My phone rang about half a dozen times from Port Agnes to June Lake.
“Do you have any allergies?” Jack asked the first time he called.
Many a suggestive comment and knowing smirk greeted me when I got to my parents’ house a while later. I refused to acknowledge my mother’s waggling brows and headed straight upstairs for a shower. An ice-cold shower. Now, it was just after ten a.m. the next morning and the house was filled with clu
“Boy, am I glad to see you,” I said to Jack a couple hours later. He stood on the front porch, looking like a tall drink of something that could make this entire afternoon disappear. Between the Lola incident and dodging questions about when Jack and I were going to have babies, I was more than ready to be rescued. Jack laughed and instantly my
As we weaved through the streets of Port Agnes, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of Jack. Something had shifted between us back there, and it was terrifying and exhilarating all at once. Maybe we were moving too fast, but I could tell we were heading somewhere good. And I didn’t want to slow down. We we
Sleep pulled at my eyelids as Jack and I lay in my bed the next morning, a tangle of arms and legs. I rested my head on his bare chest, my fingertips tracing over the smattering of hair on his chest. A smile touched my lips. Lifting my head, I looked at him. “Hey you,” he murmured, his hair thoroug
A few hours later, grinning like idiots, we headed outside to Jack’s truck. “You know,” he said as he opened the passenger door. “I’m thinking that maybe we should go back inside. Hole up in your bed all day. Maybe all week.” I smiled and leaned up to kiss him. “Alas,
“Dinner is canceled,” Jack said later, putting his arm around my waist and nuzzling my neck. We ended up back at Jack’s place, where I let him show me his appreciation. For two hours. Stretching, I turned my head toward him. I felt very appreciated.“Let’s just stay here. All night. All the nights in existence,” he continued, his voice muffled as he bu
“You’re a bad best friend.” I glared at Cat and picked up my phone, making sure to put my hand over the speaker. “Bad, bad best friend.” She barely glanced up from the plate of scrambled eggs she was salting. “Yeah, yeah. Thank me later.”
Cat didn’t go. We went instead. Jack enforced her dinner first, then dessert rule. He made conversation over appetizers, charmed me over wine, and force-fed me lasagna till I couldn’t move.
Two hours later, I found myself parked at a table in the corner of the first bar I found. I didn’t stop when I walked away from Jack. I’d pushed through the crowd and right out the door. Took a right and followed the sidewalk until I found this place.Through the window, the Hope River glittered in the moonlight. All I could focus on, though, w
I had nearly two weeks to chicken out. To convince Cat that there was no need for me to attend the restaurant grand opening. To make her see that being in Jack’s presence would do neither of us any good. I was unsuccessful. Should have known better, really. Once Cat got something in her head, there was n
The next month flew by in a whir of brainstorms and phone calls and late nights staring at my computer screen. The end result: my very own literary agency.Well, technically, agent. Singular. Just me. Working out of my apartment after getting home from my day job. But I had plans, dammit. Big ones. Ones that involved getting good books by talented writers out in the world. Starting with Joy Ne
What did “fine” mean, really? For me, it meant getting up the next morning, putting my big girl pants on and finding a new job. I couldn’t just sit around and mope forever. There were bills to pay, man.
Getting dumped and getting your dream job in the same day sucked. Getting dumped, getting your dream job, and going to work the next day like everything was normal sucked even more.
A couple hours later, the sun had begun to dip below the horizon, casting a dreamy golden glow over the fairgrounds. People still milled about, laughing and talking, soaking in the magic hour before darkness took over. I sat back in my chair and surveyed the booth before me. Slim pickin’s. Jack’s a
The next morning, Cat and I were squeezed into her tiny kitchen, making pancakes and scrambled eggs before we settled down to a marathon of My Boyfriend the Vampire—a very nice Sunday, if you asked me. I had just flipped the final pancake when my phone buzzed from its place on the counter. Cat g
We wandered the fair for a while after that, hand-in-hand. Initially, we’d been looking for Luke and Cat, but they’d vanished. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I worried that the bearded man had actually murdered them. When I voiced my worry, though, Jack assured me that they were fine. “Pro
Jack was sitting on the front porch Saturday morning as I pulled into the driveway, looking like an excited kid. An excited kid with a naughty secret.We’d been talking since I left him on Thursday. His dad was on the upswing, so he felt comfortable leaving the hospital for the day.