Page 19 of Love Affair in London (Once Again #12)

Their pizzas demolished, they worked on their limoncello, and Jared propped his chin on his fist. “We talked about my big family, but what about you? Any brothers or sisters? Uncles or aunts? You sounded like you’d experienced cheek-pinching aunties.”

She cleared her throat, unprepared for the question, then started with the easiest first. “The uncles and aunts belonged to my friends. I don’t have any siblings.

I was an only child. Both my parents were too.

They always claimed that’s why they turned to each other, because they had no other family.

” The next part was harder, the feelings more tender, but she told him anyway.

“My dad died twenty years ago. He was eighty-five, but he’d suffered from Alzheimer’s for five years.

My mom took care of him right until the end. ”

“Christ, that must’ve taken its toll on her,” he sympathized. “Especially being in her eighties.”

“Actually, Mom was fifteen years younger than my dad. But you’re right, it was a big toll on her.

Of course, she didn’t do it all on her own.

” A sip of limoncello wet her throat. “We had full-time caregivers. And I was over there a lot too. She couldn’t bear to put him in a nursing home.

Or even hospice. But many people don’t understand that you can have in-home hospice and the aids come to your house.

We did that, of course. But it was still exhausting for Mom.

I mean, being there for just a few hours exhausted me.

” Piper didn’t cry. It had happened a long time ago, and she’d done her grieving.

Yet she still felt the ache of loss. “Mom had a heart attack only a month after he died.”

He squeezed her hand. “I’m so sorry.”

“I tell myself it was because she wanted to be with him.” But being fifteen years younger than her father, her mother has spent the last five years of her life caring for him.

He’d been deteriorating for years, and Piper had taken over managing their finances five years before the Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

Mom had dealt with the rest, the upkeep of the house, driving Piper’s dad to the doctors, and though Piper had done all she could, it was a heavy load on her mother.

After all that, her heart simply gave out.

She was only seventy. Seventy used to seem so old, but now that Piper was fifty-five, it didn’t seem old at all.

She knew plenty of active seventy-year-olds, especially in her hiking group.

Then she just wanted to be done with her thoughts. “Tell me about your family. Any siblings? I know you’ve got lots of aunts and uncles.”

Seeming to understand that she needed to change the subject, he launched into his history.

“My parents live in San Carlos. I’m in Belmont.

” Both were suburbs on the Peninsula just south of San Francisco.

And close to Piper in San Mateo. “And so is my wife—my ex-wife—and the kids see a fair amount of their grandparents. Although Mom and Dad are gone more often than not now. They love cruising. In just a month, they start a fifty-five-day cruise to the South Pacific, Australia, and up to Asia. My mother has always wanted to see Angkor Wat.”

Piper had seen pictures of the ancient Cambodian temple. “It’s an amazing place,” she said. “I’ve watched documentaries on it. I’d love to go there someday.”

“It will be a fantastic trip for them.” He huffed out a light laugh. “The kids showed them how to use WhatsApp so they can send photos to all of us.”

“Isn’t it always the kids who have to show us everything?” Even though she’d had to learn how to use all those devices on her own, her friends’ kids had often shown her easier or faster ways to do things.

“As for siblings,” he said, “I have two older brothers.”

That delighted her. “So you’re the baby of the family.”

He rolled his eyes as if he were still a teenager. “Believe it or not, I was always the more mature of the bunch. My oldest brother has four kids by four different wives.”

She gasped, putting a hand to her mouth.

He nodded, as if she needed confirmation.

“Yep, you don’t even need to say it. My younger brother has a one-year-old, but he and his girlfriend aren’t married.

” He traced a finger on the tablecloth. “I really don’t get it.

If you’re going to have a baby together, why not get married?

Maybe I’m totally out-of-date on this, but not getting married just sounds like you want to be able to walk out whenever you feel like it. ”

She reached over to slap her hand over his mouth. “Do not let anyone hear you say that kind of thing,” she said with mock severity.

“You’re right. Especially not my family. My kids think marriage is an outdated social construct.”

