by Faye Sonja
* * *
4
Chapter FOUR
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
“ I am supposed to be, but who knows
what the future might hold.”
.
“It is nice to meet you Jared,” Amy said coming back to place two steaming cups of coffee in front of them. “Don’t let her hide you away.”
Jared looked at Jasmine, her green entrancing eyes growing cloudy from the embarrassment her friend layered on without pause. “It makes no sense for me to even deny it, does it?” he asked Jasmine.
“Maybe you should have done that the minute you walked in. You are not exactly helping,” Jasmine glared at him.
Jared looked at her finding he loved the way her lips thinned when she was angry and the way her eyes narrowed every time she glared at him. It was strange and as infuriated as she was, he found it to be sexy. In all honesty he didn’t mind being mistaken for her lover or whatever Amy thought he was to her. There was something about Jasmine that was different. Maybe Tommy had been right, that mail order brides were not a bad thing. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but she had soul and she was considerate. He had made a complete mockery of himself earlier when he had tried to push her away.
In reality the fact was that he had felt instantly drawn to her the moment she had opened her door for him. Her tousled hair and green eyes had spoken to something in him, but he was afraid. Not something he would admit out loud, but that was the truth. The last time he had felt this much for a woman she had broken his heart, and so like the coward he was he had tried to impress his own imperfections on the woman before him. He felt ashamed of himself as he thought about it, but her kind eyes smiling back at him spoke of forgiveness.
Jasmine… she was a ball of strange, kind and crazy and it was all so nicely packaged.
“What are you smiling about?” Jasmine asked her, sipping her coffee. He had actually wanted something else, but since Amy ran the show he went along with it.
“I just got called your love interest. What is there to not be smiling about?” he asked her and laughed as she balled a napkin up and tossed it at his head.
“I don’t think that is funny,” she said to him, “but technically, you are supposed to be just that.”
“I am supposed to be, but who knows what the future might hold.” He could have slapped himself as the words came out of his mouth, because the look of amazement that flashed across her face told him she was expecting him to say anything but. He had not courted a woman for so long that he was losing his senses on what to say and not to say to a woman.
“Well, I guess by the end of this meeting we will know,” she said to him and he realized he had dug himself into a hole he didn’t want to be in.
“So tell me about your family,” he said and he could see her eyes go dark at the suggestion. I guess I was right after all, he thought. Maybe she did need therapy because she hadn’t gotten enough love from her family.
“What family?” she asked him as Amy brought a platter that was way too big to be healthy for two people.
“Come on,” he said popping a battered shrimp into his mouth. “Everybody has got family. You told me all about Amish life but you left out any mention of your family.”
Jasmine searched his face, for what, he wasn’t so sure. But he made sure she found nothing apprehensive there. Her green eyes swam with uncertainty and he let her gaze into the soothing blue of his until she was sure she could.
“My father will always be the first love of my life, but he is a man of strong convictions, and he was unwilling to bend them even if not doing so meant losing his daughter. My mother is sweet. She believes her sole duty is to serve others and from her I learned that the world can often be cruel, but as long as it did not change you then you would surely be fine.”
He was sure he heard a bit of guilt as she spoke but he did not dwell on it. He allowed her to continue.
“I have a baby sister I love more than life itself, but I had to leave her least my influence turned her into someone my father would later shun. That about sums up my family,” she finished and drank some more coffee as her eyes filled with welling tears.
Jared found her morbid breakdown of her life to be wholly enlightening, and though he could see the pain in her eyes as she spoke, he did not know what to say.
“I know it must be hard,” he said.
She shrugged her shoulders and took a bite of chicken, “I have accepted it. It’s my story that keeps following me around so I have owned it.”
He half expected her to ask him to tell her about himself but she did not. “Is there anything you want to know about me?”
She smiled at him. “Whatever I will learn I prefer to learn by being around you. Actions often tell us so much more than words. I hope I am given the opportunity to get to know you.”
He liked the fact that she had just said that. It proved he was right. She was a different kind of woman and he enjoyed thinking about what she would bring to his life. She had a way about her. It was a way that pulled him in, he found himself being lost in simply being around her, and he had only just met her. The smiling gaze that she threw his way now gave a depth he figured would be interesting to explore.
They sat talking through the entire platter, of which he had had less than a quarter. To his amazement she ate it all and the potatoes that went with it. Where she was putting all that food was a great mystery. Two hours later they were on their way through the door. He hadn’t even realized that they had spent that much time inside until the setting sun told him the day was at its end. It had been the most relaxing on he had had in ages, despite the fact that it was something he had not wanted.
