Still, “Are you . . . sure?” he asked softly.
No. No. What he really wanted to say was, Aria, I’m a little bit crazy about you, and I don’t want to blow it. Please . . . help me back up . . . help me— Because he couldn’t be the guy who took the wrong shot again.
But she nodded, offered a tentative smile. “Are you?”
“Oh, honey.”
She grinned, and the tight hold of panic around his heart loosed. See, this didn’t have to be a bad thing. It wasn’t like this was the last time he would see her. She lived in Minneapolis.
This could be easy.
Could be something real.
He braced his hand on the door frame and lowered his mouth to hers again. Silenced the voices in his head and listened to desires.
Listened to the way she relaxed in his arms.
Aria— He reached for the belt of her robe.
The click of the door opening registered in the back of his mind, somewhere, but he was already unhinging his heart, stepping into a place of no return when—
“What is going on?”
Aria pushed him away so fast he nearly tripped over the sofa.
Jenny stood at the entrance to the room, her mouth open. Blinking at him.
And of course, that’s when he realized that he was shirtless, wearing only his thermal underwear.
Barefoot.
Okay, that probably didn’t matter, not the way Jenny was staring at him, her eyes widening by the second as she took him in, then looked at Aria.
Who paled right before his eyes.
She looked at Jenny. Then at Jake. Back to Jenny.
Then in a move that took out his soul, Aria clutched her robe around her, turned, and practically sprinted back to the bathroom.
The lock turned.
Silence dropped into the room with the weight of a sledgehammer. His heart thundered against his ribs and he didn’t know whether to run to the bathroom and pound on the door, or . . .
“Jake—” Jenny started.
“Nothing happened.” He glanced at the campout in the living room and suddenly wished he’d cleaned it up.
“Oh. Really. Funny but it looked completely opposite to nothing just a second ago.” She walked into the bedroom, near the bathroom door. “Aria, are you okay?”
It was the way she asked, as if Aria might have a reason not to be okay, that made him feel like a jerk. No, more of a jerk.
“Why wouldn’t she be?” he said, nearly snapping at her. But he noticed that the door to the bathroom didn’t open.
Aria didn’t answer her.
What—?
Jenny’s mouth tightened into a bud that looked very much like anger.
What on earth? Okay, he got it. Girlfriends were protective of each other. But Aria was a grown woman. A doctor, for Pete’s sake.
Still, Jenny was staring at him, her gaze running from his chest, down to his feet, and back up, her eyes pinning him with something that looked like accusation.
And in his gut, he knew he’d screwed up, and bad.
Yes, regardless of Aria’s behavior, he should have put on the brakes.
Jake pressed his hand on his bare chest, feeling his heartbeat, the tender cracks that had started to open.
“I think you should leave,” Jenny said quietly.
“I . . .” But what could he say? That Aria invited him in? That she was all yes a few moments ago? That he’d asked . . .
It didn’t matter. It wasn’t about what had or hadn’t happened, but what was about to happen.
And what had been already happening, in vivid color, in his head.
He hadn’t a hope of being the kind of guy that Aria really deserved.
Now a terrible dark heat filled his chest, thickened his throat. “I . . . care for—”
“Get out.”
He recoiled at Jenny’s tone.
She schooled her voice. “Sorry. But . . . you need to leave, Jake.”
He wasn’t sure what was going on here, but he knew without a doubt that he’d somehow destroyed whatever it was he’d wanted to start.
“Sorry,” he said quietly and strode over to pick up his overpants, to shuck them on, slide his bare feet into his boots. He grabbed his socks and his pack, slipping it over one shoulder.
He picked up his jacket. Paused. “Aria—”
“Just go, Jake,” Jenny said softly.
He drew in a breath, paused, then shook his head and strode for the door.
Jenny closed it behind him.
Locked it.
He felt like a felon. Or an abuser. Or . . .
Just a shallow jerk who’d traded something good and real for . . .
For something that wasn’t in his heart at all.
Wow, what was his problem that he always screwed up the good things in his life?
He wanted to throw his pack down the hall, let out the curse filling his chest. Instead, he stalked to the elevator and punched the button.
Fishing through the pack’s side pocket, he pulled out his cell phone. He hadn’t turned it on for nearly three weeks, but the battery was still full.
He speed-dialed Ham.
To his shock, Ham picked up. “Where are you?”
“At the Summit Hotel.”
Ham didn’t even ask why. “Great. We are too.”
The elevator doors opened. “We?”
“Orion checked himself out of the hospital.”
“Is that safe?”
“You’ve met him, right? He’s fine. We’re cleaning up. Senator White is in town. We’re going to a reception at the hotel.”
Huh. Small world. Jake punched the ground-floor button.
“Clean up and meet us.”
He didn’t want to ask if Jenny might be joining them. That would be a fun conversation. “Aye aye, Chief.” He hung up.
The doors opened and he walked out into the lobby and immediately felt like a hobo in his grimy pants and shirt.
He should have picked up a clean pair of jeans, a shirt, but he’d been in a hurry to . . .
Shoot. His only clean clothes were in Ham’s truck back in the town of Copper Mountain.
His dark mood must have bled through because the woman at the front desk shot him a couple extra smiles, maybe to nudge the growl from his face. Or perhaps to ease his pain when she told him they were running behind on clean rooms. “You’re welcome to wait in the bar and lounge,” she said. “We can call you when a room opens up.”
Perfect.
He hauled his pack up to the second-floor lounge and propped it against the bar. Climbed onto a high-top stool. A baseball game played on the flat screen. The bar overlooked the open lobby, and from where he sat, he could see the stairs that wound up to the second floor.
He may or may not catch up with Ham and Orion when he saw them.
“What’ll you have?” the bartender, an old sourdough with lines in his face, asked.
And for the first time in years, Jake skipped right over I don’t drink and ordered a whiskey.
If he was going to be the guy everybody hated, he might as well live up to his reputation.
Well, she hadn’t seen that coming. Jenny sat on the bed in Aria’s room, her arms folded, staring at the locked bathroom door, trying to find words.
Okay, so she hadn’t spent much time with Jake. She didn’t exactly know what kind of man he was, but . . . but an honorable guy didn’t take advantage of a tired, injured woman who may or may not be under the influence of painkillers.