A Discovery of Hope (A Coming Home Again Novel Book 3) (11 page)

I look over at her and find her smiling an approving smile. I don’t have any response, so I roll away from her and feel her disappear. Good. Because I need some time to come to terms with all these notions. I touch the tips of my fingers to my swollen lips. They feel purposely bruised, and I can’t help but agree with my angel. What I shared with JP is something so foreign that I didn’t even realize it was love. I play it back over in my head—all the way back to him coming home early to check on me. The comfort he showed me, and then me returning it to him later. And then us sharing in that comfort together as we held each other only moments ago. I don’t know if either one of us is ready for what we stumbled upon tonight. For now, I let the worry of it go and live in that moment until dawn touches my windowsill.

As the day begins, apprehension overtakes me. I have no idea how to proceed, so I take the coward’s way out once again and hide out in my room all day. I spend the day working on my final paper for Photo Appreciation and only sneak a shower late in the day. I wait all day for a knock to sound at my door, but it never arrives. I don’t want to go through another awkward phase with JP, but I have no idea how we are going to go back to the way things were without some consequence from last night.

I retrieve my leftover sub for supper and work on keeping my mind busy with a plan on making Jace my friend. Hope hasn’t pushed it anymore, but now I truly want the little guy to like me. By the time night falls, I think I have come up with a pretty solid plan.

I go to bed and doze off fairly easily from missing last night’s sleep. It feels like I’ve just fallen asleep good when I am reawakened by repeat sounds of last night. JP’s muffled screams reach me and I’m out of bed in an instant. I rush to his door only to come to a halt at finding it locked. I decide to worry this to death later. I pound on the door until the yelling quietens.

“JP? Are you okay?” I yell through the door. A moment passes before I hear his footsteps draw closer, but then they pause. “JP?” I repeat.

“I’m okay,” he replies hoarsely on the other side of the door. I wait for the door to open. Instead, I hear his footsteps retreat.

I stand here, trying not feel hurt by this. At least I woke him up from the dreadful nightmare that seems to be plaguing him all of a sudden. I’m not uneasy over him physically locking me out, but emotionally locking me out. “What has hurt you, JP?” I whisper before escaping back to my own room.

Chapter Fifteen

I shake the weird weekend off the best I can and head to class on a mission. Today, Jace Wiles will change his mind on not wanting to be my buddy. I’m almost certain of it. I take my seat next to him and listen to him mumble to Tony about some movie lasting seven hundred and twenty seconds longer than was anticipated. Jace informs him of this with one of his whimsical half-laughs.

“Good morning, Jace.” I look at my watch and hit the stopwatch button, stopping the timer. “You have been chatting with Tony for one hundred and thirteen seconds.”

He doesn’t look at me, but offers up one of his half-laughs. I think I may have just impressed him a bit. I look over at Tony and he gives me an encouraging wink. “I have it on good authority that you are a fan of a famous photographer I know personally.” This weekend, while trying to coming up with a way to reach the little guy, I remembered his excited questions about JP on the way to the pizza parlor the other day. Jace actually knew about specific photos from the gallery. I was too focused on taking him out for lunch and not really absorbing that nugget of information.

He looks at his watch. “Fifty-four seconds before class begins.”

I pull out a printout to a gourmet pizza parlor I found online last night. This fancy joint has the oddest, most extensive list of toppings I’ve ever seen. They have won a great deal of recognition due to this, and it’s perfect. I place the printout on Jace’s desk and watch his eyes move over it.

“Humph…” He lets out a long breath as he studies it.

“I thought it would be fun if you circled what toppings you’d want on a pizza and then we can have it delivered to Palmetto Photography Gallery. We would be the only ones there and I’ll give you a private tour.” I wait for him to respond, but I get nothing.

The professor comes in and starts class immediately as she always does, so my hope in reaching Jace evaporates. I give up and focus on the slides shining on the screen. Today, the screen lights up with various bodies of water captured in extremely different ways. I’m zoned in the photos when Jace slides the menu back on my desk. Oh well. I thought he would want to at least keep the unusual menu. I admit defeat. Once the lights are brought back up, I go to pack up, but notice he has circled all sorts of toppings and has extra-thin crust scribbled at the top. Smiling, I look towards him.