He walked her back to her humble abode, enjoying the feel of her shoulder brushing against his and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he wanted to see her again.
“Can I take you to the park for a picnic tomorrow?” he asked her as they rounded the corner and her home came into sight.
“You mean you don’t still think I need help?” she teased him.
He chuckled in embarrassment. “That was obnoxious of me to suggest to begin with. If you don’t mind, I would like to see you again.”
“The park tomorrow after work then,” she said reminding him that she did work.
“I will come about with a carriage to collect you,” he said kissing her cheek. “Thank you for a wonderful Sunday Ms Devore.”
She inclined her head slightly. “And thank you for not signing me up to the mad house.”
With that she left him feeling like he had just found a piece of heaven where he could finally breathe in a breath of fresh air. He walked back to the inn with a smile he could not hide.
“She was awesome, wasn’t she?” Tommy asked as he met him out front with their horses.
Jared looked at his friend. “She is something different and I think she just might be the one.”
That evening they drank in merriment and he looked forward to seeing her again come the next day.”
* * *
Jasmine tried to hide her smile of happiness, mostly because she wasn’t known for her dazzling smile, and she was not so sure she should have been smiling. She had had a hard time at dinner focusing on the things she should have been focusing on. Jared was as attractive and equally infuriating at the same time and she liked him. His strong physique was a soothing sight for her eyes and his presence was calming all at the same time. She could get used to him being around.
And that she did. For the next week he was there to walk her home from work every evening. He showed up with flowers or took her by Amy’s diner where they would dine and talk. She felt like a woman being wooed and she loved it. Not only was he wooing her, but the gruffness she saw upon their first meeting was slowly slipping away.
“Are you happy here in this town Jasmine?” he asked her one evening while they sa
t in the park watching the children with their families playing all around them. She had a sudden yearning for a family of her own and she could not push the feeling aside.
“I am contented, but I know eventually I will want more.”
She had found it a strange question, but she had not inquired as to why he had asked her that. They spent the rest of their time making small talk and holding hands.
He was gone to the next town for work for the next week and she missed him. She was happy she had Amy to remind her that should they get married this would be a regular occurrence. Jasmine thought that was the one downside to English men- the fact that their jobs often took them away from their families. If he had been Amish he would have worked where he lived and the sadness she felt at the absence of him was a bit unbearable.
For a week she pined for him and prayed he was okay. She kept a candle lit in her window as guide for him to come back to her. She knew it was pathetic but she couldn’t help it. She missed him more than she cared to admit and he hadn’t even chosen her to be his wife yet. What if he never did?
* * *
5
Chapter FIVE
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
“ I am supposed to be, but who knows
what the future might hold.”
.
Two weeks later Jared stood outside Jasmine’s house in the drizzling rain. He was beginning to think that was all that happened on this side of town- rain. He liked it though, but he preferred when it rained when he was with Jasmine. It was the perfect weather and the perfect ambiance for just about anything.
He was tempted to light a cigar to keep him company, but he had not smoked one since he was sixteen. He hesitated in order to keep from smelling like cigar smoke. Maybe he should go. She had already kicked him out once; he was not interested in being kicked out again, even though that was so long ago, at least now it seemed.
Antsy was never a word that would have been used to describe him. Sure, confident and decisive were his defining traits, until he had met this crazy, beautiful woman with the green eyes that just sucked him right in. He had been hiding in the bushes of his mind to prevent her from seeing inside his soul, maybe he had managed to push her away and at the same time he realized that that wasn’t possible.
He turned his back and walked to the other end of her building in the drizzling rain. He would give her another five minutes, if she didn’t show then he would leave and she would never know he was there.
“Stalking me now?” he turned to see her greens eyes smiling at him from beneath the umbrella she had pulled over her head to protect her from the rain. “That is an all-time low, Mr. Matton,” she teased.
He watched her step into her building and she held the door open for him. He stuttered a thank you and made his way up the stairs behind her, chiding himself for the lack of a sly comeback.
“Wine,” she asked as he entered the space she shared with her chatty best friend. He stepped up behind her to help her out of her coat and confirmed that he definitely wanted that drink. Hopefully it would loosen him up enough so he would not make a colossal fool out of himself. She walked into the kitchen nervously smiling at him as he took his coat off and hung it over hers.
“So what brings you here?” she asked him, as she opened the only bottle of wine on her counter. “I didn’t even know you were back in town.
“I just got back and couldn’t help myself but to come see you,” he said nervously trying to work his way up to what he wanted to tell her.
She smiled. “I missed you too, but you seem to have something else on your mind.”
