Flawed Beauty (8 page)

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She dressed casually in jeans and a
striped
hoodie
. Even though he said he’d be by at
seven, she’d started getting dressed at five. She’d tried on every shirt and
pair of jeans she owned until she finally got frustrated with herself. He’d
seen her two nights in a row in black pants and prerequisite Zeal’s T-shirt. It
didn’t really matter what she wore.

Because she’d begun getting dressed
so early prior to her date, she had plenty of time to download the pictures
onto her laptop. She was so pleased with them. She printed out the picture of
the yoga students with their outstretched arms as well as the picture of the
couple. She’d begun clicking through old photos on her computer and was
surprised when she lifted her head and realized it was seven-ten.

Quickly, she shut down her laptop
and checked her
cellphone
to see if she’d missed a
call from
Jace
. By seven-twenty, she was beginning to
worry something had happened to him. By seven-thirty, she was beginning to feel
hurt and rejected. She’d just decided to head downtown on her own and had gone
to get a light jacket, when she heard a knock on the door. She couldn’t stop
the pounding of her heart. With hesitant steps, she headed to the kitchen door.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the door to see a repentant
Jace
leaning against the doorjamb.

“I’m so sorry. I got caught up at
work and couldn’t get away. I never did get your number, either, the other day
or this morning before I left and so I couldn’t reach you. Please don’t be
angry.”

Tate knew it’d probably be better
for her if she were angry, but he was just so heart-wrenchingly handsome in his
button-up white linen shirt and black jeans. He had a five o’clock shadow
darkening his jaw, which only intensified his amazing blue eyes.

All rational thought fled her mind.
“You’re beautiful,” she murmured before she was aware she’d said anything. She
couldn’t stop the blush which rose in her cheeks.

Jace
stopped speaking, as first,
astonishment skipped across his face, followed by a quick grin. Reaching for
one of her hands, he brought it to his lips and kissed it gently before tugging
her forward and placing his lips against her forehead and tipping her face up
to his.

Against her lips, he whispered, “I
think you’re beautiful, too.” He deepened the kiss until they were both
breathless.

Pulling back, he pressed his
forehead against hers. “We need to get going.”

Tate grabbed her keys off the
counter and stuck them in her pocket.

As they walked down the stairs, he
asked, “How’s your head? Sorry, as a doctor, that should have been my first
question.”

She laughed. “I’m fine.
Although my jaw and ego are equally bruised.
I thought I
could handle guys like Blondie.”

“You looked like you handled Blondie
just fine. It was his friends who became problematic for you.”

“I suppose so,” she concurred.
“Where are we going tonight?”

“I thought we’d try out that new
Brazilian steakhouse over on Ninth and Freemont. Is that okay?”

“Steak is good. I’m easy.”

“God, I hope so,” he smirked.

Tate punched him in the arm.

The steakhouse was busy when they
arrived and they ended up sitting in the bar while waiting to be seated.

“This feels familiar, huh?” he said,
grinning and bumping her shoulder with his own as they sat side by side at the
bar.

“Certainly does,” she agreed.

“How do you know Thor?” he asked.

Tate wondered how best to answer.
“He was in the service with one of my… foster parents.”

“Foster parents? Can I ask what
happened to your parents?”

Tate’s eyes darted quickly around,
trying to come up with anything but the truth. “They’ve been gone since I was
thirteen,” she finally answered evasively.

“I’m sorry. That had to have been
hard. I’m very close to my parents and would hate to lose one of them, never
mind both,” he said softly.

“It was a long time ago,” she
murmured, uncomfortable with his misplaced sympathy.

“So you lived with foster parents?
No other family, I’m supposing?” he asked.

She looked away and shook her head.
“No, no other family.”

“What were your foster parents
like?”

“Some good, some bad.
The last ones, Toby and Markus,
were good.”

“Sounds like you had a rocky road,”
he said, rubbing his finger over his bottom lip thoughtfully.

“Could have been worse,” she
answered softly, thinking of the life with the Mr. Smiths of the world her
parents had destined for her.

Jace
reached over and took one of her
hands in his. “One day, Tate Morgan, you will open up to me. And when you do,
it will be…” he paused for dramatic effect and leaned forward to whisper in her
ear, “magic.”

A shiver ran up her spine at the
touch of his lips against her ear. Before she was able to respond, the
restaurant’s electronic pager sitting on the bar between them began to buzz and
light up.

Throughout the dinner, Tate listened
to
Jace
talk more in depth about his family and
college experiences. He continually tried to pry information out of her, but
she effectively managed to turn the conversation back to him.

“…so, you can only imagine my
parents’ surprise and delight when I enrolled in a poetry class while in high
school. Not quite what you’d expect from a jock,”
Jace
grinned.

“I don’t quite see you as a heart
and flowers guy
myself
,” Tate quipped.

He flashed a dimpled smile. “You
don’t, huh? You’d be surprised. I can be quite dashing and romantic.”

“So, why did you actually take the
class?
To meet girls?”

“That was a definite plus, but
actually, I took the class to help with my song writing,” he said.

“I don’t imagine you needed any help
getting the girls… poetry class or not,” she teased.

“Have you had many serious
relationships?” he asked.

As he was cutting into his very rare
steak, he missed the dart of her eyes to his face.

“No,” she answered simply.

He placed the steak in his mouth and
closed his eyes in enjoyment. “Well worth the wait,” he murmured. “I know the
other day at lunch you said you don’t date much,” he said.

