Free Without Chase by Jo Frances Page A

sightseeing, and I just knew I wanted one of these houses.” He smiled at the memory. “God, I must have still been in high school. Then a few years later, I was visiting my mom, and walked around this area like I usually did, and I saw a moving van pulled up front. I was lucky. The real estate market was tanking, and the house was in pretty bad shape. I had just come into my inheritance a year or two earlier, so I bought it, and I’ve been working on it ever since.” He looked up, taking it all in through Jamie’s eyes. “I think my parents were actually impressed. It was better than squandering my inheritance, which is what my older brothers were convinced I was going to do.”
    “I really…I really like it.” Jamie couldn’t explain why, but she did. There was that feeling again---as if being with Adam was like coming to a place so familiar to her. Just like his house. She scolded herself for the thought. This is too soon, a voice warned. Too soon for you to think like this.
    Adam took a step and stood close to her. “Can I kiss you now?” he asked almost formally. At Jamie’s nod, he leaned in and they kissed. It was over with quickly, and as Jamie blinked in surprise, she heard Adam say, “there. No more tension, right?” he asked.
    “Right.” Jamie agreed. They had crossed the line from being platonic friends to… whatever it was that came after, and now every accidental touch wasn’t so loaded. As if reading her mind, Adam threw an arm around her waist and kissed her again. “Come on, I’ll show you to your bedroom.”
    The top floor of the townhouse had the master suite and an adjacent guest bedroom that was twice the size of Jamie’s studio apartment. She laughed. “I think I’ll be very comfortable here.” Jamie was also glad Adam didn’t assume or take anything for granted.
    “Are you tired?” he asked. “Because we can go out, or get some take out, or I can cook. Your choice.”
    “Let’s both cook. I bet you have an amazing kitchen.” They went down two flights of stairs to the main living area---the kitchen on one side, the family room on the other. Adam had already gone shopping before she came, so they had plenty of food to choose from.
    They cooked side by side, the conversation easy and natural between the two of them. When dinner was ready, they decided against sitting in the formal dining room, and opted to sit on the bar stools in the kitchen counter, knees touching, discovering everything they had in common.
    When they finished with dinner, they took a walk to M Street, Georgetown’s commercial area. Adam put his around her as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and they walked past bars and restaurants filled with a wide variety of people. Just looking inside the patio of one restaurant, there were college students wearing their sweatshirts standing next to a pair of retirees, who were in turn standing next to a trio of power brokers in their suits. She pointed this out to him, and added, “coming from New York and L.A., you think you’re used to seeing lots of different types of people in one place, but this crowd is really random.”
    Adam pulled her closer to him and asked, “what do you think people would say about us? Are we the college students or the politicians?”
    “I think we look like two people on a date,” she answered easily. “It’s not our first date, but we’re definitely still in the getting to know you stage.”
    “So we look exactly the way we are.” Adam sounded disappointed.
    Jamie, who knew all about using images to tell a story told him, “of course. We could change our clothes, or we could not touch when we walked down the street. But that wouldn’t fool too many people. It’s harder to hide emotions.”
    “I’d disagree,” he said a little too quickly.
    “Ahh, that’s because you’re thinking about hiding them from a person you know. I’m talking about when you have your guard down, and you’re being watched,