“I have a question to ask you.” He paused and it took him a few seconds to realize she was waiting on him to continue. “I have to go from here soon.”
He watched sadness and controlled frustration overshadow her face that had been glowing just moments before and mentally slapped himself. He should have waited before telling her that. He walked over to her to help with the bottle she was struggling with; sure it was his revelation that led to her sudden inability to open a bottle of wine.
“That was not a question,” she said and he saw her trying to control her emotions.
“Let me help,” he said and their hands brushed as she handed him the bottle, lingering in the touch longer than was necessary. He looked at her pale white skin, her lack of sunlight evident against the light bronze of his. Trailing his eyes up her bare forearm and to her face, her green eyes beckoned him in like the call of a siren.
She pulled her hand away before he could act on what he felt. Stepping back from him she took two wine glasses from her cupboard and busied her hands with washing and shining them. Pulling the cork from the bottle he placed it on the counter and took a step away from her. The silence was laced with unspoken words and the feelings being worn on their sleeves were all but ignored. She poured him a glass and rested it on the counter, avoiding his gaze at all costs.
Taking a step towards the glass as she walked away from him to sit on the far side of the sofa, he took a sip and broke the awkward silence with her eyes taking in his every move.
“Will you come home with me?” he asked, again just blurting out his thoughts like an idiot.
She shook her head answering him in the middle of her sip of wine. “What?” she said and swallowed, “What do you mean by that?”
“I am going home and I am wondering if you would do me the honor of traveling with me?” he asked, his ears perking like a cocker spaniel on a chase.
She stared at him as if she had lost the ability to speak.
“I am saying that I have come to see you as someone I could spend the rest of my life with and I would like to know if you would travel home with me and make that a possibility?” he asked her taking her hand in his and waiting for her to break his heart.
“I have many unresolved issues,” she said to him lowering her eyes.
“I know and so do I,” he responded.
“I was once Amish and still hold many of those beliefs. Is that something you can live with?” she asked him. He looked at her confused. It was as if she was trying to find all the reasons why he should go without her.
“I think I can,” he said with a smile. She had not turned away from him when he had made a fool of himself, so he would not turn away from her in her moment of insecurity.
“There are many things you do not yet know about me,” she whispered.
He knelt before her. “And I look forward to us growing together and learning about each other.”
Her eyes swam with tears and her lips creased into an unsure smile. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yes,” she said. “I will go home with you.”
He kissed her lips and they lost themselves in an embrace, filled with nothing but hope and joy. “We leave in three days,” he said.
“Amy?” she asked not wanting to leave her friend behind.
“There is a place for her too if she wants it.”
She smiled at him. “Thank you.”
* * *
Turns out Amy was not so pleased with the fact that she was running off to be married or to go shacking up without telling Jared exactly what was going on with her.
“What if Bryson and his men show up on your doorstep? What will you do?” Amy asked her as she tried to do the last minute packing she needed to do in order to leave.
“I thought you wanted me to find a husband, get married and then get as far away from the life I was living as possible,” she said turning to Amy in an angry flash.
“Yes!” Amy replied, coming to stand in front of her. “I want all that for you, but you cannot start your new life with a lie! What will happen when he finds out?”
“Who says he will?” she asked without missing a beat.
Amy stopped pacing and looked at her with nothing but sadness. “Anything done in the darkness always comes to light.
He will find out and then when your little heart is broken I am the one who will have to come and help you pick up the pieces.”
She sighed and pulled Amy to the side of the bed. “I will tell him. I intend to. I just want to give this a shot at growing into something wonderful first. I want him to see me without my misdeeds and love me for me. That way when I tell him, he will know that I didn’t steal all those years because I wanted to, I stole because that was how I had to survive.”
That seemed to quell Amy for the moment, but she knew it wouldn’t be long before her friend would start worrying again and so she hurriedly threw the rest of her clothes into her suitcase and they said their teary goodbyes.
“You sure you don’t want to come?” Jasmine asked Amy for the umpteenth time.
Her friend smiled at her through her tears. “This is your new journey. Enjoy it and send me letters. I will go ahead and build my life here.”
Jasmine didn’t want to hear that. She wanted to step from the carriage and pull Amy inside, but she couldn’t. She understood that no matter how much she loved her, at some point in time they would have to part ways.
“Are you okay?” Jared asked frowning at her.
She smiled at him. “I will miss her is all.”
He sat closer to her in the lavish carriage and pulled her into his arms. “Should she change her mind, we will always have a place for her in our home.”
She allowed him to soothe her troubled soul as the carriage moved in the direction of her new home.
“What if your family doesn’t like me?” she asked him after what seemed like hours of silence.