Sam looked at her hopefully and the guilt came crashing through her body.
She knew what Sam was offering and back in Arizona she’d have jumped at another chance to be with him. Now? All she could do was think of Adam. So what if they hadn’t said they were exclusive? Going out with Sam tonight made her certain that she sure wanted to be.
“I really need to get going because I have an early morning tomorrow.”
Sam cocked his head to the side, looking into her eyes. He was still holding her close.
Okay, that was a lie and he knows that. Just be honest.
“Actually, I’m sort of seeing someone.”
Jennifer saw a flash of disappointment cross Sam’s features as he pulled her in to a quick hug before letting her go and backing away a step. “That’s great, Jennifer. I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks. I’m sorry. Maybe I should have told you earlier?”
Sam shook his head and said, “No, it’s fine. I’d have still wanted to see you. I had no expectations about tonight. Hope, yes, but expectations, no.”
“Thanks.” She hesitated and said, “If you’re ever in town again…”
“Yes, I’ll let you know.”
Sam pulled her in for one more quick hug, kissed her on the cheek and then walked towards his hotel.
She figured it was probably the last time she’d ever see Sam.
As she drove through the downtown area of Minneapolis, heading towards the freeway, she noticed the Radisson Hotel.
It reminded her of the night of her senior prom with Adam and many of their friends.
Twelve Years ago…
The Grand March set to start in just a little over an hour at the Radisson Hotel in down town Minneapolis. She looked at the clock in her kitchen. They were never going to make it.
Mandi and her boyfriend, Jake, and Cassandra and her best friend, Noah were at Jennifer’s house, dressed in their formal attire. The limo was parked at the curb just outside of her house.
The only thing missing? Adam.
Her friends were giving her sympathetic looks and it was getting on her nerves.
“You guys, just go. We’ll catch up with you later. We already missed dinner. I don’t want you to miss the Grand March!”
“Not a chance, Jennifer. He’ll be here. Pizza was fine for dinner.” Noah told her, clearly try to make her feel better. All it did was make things worse.
Tears filled her eyes. “Yeah, pizza was just great.”
Jake tried to lighten the mood by saying, “Hey, it actually saved us all a bunch of money. Pizza was way better than where we planned to go.”
Mandi smacked him in the arm. “Shut up, you cheapskate.”
She looked over at the other two couples and tried to hide her frown. It was nice to see everyone dressed up. She and the girls went prom dress shopping months ago and it was so much fun. The guys got their tuxes just a few days before, which they of course left to the last second. Adam wasn’t able to meet with the guys to pick out their tuxes so he got his on his own.
College was taking up a lot of his time, and even though he was right in Minneapolis at the U of M, they weren’t able to get together quite as often as they used to and she really missed him. She was looking forward to their night together.
Where is he?
He was well aware Prom was important to her, but he was supposed to be there well over an hour before and she hadn’t even heard from him. She wasn’t mad…just worried.
Just as she was about to insist her friends go without her, she heard a car screeching to a halt in front of her house. A few seconds later, his telltale knock sounded at the door.
Jennifer grinned widely, knowing she could be mad he was late, but instead she was relieved. She rushed over to the door as she heard Mandi say under her breath, “I’m going to kill him.”
Jennifer opened the door and there stood Adam, looking gorgeous in his tux. He had a worried look and was breathing hard.
“I’m so sorry, Jenn.”
“What happened? I thought maybe you changed your mind and decided you were too old for a stupid high school prom.”
“God, no, Jenn. I’d never do that to you.” He paused, looked her up and down and said, “You look beautiful, by the way.”
She couldn’t help but smile at the compliment.
“Thanks. So?”
“Well, let’s see. I went to pick up my tux on my way here, and the jerks had given my tux to another guy! So they had to call around to another store to find a tux that would work for me. They finally found a store, but it was in the opposite direction from your house. I rushed to the store, thinking I would still make it in plenty of time and I should have. But then on the way here, I blew a tire.”
He pointed to his car, which clearly had a spare tire on it because it was much smaller than the other tires.
“That sucks.”
“Oh, that’s not all,” he said, shaking his head in exasperation. “After I pulled over, on the freeway mind you, and changed my tire, I ran into an accident. It literally just happened and it took me a half hour to get through. All lanes of traffic were stopped. It was a pretty bad one,” he shuddered, so she figured he was still a little shaken from it. “Then,”
“There’s more?”
He nodded and said, “Then, I got into Elk River and there was the longest train in the history of trains at the tracks. I’m pretty sure my car is running on fumes right now because even though the gas light came on a while ago, I didn’t want to take the time to stop for gas.”
They were still standing in the doorway, and by then the rest of their friends had gathered around to listen to his excuses.
“Well, I’m glad you made it.” Jennifer told him this softly and then gave him a hug.
“You want a piece of pizza before we go?” This came from Mandi, who couldn’t help to rub it in that he made them miss their dinner.
“Pizza?” Adam looked horrified. “You guys waited and had pizza instead of the steak place? Man, I owe you all one.”
“Yes, big brother, you do.”
