Cassandra rolled her eyes. "Jake, I have a coat rack."

From inside the kitchen, Jake mumbled something about already having his hands full. She sighed and picked up his dark wool coat from where he'd tossed it across one of her kitchen stools. As she shook it out to hang up on her coat rack, some papers fell out of the pocket.

"Oops." Cassandra leaned down to pick them up. They were actually cards, old postcards from the look of them. Of Paris? She shuffled through them, puzzled.

Jake cleared his throat behind her. And she turned, blushing slightly.

"They fell out of your coat. I shouldn't have been looking at them. Umm . . . ."

His expression was guarded, the way it used to be with her. She couldn't tell if he was angry with her or not. Then he gently said, "Well, go ahead and ask."

"Why do you have old postcards in your coat?"

"They were Mabel's." He braced himself for her response; they never spoke of Mabel or what had happened with her.

"Oh?" Cassandra wasn't quite sure what to say. She had been jealous of the other woman, but possibly not in the way that Jake might think she'd been.

"She . . . she always wanted to go to Paris. She kept a collection of postcards and she would pretend she'd gone. It was . . . " Jake looked pained. "What we talked about when she . . .left. It hurt, I'm not going to lie, that electric field was pretty much the worst thing I've ever gone through. So we played a game, pretended we'd gone to see all those places."

Cassandra softly said, "You went to Paris that night. Ezekiel and I asked you out for a drink and you were wearing this coat. Said you had somewhere else to be. Baird said you'd left a note on the door and you came back in the morning."

"Yeah, I made a promise more to myself than to her that I wouldn't let life pass me by anymore. So I went to Paris."

Cassandra gave him a tiny smile then pressed the postcards into his hand. "Baird told me she left a note for a future Librarian, so there's still hope that Mabel can be saved. I'm going to . . ." she waved her hand. "Start dinner."

Jake made a soft sound and then touched her arm. "Cassie, wait."

"Jake, no, you and Mabel . . . . I don't need to hear about what happened. She was important to you and she's gone. There's no need to bring it up."

"Cassandra . . . ."

"Jake, I wasn't jealous. Or at least not in the way you think I was. Or am. I don't want to get into a fight over someone who you're never going to see again. I'll give you a minute. I'll be in the kitchen."

She stepped away but she could feel Jake's eyes on her.

"Paris is the reason I decided to tell you how I felt."

She stopped. "But . . ."

"I know it was weeks later but that's what started everything. Sit, I think we need to talk about Mabel."

Cassandra took a deep breath but followed him to her loveseat.

When they were sitting down, they both looked awkward for a moment.

Then Cassandra blurted, "I was a little jealous."

About the same moment, he blurted, "I did kiss her."

Cassandra winced and Jake took her hand. "I wanted to be honest with you, I'm sorry for saying it like that."

"We weren't together yet. . . ." Cassandra said softly trying to sound like it didn't bother her.

Jake squeezed her hand. "And yet, if you'd made a similar admission, I'd feel like you just did. I'm sorry, sweetheart. I just need you to know that I love you."

"I know you do."

"And I wasn't in love with Mabel."

"If we'd been able to save her? Would that have made a difference for us?"

Jake was quiet, thinking, stroking his thumb across the back of her hand. "I don't know. I already had feelings for you but I was keeping you at arm's length. For reasons I kept telling myself were good ones."

"Mabel would have been the safer choice," Cassandra said softly, looking at their joined hands and not him. "You had a lot in common. You seemed to give your trust so easily to her. Even after . . . ."

"I found out she lied to me?" Jake's tone was just the tiniest bit bitter. "I know. And I know that hurts you more than anything else. I still don't know why I was able to trust her. Except maybe because deep down I knew she and I weren't meant to be."

"Even if I hadn't been wrong?"

"Oh Cassie, she would have lit out to find her life without me. I couldn't follow her, being a Librarian means too much to me. And eventually she would have realized I was in love with someone else anyway."

"Wait, what?"

