Chapter 20
JASMINE
The first thing I noticed when I woke up was sand. It had somehow found its way into every nook and cranny of the bed, the blankets, my clothes, and even all the way up to under my arms. I wrinkled my nose and rubbed some grains off my cheek before opening my eyes.
Morning sunlight filtered through the canvas, the desert sand outside glowing in patches like gold.
I smiled but then slowly realized I wasn’t alone when the mattress shifted ever so slightly.
Last night came tumbling back into my head all at once, the upgrade, the kiss, and everything that had happened after.
My heart suddenly catapulted itself into a higher gear as I slowly turned my head to find Isaac already awake. He’d pushed himself up to sit with his back against the headboard, one knee bent with his phone resting on it while his fingers moved quickly across the screen.
His brow was furrowed, his jaw tight with concentration. The soft, early rays of sunshine highlighted the lighter strands of blond in his messy hair, some grains of sand still plastered to his temple and below his ear.
Somehow, despite the sand and the concentration, he was even more attractive than usual. His light blue shirt was back on but the top few buttons were open. His head tilted every so often before he’d make another note.
“What are you staring at?” he asked suddenly, a slight curve appearing on his lips a fraction of a second before those eyes cut to mine. “It’s been at least thirty seconds.”
“I wasn’t staring. I was just waking up, but I’ll try to do it a little less disruptively from now on.”
“Nah, you’re okay.” He flashed me a warm smile and my stomach flipped in response. “How’d you sleep?”
“Like a log. You?” I pushed myself up to sit next to him and peered over at his screen. “Are you looking at girls in bikinis?”
“No, I woke up with an idea and I couldn’t risk losing it.” He grinned and angled the phone a little more toward me, revealing sketches, calculations, and digital plans for something, but it made no sense to me beyond broad shapes and elegant lines.
“What is it?”
“That big project I’m working on for your dad.”
“Right.” I leaned in a little closer, but unless I was missing something, that didn’t look like any industrial complex I’d ever seen. “There’s a courtyard.”
He pressed his fingers to the screen and zoomed in a bit. “That’s the central courtyard, but there are few more.”
“That’s sounds surprisingly pleasant for a place where heavy machinery is supposed to be operated.” I scratched absently at my forearm, chuckling when I saw him frown at me. “What?”
“You’re itchy too?”
“It’s the sand,” I said. “We brought half the desert in here with us last night.”
“Yeah.” He locked his phone and set it down on the little wooden box next to the bed doubling as a nightstand. “It feels like we slept right there on that dune.”
“In a way, I think we did.” I lifted the blanket and pointed at a little line of sand along a ridge in the sheets. “Look, I found it. Our own personal dune.”
He laughed. “That’s just one of them. I found another one in my hair.”
As I slid my legs to the side to get up, I suddenly realized that waking up with him hadn’t been awkward at all. There was no lingering weirdness after those kisses, we weren’t avoiding each other’s eyes, and somehow, things were as easy between us as always.
Imagine that, just us, waking up itchy and laughing about it. I wasn’t sure I’d ever had such a drama-free, morning-after experience.
“Do you mind if I use the washroom first?” I asked as I stood up from the bed.
“Go for it,” he said absently. Those blue eyes were warm when he finally lifted them to mine. “I’ll head in when you’re done.”
I nodded, quickly taking my turn in the tiny, very rudimentary bathroom attached to the tent. After basically only changing and brushing my teeth, I splashed some water on my face and smiled at him when I walked out.
“It’s all yours.”
He was still sitting exactly where I’d left him, focused on his phone again, but he blinked hard a couple times when he looked back up. “Already? I figured you for one of those people who take two hours just to floss.”
“Well, you figured wrong,” I said, then sighed. “Okay, not that wrong, but I know how to be quick when I have to, and besides, it’s not like there’s a spa tub or a fancy shower in there.”
“Fair enough.” He chuckled, slowly setting his phone aside before rising.
Approximately ninety seconds later, he emerged from the washroom too.
Our shoulders brushed as we packed the few things we’d taken out back into our bags.
“You really did have a point about it not having anything fancy, but still. It’s pretty cool that we had an en-suite in the middle of the desert. ”
“My thoughts exactly.” I lifted my arms and tied my hair up with the elastic band I’d snapped around my wrist in the washroom, feeling my cheeks heat slightly when Isaac stared at me like he was fascinated by what I was doing. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
A slight smile crept onto his lips as he held my gaze. “I could ask you the same thing, but before we fall into an endless loop, let’s just remember that we need to get to breakfast. The bus will be leaving soon.”
He stood with his back toward the desert, framed by the open canvas flap of our tent, wearing navy shorts and a button shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
With sandals on his feet and sunglasses hooked into his collar, he looked like any other tourist I’d seen over the years, but he also seemed comfortable here.
