CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Four Months Later
Charley
I haven’t had a low day since we went to the cemetery. My life won’t consist of cupcakes and sunshine, but the gray fog tinting my life with its murky haze has finally lifted. For the first time in four years, I don’t feel like I’m breathing through corrupted lungs.
Revealing the truth was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. But when I started, the words slipped out with an easy cadence, as if each syllable carried my broken heart away with them.
Jude and I have been inseparable ever since. The bond we forged that day in the cemetery can’t be broken, and I’ll be eternally grateful that he pushed me to take the next step. I have no doubt I would have eventually found my way to the light, but when I’m around Jude, my life glows brighter, and he led me there much quicker than if I had tried to find it on my own.
We’re walking to meet Bennett and Naomi for brunch like we do on most Sunday mornings. The air still holds a bit of a chill even though spring is starting to invade the city. I’ve never been a “spring” kind of girl, but this year, for once, my life seems to parallel the changing seasons. Jude’s hand wraps around mine in a secure grip and I slide my gaze over to take him in. He’s dressed down in worn jeans, and a long sleeved tee-shirt, rolled up to his forearms. That short, sexy stubble is ever present, toughening his already gorgeous appearance. His soft blue eyes catch me staring and I smile wide, proud of being caught ogling the man that I get to call mine.
“Can I help you, Ms. Whitlock?” he asks with a dubious smirk.
“Oh, I’m merely observing,” I offer innocently. With a knowing smile, I turn back to the street, exuding confidence and ease. I wish we could sneak away somewhere before breakfast. Normally Jude wakes me up early enough so that we can make love before starting the day, but we both overslept, leaving me desirous and greedy.
He narrows one of his eyes skeptically, “Mhm, yeah. Your eyes say differently.”
My hip bumps into him teasingly, “Enlighten me.”
He rubs his chiseled jaw. “They have a little heat behind them, like you want to cut this breakfast short.”
I toss my head back and laugh because he’s absolutely right. “You’re lucky I let you leave the apartment at all.”
“Mrs. Jenkins thinks I’m your sex slave,” he teases with a wicked grin.
“What?! Yeah, right. She’s half in love with you herself,” I point out with raised brows.
He shrugs nonchalantly, “She didn’t like me at first.”
“I know. You brought me home drunk,” I joke.
“That’s not the way I remember it… but sure thing, Angel.” He tugs me into his side, wrapping his arm around my waist.
I’d stay in this little cocoon all day if I could. “She’s been hounding me about being home more,” I admit as I recall our conversation from earlier this week. Most nights Jude and I stay together, but since his apartment has a king size bed, we usually end up staying there.
I feel his head nod above me. “Should I invite her to my apartment with us?”
I laugh, “She’d probably enjoy it.”
“We’d get some of her awesome coffee cake,” he points out, as if actually contemplating the silly idea.
“Sounds like a win-win.”
Suddenly, his body stops propelling us forward and he tugs me back beneath the awning of a nearby shop.
“What is it?” I ask. The shop hasn’t opened yet and the linked security bars clink together behind us as I stare up toward him. His expression is completely indiscernible, but I quell the nerves beginning to spread through me.
He tugs a hand through his unruly hair and I fight the urge to twirl my finger through the strands in his wake. “Charley, before we get there I need to talk to you about something.”
“Wow. That sounds ominous,” I quip, trying to lighten the mood, but my eyebrows still bunch together in concern. “What’s up?”
He takes a deep breath and wraps his arms around my waist so that our lower bodies are connected. His hand starts rubbing small circles on my back as he speaks, “You know how the magazine called me last month to offer me a freelance position?”
“Yes…” I answer hesitantly, no longer able to push the uneasiness aside. He’s leaving. When they called I knew he would have to leave, but I didn’t think it would be so soon.
He squeezes me closer, his charming gaze never faltering. “They talked to me about another opportunity, and I want to get your opinion about it.”
“You can’t leave,” I stutter, already preparing for the worst case scenario. Way to play it cool, Charley.
“Charley, pause.” His leans down to kiss me softly, but he pulls away before I can fully lose myself in the taste of him. “You haven’t even heard everything yet.”
I take a deep breath. “Okay. I’m listening.”
“They want me to do a three month assignment overseas. I’ll be traveling through various countries, but I said I would only go if I could bring along an assistant of sorts.”
My eyes go wide. Please bring me. Please say you want me to come. “What? Who are you taking with you?”
He glances down from my eyes toward my lips, and then a cheeky grin breaks across his face. “I’m only going if you come with me. It’s non-negotiable.”
“But I…” I begin to protest, for no other reason than it seems too good to be true.
“…Am painting,” he finishes. “You have enough saved from your photo shoots and you told me you wanted to take the next year off. What if you traveled with me? You could paint along the way. We could ship your canvases home as we go.”
I absorb his words. It’s too good to true. How is this my life?
He bends down, kissing the skin beneath my ear and making me break out in a bloom of goose bumps. “All I know is that I’m not going without you.”
Holy hell.
“Where would we go first?” I ask, buying myself more time to process everything.
“We’d fly into Rome.” He kisses me gently. His minty breath captures me under his spell and I feel my toes curl inside my boots.
“Then?”
“Greece.” He gives me a peck. “Turkey,” he says, adding another kiss. “Syria, Egypt— Around to Morocco, Spain, and France.”
A shiver runs down my spine as his mouth possesses me, and I know my voice sounds shaky as I ask, “Is your assignment just around the Mediterranean?”
“Yes, I’ll be shooting for a piece they’re writing about Urbanization on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. While I’m there I’ll have small assignments along the way. But we’ll be traveling at our own pace. After I get the photos I need at each location, we can explore until we’re ready to move onto the…”
I cut him off midway through his sentence as I leap up into his arms. My mind was made up the moment he said he was leaving the country, but I had to let it sink in. My arms wrap around his neck and my feet dangle a foot or so off the ground as he holds me like a ragdoll. “Yes. Absolutely yes. When do we leave?”
“You’ll come with me?”
“Yes!”
His dimpled grin melts my heart and his blue eyes dance with excitement. “I haven’t confirmed with them, but it would be within the next few weeks. We can arrange everything with your apartment before then.”
This is happening. We’re going abroad together.
“I’m so excited.” Then a sudden realization sinks in. “Why did you need to tell me before we met up with Bennett and Naomi?”
His smile widens. “I want them to meet us in one of the destinations. I was going to bring it up at breakfast. The magazine just confirmed everything yesterday, and I couldn’t work up the nerve to ask you until just now.”
“Because you thought I’d say no?”
His gaze penetrates mine with easy confidence. “Oh, no,” he answers confidently. “If you had said no, I would have just invited Mrs. Jenkins.” He waggles his eyebrows playfully.
“Jude!” I swat his arm, hitting solid muscle, but he drops me back onto my feet and takes off down the street with his hand outstretched for me to latch onto. The early morning sun encases him like a golden backdrop and I have to hold my hands over my eyes like a visor to make out his silhouette.
“C’mon! We’re gonna be late for breakfast, slow poke,” he yells back to me, but I don’t budge. I stand there, telling myself to remember this moment in the back of my mind, knowing my life will never be the same.
The smile that forms on my lips nearly splits my cheeks in half as I try to contain every emotion short-circuiting through me. I was so used to the gloom, the loneliness, the pain, the fog, but this is the exact opposite.
This is blissful oblivion.