Page 47 of Hired Husband

For a long second, she simply stared at me, but then a smile appeared. “I haven’t changed my mind.”

“Well, that’s great, because I’ve been thinking.” I grabbed my phone out of my back pocket and pulled up a link I’d bookmarked earlier. “Should we do this?”

I turned the phone toward her, and she leaned in closer, squinting at the screen before arching an eyebrow at me. “Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“You actually want to do that?”

I nodded. “Absolutely, yes. Are you in?”

The glumness dissolved almost instantly as she smiled. “Are you kidding? Of course, I’m in. Who else is going to keep you from getting lost in the desert?”

CHAPTER 18

JASMINE

At Isaac’s behest, we were going to spend some time on the Sinai Peninsula tonight with the Bedouin people. We weren’t even there yet, but he was already in his element, staring out the window as the desert swallowed everything behind us, only the ribbon of road ahead signaling that there was any life out here at all.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen silence until now,” he murmured when the mountains started rising up around us like ancient guardians. “I’m serious. I think you were wrong about Sharm not having a portal to another world. I actually think we’ve just gone through one.”

I laughed. “You can see silence? I think you might need to talk to a therapist about this.”

He finally unglued his nose from the window and turned to face me, those blue eyes bright and lit up with wonder and excitement. “I can see it out here, okay? And if you can’t, I think you might be the one who needs to talk to a therapist.”

“I’ve heard the desert does this to people,” I said mildly. “It makes them hallucinate if they’re in it for too long. Or was that just something I saw in a cartoon?”

He smirked. “No, that’s real. But it’s only when the dehydration sets in. We haven’t even gotten out the car yet.”

“I know.” I leaned a little closer to him and whispered, “Imagine what you’re going to be like once we get there.”

He pulled away from me and rolled his eyes, turning back to the window as we climbed higher into the mountains. “Who knew you were so judgmental?”

“I’m not!” I reached out and gave his shoulder a playful smack. “I simply happen to take your mental health seriously. Isn’t that a good thing in a travel partner?”

“You’ll be the first person I talk to when the dehydration sets in,” he joked, trying and failing to keep a straight face. “On a more serious note, is that the camp?”

He pointed toward a settlement ahead. Low lanterns flickered between woven tents while children ran between rugs spread out across the sand. I nodded and inhaled the scent of fresh bread, grilled meat, and sweat tea, already filtering into the car.

“Yep, that’s it,” I said. “You’re seriously going to love this. The tour is really cool and the food is amazing. Simple but amazing.”

He breathed in deeply, gave an exaggerated shudder, and groaned. “Is that what I’ve been smelling, our dinner?”

“Yeah, it’ll only be after the tour, though. Maybe you should just try to breathe less. It’ll make you less inclined to eat the tents while we’re being walked through the camp.”

He laughed. “Breathe less. Right. You’re so full of helpful advice.”

We parked in the designated area just as twilight fell, joining a small group of people waiting for the tour to begin. I stuck close to Isaac’s side the entire time, catching him more than once when he almost started wandering off again.

While I’d taken this tour before, it was once again a very different experience doing it with him. We began walking with people who were proud to share their way of life with strangers who were willing to listen. Isaac absorbed the stories and the history they were sharing like it was nutrients. Then he started asking dozens of questions, everything from how the tents were constructed and why certain fabrics had been woven differently, to where the timber had come from and why the doorways faced the ways they did.

Our guide finally laughed and invited us to sit with him for dinner. He was still in the process of explaining how the tents remained cool in the daytime heat as we sat down cross-legged on our cushions. Throughout dinner, Isaac fell easily into one conversation after another with tourists and locals alike, sharing food and stories like he’d known them all forever.

By the time tea was served, at least half the camp seemed to know us by name and it was because of him.

I glanced up at him as we made our way to the fire. “I’m starting to think you could make friends with a door.”

“Only if it had an interesting design,” he said after thinking about it for a moment. Then he looked out at the clusters of tourists gathered under a sky that looked like it had been dusted with diamonds for all the stars out here. “Honestly, though, this has been one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had.”