In the end, he didn’t keep her naked the whole weekend – just a great deal of it. They left the cottage to eat and actually got some exercise by going out in his small sailboat. He taught her how to throw in cages to trap lobsters, how to steer the boat and how to gauge the wind to get to their destination. Initially, she was opposed to catching the sea creatures, but when he hauled one of them up out of the cold ocean water, it looked pretty scary. At least he didn’t make her stuff them into the boiling water. They had lobster with lots of garlic butter, a delicious white wine and some sort of fried bread rolls that Molly delivered to them.
She loved learning to sail but hadn’t brought the right clothes to be out on the ocean. The weather might be warm on land, but with the air blowing over the northern, colder ocean water, it was significantly colder than she was used to. Jack wrapped her up in one of his windbreakers but it was much better when he simply wrapped his arms around her, keeping her warm that way.
When Sunday afternoon rolled around, she felt her depression coming back but fought it, not wanting to ruin their last few hours together by being sad about leaving.
Despite her efforts to hide it, he could sense that she was feeling somber. “What’s wrong?” he asked as he pulled her into his arms that afternoon. They were sitting on a small stretch of rocky beach having a picnic. Jack was leaning against a big, flat rock while Rachel was leaning against Jack’s equally hard chest, sitting between his legs and feeling more at home than she had in a long time.
“I have to leave for Washington, D.C. soon,” she finally explained, trying to hide her sadness at the idea.
He heard it anyway and turned her head so that he could see her face. “You could stay here.”
Rachel laughed at the absurdity of that suggestion. “I can’t quit my job.”
He sighed and hugged her gently. “You hate your job, Rachel.”
She stiffened, not liking where this conversation was going. “Who says I hate my job? It’s a good job.” She stood up and started packing away their picnic. He grabbed her from behind and toppled her over, pinning her to the ground. “Rachel, it might be a good job, but you don’t like it. And when you realize that, then you’ll be a much happier person.”
She tried to shove him off of her, but he was too big and too strong and none of her efforts got him to budget. She was angry that he would dare to assert something that he knew nothing about. They’d never discussed her job other than in reference to meeting Emerson Watson. How could he know anything about her job satisfaction?! “You’re wrong. I’m fine with my job. It’s just stressful and I’m at the bottom of the totem pole. So people boss me around all the time. Once I figure out how to get a promotion, or even better, find that stupid Emerson Watson,” she grumbled, looking off to the left so she wouldn’t have to look at him, or more specifically, so he wouldn’t be able to see the truth in her eyes, “then things will change.”
Jack was so frustrated that she would continue to genuinely believe that trash that he wouldn’t relent. “You think one man can change your life that much?” he demanded.
She didn’t like the way he was asking that question. Or more specifically, she didn’t like the implication that she was putting her happiness in another human being’s hands. Deep down, she knew that she should find her own happiness but she’d gotten this far, putting herself through school, learning the business, pushing herself harder and longer than anyone else in her office. But Emerson Watson was the key to her getting to the top. She just had to find him! “I don’t think a man can change my life. That’s up to me. Which is why I’ve got to find him and convince him to let me be his intern. I’m not going to be in my position forever.”
He relented and let her up, picking up the blanket so he could shake out the sand and fold it up. “I think you’re making a mistake,” he told her with the façade of being calm. But underneath, he was furious and not sure how to get her to recognize how miserable she truly was in that job.
She stuffed the picnic basket with the leftover food, irritated and feeling more depressed than before. “I hear you loud and clear.”
An hour later, he wouldn’t let her get onto the plane until she kissed him. She was still angry with him for trying to tell her that she didn’t like her job, so she didn’t want to even touch him, but in the end, she also couldn’t leave him without a goodbye kiss. “Thank you for another wonderful weekend,” she said, laying her head on his broad, muscular chest, aching inside at the idea that this was probably the last time she would see him.
He wrapped his arms around her as well, laying his head on top of hers. “Thanks for coming up again.”
She stood there, hoping that he would tell her to come up the following weekend. But when he stood there silently, she had to accept that he probably had things to do and needed some time alone on the weekend. “Okay, well, I’d better hurry to catch my flight,” she said, wishing he would say something, anything besides goodbye.
“Be safe, Rachel,” he finally said, his hand coming up to touch her cheek. “And think about what I said.”
That definitely wasn’t what she was hoping to hear. So she stomped through the security gate, irritated beyond belief at how arrogant and wrong he was. What did he know about investing? He was just a handyman! Okay, so he was an extremely good handyman, she thought, thinking of all the work he’d accomplished on the cottage just in the past five days. He’d finished painting both the inside and outside so now it was a bright, sunny yellow color with soft, blue shutters and trim. The windows had been fixed so they opened up to allow the night air to come through. He’d finished the plumbing so they could even have coffee there instead of having to hurry out in the morning to a coffee shop. And what was more, he’d found other soft touches to add to the interior such as a beautiful bouquet of wildflowers in the middle of the small table.
She ignored the texts from Nikki and Brianna, too miserable to even reply. As the plane flew south, she refused to allow the tears to fall. She would not even acknowledge that the affair was over. It hadn’t even begun. She’d had a weekend fling that had turned into two weekends. She’d get over him!
As the week wore on, she was so depressed and irritated that she snapped at several of her co-workers. She thought she’d found several good companies to research, but the more she looked into them, she discovered they weren’t such a good choice after all.