Gravity Happens (Forcing Gravity) (42 page)

Almost.

Jase sat across from me in his plaid chair that I used to love to curl up in when I studied. Normally when I sat there, he sat where I was now sitting so he could watch the Lakers or the Dodgers or whatever sporting event happened to be on. He’d watch and cheer and yell at the TV, but every so often he would look up and smile at me or mouth ‘Love you’. And those were some of my favorite memories of a time before everything became jaded and tainted by one act of indiscretion.

“You said you wanted to talk,” he said, the hope in his voice so faint that only someone who knew him as well as I did
could detect it.

I nodded and took a deep breath. “I just wanted to apologize to you.”

“To me?” he asked, thoroughly confused by my declaration.

“Yes.
For what I said in Vegas, but also for what I said when we talked the last time. You asked me if I’d ever done something stupid when I was drunk, and I know I was really harsh in how I responded.”

He shrugged, obviously thinking he deserved every b
it of my wrath, and I knew he was thinking that perhaps, in time, if I punished him enough, maybe I’d get to a point where I felt like we were even. But in order for us to be even, I’d have to do exactly what he’d done.

But then again, had Ethan and I not been so drunk, we would have slept together.

“Okay, so you wanted to apologize?”

I nodded. “And to let you know that I’m not above getting drunk and doing something stupid.”

“What did you do?” Jase asked cautiously.

I folded my hands in my lap, suddenly so nervous – and guilty. “It doesn’t matter, but I did it.”

He laughed, a haunting non-humorous laugh. “Well, I guess I mean, what did you do besides kissing Ethan, because I saw that. And to me that was really stupid.”

I sucked in a breath, remembering how he’d charged
at Ethan. “Jase, that was nothing.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “So you making out with him in multiple locations around Las Vegas was nothing?
Did you sleep with him too?”

Just about.

I closed my eyes, feeling miserable all of a sudden. I shook my head and opened my eyes to look at him. “No, I didn’t. I just kissed him, and it was a mistake,” I said softly. “We all make them.”

“Yeah, we do,” he insisted, and I just looked at him, not believing he was equating what I’d done to what he did.

“Jase, this is completely different. I didn’t hook up with Ethan while I was with you.”

I stood then, wondering why I’
d even come to his house. At the time, it had seemed like such a good idea, because I felt like a hypocrite, but now I just felt like I needed to leave. I hadn’t accomplished anything in seeing him, in apologizing, and truthfully, I wasn’t quite sure what I’d even hoped to accomplish.

Jase stood as I walked past him
, and he followed me to his front door. When my hand was on the doorknob, he grabbed my shoulder and spun me around, so I was facing him, and before I knew what was happening, his arms were around me, and his lips were on mine.

It took me a few seconds before I reacted and pulled away fr
om him, shoving him hard in the chest.

“What the hell was that?” I demanded, reaching up to wipe my lips with the back of my hand.

Jase smirked at me. “Just a taste of what you’ve been missing, that’s all. And honestly, I didn’t want the last person you kissed to be Ethan. I wanted it to be me, to always be me.”

I glared at him.
I was furious and turned on and left with such longing that I wasn’t sure what to do.

“Goodbye Jase,
” I spat out.

It was all I could say, because if I didn’t say it, if I didn’t walk away, I would have stayed forever.

* * *

“I am so mad at your brother,” I said when I walked into
the café where Nora worked, forgetting that she was mad at me and I was going there to apologize and talk her into taking Ethan back.

“Excuse me?” she asked, as she looked up from where she was wiping a table, and the three people at the next table looked at us like they expected a cat fight. They weren’t far off.

“I’m going to kill Jase,” I told her, crossing my arms over my chest in a huff, going with the bit I’d started.

“I don’t care,” she said, walking away from me, leaving me standing in the middle of the café like an idiot.

I followed her to the back where she started loading dirty dishes into the dishwasher. She turned to look at me with wide eyes.

“You have some nerve
to come here after what you did.”

“Nora, it didn’t mean anything. I swear. There’s nothing going on with Ethan and me.”

She raised an eyebrow, obviously not believing me, and went back to the dishes.

“Did you sleep with him?” she asked, not making eye contact with me.

“No.”

She turned to look at me. “I don’t believe you.”

“I didn’t. We were too drunk,” I said, aiming for honesty. “And in truth, he’s in love with you.”

“No, he’s not.”

“He is, Nora. He told me.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “He told you that?” she asked skeptically.

“Yes, he did.”

The ghost of a smile flashed across her mouth, but then it was gone. She slammed the dishwasher closed.

“If he’s so in love with me, why was he making out with you?”

“I initiated it. I was trying to get over Jase. I didn’t work, FYI, but what was worse is that I thought I was giving Ethan what he wanted
. I was wrong. From the moment he saw you, I knew something shifted for him.”

“Then why didn’t he come after me? Why didn’t he talk to me?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s loyal as hell to me, and he didn’t what to leave me alone with Jase.”

“My brother was pissed that night. You really hurt him, Logan, and you really hurt me.”

“Nora, I promise, that wasn’t my intention. I was just being selfish. I was looking for an escape.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Did you know that we were getting back together? That we’d slept together?”

“No,” I said sincerely. “I had no idea.”

“Really?”