“Tomorrow at five?” I ask.

He looks to Tony, but his shadow shrugs his shoulder and says slyly, “Dude, you have to get your dates approved with your parents. Not me.” I have to bite down on my lip to not laugh.

Jace looks at his watch impatiently. “I have over three thousand seconds before I see my dad.”

“Then how about we call him?” Tony asks, and Jace nods his head in agreement.

Tony calls and gets the okay from Jace’s dad. Now, I guess I need to set aside my discomfort and go get the okay from JP. We’ve not talked face to face since the kiss, so this should be interesting…

I park in the back lot and as I climb out of the SUV, I find long jean-clad legs and black Converse sneakers peeking out from underneath JP’s Jeep. Every so often I see flashes.

I wander over to the edge of Jeep and ask, “Whatcha doing under there? Welding?”

His arm extends from underneath, revealing his camera in his hand. He snaps several pictures in my direction before the camera disappears back under the Jeep.

“Why on earth are you taking pictures under there?”

He keeps snapping pictures as he answers. “Duke wants to sketch the underside for some mechanical project he’s working on. It’s hard to sketch underneath here so he asked me to photograph it.”

I drop my bag and crawl under the Jeep and lie beside him as he continues to snap away. Being this close to him in a confined space instantly causes me to blush. I take a few minutes to calm my nerves before I ask my favor.

I clear my tight throat and say, “I have a favor to ask of you.”

JP pauses and looks over at me. His eyes land on my lips but he quickly averts them back to my eyes. This seems to make him uneasy as well, so he goes back to staring through his camera. “Okay,” he says slowly.

“Can I bring a friend over tomorrow after closing?”

This gets his attention and he peeks back at me from the side of the camera. “A guy friend?”

Did he really just ask that
? I can’t decide whether to be embarrassed or amused. “Yep.” I smirk.

Instead of answering, JP goes back to picture-taking. After a few more shots, he passes his camera over to me. “Take a few of the tire wall for me.” I do as he asks, still waiting for his answer. “Do I need to get lost during this visit?” he asks in a grumpy tone.

Now I do laugh. “Nope. I’d actually like you to join us. I want you to meet him. His name is Jace.” I pass the camera back and we both scoot from under the Jeep. We stand and brush off the dust from our clothes.

“I don’t know if I’ll be around.” He runs his hand through his hair and looks away from me. “But you’re more than welcome to have company anytime you please.” He shrugs his shoulders and walks off.

