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Chapter 26
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HARD TO GET Chapter 27 Jace
As soon as I disconnected the call I tossed my phone onto the table, putting my head in my hands. I’d jumped to conclusions last night, and now I was going to pay for it. I'd honestly thought she was with that guy, they looked like a proper little family at the hospital, and in my defence she even told me she had a man. So what was I supposed to think? I breathed out heavily and sat back on the sofa. I’d screwed up. She was so incredible, and I’d just blown all chances that I had with her. I didn’t care that she had a son. I didn’t care that she hadn’t told me. She’d probably thought it would scare me away. Never in my wildest dreams had I even thought about dating a woman who had kids, but now that I knew Ashley had one, I couldn’t bring myself to stop wanting her. She interested me. I wanted to talk to her about my day and hear about hers. I wanted to be the one she called if she got scared or needed a favour;I just plain old wanted her. So she had a kid, which w
HARD TO GET Chapter 28
Seth literally choked and sprayed Gatorade everywhere; I just managed to jump back in time so it didn’t go all over me. “Dude, what the hell? That was gross!” I cried, looking at the drink all over the counter as I brushed a couple of spatters off my shirt. He didn’t answer, just looked at me with wide eyes as he wiped his chin with the back of one hand. “She has a kid? What the hell? How? Who? But… but… how?” he asked, looking at me in disbelief. “If you don’t know how by now, then I can’t help you, buddy, because you’ve been doing it wrong for a lot of years.” He frowned and shook his head. “Seriously, Jace, how?” I didn’t know how, exactly. “Some guy got her pregnant when she was younger, I guess. She’s not with him now; she’s on her own with the kid.” “So what did you say when she told you? Shit, man, I would have run out of there so fast you wouldn’t even see me go, it would have been like one of those cartoons where all you see is the dust that was le
HARD TO GET Chapter 29
My heart was racing as I stood outside her door with my hand raised and my finger poised over the button for her apartment. “Shit, please let this work out,” I whispered, rubbing a hand over my face, trying to calm my nerves. I glanced at my watch again. 19:54. I had been standing here for the last eight minutes trying to summon up the courage to press the buzzer and see her. I forced my finger down onto the button, fighting the sudden urge to run away and do this over the phone instead. That way I wouldn't have to see that look in her eyes when she found out I was a lying, good for nothing player, just like she’d first thought. “Hello?” I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Damn it, Jace! I slapped my palm against my forehead and squeezed my eyes shut. “Hey, Ashley, it’s Jace,” I mumbled, my voice tight. “Hey… er… Come on up.” When the front door lock clicked, I pushed it open and stumbled my way up the stairs, shifting the flowers that I’d bought from one
HARD TO GET Chapter 30
I frowned; she didn’t even look angry, just disappointed, and that actually made it even worse. I would rather her shout and scream at me rather than being all calm and collected about it. Clearly she’d been expecting something like this to happen anyway. By the looks of her tough exterior, she was over it already, over me already. But the tiny twitch to her eye told me that this was mostly just an act and that she was hurting inside. “Ashley, please. I know I’ve done wrong, and it doesn’t matter that we weren’t exclusive, I shouldn’t have done it.” She nodded. “You’re right, you shouldn’t have, but it’s done now. Just leave and we’ll agree to be friends. We never started anything; not really, so we’ll just forget it happened for the sake of our best friends. I don’t want things to be awkward around them, and we’re bound to run into each other now and again.” “Why can’t we try and talk it through?” I asked. I couldn’t walk out of her place without making this right, I
HARD TO GET Chapter 31 Ashley
With Jace’s mouth pressed against mine, my knees weakened. Luckily though, he was pressing me against the wall otherwise I would have surely sunken to the floor like a quivering mess. His kissing just seemed to set my whole body on fire. One of his cocky little smiles and I was reduced to a silly little schoolgirl again, crushing on the bad boy. His tongue slid along my bottom lip, and I couldn’t not kiss him back. It was like some magic pull that he seemed to have. It was no surprise to me that he’d had so many girls – he was beautiful. I knew he wouldn’t appreciate that word much, because it wasn’t manly enough, he would have probably preferred something along the lines of ‘ruggedly handsome’, but he was way beyond that. The way his natural blond hair seemed to have a mind of its own and stick up in a sexy, ‘I just got out of bed’ kind of way. The way his piercing blue eyes locked onto mine, and held a confidence, a self-assuredness that said he knew exactly what he was doin
HARD TO GET Chapter 32
I swiped at the lone tear that fell down my cheek as the whole thing played out in my head. I’d never really spoken to anyone about it all before. I’d told Anna that he’d cheated a couple of times, but she didn’t realise the extent of it. It seemed like the only one who knew, was Jace. I looked up at him, waiting to see his reaction. He just carried on staring at me for a couple of minutes and we sat in an uncomfortable silence. He seemed to be choosing his words carefully. Finally, he seemed to gather his thoughts enough to speak. “I’m sorry for what he did to you, Stripes. You shouldn’t have had to go through that, and I wish I’d been there for you to talk to when you needed it. But thank you for telling me the truth now.” He bent his head and kissed my cheek. The feel of his lips lingered there for much longer than his mouth actually did. He pressed his forehead to mine, and my heart seemed to thump in my chest. I’d not felt anything like this for so long that
