Page 5 of Jasper (Guardians of the North #5)
VANESSA
“These are the best pancakes I’ve ever had.
” I’m fully aware that I not only moan but also sink in my booth seat as I savor my breakfast. I can’t remember the last time I had such a simple but tasty meal.
The clients I’ve had these past couple of years would scoff at a diner literally called The Diner .
From the outside, it looks a run down. Like a strong gust of wind might blow it over.
The full parking lot, however, doesn’t seem to mind the rough exterior.
“Told you,” Jasper says.
“Too bad they don’t have a booth at the festival.”
“They’ll be plenty busy nursing all the hangovers.”
“Did you grow up here? In North Haven?” I’ve been very careful to avoid personal questions.
Now that the truth is out in the open about Jasper being in the military, I’ve started to question everything else he told me in Cape Cod.
I don’t know that I trust him to be truthful now.
Yet I can’t seem to resist the temptation to learn more about him.
There’s also the small matter that I never told him I was an admiral’s daughter. Seems we both had our white lies back then. Would a fresh start be so…crazy?
“The truth?” he asks.
I let out a soft laugh, feeling the earlier tension between us dissipating. “That would be a good change of pace, don’t you agree?”
“Yes.” The firmness in his tone does something to my insides. Something that makes them too melty with so little effort. It doesn’t seem fair, yet I have no desire to fight the feeling. “No more lies, Vanessa. I swear it.”
“Okay.”
“Only the truth. From both of us from now on.”
He’s waiting for me to agree, and I hate how vulnerable that makes me feel. Because I don’t want to talk about David or the big bombs I have yet to drop on my dad. “Fine, okay. The truth. But I reserve the right to not answer questions I don’t want to.”
“Fair enough.” He takes a slow sip of his coffee, and dammit if I don’t find myself jealous of the mug’s rim. “Yes, I grew up in North Haven.”
“And your parents? Are they really in the restaurant business?”
“No.”
“So that whole elaborate story about scouring the east coast for the best clam chowder recipe was a lie?” I don’t know why this disappoints me so much, other than I really loved the story of his parents.
It was the single detail that explained his presence in Cape Cod.
Being the son of restauranter parents who sent him on a mission to try as much clam chowder as he could.
To bring back ideas to freshen up their recipe.
“Not entirely.”
“I don’t understand.”
“My parents?—”
“Jasper!” an enthusiastic female voice announces, turning most heads in the diner. Including mine. The slender woman has both hands thrown up in the air like she’s cheering about a recent touchdown. She sets her sights on Jasper and practically tackles any diners in her way to get to him.
He stands just in time to catch her in his arms.
A pang of jealousy stabs me square in the gut.
The irrational urge to rip her off of him by the arms—and maybe that beautiful black mane of hair—is overwhelming.
But whether anyone in this diner realizes I’m in town to head the North Haven Festival or not, it would be bad press to get into a fist fight in a public setting.
Not exactly the best way to go into retirement. Dammit .
“I didn’t know you were coming home,” Jasper says as he pries her tight arms from his neck. He slides back into the booth, making room for the woman. What the actual fuck?
“You think I was gonna let mamma run that food truck all by herself?” The woman waves for the server, though it’s not necessary with the entrance she made. “She pretends she’s got it all under control, but this is the biggest event she’s ever served.”
“What about the resort?”
“It’ll run without me for one weekend.” The woman turns her attention to me, her eyes sparkling. “Jasper, you didn’t tell me you have a girlfriend!”
“I don’t?—”
“I’m Annie,” the woman says, holding out her arm across the table. “Jasper’s little sister.”
Sister . Instantly, every tense muscle in my body—of which there are apparently many—relaxes. I see the resemblance between them now. The black hair. Blue eyes the color of the ocean. Their slightly upturned noses. Definitely related. “Vanessa.”
“You must be pretty damn amazing,” Annie prattles on.
“Annie—”
“We were worried Jasper would be a bachelor forever. The man is pickier than anyone I’ve ever met.”
“Annie—”
“Tons of first dates that never turned into second dates. No woman is ever up to Jasper’s impossibly high standards.
I thought—” Annie is interrupted only by the server taking her order.
She requests a stack of blueberry pancakes, though I have no idea where she’s going to put it all in that tiny frame of hers.
“Tons of first dates, huh?” I ask when the server leaves, unable to resist the temptation to hear more about Jasper from someone who has no reason to lie about anything. She thinks I’m his girlfriend, after all. I probably should correct her, but this is much more fun.
“Most of them don’t even make it through a meal before they get up and walk out.”
“Annie, c’mon now?—”
“He’s been looking for this perfect woman who I swore didn’t exist.” She grabs his untouched glass of ice water and stabs a straw into it. “But it seems like he’s found you, after all.”
Part of me wonders if Jasper has been comparing his dates to me, the same way I compared mine to him these past four years.
It feels a bit conceited to think it, yet I can’t help the thrill that races through me.
What if…what if this really is meant to be something more? What if fate brought us together again?