“Give him a break, babe,” said Jake kissing her on the cheek. “At least he made it, right?”
Cassandra was standing there with her hands on her hips.
“You guys! Let’s go. We’re going to miss the Grand March if we don’t get our butts out the door.”
Her mom came rushing up to them with a camera.
“Wait! Kids, I need a picture now that you’re all here. I’m glad you made it, Adam. We were getting worried.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Sylvester. I really am sorry.”
“It’s okay, Adam. I’m more relieved than mad. Disappointed maybe that we didn’t get more time together.”
After Jennifer’s mom snapped about a hundred more pictures, some with the group and some with just Adam, they all piled into the limo and made their way to the prom.
*****
Jennifer laughed at the memory. A cell phone sure would have come in handy back then, but neither of them had one back then. Adam was someone who was always on time. It was like torture waiting for him, worrying that night. After he finally got there, they had an amazing time and he made it really special for her.
She suddenly really wanted to see Adam and didn’t really want to wait for the following night. A thought crossed her mind. Would Adam be home yet from his night out with his buddies?
Maybe, maybe not. But it certainly wouldn’t hurt to find out.
By the time Jennifer pulled up into Adam’s driveway, it was almost midnight. She wasn’t sure if he was home, but his lights were on.
Jennifer: Hey
Adam: Hi
Jennifer: How was your night?
Adam: Fine. Yours?
Jennifer: It was ok. I miss you though. Are you still out with the guys?
Adam: No. What did you do tonight?
Jennifer: Went out with a friend
Adam: Where?
Jennifer: Restaurant in Minneapolis
Adam: Are you home now?
Jennifer: No, I’m not at home yet.
Adam: What friend?
Jennifer: Sam
Adam: Who?
Jennifer: Just a friend. From Arizona
Adam: You sure about that?
Jennifer: Absolutely
Adam: Where are you now?
Jennifer: In your driveway…
A few seconds later, she saw Adam’s front door open. He wasted no time in getting down his driveway and opening her car door. She got out of the car and reached out to give him a hug. He put his hands on her waist, but didn’t hug her back like he normally did.
The frown on his handsome face made her stomach drop. He was upset about something, but she wasn’t sure what.
“Hi.”
“Is it ok that I came here? I’m sorry I didn’t call you first.”
His short answer was in a gruff tone. “Of course.”
“I..is something wrong?
“What’s going on with Sam?”
So he’s upset. Is it supposed to make me feel good that he doesn’t like it?
“He’s a friend from Arizona, just visiting. He’s my former boss, actually.”
Adam nodded. “Did you date Sam?”
She hesitated, but after learning her lesson with hiding things in the past, honesty was going to be her policy going forward. “We went out a couple times, but it wasn’t serious.”
Adam dropped his hands from her waist. “I see.”
“It wasn’t like that tonight. I had dinner with him and then I left, even after he invited me to have drinks. All I could think about was you.”
Jennifer grabbed his hands and put them back at her waist.
Adam still wasn’t smiling, which made her nervous and there was a long pause before he said, “Let’s go inside. You’re shivering.
Jennifer nodded. “I’m used to the Arizona weather, I guess. And it’s a little windy by the lake.”
He didn’t say anything else, so she followed him inside, her stomach in knots.
Chapter Fifteen
Adam
Little misunderstandings
Adam was in such a foul mood he almost didn’t ask Jennifer to come inside. He changed his mind when he saw her shiver.
He scowled as he thought about the text he received earlier that night. Did he read it wrong? He didn’t think so, but when he grabbed them each a beer, he pulled his phone out to look at the texts one more time just to be sure. He shouldn’t have responded back, but it had peaked his curiosity.
Sarah: I take it you and Jennifer are done?
Adam: No.
Sarah: That’s weird. I just saw her and she was cozied up to some guy in Minneapolis. He was hot, by the way.
Adam: You must be mistaken.
Sarah: Nope, I never forget a face.
Sarah: They were in a tight embrace for a while.
Sarah: Don’t believe me?
Sarah: Trouble in paradise?
Sarah: Adam
Sarah: I’m free tonight. Text me later when you find out I’m right.
He hadn’t responded to Sarah further, but as the night wore on, he got more and more pissed until his friends finally noticed. He ended the night early and went back home to sulk, even though he tried to tell himself not to jump to conclusions until he had a chance to talk to her.
Now he was even more mad after finding out what Sarah told him was at least partially right.
“So you went out with this guy back in Arizona?”
“Yeah, a couple of times. But there isn’t anything going on now.”
“Did anything happen?”
Jennifer’s eyes narrowed. “Why the inquisition?”
Adam ran his fingers through his hair. “I just sort of thought we weren’t dating others. Trying to see where this takes us?”
“Well, it wasn’t a date tonight. Just two friends having dinner.”
“Oh yeah? So nothing happened then, right?”
“I…no!” She shook her head and crossed her arms. “What is your problem?”
“A friend of mine saw you with him tonight. Sounds like you two got pretty close.”
She looked confused for a second, and then she said, “Who saw?”
“It doesn’t matter. So you did get pretty cozy with him?”
