“I thought Rachel was picking me up?”
“Change of plans. I’ve got you now,” he told her as he pulled the door closed behind himself. She was afraid to admit to herself exactly how true the statement really was.
****
Grace climbed out of the passenger side of Jack’s 1968 Mustang Shelby GT 500KR and let out a whoop of delight. Jack had taken her for an early morning spin in the little silver rocket that ended at Pikes Place Market. Grace thought Jack would own a luxury vehicle, given his wealth, but that really wasn’t his way. Instead of purchasing something sleek and new, he drove a classic car he’d restored himself to the best of his ability. The work that was beyond Jack’s experience with fixing cars was done by professionals.
She filled her lungs with cool sea air. It was just after seven and the market was still quiet. The parking lot was practically empty. He came around to her side and linked his fingers with hers. Grace looked down at their joined hands and back up at Jack. He looked down and seemed to be surprised at what he’d done.
“I, uh, I’m sorry about that, Grace. I guess old habits die hard.” He tried to release her hand but Grace held on to him.
“It’s okay. I missed you, too, Jack.” She went up on her toes and kissed Jack’s cheek. Jack’s eyes drifted back to her mouth and he cursed. She licked her lips and his nostrils flared. She knew it was coming and Jack didn’t disappoint her this time. He backed Grace into his car and kissed her with all of the pent up emotion they were both fighting to contain. She knew this was wrong and she should push him away. She should be focusing on the business she was there to conduct. Her life was hanging and the biggest decision of her life was yet to be made. She knew all of this, but when she was there in Jack’s arms it was like no time had passed. As soon as they touched it was like a flash fire that couldn’t be contained. Jack ate at her mouth, relearning her flavor, tracing every dip and curve of her mouth as she went about tasting him.
“You know what I want, Grace?” he asked against her lips.
“To fuck me hard on the hood of your car?” It was what she wanted, too.
Jack shivered at the shared memory, “I want to show just how much I’ve missed you, baby. I want to take this hot little body and taste every inch of it until you beg me to fuck you long and hard. That’s what I want to do.” He kissed her again, sucking her tongue into his mouth. He pressed his hips into her belly and the evidence of his excitement made itself known. Christ! She was ready.
“Damn.” He looked into her eyes with a guilty expression. “I promised myself I wouldn’t do this, not yet anyway." He stroked her cheeks with his thumbs as he gently held her face cupped in his hands. “I wanted to give you time to take a look at the company and be sure you’ll be happy here in Seattle. Fuck, baby, I couldn’t even get through breakfast.”
He kissed her softly, sweetly, and Grace felt tears burn her eyes. She was afraid, terrified. After all of these years she was still under Jack’s spell. Here she was, with her tongue in his mouth, and she had no idea if he was even single. She was doing it again.
“Get a room!” Someone shouted from across the parking lot. The spell was broken and Jack and she both laughed out loud. He ran the back of his finger down her cheek and placed one last little kiss on the corner of her mouth.
“We’re still a couple of kids making out in strange places.” He backed away, linking their fingers again and led Grace into the market.
Jack explained that the market didn’t officially open until nine, so most of the vendors were still closed or just putting out their stock of fresh goods for the day. Grace stared around wide eyed while he led the way. There were several bakeries that were already open and doing brisk business. They stopped at a vendor called Daily Dozen Donut Company. There was a strange fryer that created perfect mini donuts. Grace’s mouth watered and her stomach growled.
Jack chuckled, “I thought you’d enjoy this.” He ordered a dozen cinnamon mini donuts and a chai. Grace opted for a dozen mixed mini donuts so she could taste them all, and café mocha. The donuts were delivered hot in brown paper bags. It was delicious and she knew she’d be back for more before she left Seattle. Breakfast from a paper bag on a bench with Jack looking out over Elliot Bay was just about as good as it could get in Grace’s book.