I shook my head. “Ethan wouldn’t talk about it with me. He wouldn’t talk about you.”

Nora didn’t say anything else. She just ran her fingers through her ponytail that was resting over her left shoulder.

“He’s going to be home tonight,” I told her. “Why don’t you stop by and see him, talk to him. I know he wants to see you.”

She nodded. “He’s been calling and texting me all week.”

“I know. He’s been moping around and complaining about you not returning his calls.”

That
ghost of a smile graced her face once more.

“
He wants you back, bottom line,” I said, making sure she knew exactly where Ethan’s head was at. “Will you at least think about giving him another chance?”

She nodded. “I’ll think about it. Now why are you going to kill my brother?”

“He kissed me,” I shared, just the memory of it giving me tingles all over my body that I fought to ignore.

“Really. He’s not holding back, is he?”
she said blandly, and I knew she was still pissed at me. Simply apologizing wasn’t going to be enough. I’d lost her trust.

I hesitated before saying, “
No, he’s not, and I’m honestly losing my resolve. I’m not sure I can keep pushing him away. I think my only option is to just stay away from him, to let time and space help me forget.”

“Good luck with that,” Nora said
crisply, before she pushed passed me and walked back out to the main part of the restaurant.

I wondered if she’d ever forgive me for what I’d done. I wasn’t sure if she would, but if I got her and Ethan back together, then coming to the café that day had been worth it.

Chapter
Thirty-Five

Ethan

I was vegging out on my couch with Garrett and Ellie when the doorbell rang.
They both looked at me in expectation, so I let out a huff and got up to answer the door.

“You were closer,” Garrett called after me as I walked angrily to the door. It had better not be one of his fucking fans.

I yanked the door open, ready to rip whoever was on the other side of it a new one when I stopped short and my eyes went wide.

“Nora?”

“Hi,” she said, almost shyly.

“What are you doing here?”

“Giving you another chance,” she said softly, as she looked up at me through her lashes. Damn, she looked so beautiful, and her saying those words made her even more beautiful. “I think.”

Say what?

“You think?”

She cocked her head to the side. “I want to know that you’re all in this time, that you’re not going to run, that you’re completely over Logan, and I want to know that you
really want to be with
me
.”

I swallowed hard.
I knew what I had to say, what she wanted to hear, and it terrified me. I’d never told a girl, other than Logan, that I loved her, but I’d also never felt for anyone what I felt for Nora.

She suddenly stepped closer to me, so clo
se that we were almost touching, and I could breathe in her sweet scent.

“Ethan,” she said softly, expectantly
, but she was on the edge of pulling away. I could tell if I didn’t say something, the right thing, and fast, I’d lose her.

My heart was pounding, beating deep
ly against the walls of my chest, as I took a step closer to her, took her hands in mine and looked into her beautiful green eyes.

“I love you,” I said so softly she probably couldn’t hear me, but I didn’t care. I’d said it, and it felt so good
.

Her eyes got wide, and then they filled with tears. I was suddenly so worried that I’d said the wrong thing. Did she not want me to love her, did she think I was moving too fast? I was starting to panic.

Then she choked out a sob and threw her arms around my neck, pulling me against her. “I love you too,” she gushed, clutching me so tightly, as if she never wanted to let go. And I never wanted her to.

We stood there on the porch for countless minutes, just holding each other until she finally pulled back. I lowered my head to close the distance between us, pressing my lips to hers, feeling their soft warmth radiate through me and make me feel whole again. She opened her mouth to me, letting me in further, dragging me into Noraland, the happiest place on earth.

“Bugs are flying around the house,” Garrett yelled from the living room, interrupting our kiss.

“So what,” I yelled back.
He was getting on my nerves.

He had a break in filming, so he’d come home for a few days, and he’d been bugging the shit out of me, giving me crap for being in a bad mood. I was glad he was leaving the next day.

“So close the front door, dumbass,” he yelled back.

“Ahh!” I heard Ellie scream. “It just dive-bombed me. What the hell is that?!”

WHACK!

“Got it! That is one big fucking bug,” Garrett declared, and I just shook my head. “What the hell is that?”

“I don’t know!” Ellie squealed. “Throw it outside. Get rid of it!”

“I’m not touching it!” Garrett argued.

I turned back to Nora, not wanting to get involved in their spat over what was probably a dragonfly. Garrett was such a chicken-shit.

Then all of a sudden, Nora smiled at me, and everything else drifted away. I took her hand, pulled her inside and wordlessly led her ups
tairs. We stepped into my room. I closed the door, drew her into my arms and looked at her for a few seconds.

“Why were you crying before?”

She slid her hands behind my neck. “Because I was happy. I’ve been in love with you for months, and I never thought you’d feel the same way.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re a player, Ethan. You don’t do commitment.”

I shook my head. “I’ve only played with you since the night we met.”

“Really?” she asked hopefully.

I nodded. “Yeah, I mean, except for what happened in Vegas, it’s only been you.”

“Well, you know what they say, right? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, let’s keep what happened there that night in Vegas. Let’s just pretend it never happened.”

“I’d love to do that,” I answered sincerely.

She ran her hands back through my hair. “And I can think of lots of things I’d like to do to you,” she said then, standing on her toes so she could kiss me before she stepped back, fell onto the bed and pulled me down on top of her.