Jennifer shook her head, a look of confusion on her face. Then, the look changed to realization and made his heart drop.
“Okay, you want to know what happened? I’ll tell you everything. He called me earlier this week and said he was in town. He asked me to dinner Friday night. Since you were already busy, I said yes. I met him, we had dinner and then he hugged me and asked me to go have drinks with him.”
Adam nodded, “And?”
“And what?”
“Did you have drinks with him?”
“Nope, I didn’t. I told him that I couldn’t because I was seeing someone. He gave me a hug, and then we went our separate ways.” Jennifer continued, holding her hand up to stop him from saying anything. “That’s when I decided to drive straight over here to see if you were home. Right now, I’m not sure if that was such a good idea.”
Oh.
“You know what, though? If I had gone with him, would that have been wrong? What are we? Boyfriend/girlfriend? Are you dating anyone else? I’m not, but we’ve never talked about being exclusive.”
Adam’s mouth opened slightly. She had him there. They hadn’t ever really discussed it. He just thought she knew how he felt and would have figured he wasn’t seeing anyone else. Relief poured through him.
“I guess you’re right,” he told her quietly. “I just assumed we weren’t dating anyone else.”
She shrugged and looked up into his eyes. “I didn’t know and didn’t want to presume anything. I mean, I’ve enjoyed our time together, but I’ve noticed occasional texts from Sarah. Not sure what’s going on with her.”
Adam shook his head. “Sarah won’t quit texting me even though I’ve told her several times I’m seeing someone else.”
“I wasn’t sure.”
“Definitely not. And I’m sorry you’ve been wondering. I’d have cleared it up a long time ago.”
Jennifer nodded and smiled. “Me too. It would have avoided this whole mess.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I was a little jealous.”
She chuckled and hugged him. “I noticed. And yeah, it makes me feel pretty good, actually.”
“Then this may make you feel even better. I haven’t wanted to see anyone else since I saw you at the bar a couple months ago.”
That put a huge grin on Jennifer’s face and she nodded. “Yup, even better.”
“So, can we just agree then? We’re exclusive.”
“Yeah,” she replied, smiling. “Sounds good to me.”
Adam leaned down and touched his nose to hers.
“So, where’s Amber tonight?”
“Well…she’s actually at my parents.” She paused and then said, “For the weekend.”
Adam grinned. “Oh, really?”
Jennifer’s lips twitched and she nodded. When he tilted his head down to look into her eyes, she leaned up on her toes and kissed him.
After several minutes, Adam pushed her against the door. He wanted her in his bed, but wasn’t sure if she was ready for that next step.
Just then, she grabbed his hand and led him back to his room. She slowly unzipped her dress and then she wiggled and let her dress fall to the ground.
Apparently she is.
He could feel Jennifer shiver as he whispered in her ear, “Do you know how beautiful you are? I must be the luckiest man in the world.”
Adam turned her back around to face him and cupped her chin. He looked into her eyes, trying to figure out if she was ready to hear what he wanted desperately to tell her. His heart was thumping so hard he was almost sure she could hear it.
Instead of saying anything, he leaned in and covered her mouth with his.
The kiss intensified as Jennifer grabbed the bottom of his t-shirt and tugged. He helped her by grabbing the back of his shirt and ripping it over his head, and then his pants followed quickly. He helped her out of her lacy bra and panties and then gently pushed her back until her knees hit his bed.
Making love that night was like coming home after a long time away. There was no place he’d rather be and he never wanted to leave home again.
*****
Late the next morning, after getting very little sleep, Adam woke up to an empty bed. He frowned.
Please tell me she didn’t leave. Did I push her too far?
A few seconds later, he heard splashing noises coming from the bathroom. The sound made him pull back the covers and get out of bed.
Adam quickly threw on a pair of boxer shorts, knocked on the bathroom door and slowly opened it after he didn’t hear anything for several seconds. He wasn’t prepared for what he saw. He stared with his mouth hanging open.
Jennifer was in his hot tub, eyes closed and covered in bubbles. It smelled like her in his bathroom, a mixture of lavender and vanilla. There was nothing sexier.
He could see the tips of her toes sticking out of the tub and she was listening to soft music. Her hair was up in a bun on the top of her head.
After taking in the delicious scene, Adam snuck up and grabbed her toe. He chuckled when Jennifer jumped, splashing him with water and bubbles, getting him wet.
“Good morning, my sexy, beautiful girlfriend.”
“Adam! You scared me half to death. Don’t do that to me!”
“Sorry.”
But he wasn’t really sorry at all. He grabbed her neck and pulled her in for a kiss.
“Hmm, you’re forgiven,” she murmured.
“Hungry?”
Jennifer nodded, a small smile on her face.
“Okay, you relax in here and I’ll go make some food.”
Her eyes lit up. “Wow, really? I sure could get used to this.”
“You deserve some pampering. Enjoy your soak.”
“This is heavenly. I’ll be out in a while.”
Jennifer sighed and closed her eyes before he left, allowing him to just stare for several more seconds.
She’s beautiful. And mine.
Second Look (A New Beginning Book 3) Page 16