He entered the restaurant and stopped, watching her moving around behind the bar, her back to him and completely unaware that he was fixated on her as his mind drifted back to that kiss; that hot, passionate kiss that had left him too stupid to talk to her and too restless to sleep that night. He didn't know if she had been holding that back for quite awhile or if she'd just been overwhelmed by the night, the champagne and the moment but as far as he was concerned it was the best first kiss he'd ever shared with any woman. His only regret was that he'd made a date with her for her birthday instead of making plans with her the very next day. She could sense she was being watched and turned around, smiling and waving him to the bar.
"You're early." She said, approaching him and stopping about a foot in front of him.
He held a single rose out, yellow with a red tip.
"Happy Birthday Kate." He said, handing her the rose.
"Thank you. Are you hungry?" She asked.
"Maybe a little, I need to talk to you about something. Can you sit with me for a minute?" He asked.
"Sure. Go grab a booth and I'll grab your usual." She said.
Jack found a booth in the back of the restaurant, waited a few minutes and then smiled when she set the club sandwich and a cup of coffee in front of him and sat down on the opposite side of the booth. He took half of the sandwich and slid the plate over to her.
"You look hungry." He said.
"What's up Jack? You seem preoccupied." Kate said and took a bite of her half of the sandwich.
"I do?" He asked.
"Yes, you do. Did you come here to cancel on me?" She asked.
"No, but I do need to ask you a favor." He said.
"What's that?" She asked.
"Can you meet me at my place at six? I know it's kind of a crap thing to ask a woman out and then not pick her up, but I've got a consultation that is going to run late and I'm trying to save time." He said.
"It's fine Jack. What should I wear?" She asked.
"What you've got on is fine." He said.
"Jack." She sighed heavily.
"Is this weird because I don't want us to suddenly be weird?" He asked.
"I think we established that you're weird a long time ago Jack." She answered with a mischievous grin, making him chuckle.
"I've got to get back, but I'll see you at six and just dress casual." He told her and slid out of the booth, standing and holding his hand out to pull her up.
She stood in front of him watching him study her face for the briefest of moments before leaning in and kissing her softly on the mouth.
"I'll see you tonight." He said, tossing money onto the table and turning to leave.
Kate watched him walk out of the restaurant, the soft, sweet kiss leaving her in a dream-like state for a moment. It wasn't a hot, lusty, toe-curling kiss, but it didn't need to be. The only thing that mattered was that she didn't have to steal it from him. Did this mean that she hadn't scared him off and that maybe he'd enjoyed their kiss after the dinner as much as she had?
Kate stood outside the door to Jack's condo remembering the last time she had done the same and shuddered, the humiliation she'd felt when the woman wearing nothing but a towel walked out almost too much for her to recount without needing to seek out a large rock to crawl under. Her mind then wandered back to the woman in the towel and what that represented. Was he really just a player under that sweet façade? Did he have a bedpost full of notches? Was he expecting her to be the next notch? Did she want to be his next notch? What was she doing? Why did she agree to this? Why did she attack his mouth the way she did and why did she allow him to attack back? She wasn't anything like any woman she'd seen Jack with. She never really got to know any of those women, but she assumed they were all sophisticated and highly educated and had never tried to eat his face off just because he asked them out on a date. She was about to turn around and run when the door opened suddenly, scaring both of them.
"Jesus Kate." He said and put his hand over his heart.
"What are you doing Jack?" She asked, as startled as he was.
"I'm going down the hall to unlock the door for Mrs. Grayson. She locks herself out at least three times a week. At least this time she had her cell phone with her. What are you doing? How long have you been standing here?" He asked.
"Not long. I was just getting ready to knock when you opened the door." She lied.
He knew he'd caught her in deep thought or deep into something else when he opened the door, but he decided not to push the issue because he was feeling as uneasy about what they were doing as she apparently was and understood why she might've been standing at his door thinking about changing her mind. He really liked Kate a lot, but he wasn't anything like what she typically dated and he assumed she would bore with him quickly and common sense was screaming at him to keep her at arms length. However, that kiss, that small taste of how good they could be together removed common sense from the equation and here they were, both wanting the same thing, but neither communicating that to the other.
