She felt her eyes go wide with shock. “You...you found yourself...what?” Jackson closed his eyes and lowered his head. His silence pounded at her while he folded his hands on the tabletop. Snow danced and shimmered through the air outside. In the restaurant, people carried on soft, intimate conversations. Meanwhile, she caught her breath and battled to regroup and ingest. “I’m sure there’s much more to your story than that simple statement.” She reached out to capture his fingertips, but all the while, she struggled against nerves. A recent break up? With a woman he was ready to commit to in marriage? A woman who, come to find out, was married? She took a fast, cooling swallow of water. “Would you care to tell me more about it?” He clenched his jaw and shrugged, but he maintained their connection, a fact she appreciated. “There is much more, and I would like to discuss it, because I sense…I…feel something…you’re important. I don’t want there to be muddy water between us.”
