Read What Janie Wants for Free Online

her to the back of the room and the arched double doors that led outside. “I took a chance and pulled in a favor from Arlo. He saved us one of the tables on the balcony. We can either order off the menu or do the buffet. Your choice.”
    The loud voices and steady clink of flatware on plates dampened the minute she stepped onto the tile veranda. Tables with midnight blue tablecloths were nestled at each end for optimum privacy, with fluttering candles inside hurricane holders in the centers. The sun set behind them and cast the horizon in deep indigo.
    She sat in the chair he held out for her and grinned at him as she smoothed her napkin across her lap. “The perks of knowing the owner aren’t to be discounted.”
    He paused beside his chair and rubbed the heel of his hand above his sternum. She’d seen him do that a lot. Usually before he whipped out some profound statement that left her dumbfounded. The wind tousled his longish hair and the candlelight sparked in his soft blue eyes. “Not sure it’s to my benefit to point this out, but you’re flirting.”
    A sharp burn stung her cheeks, but she kept her chin up and held his gaze. Stupid blush. Being a redhead was hell. “Could be flirting. Could be maximizing resort connections. Perspective is everything.”
    That panty-dropping smile of his whipped back into place. She’d have to snap a picture of it before she went home and show it to McKenna. She’d caption it, Tread carefully, cross your legs, and don’t believe anything when you see this expression.
    Zade lifted his chin and caught the attention of a passing waiter. “I wasn’t sure you’d show,” he said to Janie.
    “ I wasn’t sure I would either.”
    He sat back in his chair, head tilted, waiting in that patient way of his. With his uncanny composure, he should have been a counselor or psych professional.
    She straightened the knife beside her plate. “I thought about what you said.” And about his touch. “You were absolutely right. It was a reflection of my own self-confidence.”
    “ You don’t strike me as the kind of woman who normally lacks self-confidence.”
    No, not normally. Not before Gerald had shaken her well-ordered world and left her staggering through the devastation. Every time she told the story, the burn got worse. And the pity. Damn it, she hated the pity in people’s eyes.
    Still, he’d told his story. Maybe sharing with a stranger would be therapeutic. “To tell you the truth, I never thought too much about my appearance until recently.”
    Zade propped his elbow on the arm of his chair and dragged his thumb along his lower lip. His eyes glinted, a silent dare for her to keep going.
    “ Last week I turned forty and signed my divorce papers.” Talk about diving in headfirst. Absolutely zero wind up on the delivery.
    Zade’s eyebrows shot high, but in more of a you don’t say way than in shock. He waited for the waiter to set their water and fresh bread in place, then picked the basket up and offered her a roll. “Busy week.”
    She took one and set it aside. “Yes, well, I’m not including the nine months it took to get to an agreement I’d actually sign. Twenty-two years of marriage takes a while to untangle.”
    The waiter returned with a chilled bottle of white and an uncorked red. “ Blanco, o tinto? ”
    Zade lifted one eyebrow in silent question.
    “ Red, please,” Janie answered.
    The waiter filled her wineglass and looked to Zade for his choice.
    “ Tinto para me, también. ”
    Another note for McKenna. Young men with a mind for foreign languages are a sexual hazard. Seek shelter at the first opportunity.
    He circled his wineglass. God, his hands were big. Long fingers. Powerful. No wonder they’d felt so good. “Did you want the divorce?”
    A lash on her heart, as raw and sudden as the day Gerald first uttered the idea. “No. He came home on a Friday night, disappeared into the bedroom for about thirty minutes, and came out with a suitcase. In