I inclined my chin, allowing him to take my overnight bag instead of carrying it myself.
We left our little tent together, joining the group for one last meal together.
The ride that had brought us out here was long gone, so Isaac and I headed back with the others on the rickety bus, bouncing our way down the dusty road and nearly ending up on each other’s laps whenever there was a bump, which was constantly.
“I’m pretty sure its suspension is held together by nothing but optimism,” Isaac said, looking ridiculously happy about it. “It’s got some real character.”
Once again, he turned to stare out the window as the Sinai slowly gave way to the outskirts of Sharm El-Sheikh. The sea shimmered in the distance. Meanwhile, I just stared at him.
“Tell me about the project you’re working on,” I said finally. “You’re designing an industrial complex with Joseph, but that’s about all I know about it. I definitely wasn’t expecting courtyards, but I’m curious now.”
He chuckled, resting an elbow against the window as he finally turned back toward me. “I wasn’t expecting courtyards either, but as soon as I got here, I realized we couldn’t not have them.”
“Why not?”
“Courtyards belong here.” He shrugged, his gaze far away for a beat. “With this project, I have the opportunity to be creative in a way I never did back home. I can really just let my mind go and see what I can come up with, and that’s…”
“The dream?” I smiled. “My father is letting you do whatever you think is best, isn’t he?”
“Yeah.” He glanced at me with amusement dancing in his eyes. “As long as I don’t blow his budget to kingdom come, remember?”
I chuckled. “I’m glad he’s so supportive, but I’m not surprised. For a businessman, he really does admire innovation and creativity, especially when it’s backed by talent.”
“I’m starting to see that,” he said, that same passionate light I’d seen before igniting in his eyes. “It’s just hard to believe sometimes that I could be here for years, managing the construction of the complex from the engineering side.”
My heart jerked. “Years? What happened to it being only one year?”
“That was my deal with my sister,” he said.
“I asked her to give me a year to decide if I wanted to stay, but I do want to. I wasn’t sure before I got here, but now, I honestly don’t think I ever want to leave.
I mean, I know Basel is your father, so you know him in a whole different way, but so far, working for him has been everything I’ve ever wanted. ”
“Are you serious?” I had so, so many questions, but that seemed to be a good place to start. “You want to stay in Egypt?”
“Well, yeah,” he said confidently. “If your dad approves those plans Joseph and I have been drawing up, I don’t see myself going anywhere at least until that complex is done, but Basel has already mentioned a few others too.”
Years I could have of this. With him. I glanced down at my hands as the realization settled in.
All this time, I’d thought it was a sure thing that he’d be leaving after one year at most, but now, the opposite seemed true.
Isaac and I would have time to connect and to grow.
We might even have enough time to talk about a future together.
The mere thought of it almost made me squeal out loud. Last night, that had been the first thing I’d thought with the sand under my feet and my heart racing in my ears. That I can’t afford to put myself in a situation where I’m at risk of falling in love with him. Because he’d be leaving soon.
But now?
Could it really be possible? A life with a man like him?
I thought about my sister and how she’d managed it, to fall in love with an American and to build a life she’d never expected with him. Could both Saad daughters really end up married to a Thayer?
The idea felt pretty impossible, but at the same time, it was almost too easy to imagine it, a home split between Cairo and Chicago.
Our children would grow up with both Arabic and English around the dinner table, as comfortable in the streets of one city as they were in the other.
We’d have summers in Egypt and snowy winter mornings in America.
In my mind, the life Isaac and I could build together would be filled with love, warmth, and adventure. What a dream.
The feeling that invaded my chest as I thought about it was as warm as the summer sun, and I carried that warmth all the way back to our house. He and I could have a future together, and it could be everything I’d ever dreamed of.
Is that even really possible, both of us getting to have our dreams come true on a personal and professional level? It can’t be. Can it?
Our taxi had barely rolled to a stop outside the front door when my father came striding out. As soon as his gaze met mine through the window, I knew he was here for me, but when I climbed out of the car, he confirmed it.
“Can I have a word with you?” he asked. “In private?”
Isaac climbed out and walked around to the trunk. “I’ve got the bags.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely,” he said easily. “I’ll catch up with you later. I desperately need a shower and I had another idea on the bus, so I’m going to sketch it out before it disappears.”
I smiled. “Good luck with that.”
He nodded, but our eyes held for just one lingering second before I turned away.
I immediately knew my father had noticed. He raised his eyebrows at me, but I pretended nothing had happened and preceded him inside.
“What’s up?” I asked, pausing in the foyer to look at him once he’d followed me in. “What did you want to talk about?”
“Let’s go sit down,” he said, motioning toward the terrace outside his office. “This is not a conversation we’re going to have only a few feet away from the door.”
As he said it, my stomach sank and I knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that all the butterflies I’d been feeling about my budding romance were about to have their wings clipped—or potentially even yanked right off.