****
Grace shut off the light as she exited her temporary office at Artifex. After a week in the office analyzing the company’s finances, reviewing their expenses, and researching their various vendors she felt like she had a solid picture of where the company stood, what changes could be made to optimize the profits, and she had suggestions as to where some of that profit could be invested to grow their overall fiscal health.
She’d also spent time in nearly every department in the newly secured office building. Artifex was larger, with more employees than Grace had imagined for such a young company. Jack and Rachel had taken the company from a seedling office in Jack’s home, to a thriving and very lucrative business with hundreds of employees in five short years. The employees were hard working and well paid for their efforts. She hadn’t met a single person who didn’t sing Jack and Rachel’s praises.
“Is there anything else I can do for you today, Ms. Yates?” asked Nina, the assistant who had been assigned to Grace. Nina was actually Jack’s assistant, but he’d been out of the office all week. Jack tasked Nina with making sure Grace had everything she needed, and Nina had done an exemplary job.
“No, Nina, thank you. And thank you for smoothing my way this week. I would have been lost without you,” Grace said as she slipped on her sneakers. She’d decided to walk the distance to the hotel since it wasn’t raining. The rain was another thing she’d have to adjust to if she moved to Seattle. Grace was used to walking or taking the train everywhere she had to go. This week of being driven around was making her feel lazy.
“You’re most welcome, Ms. Yates. Enjoy your weekend,” said Nina as Grace left the office and headed down the long corridor toward the elevator.
She was joined by Rachel while she waited for the elevator to arrive. Rachel and Grace had worked together throughout the week and Grace had gotten to know the striking woman a lot better. They’d developed a very comfortable rapport that Grace believed could very easily develop into a lifelong friendship.
Grace wanted to prod Rachel for information on Jack’s whereabouts. After their breakfast date on Monday Jack had delivered Grace to the office and left her in Nina’s capable hands. She’d hoped to see him later that evening. They needed to talk. She had to know what was happening in his personal life. As much as she didn’t want her past with Jack to affect her decision to take the partnership, Grace knew it would. She’d been determined to keep things completely professional between Jack and herself. All of that changed when he pressed her against his car and kissed her with all of the longing she’d been feeling for him. Then Jack had just disappeared. No call, no explanation, nothing. And it had actually hurt Grace’s feelings.
Rachel was all smiles when she saw Grace. “What are you doing tonight? Do you have plans for dinner?”
Grace hadn’t thought past getting back to The Fairmont. Every night she left Artifex she went straight to the hotel in hopes that Jack would show up to make good on his promise to show her how much he’d missed her. Every night she had dinner at one of the nearby restaurants and returned to her room to sleep alone. Every night she woke in the middle of the night with her hand in her panties and Jack’s name on her lips. It was disgraceful. She was working during the day by choice, but she was technically on vacation.
“No, I have no plans. I was just going to find someplace for dinner and maybe a few drinks. I thought I might do some sightseeing tomorrow,” Grace replied.
“Why don’t you let me run you over to the hotel to change into something more comfortable? Then you can have dinner with me and the family.” Rachel’s eyes lit up whenever she spoke of her family. Grace hoped one day to know that kind of joy. “It’s nothing fancy. Tony’s making his mother’s homemade pasta sauce.”
“That sounds great actually. I haven’t had homemade spaghetti sauce since my last trip home. I’d love to meet your family.” Grace wanted to meet the man who’d captured Miss America’s heart. And the more they spoke of Rachel’s kids, the more Grace’s heart ached to have her own.
“Wonderful! I’ll just call Tony and let him know we’re having company.” She did that as they rode down in the elevator. After a quick stop at the hotel they were off to Rachel’s home on a tree lined street in a quiet suburb neighborhood that reminded Grace of her own hometown. The houses were the picture of the American dream with manicured lawns and big front porches. Rachel pulled her minivan into the drive and a little face pressed itself against the glass of the storm door.
“Mommy’s home! Mommy’s home!” The little boy’s voice was muffled by the door but the joy it brought to his mother’s face could not be muted.