"Damnit, Cassandra, I've been in love with you since the minute I laid eyes on you. Didn't you notice?"

Cassandra blinked away sudden tears. "But then why . . . ."

"Because I was trying so hard not to be! There were so many reasons why it was a bad idea. So many reasons I forgot when I just gave in to how I felt about you."

"You've told me some of them. Even now sometimes you're still a little scared of letting someone really know you, of one of us getting hurt, of me dying . . . ."

"All of that, yes."

"So Mabel helped you see . . . us?"

Jake considered the question. "Well, in a way? I was attracted to her because I saw myself in her. Stuck in a small town, watching life pass you by. I had a few opportunities here and there to get away, working the pipeline in Alaska, New Orleans, a few other places. But I always ended up back in Oklahoma. Poor Mabel was literally trapped. But I didn't know that at first. I thought she was just like me, trapped by my own choices. But I did kiss her after I learned the truth." He banged his head against the sofa. "Maybe I shouldn't tell you this. I don't want to hurt you."

Cassandra shook her head. "You're not. Not really. We weren't together. So you kissed her?"

"Caught up in a moment. That's the problem with being a romantic . . . And kissing isn't . . . ."

"As connected with love as sex is with you?"

"Yeah," Jake blushed. "There's been more . . . ."

"Right."

He took a deep breath. "It was odd after it was over. She'd reminded me how old she really was, so maybe that was it. Or maybe it was because I knew then there was no future for us. Even if we'd succeeded. Mabel was a caged bird, she deserved to fly."

Cassandra nodded sadly. "She did."

"Cassie, don't. You tried your best. I don't blame you and she didn't either."

"But they're all trapped . . . ."

"They were trapped no matter what. Things just weren't meant to be. Something else I learned." He put his arm around her and drew her closer. "The right thing isn't always what I think it is. Collins Falls taught me that there are shades between black and white. My life's always been right or wrong. But this time, right was saving thousands of lives at the cost of others. It helped me to understand you better."

"So you went to Paris for her?"

"For her. For myself. Because I shouldn't let my life pass me by anymore."

"So how was it?"

"Cold. Lonely. I came very close to asking you and Jones to come with me actually. I shouldn't have gone alone." He shook his head. "We need to go, Cassandra. That and Rome. "

"I'd like that." She beamed.

"So while I was cold and lonely in Paris, I saw something that reminded me of New Orleans. And that's when . . . ."

"Why New Orleans? When were you in New Orleans?"

"Two years ago, I worked four months down that way. It was a great gig. I knew no one, so I'd spend all my free time exploring. I barely talked to anyone. They all thought I was a loner, so I didn't have to hide. And that's when I met the fortune teller."

Cassandra's eyes grew wide. "Our fortune teller?"

He nodded. "I had put her mostly out of my mind until I met you."

"She was vague about you. She said you were kind, serious, had difficulty trusting. I didn't realize until after the Labyrinth."

Jake smiled. "She was very specific about you. Quirky little redhead. You got mad about me calling you a little lady and my heart just . . . .well it bounded across the elevator and offered itself to you. I've never in my life. . . ."

"I'm so sorry, Jake. Maybe if I'd known . . . ."

He shrugged. "The fortune teller warned me that you'd hurt me. But I'd put her out of my mind. Tried to shove you out of my mind. Didn't do a lot of good because I was still in love with you. But I tried. Until New Orleans popped in my head again and everything she said. A constant loop for weeks . . . ."

"You are stubborn, Jacob Stone."

"When I fall, I fall hard, Cassandra. I was in love with you, but not as much as I am now, if that makes any sense."

She nodded. "It does, it took me some time to fall completely in love with you too."

He kissed her forehead, then looked at his watch. "What time is it in Paris?"

She looked over. "4am."

"Huh, if we had a bite to eat and caught a nap . . . ."

"We could be eating breakfast in Paris?"

He smiled at her. "Sounds absolutely perfect." Then he kissed her.