I watch him walk off, and can’t help but grin. I decide not to explain my company. It’s more fun this way. I shouldn’t like it so much that this bothers him. But I do…

~~~~~

As soon as JP locked the door to the gallery today, he headed out the back door without a word and I’ve not seen him since. I guess he’s leery about meeting my
friend
. I order the unusual pizza Jace requested along with a meat lovers just before he arrives with Tony.

“I’m going to be next door at the café. Call when Jace is ready to head home,” Tony says.

“Okay,” I say as I usher Jace in and relock the door.

Jace immediately goes slack-jaw, just as I always do at the sight of this place, and starts wandering around. “This is nice… Real nice…. Nice….” He says this on a repeat for the next hour. I let him look around alone while I spread out a blanket on the floor in the middle of the gallery’s showroom for a picnic. I place some napkins and cans of soda on top.

The pizza delivery guy finally arrives and immediately gets Jace’s attention. He questions the poor guy for a good ten minutes on pizza sauce. JP decides to show back up at this point. I watch as he takes Jace in and relief washes over his face. He smiles at me and I smile back. Okay, so I’m feeling all girly and am getting a kick out of him not wanting another guy around. Maybe he was just as affected by that kiss the other night as me. Honestly, I’ve had a hard time thinking about anything else. And more than that, I can’t stop wondering about the nightmares and the hurt he carries. It’s touched me and all I want to do is take the burden away from him. I don’t know him enough to be feeling this way, but I do. These intense feelings I’ve developed for this almost stranger are a bit unnerving.

I brush those thoughts away and focus back on my guest. “Jace, I’d like you to meet my good friend, JP.” This is all it takes to get the little guy to direct his attention off of the pizza guy. I pay the patient guy a hefty tip and he rushes out the door before Jace can reel him back in.

JP walks up, and Jace launches in a rant on their names beginning with the letter J. This cute little guy is all lit up and giggling between sentences. This makes my day. Especially with witnessing JP eating it up. The man is always so guarded and too cool. I’m enjoying seeing him gentler with Jace and his eyes all glittery with kindness. This is the happiest I’ve seen this photography superstar and I really like it.

I guide them over to the blanket and we all help ourselves to a soda. I pop open the boxes and select a slice of the meat lovers. Jace grabs two pieces of his odd pizza. JP hesitates on his selection as he studies the choices. Jace’s pizza is an extra-thin crust with ranch dressing instead of marinara sauce. It’s covered in cheese, peaches, anchovies, jalapenos, hot sauce, and soy sauce. The smell isn’t pleasant at all.

“You may not want a piece of his,” I warn JP, wrinkling my nose.

He shrugs his shoulders and pulls a lopsided grin. “Why not? I’ve eaten roasted worms in Thailand.” He looks over to me. “Truth.” I let out a small laugh, liking him clarifying this is no JP tall-tale. Then he redirects his attention to Jace, who is looking at him in awe over the worm admission. “I think I can handle your gross pizza.”

JP does just that. He eats not one but two slices. As we eat, we patiently listen to Jace ramble on and on about robots. He has an unlimited knowledge bank on the subject. While listening to him talk, I’m finally able to see he has rich brown eyes. They are alight with excitement. I don’t understand most of what he is saying, but I guess I don’t have to, as long as he is free to talk. I see how important it is to him. JP seems to get this, also. He is a better listener than me and gets in a question every now and then. The questions set Jace off on more rambling tangents.

While I clear the picnic, JP grabs his camera and sets into showing it to Jace. By the time I finish cleaning things up, Jace is wearing JP’s camera around his neck in reverence.

“Shall I show you two some photography?” JP asks as he motions around the gallery.

“Yes, please,” Jace says.

We walk around with JP explaining the photos and where they were taken for the next hour. He ends the tour in my favorite spot, the alcove behind the stairs. I sneak to this spot to do homework or just to ponder. Jace takes in the huge tree photos with his mouth hanging wide open. I walk up to my favorite, the Willow tree, and study it some more. All of a sudden the camera starts flashing rapidly. I turn around in surprise and find Jace snapping pictures of me.

“Willow is standing under a Willow tree.” He sings this over and over, causing me and JP to laugh. The little guy keeps on snapping pictures of me until JP reins him in. It’s hilarious watching JP trying to maneuver the camera out of Jace’s grasp.

After this, Jace declares it time for him to go home. He says he has a movie scheduled to begin in twelve thousand seconds. Tony quickly arrives once I call him. I send them home with the leftover strange pizza.

I lock the door and turn to find JP close and watching me. “Thank you,” I whisper. I don’t know why I decide to whisper it. Maybe it’s because JP has caught me in the snare of his baby-blues, making me nervous.

“I enjoyed it. He’s a neat kid.” JP speaks this in a hushed tone as well. His words fade away and silence fills the room as he studies me with a severe intensity all the while moving closer to me until I can feel his warm breath brush along my face. He finally breaks our gaze only to focus on my lips, causing me to shiver. I absently bite down on the edge of my lip. JP intakes a sharp breath between his clenched teeth before stalking away to his office.

I feel oddly chilled with the absence of his body abruptly abandoning me. This allows me to be released from the odd spell, and I hurry off upstairs to regain my composure. I decide it’s best to stay in my room the rest of the night. I just don’t know what to do about this tension building between us. I stretch out on the bed and Hope appears beside me.

“What’s up?” I ask.

“Oh, nothing. Just wanted to check on you.” She gently nudges me with her elbow. “You’re in love.”

I throw my hand over my eyes and sigh in frustration. “I can’t be. I hardly know him… Plus he’s too old.”

“That’s whack!”

I ease my hand down and look at her skeptically. “You did not just say
whack
.”

“I did, and I quite liked it.” She seems so pleased with herself for using slang. “John Paul is only thirty-four years old.”

“Yes, and that’s over ten years
older
than me.”

“You’re both adults. I wouldn’t let such a small thing cause me to miss out.”

I think back over the nightmares. “He has issues.”

“Don’t you all?” She tosses this back before disappearing. Great.