“How about you?
Have you had many serious
relationships?” she asked, turning the questions back to him.

The knife he had poised over his
steak paused as he considered his answer. “While I’ve dated a
few
women,
I’ve only had what I consider one serious relationship. She was the proverbial
girl next door – really, she lived across the street, but same thing,” he
grinned. “Her name was Brittany and we were high school sweethearts. We dated on
through college, but it ended right before she went away to law school.”

Tate felt a weird jealousy towards
the unknown Brittany. “Why?” she asked.

With a wry twist of his lips, he
said, “She forgot which brother she was supposed to be with.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, oh.
It was quite the shocker to find
them together. Kind of a huge deal-breaker, don’t you think?”

 “Do you miss her?”

“Umm, at first.
But it was a long time ago. I’ve
moved on… she’s moved on. We’ve found we’re actually better friends than we
were anything else.”

“So, you’re still in contact with
her then?” she asked.

“Yeah, not as much as before.
She’s away at law school. But we
catch up now and again. So, what’s the real reason you don’t date?” he asked,
lifting the buttered asparagus to his lips.

She rubbed against the tightening in
her chest. She stuck to her usual answer.
“Too busy.”

“Even while you were in high school?
I can’t believe guys weren’t
swarming to you like bees on honey,” he said with a grin.

She watched the green beans as she
pushed them around her plate, trying not to think about the boys who’d swarmed
around her and their reasons for doing so. “I’ve always known I’d need to take
care of myself, and not having a family to pay for college, I knew I’d need a
scholarship. So I didn’t have time to date in high school, either.”

He was quiet for so long she was
forced to look up. She found him staring at her with what she could only
discern as being pity. She hated that look.

“Don’t! Just don’t,” she muttered
looking away from him, infuriated at
herself
for
discussing any of this.

Quietly, he set his utensils down.
“Tate, you should be proud of what you’ve accomplished. You were focused,
worked hard, and it paid off. But I do feel sad when I think of the little
blonde girl sitting at her desk toiling away while everyone around her was out
having a good time. You must have been very lonely.”

She swallowed and looked away from
the intensity of his blue eyes. “I preferred it that way.”

“I can see that,” he said, eyeing
her thoughtfully. “Whew! How’d we get so serious? This isn’t light dinner
conversation. Let’s talk about something else… how about those Gators?” he said
with a grin.

For the rest of the dinner,
Jace
set out to be funny and amusing; which he was. He told
her story after story about growing up with a brother and a sister; about his
shenanigans in high school; about singing in a rock band; and finally
continuing on to his time in college and medical school.  

As he talked, Tate wished she’d have
brought her camera with her so she could have captured him as he spoke. He
became animated and frequently used his hands. She could have watched him for
hours. He continuously flashed his gleaming teeth and crinkled the lines at his
eyes when he smiled. She was so fascinated by him.

Once dinner was over, they began to
walk around the downtown area. As they rounded a corner which led them into the
middle of the square, a cyclist sped by too close to the sidewalk.
Jace
reached out a hand and took hers, pulling her tight
against his side. Even after the danger had passed, he continued to hold her
hand as they walked. The warmth from his touch seemed to heat her blood
straight up to her heart.

They eventually ended up at one of
Tate’s favorite sites in the city. It was a park with a huge lighted fountain
in the center. The water in the middle of the fountain seemed to shoot up far
into the heavens before falling gracefully back down. She was surprised and
delighted to see two swans swimming in the fountain. Their majesty seemed to
add to the fantasy of the night. It was perfect.

As they sat together on a bench
facing the fountain,
Jace
said, “Did you know swans
mate for life?”

“No, I didn’t,” she answered.

“You see that a lot in the animal
kingdom, but not so much in humans. My parents have been married for thirty-two
years. I don’t think they’ve ever spent the night apart. That’s what I want
eventually – a mate for life. ”

The glow of the night seemed to fade
a little at his words. Down in the dark recesses of her mind, she would like
that also, but knew it wasn’t destined for her. With a little shake of her
head, she pushed the dark thoughts away. She was enjoying right now, this
moment, which was something she’d never experienced before. She liked being out
with
Jace
. He made her feel less alone… almost like
she was normal, and not a freak.

By eleven o’clock,
Jace
was walking her up the stairs to her apartment. Her
hands began to sweat. Having limited experience in the world of normal dating,
she wasn’t sure how it was supposed to end. She hoped he wasn’t expecting more
than she could give. She closed her eyes as visions of Bradley
Rivers’s
pool table flashed in her mind and then her
father’s words.
Nothing in life is free,
Patanga
.
The feel of hands holding her shoulders down felt almost real.

When they stepped onto the landing,
she turned to face him, her stomach in knots. He reached down and intertwined
the fingers of their hands.

“
Parting is such sweet sorrow
,”
he quoted from Shakespeare.

“
That I shall say goodnight till
it be morrow
,” she said, reciting the next line.

He flashed a quick smile at her
continuance of the quote. “Please tell me you thought Romeo and Juliet
was
a bit lame,” he pleaded.

“Foolish maybe, but not lame.”

He flashed a sexy grin, which
showcased his dimples, and she nearly stopped breathing. Slowly he pulled her
to him before dropping her hands to touch her lightly on her hips. He pressed
his lips against her ear, and lowering his voice to an almost husky whisper, he
said, “Well, I prefer this sonnet.
If I said you had a beautiful body would
you hold it against me
?” As he sang the words from an old Bellamy Brothers
song, he slowly moved them in a small circle.