HARD TO GET Chapter 33 Jace
When I woke in the morning the first thought I had was of Ashley. Before I even got out of bed, I texted her to see if I could see her tonight. We messaged back and forth for a little while, and finally agreed that I would go to her place after DJ was asleep. I sighed, unable to keep the contented smile off my face – though it did seem like hours before I could see her again. Today was Sunday, and I wasn’t working, so I had all day to entertain myself before then. I reluctantly pushed myself out of the bed, already bored by the prospect of doing nothing all day. But then a great idea hit me; I hadn’t seen Cameron for almost a week, so I’d go hang out with the Taylors. I showered quickly, and then called them to make sure I could go there. As I walked out of my bedroom, I frowned, looking around my messy apartment; Ashley had certainly hit the nail on the head when she’d called me a slob. I had moved out of my parents’ place when I was eighteen, sharing this apartment w
HARD TO GET Chapter 34
Two hours later Bryson and I were still playing on the games console when Anna came storming back in, slamming the door behind her, scowling murderously. One glance at her and I decided to keep my comments to myself for once in case she turned that anger on me. She looked ready to kill. “What’s up, Baby Girl?” Bryson asked, as she plopped down next to him. “Ugh, Josh!” she scoffed, waving her hand in a buzz off gesture. Josh? Ashley’s ex-boyfriend? “What about him?” I asked, interested now. She frowned. “He turned up there while I was there. God, I hate that guy!”she hissed angrily. “I left right after he showed up; I can’t even stand to be in the same room as him.” Jealousy started to build in my chest, but I quickly reminded myself that this wasn’t about me; he wasn’t there to see Ashley, he was there to see his son. “He was there?” I inquired, trying not to sound too bothered, when, in actual fact, my hand was itching to grab my cell and call Ashley,
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HARD TO GET Chapter 100 (THE END)
I was shaking. No, that wasn’t right, the bed was shaking. Or someone was shaking me which was making the bed shake? “Daddy!” I cracked my stinging eyes open to see DJ bouncing on the edge of my bed with a grin stretched across his face. Groaning, I rubbed my eyes and pushed myself up on one elbow. “Hey, Kid. What’s up?” I rasped. “Momma saids I needed to wake you up,” he replied. I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. “Where is Momma anyway?” Yawning, I glanced around the room. I usually got a better wake up than that if I’d been on sixteen hour nights all week! He beamed up at me. “She’s going out to buys a new dress for the party tonight. You gots to look after me.” His smile told me he was pleased about it. I remembered Ashley mentioning something about having to buy a new dress. “I do? Well maybe we should think of something fun to do today then, huh? How about we go play catch at the park or something?” I offered, knowing he wanted to test ou
HARD TO GET Chapter 99
She giggled and gripped my shoulders, rolling me over onto my back as she sat up on top of me, holding one arm across her chest, keeping her dress in place. “You didn’t have to get me anything; it’s not a tradition or anything. I just really wanted you to have this tonight,” she assured me, bending and kissing my lips softly. When she pulled back, my hands instinctively tightened on her waist. I didn’t want to let her go, I felt whiny and needy and I just didn’t want her to get off me even if it was only to get something from her bag three feet away from me. She smiled and pushed my hands off her, climbing out of the bed and heading over to the bag. While she was busy, I took the opportunity to slip off my shoes. As I pulled it off, something white caught my eye on the sole of it. I turned it over to see I had two big letters: L and P, written on the bottom of one of my shoes in white marker. Frowning in confusion, I grabbed my other shoe and looked at the sole of that one
HARD TO GET Chapter 98
“I love you, Mrs Roger,” I whispered, looking into her eyes. My whole future was mapped out before me. It didn’t matter what happened from here on out, as long as I had this girl in my arms every single day I could cope with anything. Instead of replying, she just crashed her lips back to mine again in a scorching hot kiss that was seriously inappropriate for people to be watching, especially standing at the front of the church. The vicar obviously thought so too. “I think your guests are getting impatient,” he said tersely. Ashley broke the kiss immediately and stiffened, as if she forgot where we were and that we weren’t on our own. She blushed and hid her face in the side of my neck as I wrapped my arm around her tightly. “We’re just starting as we mean to go on,” I joked, winking at the vicar. Ashley pinched my stomach playfully as she giggled against my neck. That was a typical Jace and Ashley moment. In my eyes, if the wedding had gone beautifully, then it wo
HARD TO GET Chapter 97 Jace
