I had not said more than two words all evening. That's how star struck I was. By both of them.
"Um...yeah...yes. I read." Wow. Eloquence.
She smiled kindly at me. "Come on. We'll leave these guys to their game talk. Let me show you something I think you might like."
Still sort of awed, I stood up, gave Cole a kiss and followed her along a corridor. She turned a corner, which wasn't actually a corner because the inner walls of this house somehow seemed circular and curved. It was beautiful. Then Jasmine opened a door and led me inside a large room full of hundreds, maybe even thousands of books.
Wow. Yeah. I did like this. It was like being cocooned in a totally different world. The world of books. Pages and pages of information and imagination. There were a couple of cosy armchairs and shaggy rugs and a large table in the corner littered with loose pages, journals, notebooks, sketch pads and pens along with a laptop. I could set up camp in here easily. All I would need was some paint supplies.
"Wow," I breathed out, clutching my purse to my chest.
Jasmine nodded at me proudly. "I know, right? I had a feeling you would like it. When my husband isn't in here working or insisting I clean up my half of the table, it's a pretty great place to hang out."
I laughed and relaxed a little.
"I'm really sorry if I came off as rude or something. I'm usually not this quiet but...you're one of my favourite writers and I honestly had no idea you were Armaan's wife," I explained.
She shrugged. "No big deal, Skye. You can have a look around if you want."
Oh, I want, I thought and put my purse down to move to the bookshelves. Man. These guys had everything. Cole's collection at home was nothing compared to this.
"My boyfriend reads too," I told her as I fingered the spines of certain famous books and smiled. "He's mostly into adult fantasy but he did read your latest YA series when I kept gushing about it."
"Your boyfriend. Which one is that again?" she asked from behind me and I paused before turning to look at her in surprise.
"Um...Cole. The one with the glasses," I said slowly.
Jasmine regarded me thoughtfully. "Right." She opened her mouth to say something else, then closed it and walked over to her table and tapped a few keys on her laptop. I watched in mild fascination as she typed something and then looked up and apologized.
"I just had this thought," she explained and shrugged. "I forget if I don't make a note."
I glanced at her laptop. "Are you working on something new? Blade of O'Hara released just yesterday. Oh." With a jolt, I walked back to the sofa and grabbed my purse. "Would you mind signing it for me? I would love that so much. Cole would too. Please."
She laughed at my pleading tone and extended a hand. "Of course. Do you like it?"
"I love it," I whispered with wide eyes as I watched her place the book on the table and write on the cover page. "I mean, the twist with Jamie and her identity was...mind-blowing. I seriously never saw that coming. And I was supposed to work today but I kept reading because I just couldn't help-" I stopped suddenly when I realised I was babbling.
But imagine meeting a world-famous author completely by accident (albeit planned as a surprise by your boyfriend) on a one-on-one basis and then being able to have an actual, uninterrupted conversation with her about one of her books. Jeez. I was flying.
"There you go, Skye," she said, oblivious to my nervous chatter. Maybe she was lost in her own thoughts, already thinking of her next story. Or maybe she was used to so much talking after being married to Armaan.
I glanced at the page she had written on.
To Skye, it said in curly, rounded letters. You know you've hit the jackpot when you find a boy who reads.
I laughed at her words and found it so touching and funny at the same time. And so perceptive. She understood.
"Oh my God, thanks so much, Crystal, I mean, Jasmine. That's the first thing that made me start to fall for him, honestly."
"Jasmine is fine," she said, leaning against the desk. "Armaan reads too. This is actually his library and it was definitely not what made me fall for him because I thought it was a joke when I first discovered that he likes to read."
I smiled and looked at her quizzically. "Why is that?"
She scoffed a little. "Have you heard him talk? I mean, can you imagine him sitting still and being quiet for more than five minutes and reading even one chapter of a book?"
I thought about it and realised I could not imagine it at all and then we both laughed at our shared joke.
"Honestly, I wouldn't have believed Cole was a reader, either, but he actually did read in front of me so many times during breaks at work so I was pretty convinced. And then there was the whole mini library thing Jasper prepared for him so I knew it wasn't an act."
"Jasper," she said and it wasn't a question. We remained silent for a moment and then she said, "Armaan explained about your relationship. I mean, Cole told him a few days ago. I never met any of you before but...I honestly thought Cole is the blond one, you know, because of the way he kept looking at you all evening. There was so much love and longing in his gaze, he made me want to write a book about it."
I must have paled a little at her words because I felt a little faint and bit my
