Her smile was a little short of its usual wattage. In fact, it was her polite smile, the one she used with people she hadn’t let into her life. The one Levi hadn’t seen in a while, and he stepped over the threshold, pulling the door shut behind him. “You okay?”
“Nervous.” She sat on the top porch step like her legs were wobbly.
“Me too,” Lloyd said at a decibel that suggested he might have forgotten to turn on his hearing aids. “But not for the same reason as Jane. I’m nervous because I had bologna and cheese for lunch, and bologna gives me the toots.”
“Don’t worry, Jasper will have you beat,” Levi said and crouched before Jane. “Don’t be nervous. You don’t have to be nervous. Trust me, they’re going to be nicer to you than they are to me.”
She lifted her head and nodded, studying him a moment. “You seem off too. What is it?”
How did she do it? How did she always know what was going on with him beneath the surface? No one had ever been able to read him in the same way he could pick up on her emotions. If he thought too hard about that, the meaning of that ability, it made him feel vulnerable like nothing else ever had.
“Whatever it is, tell me quick before I have a heart attack,” she said.
“Heart attack?” Lloyd put a hand to his own heart and shook his head. “No, I’m fine. I’m great.”
“Grandpa, are your hearing aids on?”
“Uh . . .” He blinked sheepishly as he turned them on. “Sorry.”
Jane’s eyes were still on Levi, anxiety swimming in her pretty eyes.
She thought she was the problem. As if.
“What did I miss?” Lloyd asked. “I hope the meal isn’t canceled. I was looking forward to dessert.”
“Not canceled,” Levi said. “But we could head out to Cake Walk if you want. I hear they’ve gotten some new flavors—”
“Levi.” Jane took a deep breath and nodded. “You’ve changed your mind. I get it, believe me. We’ll just—”
“No.” Levi grabbed her hand before she could get away. “I haven’t changed my mind. On anything,” he clarified, looking her right in the eyes. “But—”
She closed her eyes. “There’s a but.”
He really hated that he had to do this. “There’re a few things you need to know before we go inside.”
“Maybe I should go inside to give you two a moment,” Lloyd said, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Besides, I drank a lot of water today, so I’ll just . . .” He gestured to the front door and then opened it and vanished inside.
“Ohmigod,” Jane said. “Should I go after him?”
“No.” If anyone could handle Levi’s family for a minute, it was Lloyd. He sat next to Jane, then turned her to face him. Their knees bumped and he took comfort from the touch, accidental as it was. He knew that in a minute she was going to be mad at him, very mad, possibly mad enough to walk away. And he wouldn’t be able to blame her. “I’m not sure where to start.”
“Then I’ll start,” she said. “You regret asking me to do this. You regret that night up at the Tahoe Rim Trail. And every night since then—”
“No. No,” he repeated softly, reaching for her hand. Well, okay, yes, he regretted asking her to be a part of this farce, but only because he wanted it to be real. “I don’t regret anything, most especially the times I’ve spent with you, including what happened up at the Tahoe Rim Trail in my truck. I smile every time I get into it now, like Pavlov’s dog.” Not to mention, get a hard-on . . . “That night will go down in history as one of my favorite nights ever. The other is last night.”
She snorted, because long after they’d made her grandma’s bread with her grandpa, after he’d taken her home and had gone to bed himself, they’d started texting, playing phone truth or dare. He’d learned that the little scar on her chin was from jumping off her grandparents’ patio roof to see if she could fly. And that she’d skipped her last year of high school and graduated early. He’d also learned that she’d never brought a guy home before.
And then she’d dared him to come over—where they’d continued the truth or dare in person. In her bed . . .
“Zero regrets,” he repeated, holding her gaze, willing her to believe him.
She drew a deep breath. “Then what is it? It’s something, I can feel it.”
“Remember that night on the gondola?”
“The one I still have nightmares about?” She gave a wry smile. “No, not at all.”
Okay, she was trying to be funny, but he had a feeling it was also true about the nightmares, and he hated that. They’d circle back to that. “When I called my mom that night and told her I had someone in my life—”
“Because you thought we were going to die, and you were trying to say goodbye and realized how much she loved you and that all she’d ever wanted was for you to have love in your life . . . Yeah, I get it, Levi. I mean, I don’t exactly have personal experience with a family like yours, but I’ve seen the Hallmark movies. And honestly? It’s sweet, the lengths you’d go to for your family.”
“Yeah.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Let me tell you the rest of it and you’ll probably revoke that understanding. See, after that night, they started hounding me about meeting you.”
“Hence why I’m here,” she said. “Wearing real jeans and not yoga pants that have never seen a yoga class.”
He smiled. “I love the jeans. The jeans make me want to play truth or dare again.”
“Hey, how was I supposed to know that daring you to remove a piece of clothing would turn on me and that you’d remove a piece of my clothing?”
“You were commando,” he said reverently. “I’m never going to stop reliving that.”
“Focus,” she said on a laugh. “Your family was hounding you about meeting me and . . .”
“And I kept stalling, so . . .”
“Oh my God,” she said. “You’re the slowest storyteller on the planet!”
“And four weeks was too long for them. They didn’t have that sort of time.”
She covered her mouth with her hand. “Is someone sick? You should’ve told me. I’d have come sooner!”
“Not sick,” he said. “At least not physically.”
She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“Because you’re normal.” He sighed. “They got impatient. My mom is Shirley, the nosy woman you met at the humane society. My sister is Tess, the nosy woman who forced you into being friends with her. And my dad is Hank, the guy creating the libraries for the hospital and clinics.”
Jane’s mouth fell open and she just stared at him.
His heart kept skipping beats. “If you want to get up and walk away right now, I’ll understand,” he forced himself to say.
She blinked. Closed her mouth. Opened it again.
Nothing came out.
“Jane?” He slid closer, a hand on her leg. “Say something.”
She was still for another very long beat. Then she slowly shook her head. “They did all that for me?”