"Go inside, make yourself comfortable. I'll be right back." He said and smiled at her, snapping both of them out of their thoughts.
Kate noticed he was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and wondered what he was up to. The smell of meat on a grill hitting her nostrils once she got inside the condo told her what he was up to long before she saw the table set for dinner. She heard the door close and turned around. He approached her, placed his hands gently on her hips and pulled her closer.
"You cooked for me?" She asked.
"Too boring?" He asked.
"No, it's sweet, but you could've just said so Jack, you didn't need to make up some story about a consultation running late." Kate told him.
"But, then it wouldn't have been a surprise. You spend your days in a restaurant and I spend most of my meals in restaurants. I thought it would be nice to have a home cooked meal and then we can sit on the deck, drink wine and watch the sunset or take a walk on the beach." He offered.
"Sounds great. What can I do?" She asked.
"Nothing. It's your birthday. But if you want to go to the pantry and grab some napkins while I go turn the steaks you can do that." He said and let go of her, ignoring the overwhelming desire to kiss her for the moment.
He watched her enter the kitchen and begin looking for something that resembled a pantry.
"It's to your left, light switch is just outside the door." He called to her.
"It looks like the light is already on." She called back.
He stood quietly for a moment, heard her let out a squeal and laughed lightly.
Kate opened the door, studied the shelves looking for napkins, felt something around her feet, looked down and saw the furry little creature with a big red bow tied around his neck. She picked the little puppy up, hugging it and hurrying back out to the dining room to thank the sweetest, kindest, most thoughtful man she'd ever had the pleasure of knowing.
"Oh my god Jack, he's so cute, I can't believe...how did you...when did you?" She asked excitedly, throwing her free arm around his neck and hugging him tightly.
"He's kind of the reason why I needed to lie to get you over here." Jack admitted, wrapping one arm around her waist to keep her close while he petted the puppy gently with his free hand.
"Look how cute he is. Do you see this face Jack? This is you when you want something from me. I think I have to name this little guy Jack. What do you think?" Kate asked.
Jack wrapped his other arm around her, pulled her closer and kissed her, feeling her free hand snake around into the back of his hair and deepening the kiss, quickly becoming consumed by her and how good she felt in his arms. He could feel the puppy squirming between them and broke the kiss, pulling back and smiling at her.
"I think as long as only one of the Jacks gets to kiss you on the mouth, I don't care what you name him." He teased.
"You're such a clean freak. Here, just let this little guy kiss you and tell me you don't love it." Kate said and pushed the puppy toward Jack's face, making him laugh.
He pulled his head back, refusing to allow the animal's little tongue to make contact with his face.
"Kate stop, please." He laughed.
"Oh come on Jack, he's so cute, how can you resist?" Kate asked and let the puppy lick her face, laughing at the way Jack scrunched his face up in disgust and shook his head.
He kissed her once more very quickly, and pulled away from her completely so he could tend to the steaks. Kate held the puppy close and watched him through the window, seeing him in a way she never had before or maybe in a way she always had, but because she refused to consider that she could ever be what he wanted or needed from a woman she'd filtered her view of him to spare herself the unnecessary heartache. Was he really as interested in her as he suddenly appeared to be? The way he'd just kissed her seemed to indicate that he was very interested and she felt a little confused about why after nearly a year he would suddenly be interested in her.
Jack could feel her eyes on him as he cooked the steaks and he thought about turning around just to confirm that she was thinking about him as much as he was thinking about her, but he didn't want to embarrass her and also didn't want to find out that he was just imagining things based on wishful thinking. He played the last kiss over and over in his head. It was good, too good and whatever this was between them would be intense if they allowed it to continue and at the moment, there was no part of him that wanted to stop it from continuing. While his heart seemed to know what it wanted, his mind was a different story and all the red flags were going up in his head screaming at him to be careful. He finally shook his head and laughed at himself.
"Jesus Jack, it was just a kiss, stop over analyzing." He mumbled to himself.