‘Oh, it was between your moan of delight for the meat pies and your groan of appreciation for the burger sliders,’ she teased, and saw the tension that had entered his body after she’d let go of his hand fade.
‘They have good food here,’ he said, with a shrug and a smile.
Before she could respond they were at the front of the line. Behind the glass casing of the van she could see a variety of ice cream flavours that made her mouth water. After a few minutes of looking, she still couldn’t decide between the chocolate hazelnut flavour and the vanilla toffee.
‘How about you take the chocolate hazelnut and I take the vanilla toffee?’ he said when she told him as much, and she smiled at the proposal.
‘Perfect!’
She relayed their order to the patient vendor, and watched with delight at he made the sugar cone their ice cream would be served in from scratch.
Her first lick was deliciously creamy, and the thrill of cold ran down her spine. But then she realised that Jordan was watching her—with amusement and something else in his eyes—and she wondered if the thrill had come from the cold.
‘This is great,’ she said to avoid feeling awkward. ‘Want some?’
‘Sure,’ he replied, and moved closer.
He watched her as he tasted the ice cream, and suddenly it was a year ago, when they’d been on honeymoon in Mauritius and had come across an ice-cream stand. It had been perfect for the hot summer’s day after they’d been at the beach all morning.
Sharing their ice creams with one another had been...sensual, she thought, just as it was now. Shivers went up her spine at the look in his eyes—the look that told her that even though they weren’t together any more he still wanted her.
He offered her a lick of his, and as though she was in a trance she leaned forward and tasted it, her eyes still on his. The flavour was just as delectable as she’d thought it would be, but the thought barely registered. Instead she was wondering if their sharing ice cream would end the way it had in Mauritius—with a passion that could have heated the entire resort for a week.
The thought had her moving backwards so quickly she almost stumbled. She regained her balance in time to realise that there was ice cream on her nose. She spent a few seconds trying to figure out how to remove it, and sighed when she saw that neither of them had taken a serviette.
‘Do you want some help?’ he asked, and she looked up to see that he was watching her—again—this time with an amused expression. And then she thought that she must have been crossing her eyes to look at the spot of ice cream on her nose, and she flushed.
‘No, thanks—I’ll manage.’ She rubbed her nose with her sleeve and quickly turned to look for the vendor they were waiting for, hoping with all her might that he would be there. Relief swamped her when she saw that he was, and she turned back to Jordan, who was now watching her with a guarded expression.
‘We should go over there,’ she said, and gestured behind her.
He nodded and started walking, and she took a moment to instruct her emotions to stop fluttering around and get into place. When she was sure she had them under control she followed him—and wished with all her might that the roller coaster the two of them were on would stop.
‘WHERE ARE WE GOING?’
They were in the car and supposed to be heading home from the school. But after spending the entire day with Mila, Jordan didn’t want it to end.
Yes, they lived together at the moment—he kept waiting for her to tell him she would be leaving—but as soon as they walked through the front door of his father’s house Jordan knew that Mila would erect a fence between them. He would be able to see glimpses of her, but he wouldn’t be able to get near her, and the thought of that disturbed him.
He didn’t think about why—he didn’t need to defend himself for the time he spent with the woman who had once been his everything, did he?—but he couldn’t bear being kept at a distance any more. Not after he’d seen parts of her today that he hadn’t known existed during their marriage.
And now he knew what he had been missing.
‘Did you know the Gerbers?’
‘The old couple who used to live behind us?’
Mila turned to him, her brows drawn together in a frown, and Jordan’s hand itched to reach out and smooth it over. But he tightened his hands on the steering wheel. Just as he had tightened them into fists in his pockets to keep himself from taking her hand again that afternoon.
He had done that by mistake, but it had felt so right that he hadn’t let go even though his mind had told him to. And then she had done it instead, and disappointment had hit him like water from a burst pipe. He blamed that desire to touch her on that hug she’d sprung on him after making it down those stairs.
His body awoke just at the thought of it.
‘Yeah...’ He forced himself to speak, forced his body to calm down. ‘Did you ever speak to them? Get a look around their property?’
‘I... No,’ she said, confusion clear in her voice. ‘What’s going on, Jordan? Where are you taking me?’
He had wanted to keep it a surprise, but he didn’t want her to worry. ‘I’m taking you to our house.’
‘What?’
Was that panic her heard in her voice?
He frowned. ‘Is something wrong?’
‘No, no,’ she replied quickly—too quickly—and looked out of the window. Her hands were clasped so tightly together in her lap that he reached over with one of his.
‘What’s going on, Mila?’
She blew out a shaky breath and he felt the deliberate relaxation of her hands under his. Taking it as a sign that she didn’t want to be touched, Jordan moved his hand away. Even that slight loss of contact made him feel empty.
‘It’s nothing.’
‘Mila...’ Again, he found himself pleading.
She sighed. ‘I just haven’t been there since...since you left.’
‘And going back now is...worrying for you?’
She didn’t answer, and he glanced over to see her deliberately relaxing again. It made him wonder about why she was reacting this way to something as simple as going back to the house they’d shared. He felt a slight stir in his brain and frowned. He was missing something.
‘A reminder of the past,’ she finally said softly, and when he looked at her again he saw that she was still looking out of the window. ‘Going back to the house we lived in... Going back together... It’s just a reminder of a life that seems worlds away.’
‘We were planning to go anyway, weren’t we? I have to help you get the stuff out so that you can leave.’ Even saying the words sent a flash of pain through his heart.
‘Oh, yes, of course,’ she said, again more quickly than he thought she needed to, and again he wondered what he was missing.
There had to be something... The stirring in his brain seemed like a distant memory, but he couldn’t recall it to verify whether that was the truth, and he didn’t know if it had anything to do with what was currently happening between them. But it must—why else did he feel as if he was having a conversation without knowing all the facts?
‘It’s probably because this is unplanned,’ she continued. ‘Why are we going there now?’
‘I have something to