More Than Words
Page 31

“Wow. This looks amazing,” Jessie said as she dug in. It was some sort of chicken dish in a rich cream sauce, and I almost moaned when I took a bite.
“Goddamn, this is delicious,” I said, and Jessie laughed. Just as I took another bite, I felt a drop of rain and set my fork down, holding up my hand as another few raindrops touched my skin. A glance upward showed storm clouds previously hidden by the tall castle moving in quickly.
“Monsieur, madame,” I heard, and the waiter reappeared, walking swiftly toward our table. “Rain is coming. I suggest you come inside to the restaurant and you may finish your dinner there.”
I looked down at my plate regretfully, not wanting anything to interrupt the delicious meal but deciding he was probably right. “Okay,” I said, and he nodded, clearing our plates and the other dishes from the table quickly and hurrying back toward the castle. My heart sank with the knowledge that our day had been interrupted by bad weather.
“Do you want to hang out inside until this passes and then we can still try to see the vineyards and do the tasting afterward?” Jessie asked.
I looked up, assessing the clouds, trying to determine what direction they might be heading. Maybe it would just be a brief rain shower, over as quickly as it seemed to have begun. For a minute there were only a few drops here and there, and I looked at Jessie, about to agree with her suggestion. Suddenly, the heavens opened up and it began to pour.
We both jumped up, Jessie letting out a shriek as we fumbled for our bikes, pulling them away from the tree and running for the path. The rain increased, drumming noisily on the ground around us as Jessie screamed but then laughed, ducking her head against the onslaught as she jumped on her bike. “Come on!” she called, her voice practically lost in the sound of the rain pounding all around. Holy fuck, it was a torrential downpour.
I got on my own bike, feeling wobbly and unsure, as if I might steer myself into a wall of rosebushes, practically blind, sheets of water obscuring my view. I saw the watercolor shape of Jessie riding in front of me and followed her outline. We turned out of the garden and onto the main path, and I pedaled quickly to catch up with her. I wobbled precariously, catching myself and letting out a huff of relief right before my front wheel slipped on the side of the path. I let out a yell as my bike went down, me underneath it, sprawled in mud. Oh Christ.
For a moment I just lay there, the rain pummeling me as I sputtered and brought one muddy hand up to shield my face. This was the most ridiculous fucking thing that had ever happened to me, and I’d been in a shit ton of weird situations.
“Callen!” Jessie was suddenly standing over me, reaching her hand out to help me up, and I noted distantly that this was the second time in less than a week that I’d landed flat on my back in front of her. Jesus. I started to get up, but I was partially under my bike and when I turned to push it aside, Jessie lost her balance and slipped, sprawling facefirst into the mud next to me.
I pushed the bike away. “Oh shit, Jessie! Are you okay?” I rolled toward her, and for a second I thought she was crying and my heart started hammering along with the rain, but when I turned her toward me, she was laughing so hard that it was silent.
I stared, the rain causing the mud to streak down her face in dirty rivulets, exposing stripes of her pale skin beneath. And I couldn’t help it. Laughter exploded from my chest as I leaned forward, attempting to rein in my sudden hilarity while simultaneously helping her to her feet.
She took my hand, still laughing, and when she tried to stand, her foot came out from under her again and we both toppled over, me on top of her, her breath exploding out of her mouth in a soft “oof” between bursts of laughter. “Oh shit, Jess. Christ.” I choked out a few more bursts of laughter before pushing myself up, my hand becoming momentarily stuck in the thick mud next to her. “Come up to your knees.” I reached my hand out to her again and she took it, getting to her knees next to me before we both stood slowly and carefully. I gripped her hand in mine as I took a few squidgy-sounding steps through the mud to the bike path. Jessie stepped up next to me, and we stood there for a moment getting our bearings, the rain sluicing off some of the mud. We both reached down and pulled our bikes up, facing them forward on the path.
“Do we even bother to run for the car at this point?” she asked.
The car. Oh fuck. Guess who didn’t put the top up on the convertible? It had to be a bathtub by now. As if she’d followed my line of thinking, her mouth opened into a shocked O—which was more comical than anything with those streaks of mud still rolling down her face—and she shouted, “Oh my God! The car!” We started running, as quickly as possible while holding on to the handlebars and wheeling our bikes next to us.
The rain drummed on the ground as we made a wobbly dash back through the gardens and toward the front of the castle where I’d parked the car. We barely stopped at the bike storage racks, leaning our bikes against them and continuing on. As we rounded the corner and ran quickly to the car, Jessie let out a defeated sound in the back of her throat. Water pooled on the floor and sat in puddles on the leather seats. God fucking dammit. Still, I couldn’t help the helpless chuckle. How the fuck was this happening? I opened the driver’s-side door and jumped out of the way just in time to avoid the stream of water that came pouring out.
“Should we see if there’s a room we can rent in there?” Jessie asked, pointing at the castle. The rain was letting up, and I would have been thankful, only more rain couldn’t really have made anything worse, so what did it matter at this point if it stopped?
“It’s only a restaurant, a gift shop, and some tasting rooms,” I said, remembering what Nick had spouted about the online description of this place and what it featured. I leaned in and started the car, bringing the top up. At least the car still ran.
“The château I booked is only an hour away. We’ll blast the heat, and then you can take a long swim in the huge spa tub I made sure was in the room I booked.”
Jessie groaned with pleasure. “Will they even let us into their hotel looking like this?”
“I’ll tip someone a lot of money.” I came around the car and signaled her to step back and then opened her door, too. Water came pouring out, and I wiped the puddle off her seat as best I could and then inclined my mud-caked arm inside. “Your carriage, milady.”
A burst of laughter erupted from Jessie, and she curtsied and stepped inside regally, the seat making a squelching sound as she sat down.
I got in and adjusted the dials so the heat was blasting. I glanced over at Jessie, her hair wet and caked with mud, plastered to her skull, and her teeth blindingly white against her mud-streaked face. She looked alarmingly awful. So why the hell did I want to kiss her so badly?
I shook my head, chuckling as I pulled out of the lot and headed for the main road, thankful I’d prepaid for the food, tour, and tasting. Yet I couldn’t help feeling disappointed we didn’t get to finish the delicious meal. I was hungry. My clothes were soaked yet stiff, and I’d never felt dirtier in my entire life. I was sure I’d be scrubbing grit out of my hair for the next two years.
We’d driven only about five miles up the road when we came to a barricade, a couple of gendarme vehicles positioned in front of it with their lights on, blue swirling slowly in the dimness of the late afternoon, made darker by the storm clouds gathered overhead. I pulled to a stop and rolled the window down, leaning my head out. The gendarme standing next to his car looked briefly startled when he saw me, and I remembered I probably looked just about the same way Jessie did: scary. The officer came over to the car and looked inside, his eyes widening further when he saw Jessie.
He said something in French and Jessie laughed, putting her hand on my arm and saying something in rapid French to which the officer laughed back. He pointed to the barricade and said something further, and Jessie answered, nodding. They spoke again for another minute, and then the officer walked away with a quick backward wave and gestured to indicate where I should turn around. “There’s a mudslide up ahead because of the rain,” Jessie explained. “He said they should have it cleared by tomorrow afternoon.”
“Tomorrow afternoon?” I leaned forward and rapped my head twice on the steering wheel. “This trip has sort of gone to shit, huh?”