She laughed, shaking her head. “Maybe it is. There certainly are a lot of divorces.”

He raised one eyebrow. “Myself included.”

She made a face. “Me too.” Then, her limoncello finished, she tapped the table with both hands. “Thank you for lunch. Shall we get on with the rest of our tour?”

Before she even finished speaking, he was already standing, pulling her chair out for her.

Outside, she turned to him. “Do you want to go to the Prime Meridian line next?”

“Sure. Want to take a cab?”

She pointed to her practical walking shoes—sturdy rather than stylish. “No way. It’s just through Greenwich Park.”

The park brimmed with dog walkers, sunbathers, and frisbee-throwers enjoying the lovely day, with the Royal Observatory—and the Prime Meridian—on the hill above and the Queen’s House behind them.

Though the hill wasn’t terribly steep, by the time they reached the observatory, she was glad for the chance to pause.

The fabulous view of the Queen’s House and the college, with the high-rises of London behind on the far shore of the Thames, stole her breath.

This was London. This was England. And it was all so exciting.

She tightened her fingers around Jared’s, and he squeezed back, as if he understood her thoughts and felt the same thing.

Along with the other tourists, they walked the Prime Meridian line that divided the hemispheres.

“It’s almost surreal,” Jared said, “that here we’re in the western hemisphere, and one step over—” He took that step. “We’re in the east.”

She propped a hand on her hip. “Now we can say we’ve been here.”

Without warning, and despite the people surrounding them, Jared pulled her into a hug. The motion startled a breathless laugh out of her.

He released her, saying, “I think you must have always been an annoying optimist.”

Still catching her breath, she said, “Not annoying. Just an optimist.”

“A glass-half-full kind of person. To use a cliché.”

“And which are you?” she countered.

“A bit of both,” he admitted. “Sometimes I’m half-full. Sometimes I’m half-empty.”

They decided not to go inside the Royal Observatory and began the walk back down to the Queen’s House, hand in hand again.

Piper didn’t let the conversation drop. “I’m probably a bit of both too. You can’t be up all the time. That would be… manic. And annoying,” she added with a grin.

“I can confirm you’re definitely not annoying.”

Her heart flipped in her chest. She thought of the hug, the easy warmth of his hand in hers, and admitted to herself that she wanted more. A whole lot more.

Jared reflected on that hug. It had been a quick, thoughtless gesture, something instinctive—like he might do with Scarlett or Liam. But the moment Piper’s body pressed against his, the dynamic shifted.

When he’d booked his flights and arranged his itinerary for this trip, he hadn’t entertained thoughts of a romantic connection. While he was away, his focus was supposed to be on work. But Piper had flipped a switch inside him.

He wouldn’t call her a hookup. Hookups, to him, were casual encounters, a few drinks, a bit of flirtation, and a quick tumble. He never spent the night, never woke up with a woman in his arms. And he didn’t hook up often.

But this was different. He liked the feel of her hand in his, the fresh, sweet scent of her skin. His heart tumbled at the thought of tasting her lips. He imagined waking up beside her, morning sunlight streaming across the bed as he pulled her close again.

She’d probably be appalled if she knew where his thoughts had wandered as they walked through the park, Piper talking animatedly while he wondered how she’d taste, how she’d feel, what she’d like him to do.

“The Queen’s House was built for Queen Anne in the early sixteen hundreds. But she died before it was completed, and it wasn’t finished for another twenty years. And then—” Piper stopped, turning to him. “They only used it for, like, less than ten years. Isn’t that crazy?”

Crazy was the way he wanted to lean close and kiss her, not just a simple hug, but a long, passionate kiss.

She began walking again, and he followed. “They traveled by barges to get to all their palaces, like Greenwich and Hampton Court. Places that seem so close to us now must have felt very far away back then.”

Jared made a noncommittal noise, pretending to listen, but he was too busy savoring the sound of her voice.

They rounded the Queen’s House, coming to it from the front, opposite the Old Royal College. Jared took in its stately central entryway and the two long colonnades spreading out on either side.