Rachel introduced her husband with the pride of a woman who knew she’d married well. Tony was equally as handsome as his wife was gorgeous. They were nearly exact opposites in every way other than their good looks. He was a tall man where she was short. His hair was as light as his wife’s was dark. His clear blue eyes were a contrast to Rachel’s nearly black. And in spite of the differences, or maybe because of them, they fit together like yin and yang.
Grace was treated to a front row seat of what life with a four year old and an infant was like at meal times. Tony stirred his sauce with one hand and held his infant daughter in the other. Rachel got little Anthony washed up and wrestled him into his booster seat. While the couple got dinner on the table, Anthony animatedly explained his busy day to his mother.
Over the meal Tony told Grace his version of the story of how he met his wife and the difficulty he’d originally had with Rachel and Jack’s close relationship. Once he got to the part of the story when he proposed marriage the deep love reflected in both of their faces as they looked into each other’s eyes made Grace feel the need to look away. It was too personal, too pure, and nearly too painful for her to watch.
After a delicious dinner, Grace and Rachel went out onto the veranda and reclined in a pair of lounge chairs. Rachel held baby Rebekah and Anthony ran around the yard chasing a soccer ball back and forth. When Rachel tugged up her shirt to feed the fussy baby Grace was shocked for the amount of time it took her to take in the beautiful sight of a mother with her baby, the baby’s tiny hand wrapped around her mother’s finger, the mother nuzzling the top of her daughter’s fuzzy little head. It was moving to behold and again, Grace felt like she was watching something too beautiful to be witnessed by an outsider. This was not something you saw in corporate New York. Busy, successful women like Grace and Rachel had nannies that did much of the child care. This evening with Rachel’s family gave Grace some hope that she too could have it all, the career, the marriage, and children.
“I’ve been doing my damnedest not to pry, but I’d really love to know what you did to Jack,” Rachel said and brought Grace back from her visions of the future.
“Excuse me?” Grace asked a little stunned. “I didn’t do anything to Jack.”
“Hmmm…So nothing happened on Monday that would have caused him to tuck his tail and run home to work this week?” Rachel raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
She was blaming Jack’s disappearance on Grace? Did that mean Jack wasn’t out of town? He was home hiding from her? Maybe he just didn’t want to see her. Maybe he felt like kissing her was a mistake. Maybe it was a mistake. Grace supposed she had her answer to the question of whether Jack wanted to reconnect or not. She hadn’t seen him in years. As soon as they saw each other their intense attraction had sparked to life in an instant, just like when they were in college. She was in town for a few short weeks and Jack was avoiding her. Grace's heart collapsed in her chest. That was fine. She would give him his space. Would this affect her decision to take over as CEO at Artifex? She wasn’t sure yet.
“Grace, honey, you look like I just kicked you in the gut. Why don’t you tell me what’s happened, and then I’ll tell you all about Jack and his love life?” Rachel reached over and patted Grace’s arm. Rachel was willing to talk about Jack’s love life? Grace should have known Jack was attached. Of course he was.
Grace looked Rachel in the eye and told her the cold hard facts. “Okay. This is the long and short of it, Rachel. I told you that Jack and I had a thing in college. It was a pretty serious thing, at least for me it was. But Jack is bi-sexual, and at his age he just wasn’t ready to commit to anyone. So I watched him with other people because I refused to share him. And it broke my heart a little more every time.”
“Oh, honey, I had no idea.” Rachel’s look of pity made Grace want to cry, but she forged on.
“By the time we graduated he wanted me to move to Seattle to be closer to him. You see, I had an offer to intern out here. The problem was, Jack still wasn’t ready to give up his other flames. So I started to bend. I thought maybe I could hang on until Jack decided I was enough. I loved him so much. I wanted to give him what he needed and I prayed one day very soon that would be me.” A tear slipped down Grace’s cheek. “I’d just told Jack that I would try, I would move to Seattle and we’d try. Then one of his boyfriends showed. He kissed Jack right in front of me, and I couldn’t handle it.”