Jax watched his stream finally dribble out, shook and looked up. He saw her back as she stomped away. “I was teasing,” He called but not with the force he should have. His shoulders sank down to his feet. She had given him the smile he dreamed about all night. He had that. For a second. For a few minutes. She could parade away in complete disastifaction of him and yet he still had that. He knew he made her smile.

Of course he made her plod away in anger. She had that for him too. Jax stood and watched her military stiff cold walk through the swaying cane. He almost regretted his jest. He should have known she would not take it lightly. Or maybe he did know. Maybe he needed her rejection to set his mixed up dumb ass head back on right. What was he thinking? 

Still, as he watched her, even her tight assed, stuck up tromp, he found regret. He closed his eyes and saw her smile. He felt her lean because he had stay awake all night making sure he would remember it. He looked to the Night Blooms, closed now just like her, and realized they would always be something different now. Would they ever open for him the same way?

Oh well, time to ride the tide and let be. Slowly Jax left the pond , the flowers, and the sound of the wind blown cane. He kept the memory of Nicolette Beauchamp. He repeated her name silently in his head and saw her smile.

He followed way behind her, not even beginning to match her quick purposeful gait. It wasn’t until he was out on the main path, all the way to the edge of town that he brought out the book, her book, and began to flip open the cover. 

He looked at the first few pages and knew he would like this very much. Tried, distracted, still feeling the warmth of her smile and the sting of her back, Jax was not paying attention to anything around him. Why should he? He had a book and a memory. That would have to hold him for awhile. And it could. Hopefully they would be off on the seas soon enough that his time would be taken by his love the ship.

Jax didn’t hear the horse or even the wheels. He might have been walking alongside the road and wandered right into the center. He didn’t know. He wasn’t watching. Was he so absorbed in the words or the image of that smile? No, it must just be lack of sleep. Not until he felt the bump of something hard that knocked him off his feet did he look up. He raised the book high as he fell making sure none of the mud of the road touched the book. Shit! What if he damaged the book? With it high above his head Jax fell ass to the dirt. He sat in the middle of the road.