Piper surveyed the long drive and the magnificent classical house with its two curved stairways. “This actually used to be the back, and the front faced the park. Maybe they decided to make this the front entrance because these stairs are so beautiful.”

He turned slightly, looked at her for a long moment. Thought of kissing her. And not stopping. “I like this view much better.” Then he asked, “You want to go inside the Queen’s House? Or the Maritime Museum next door?” He spread his hands. “Or we could do both.”

Piper glanced at her watch. “I’m afraid we’ll miss the last boat back to Tower Bridge.” She’d checked the posted times before they’d left the dock. “Let’s just take some pictures of the outside. I’ve seen a lot today already.”

After photographing what they wanted, it seemed automatic to hold out his hand to her.

Together, they made their way across the street and back through the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College.

At the dock, the boat was just coming in, and people disembarked, clearly having other plans for getting back—or spending the night.

They entered the line and were soon boarding.

With the sun lower in the sky, it was cooler on the top deck, and Piper pulled her sweater out of her tote. There was no commentary over the loudspeaker on the way back, and once the boat was underway, she touched his hand. “Thank you so much for making this a fabulous day.”

She made it sound as if this moment were the end, as if once they reached the Tower Bridge pier, they’d go their separate ways. Jared wasn’t ready for that.

“How about some dinner? We only had personal pizzas for lunch. What do you think of having fish and chips?”

She looked at him as if she were about to say no, and he added, “We could share a plate if you don’t want a whole one.” Did he sound like a teenage kid afraid of rejection, practically begging? It didn’t bother him. Maybe he was begging.

As the wind blew through her hair, she pulled strands away from the lipstick she’d just freshened. “You don’t want a whole plate of fish and chips all to yourself?”

He wanted what she wanted. He knew the stereotype: the cougar who attracted younger men. Not that he’d call her a cougar. He just found her so attractive, wanting to be the one to pull her hair away from her lips, wanting to plant a kiss on them. Wanting her lipstick all over him.

He didn’t analyze what drew him to her—whether it was the red-gold highlights in her hair, the pretty blue of her eyes, her full breasts, or her toned figure. Maybe it was her voice, her smile, her laugh.

Maybe it was everything about her.

“I’m not actually used to three meals a day, so it’s better to eat less at each one.” He smiled, hoping it came across as disarming. “I certainly ate way more at breakfast than I normally would. Let’s share.”

He prayed she was on the verge of saying yes.

“If you’re sure you want to share—” Finally she flashed him her lovely smile. “—I’d love to have fish and chips with you.”

He wanted to raise her hand to his lips and brush her knuckles with a kiss. But though they’d done some hand-holding today, he wasn’t sure how she’d react to anything overt.

The boat lumbered on, rocking over the swells of other ships passing by. They seemed to get back much faster than the outbound trip, but it took longer to disembark because of the crowd packed onto this last boat.

Once they were on the dock, he took her hand again, ostensibly so he wouldn’t lose her in the throng. “I’ll place a bet that you’ve already picked out the best fish-and-chip place nearby.”

Her eyes seemed to twinkle like stars. “You think you know me, do you?”

He wanted to know her so much more intimately. “It’s just something I’ve discovered about you.”

She didn’t seem offended. In fact, she seemed to like being understood. At the top of the pier steps, she pulled out her phone, opening an app. “In fact, I already have it keyed into my map. It’s on the other side of the Tower of London, within walking distance.”

He twisted his wrist to see his watch. “Are you ready now? Or would you like a coffee?”

She waved her hand. “No more coffee today. But before we go, I’d like to freshen up. Does that sound okay to you?”

“More than okay. Shall we meet in the lobby in an hour?” He had an errand to run.

“An hour is great. You’re not going back?” she asked, curious when he didn’t follow her to the hotel.

He wasn’t ready to tell her about his errand. “I’d like a coffee after all.” Only a slight lie. “See you in an hour.”

He leaned close, breathing in her scent, and kissed her cheek.

Her eyes were slightly wide when he pulled back. This was seduction—giving her just a taste of what he wanted and leaving her wanting more. It wasn’t a plan, nothing nefarious.

But it was seduction.