Scattered Seeds

Chapter Thirty-Four

London was… strange now.

Tom looked around his lonesome flat, and the dreaded sense of loss churning in his chest since their return only doubled in size.

Two days.

Two days back in what Louise half-heartedly referred to as ‘civilization’ and Tom already yearned for the sense of freedom that escaped him the moment he stepped off the plane at Heathrow.

And Jess.

She was staying at a hotel not too far from him, and every night since their homecoming Tom looked out at the London skyline wondering if Jess was thinking of him at all.

He clung to Samuel’s parting words like a drowning man clutching a lifesaver.

A mere sunrise or so back and Tom already felt as if he was losing her….

All though they’d exchanged numbers Jess had yet to call or text him. He would see her tomorrow when they met up at The London Studios for the team’s This Morning interview, but Tom didn’t want to wait that long.

He paced the hardwood floor and ran an anxious hand through his hair.

Fuck it. Call her.

Lanky legs drove him back to the kitchen table, and Tom picked up his phone. He scrolled through his contacts until the C’s appeared. Tom stared at the listing he’d put Jess under as that familiar quote from The Tempest rolled through his brain.

Companion.

Tom’s eyes went to the broken and charred piece of two-by-four propped up against the wall in his open living room. The pair of them in the jungle, and his face in Jess’s hands, replayed like the scene from a favorite movie behind his empty eyes.

Tom hit the green button, and then squared himself away in preparation.

“Hello?” that familiar hillbilly drawl came over the line.

Tom muffled a longing sigh as he struggled to find his voice.

“Care to join me for dinner?” he managed.

There. That sounded confident enough, didn’t it?

A slight pause on the other end of the phone caused Tom to second guess himself.

“Of course,” Jess replied.

She tried with everything she had to calm the ecstatic sensation still firing through her body. Seeing Tom’s name come up on her phone sent Jess into a whirlwind of sentiments.

“I’ll see you at seven,” his velvety English voice assured.

Jess was at a loss.

England was not her home, and she already felt out of place when it came to making any type of public appearance with Tom.

“Um,” she faltered. “Okay.” Jess’s brain flashed through potential scenarios, and she had the sense enough to think ahead. “What should I wear?”

“Nothing fancy, Darling,” Tom encouraged. He already had ideas in line, and the romantic side of him hoped that Jess would appreciate them. “Just be yourself.”

A buzz on the hotel phone made her wince from the pressure she felt bearing down on her. Jess checked her reflection in the mirror again before she picked up the receiver.

A familiar black tank top and an open red and grey plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up over her favorite pair of jeans would have to do. Jess knew that the denim hugged her ass and thighs in all the right places, and she smiled at the image coming back at her in the mirror.