son you should meet sealed her fate last December.
She ran back into the room, grabbed her purse, and headed out the door for the pier.