“
Reaching for his water glass, Jack rubbed his thumb over the film of condensation on the outside. Then he shot me a level glance as if taking up a challenge. “My turn,” he said.
I smiled, having fun. “You’re going to guess my perfect day? That’s too easy. All it would involve is earplugs, blackout shades, and twelve hours of sleep.”
He ignored that. “It’s a nice fall day—”
“There’s no fall in Texas.” I reached for a cube of bread with little shreds of basil embedded in it.
“You’re on vacation. There’s fall.”
“Am I by myself or with Dane?” I asked, dipping a corner of the bread into a tiny dish of olive oil.
“You’re with a guy. But not Dane.”
“Dane doesn’t get to be part of my perfect day?”
Jack shook his head slowly, watching me. “New guy.”
Taking a bite of the dense, delicious bread, I decided to humor him. “Where are New Guy and I vacationing?”
“New England. New Hampshire, probably.”
Intrigued, I considered the idea. “I’ve never been that far north.”
“You’re staying in an old hotel with verandas and chandeliers and gardens.”
“That sounds nice,” I admitted.
“You and the guy go driving through the mountains to see the color of the leaves, and you find a little town where there’s a crafts festival. You stop and buy a couple of dusty used books, a pile of handmade Christmas ornaments, and a bottle of genuine maple syrup. You go back to the hotel and take a nap with the windows open.”
“Does he like naps?”
“Not usually. But he makes an exception for you.”
“I like this guy. So what happens when we wake up?”
“You get dressed for drinks and dinner, and you go down to the restaurant. At the table next to yours, there’s an old couple who looks like they’ve been married at least fifty years. You and the guy take turns guessing the secret of a long marriage. He says it’s lots of great sex. You say it’s being with someone who can make you laugh every day. He says he can do both.”
I couldn’t help smiling. “Pretty sure of himself, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, but you like that about him. After dinner, the two of you dance to live orchestra music.”
“He knows how to dance?”
Jack nodded. “His mother made him take lessons when he was in grade school.”
I forced myself to take another bite of bread, chewing casually. But inside I felt stricken, filled with unexpected yearning. And I realized the problem: no one I knew would have come up with that day for me.
This is a man, I thought, who could break my heart.
”
”