“I don’t understand. The man had you half-naked, panting and willing.” Jasper reiterated what I’d told him.
“Mmm-hmm,” I agreed.
“And you were breaking your six-dates-to-sex rule for him, and he got up when things were getting good and just...left.”
My stomach twisted into knots. “Yep.”
“And he gave you no indication he wasn’t into what you were doing?”
I nodded and leaned my arms over my cart and pushed it next to his while we walked down the linens aisle. Definitely not the most fun part of the store, which was why we’d tackled the necessities first. Because the second Jasper and I hit the cookware all hell was gonna break loose. We loved buying kitchen items and could easily spend a full day in that section alone.
He pursed his lips and stopped his cart, putting a hand at his hip, his long fingers curling around a pair of sienna-colored jeans. On his feet were kick-ass motorcycle boots that I very much wished were in my size in the event I could wear them when riding on the back of Kyson’s motorcycle. If I ever got the chance.
My shoulders slumped farther toward the cart. I hoped I got the chance.
Jasper wore a black stretchy tee that had a big white diagonal stripe slanted across the front that molded to his athletic, lean, yet still muscular build. His frosted blond hair was in a faux hawk and in one ear was a long, dangling silver arrow earring. As always, he looked fabulous and he knew it.
“If a guy I was into was shirtless, his pants undone and I had my mouth over the cotton of his secret treasure, there would be no way in hell I’d be torn away for any reason,” he stated rather dramatically.
I shrugged and even that movement ached. “Maybe he’s just not that into me. Maybe he thinks I’m a hoochie who gives it up on the first date and now isn’t interested.”
Jasper guffawed and made a snort-like noise. “Puh-leeze. Every man that looks at you thinks you’re the cat’s meow. Babe, I keep telling you this. You’re ridiculously gorgeous with a body that doesn’t quit. Men like that type of thing. I know this. I’m a man. Albeit a gay man but even I know when a woman is all that and a bag of chips. A person would have to be dead to not find you incredibly appealing inside and out. Please, please, please, don’t even go there because, honey, it vexes me.”
That time I made a snorty noise. “Vexes you?”
His face lit up. “I’ve been reading one of the old romance novels on the bookshelf that was left in my place and the hero uses words like vexes and arse and fortnight. It’s fabulous. I’ll give it to you after I’m done. I need to find out if Lord Hemingford nails down Countess Beatrice and they get their happily-ever-after.”
I laughed. “Either way, I don’t know what to think, Jas. I’ve never been in this predicament before.”
He nodded and started to push his cart again over to the bathroom section. I yawned. Borrrrriiiiingg. Me, I just picked the first thing that caught my eye, which was a seahorse-shaped liquid soap dispenser. It was a rainbow of colors and I thought it was funny. I put it in my cart along with two yellow towels, two bright blue and two rose-colored ones. I figured why not be bright and cheery. It was a bathroom.
Jasper, however, spent a good, long time assessing every possible theme and then mixing them up, creating the perfect collage of colors, materials, shapes and sizes that would not only be interesting to look at when you were taking care of your bathroom business, they would also show how much attention to detail he gave to his belongings.
I looked down at my lonely seahorse and boring towels. Maybe that was my problem. Kyson found me boring and uninteresting.
“There’s also the issue of the mysterious Hope that Camden’s brother Porter mentioned in passing. It’s entirely possible that he’s dating several women and I was just one in a line of them. It’s not as though we agreed that we’d only date one another. We’re nowhere near that type of commitment.”
Jasper frowned and tapped at his chin. “True. I guess it could be possible, but then again it could be that the mysterious Hope is his sister or a friend that he likes to have casual dinners with. You don’t know until you ask. Why didn’t you ask?”
I lifted a shoulder. “It felt intrusive. If he wanted me to know about this woman, then he’d have told me. Porter didn’t say the name conspiratorially or try to hide it in any way.”
He pointed a jaunty finger at me. “Exactly. Which proves my point that it’s likely not another woman he’s seeing but someone who’s just currently in his life.”
“Like an ex,” I surmised pitifully.
“Like an ex,” Jasper repeated instantly and then winced. “Boooo. It actually could be an ex. That scenario does not fit into my ‘happy hunk-a-licious Kyson for my bestie’ world so I’m going to immediately kick that option to the curb.”
I laughed and it perked me up a little from my foul mood. “I guess it’s that it was embarrassing. I mean, here I was bearing all, literally, and he left me high and dry.”
“Sounds like he left you wet and wanting.” Jasper snorted.
“Jas!” I fired off and looked around to make sure that no one else was in hearing distance of our conversation.
“It’s true.”
“Be that as it may, I don’t want you spreading that around willy-nilly. I’m already mortified.”
He nodded.
“Well...?”
He sighed. “Well what?”
I groaned. “What would you do if you were me?”
Jasper tipped his head to the side and then walked over to me and put both of his hands on my shoulders. “Izzy, I’m not you. You’re sweet and soft and kind. Your heart is bigger than anyone else’s I know. Me, I’d blow him off. Find another hot guy and strut that man around in front of his face, showing him exactly what he left hanging out to dry.”
I closed my eyes and the misery took over once again. “I really like him. Really, really, really like him.”
His glossy lips pitched into a deep frown before he brought me into his arms. I wrapped mine around his waist as he spoke softly. “If you like him that much, you give him the benefit of the doubt. You said he sounded sincerely sorry and he’d explain at a later date. Let him. See if what he says fixes everything.” He pulled back and grabbed a wayward lock of my hair between two of his fingers and eased it behind my ear. “Just don’t get your hopes up, babe.”
I inhaled full and deep and then let it out slowly. “Okay. That’s good advice. I’ll do that.”
And just as he smiled and dipped forward and kissed my nose, my phone buzzed, announcing I had a text. I tugged the phone out of my small purse that I’d set on the kid seat in the cart and checked the display.