Life in a Rut, Love not Included (Love Not Included series Book 1) (21 page)

I also don’t want to picture Jack sitting in his kitchen with his ex, feeding each other fancy foods while laughing. Having his mouth on someone else sends shocks of jealousy through my brain and body. Pushing the jealousy aside, I continue to let him press an assortment of delicious food into my mouth. I can tell he is watching my facial expressions after each pairing, waiting to see the satisfaction of my taste buds as it plays on my face.

“I’m going to take you home shortly, don’t worry,” he tells me. “You can get some sleep then. I have a small crew finishing up your parents’ addition by the end of the week and need to do a final walk-through to make sure everything is in place.”

“So you don’t have any plans for me today?” I ask. I partially say it as a joke since the past week he has possessively planned our days, but partially because I am kind of disappointed that we are going to be separating.

“Don’t worry, my love. I have a whole set of plans for you. But they require you to recoup. And I’m not only talking about catching up on sleep.”

My lady parts take a leap and spin.

Jack clears his plate, then rises to put the cooking pans in the sink. Apparently he needed a food-boost more than I did.

“I see. Well then, do what you must. I have some things I need to take care of, besides sleeping anyway. I just left poor Aunt Raines and her vermouth to fend for themselves on Friday. It probably will do me some good to spend time mending any damage I’ve caused.”

Jack laughs and clears the counter, then he walks around the island. “Well, good,” he says. “So now that we have our days planned out we can move on to planning our night.”

He gives me a devilish grin. I have to look away because it is almost too intense to keep eye contact.

Jack stands there and watches me finish the food on my plate. Once I am done, he takes my empty dish and places it in the sink next to his.

He turns to walk towards me, then he makes his way around the kitchen bar to my stool. He spreads my legs so he can stand between them and brings his hands to my head, his fingers through my wet hair.

“I love you,” he says without doubt or hesitation in his voice. “I know this is very soon to admit such strong feelings, but it doesn’t matter to me. I can’t change how I feel.”

I simply melt in his hands. I turn to press my cheek into his palm.

“I love you too, Jack.”

This is what fairy tales are made of. I know it, I know it, I know it . . .

O
N CLOUD NINE, WE
drive back to my parents’ house. Not making too much conversation during the drive, I think about my future. What it all means. I feel like it’s about time I leave the nest,
again,
and get a place for myself. I seem to have taken up residency at Jack’s, but it will probably be too soon to drop off my toothbrush there. I know we both spilled the love beans to each other, but that doesn’t mean he wants to move in with me. I mean, even after seven years with Steve and
practically
living in each other’s apartments, we never even made that leap.

Jack breaks my thoughts. “How long do you plan on staying with your parents?”

Wow, is this guy in my head or what?!

“I’m not sure,” I tell him as casually as I can muster. “I guess I never really had to stay there to begin with. To be honest I have a nice little nest egg that I’m sitting on. I made a good amount at Hamilton Corp and never really had a reason to spend any of it. I barely paid rent because Stacey’s parents took over the living expenses, no questions asked.”

“So why did you choose to go home if you could have just gotten your own place?” he asks.

“I don’t know. I think at that time I needed home. I needed comfort in something, or someone. No matter what I was going through, I knew my parents would give that to me. And honestly, at that point I was so messed up it was just safer that way.”

“Well the only thing that is messed up now is your hair after what you made me do to you after breakfast,” he says, trying suddenly to defuse the topic.

I slap him on the shoulder because I know he is messing with me. Then I count to three to not make it obvious and look in the mirror at my hair. Because seriously, what he did to me after breakfast really did mess up my hair . . .

W
E MAKE IT TO
my parents’ house and luckily do not find Aunt Raines still in the driveway selling her jewelry and discarding roses to strangers.

We enter the house to find my mother in the kitchen cutting out coupons.

“Oh, hello dear. How are you? Oh goodness, what happened to your hair?”

