Well, I didn’t have a name for what it felt like when Jack held me in his arms.
A romantic might have said it felt like home, but that would be an insult in my case. The way he made me feel was like nothing I’d never known before, and certainly like nothing I’d ever experienced at home.
I shifted from one foot to the other as my mind, at least, adjusted to what was happening here.
Jack. Here. In the very place where I was supposed to be known as Brandon’s girlfriend.
I jerked my head toward the parking lot, hoping to get him out of view of the others—okay, fine, out of sight of Siobhan and Evie—before they could start sniffing around him like a dog.
And before I accidentally gave something away just by looking at him.
“Come on,” I said, already leading the way toward my car. “Walk with me.”
He gave me a familiar smirk as he fell into step beside me. “What… ashamed to be seen with me?”
“Something like that.” I softened it with a smile of my own, and for a second…
It was good.
This was good.
Bickering. Teasing. It was surprisingly easy after a month of silence.
“You saying I don’t fit in?” He pretended to be offended, and that made me laugh. “I’ll have you know I’m an actor now.”
“So I’ve heard.” I eyed him from head to toe. Yeah. I could see it. I could see exactly what the director was thinking when he’d hired Jack on the spot. Hot as hell and a legit cowboy?
He was too good to be true.
And he could have been mine.
I shoved the thought to the side as we drew close to my car.
“This your ride?” he asked, nodding toward the cream-colored convertible Maserati I was heading toward. “Nice,” he said. “It fits you.”
I tensed. “What does that mean?”
His silence had me glancing over, and my whole body felt hit by flames at the heat I saw there. “That wasn’t a dig, Lila. I just meant it’s beautiful.”
I tried to swallow.
My throat wasn’t working.
No part of me functioned properly around this guy.
He tore his gaze away first as we paused beside my car. “So, you and Brandon, huh?”
I studied him as he studied me. Brandon hadn’t told him yet, so I wouldn’t either. But everything in me wanted to explain. Wanted to make this right. “Look, can we—”
“I think I get it,” he said suddenly.
My eyes widened. “Um… you do?”
He eyed me again, and I braced for his judgment. Another sneer or a huff of disdain like he’d given me the other day, but his expression just remained guarded. “He said it wasn’t what I thought.” Pain flashed in his eyes and made my legs tremble. “He said you did all this for him. That you gave up…” He swallowed thickly. “Whatever it was we had… for him.”
A surge of affection made my eyes sting. “He told you that?”
Jack sighed. “It’s why I stayed.”
The silence lasted too long as my chest filled with emotions that threatened to choke me. After a month of trying not to hope….
Hope was a freakin’ stubborn little witch.
His eyes burned when he took a step closer. “Was it real, Lila? With us, I mean. Was any of it real?”
Yes! Yes, of course. All of it. What I’d felt for him was the most real thing I’d ever experienced. The most solid and tangible emotion of my life.
The air left my lungs in a rush. I wanted to say ‘yes,’ but to say it, to admit it…
What would it change? I’d still be tied to Brandon, and Jack would be heading back to Pinedale eventually. He’d never want to be a part of this life, and I could never be a part of his. Not while my father still owned me. Not when being a part of my life meant that Jack would be another pawn in my father’s games.
I couldn’t do that to him. I couldn’t drag him into this mess, not when he had a kind father waiting at home and a town full of people who would miss him.
Oh God, my heart felt like it was breaking in two all over again as he waited for me to answer.
My phone dinged, saving me. Breaking the tension and letting me breathe as I pulled it out of my purse and looked at the text.
Tess. I blinked in dismay at the novel she’d sent me. Step by step instructions for what she needed me to do. I’d need to get access to my mom’s computer without her noticing to install this spyware that Tess was sending me.
“Hey, Lila, who’s your new friend?” Evie called out. “Bring him up to meet me.”
Jack and I both looked up to see we had an audience.
Evie bit her lip and even from here I could see her sizing up the new hottie.
As if I’d ever let her get her claws into my guy.
Mine. I glanced up at Jack, unnervingly off-kilter as this surge of possessiveness swept over me. But he’d barely given Evie and the others a second look before turning back to me.
Waiting.
He was still waiting for the truth. And I wanted to give it to him.
My lungs deflated and my chest sank with a crazy mix of relief and disappointment as I realized that now was so not the time to be having this conversation, and this place—I glanced up to see Marcus and Evie watching me with unveiled curiosity.
This was so not the place.
But maybe…
Ugh, there was that hope again.
Maybe if I helped Tess. If she really could help us seize some power of our own so we weren’t at Daddy’s mercy…
I straightened and took a deep breath. “Look, Jack…” I shifted my bag on my shoulder and reached for my keys. “I want to talk. I really do. But we can’t do this here, okay?”
He followed my gaze up and caught Marcus’s eye. The muscle in his jaw twitched, but he gave me a short nod. “Yeah. Okay, fine.”
I hesitated. I should just walk away. I should let it go.
But I couldn’t walk away from him again. Not like this.
I cleared my throat awkwardly. “I, uh… I have to head to my mom’s for dinner. Do you… want to come?”
His brows shot up high. “Your mom?”
A smile tugged at my lips. “What, did you think I truly was spawned by Satan?”
He cringed. “You heard about that?”
I waved a hand as if I could literally brush off the harsh nickname. “Mrs. MacMillan wasn’t exactly restrained in her texts and voicemails that she sent Brandon this past month.”
He fidgeted, and it was kind of adorable to see his discomfort. “She’s not, uh…”
“Sane?” I offered. “Yeah, I sorta picked up on that.”
He nodded. “But your mom… You sure you want me to meet her?” His smirk made my heart race. “Going home to meet the parents is a big deal.”
I laughed. “I met your dad. It seems only fair you meet my mother.” I gestured toward the passenger seat, that feeling in my chest about a million times lighter knowing he was going to be at my side.
Even if he had no clue what was going on.
“So, what’s she like?” he asked as I drove us toward the exit of the parking lot.
I turned to face him as I paused at the stop sign. “Remember how you thought I was such a handful when I first showed up in Pinedale?”