Page 40 of She's Like the Wind

We were seated near the back of Saffron, which was surprisingly both luxurious and soulful. The food was warm, rich with spices, and the lighting made everything and everyone look ten percent more attractive.

Speaking of attractive, my date certainly continued to be so as the evening progressed, and he didn’t need that extra ten percent lighting boost either.

Jonah Lamarre was precisely the kind of man you were supposed to want.

He was charming without being smarmy, stylish without trying too hard, and funny in an effortless, low-key manner that didn’t scream for attention. He asked questions. Listened to my answers. Complimented the oysters like they were artwork.

And…I liked him.

The datewas easy.

Pleasant.

Like slipping into warm water—comfortable, calm, not too deep.

So why do I still feel like I am floating in someone else’s dream?

Probably because he’s here.

What irony that Gage should stand witness to my first date since I lost him, lostus?

I spotted him the second we walked in, even before I knew I was looking for him.

He sat across from a tall, stunning woman. He was paying attention to her. I doubted he’d seen me and even if he did, I doubt I’d registered beyond,ah, there’s the woman I once fucked.

Seeing him with another woman was like swallowing something sharp, especially since I knew that my being here with another man would not affect him at all.

I tried to keep the conversation with Jonah flowing, but it keptsnagging…on the memory of Gage’s hand around my waist, his mouth on my neck, the way he used to hold me when we slept.

I hated that I still feltit—my love for him, a throbbing wound.

Hated that even now, months later, the air shifted when he was in the same room.

If Jonah noticed, he didn’t mention it. I was anobviousintrovert, so maybe he just took it as my personality.

By the time dessert was offered and declined, I was a mass of disparate feelings. I’d done my best to compartmentalize the man on the other side of the restaurant with a woman he was probably going to take to his place, since we were in Uptown, from the man who would not be taking me to his place, no matter where it was.

Would Gage make love to her on his handmade redwood dining table? Would he eat her out as he….

Stop it, Naomi. You’re hurting yourself.

Jonah raised his glass to the woman sitting with Gage. “That’s Sloane Rousseau. You know her?”

“Know of her.” She was the heiress of the Rousseau fortune.

What was she doing slumming with a construction worker? I thought bitterly. Maybe exactly what Jonah was doing, slumming with an intimates shop owner.

He regarded me with quiet consideration. “And the man with her?”

I hesitated and then pulled myself together. “Yes, I know him,” I remarked casually as I folded my napkin.

He eased back comfortably in his chair. “He did reno work for you?”

I licked my lips. “No…ah…the building next door.” Then I decided, the hell with it. I wasn’t embarrassed about having had athingwith Gage. “We dated for a minute.”

He nodded, slow and deliberate. “Was it serious?”

I put on my favorite mask, that of an insouciant woman. “Verycasual.”