I didn’t feel nervous at all. Not when Seth started talking about never sleeping with another girl again. Not when he was teasing me that half of all marriages end in divorce. Not when he was telling me that once you got married you only had sex on birthdays and anniversaries. I didn’t even get nervous when Bryson started humming the wedding march. But as soon as I stepped into the church, my legs weakened and my throat seemed to close up as my tongue felt like it swelled to twice its normal size. I was getting married today. I was actually terrified of that thought – not because I didn’t want to marry Ashley, but because every single person from my family was going to watch me stand up the front of the church congregation and say my vows. I’d heard it was normal to get cold feet, but that wasn’t what this was; I was just terrified of screwing it up for Ashley. This was her one and only wedding day, because there was not a chance I was letting her get away from me to marry som
HARD TO GET Chapter 96 Ashley
“Are you sure it’s straight?” I asked, frowning at the homemade banner with the words ‘Welcome Home’ emblazoned across it that was now tacked to the wall of the lounge. “It’s straight. The same as it was straight before you climbed on the chair and started fiddling with it. Will you stop stressing?” Anna teased, chuckling. I hopped down off the chair and nodded, forcing myself to take a couple of deep breaths. I’d planned this day out for the last two weeks that Jace had been stuck in the hospital for, I just could hardly wait to have him home so I could fuss over him and treat him like the hero that he really was. Seeing him for an hour at a time at the hospital just wasn’t enough for me. “How much longer do you think they’ll be?” I asked, checking my watch for the hundredth time today. I could barely wait another second. Anna shrugged, selecting a cupcake from the table that was laden with buffet style welcome home afternoon tea we’d made. “Shouldn’t be too much longer, Bryson sa
HARD TO GET Chapter 95
After a couple of minutes of us just sitting on the bed, talking about what pictures I was going to ask Anna to draw on my casts, Ashley poked her head in the door. She looked a little nervous as she chewed on her lip. When I smiled reassuringly and waved her in, she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “You two okay in here?” she asked, stepping in. DJ grinned and nodded. “Momma, Jace wants to a-dot me and Woody. He wants to be my daddy,” he boasted. “We all getted new names!” Ashley laughed to herself, her eyes sparkling as they met mine. “He wants to adopt both of you? Wow, that’s nice of Jace, huh? Roger is a pretty nice name,” she said breathlessly, heading over to sit on the bed with us. She took my hand and I interlaced our fingers, grinning. “DJ likes the idea of us getting married,” I told her proudly. “That’s a coincidence, because I like the idea too,” she replied, blushing. She sighed and nodded towards the door. “My parents want to come in a
HARD TO GET Chapter 94
After a little while, Ashley had to excuse herself to go back up to DJ. My parents and Bryson kept me busy, fussing over me for a few hours, before they left too so I could get some rest. Once I was alone, I tried my hardest to sleep, but sleep didn’t come easy, and even when it did, I was plagued with dreams of the fire. Memories flooded my brain, images of Ashley shaking and mumbling words that I couldn’t understand while she was standing by the ambulance. I dreamt of DJ and the look he gave me when he understood that we were going to die. Thankfully, the hospital was busy, so I was woken often by talking or doctors banging around. The noises brought me out of my nightmares before they reached the climax. That afternoon, after I’d finished choking down some hospital garbage that they called ‘food’ the door opened and my beautiful girlfriend stood there with a huge smile stretched across her face. “Hey, you,” she greeted. I smiled, happy to see her again. “Hi.
HARD TO GET Chapter 93
I took a deep breath, willing myself not to mess it up. “As soon as you said those three words to me, I was going to drop down on one knee and propose to you.” I said it quickly before I wimped out and didn’t do it. She didn’t react how I thought she would though. She didn’t gasp and look at me shocked. Instead, she burst out laughing, shaking her head. “That’s a good one,” she replied around her giggles, settling herself back down onto the bed next to me. I remained silent, waiting for her to catch on that I wasn’t joking. Slowly, I saw it sink in. The giggles stopped, and the smile slowly faded from her face as her eyes widened. “Oh God, seriously?” she asked breathlessly. I nodded in confirmation. “Seriously. But your timing ruined that for me too. I can’t exactly get down on one knee right now because one’s busted and the other leg’s broken, so that plan’s out of the window.” I laughed at my choice of words. Out of the window – yeah, it literally was. “Jace, wh
HARD TO GET Chapter 92
I pulled the mask off my face so I could talk. “There goes my dancing plans this weekend,” I joked, shifting uncomfortably on the bed. The doctor laughed quietly. “Because of the burns to your legs, we can’t cast it straight away. We need to let the skin heal a little before we can cover it. We’ll have to leave the temporary one on for a few days, then see how you’re getting on after that. You’ll have to stay here for a few days, I’m afraid. The burns need monitoring, and you’ll be started on a two week course of antibiotics to ward off any infections.” I frowned. I really didn’t want to stay here, I hated hospitals. “Will the burns heal or…” I trailed off, wondering what my legs were going to look like after this. The worst of it was on my right leg, covering most of my shin. He nodded. “We’ll move you to the burns centre as soon as we’ve dealt with your other injuries. They’re more equipped to deal with it there. You were very lucky though. The dampness of your cloth