I am going to kill Jack.

“Nothing, Mom. I drove with the windows down,” I reply, trying to ignore Jack’s snort behind me.

“Hello Jack, I’m glad you’re here. A worker of yours was asking me some questions about the deck area and I wasn’t sure how to answer him. Maybe you can speak with him for me?”

Just then the doorbell rings.

“I’ll get that,” I say to Jack. “You go help my mom.”

“All right . . .” he says and escorts my mother out the back door.

I pretty much hop to the front door humming. Love will do that to a person. I open the door to greet our guest, and find Steve standing on my front step.

I freeze.

What the . . . ?

Apparently Steve has been staring at the street waiting for the door to open. He turns to see me standing in the doorway.

“Hello, Sar,” he says, his voice soft.

My face must be bright red, I am so furious! “I thought I made myself clear the other day when I said you were to get lost and not come back,” I spit out.

Steve flinches like I physically struck him.

This is not happening to me right now. He is supposed to be gone and out of my life. I have Jack, the amazing Jack in my backyard, and Steve is on my front porch. I don’t know whether to laugh, cry, or pass out.

“You should not have come back,” I say coldly.

“I wouldn’t have come if you would have accepted my apology the first time and come home with me.”

I am getting a bit panicky at this point. I really do not want to have Steve run into Jack and witness the tension that would ensue. I step outside the house and shut the door.

“Now is not a good time, Steve. You need to leave.”

“But I need to talk to you,” he insists. “I need you to understand.”

“
Understand?
” I say, raising my voice even louder this time. “I’m not sure that catching you fucking my best friend . . . well,
ex
best friend . . . leaves anything to be understood. I understand perfectly!”

OK, yeah, now I’m pissed.

“We left it as if you were going to take some time to think about things. I told you we weren’t done, Sarah. I know you needed time. And I have given it to you. I am here now to take you home.”

“Are you insane, Steve? Really, are you
actually
insane?! I am not going anywhere with you. What part of
you got caught cheating so we are over
do you not understand?!”

“Sarah, this is about us. I know you felt something when we were together the other day. It meant something. That kiss meant something.”

Ugh. The only thing I can remember about that kiss is how I wanted to sear my lips off after he made that attempt.

“You wanted me,” he continues. “You remember how good we were. Don’t do this. We can be good again.” He keeps begging, and all I can think is how I want to run to Jack and have him make me forget by touching me all over my body with his lips and tongue.

Jack.

“Sarah . . .” Steve says, putting his hand on my shoulder. “That’s not what I meant. I know you want us to get back together. Please give me a moment—”

Out of nowhere I hear the front door slam shut. I turn to see Jack standing behind me with a look of death on his face.

Oh god! How long has he been there? What did he hear?

He sees Steve’s hand on my shoulder and instantly his jaw sets into a rock solid clench. I am not sure at this point if I should guard Steve because Jack might kill him, or if I should just step in front of Jack because, well, because Jack might kill him.

“Is everything OK out here?” Jack asks.

“Everything is fine,” I manage to say somewhat calmly. “This guy was just leaving.”

“This guy!?” Steve exclaims. “That’s what I am now?! Some guy?”

Here we go.

OK, now I think Jack is definitely considering killing Steve. Not that I want to take a second out of my life to speak to Steve, but at this point I can tell that Jack’s patience is running real thin and I need to get Steve out of here.

So I do the only thing I can think of to make that happen.

“Listen, Steve. I will talk to you, but not now, OK? Just please, leave. Give me some time.”

“How much time, Sarbear? I need you.” OK, now he’s done it.

I feel Jack take my shoulders and push me out of the way. This is so not going to end well.

“I think it’s time for you to leave, buddy,” Jack says with his last ounce of self-control.

“Leave? Who are you?” Steve turns to me and belts out, “Sarah, who is this guy?”

He totally catches me off guard. I don’t know how to answer that question. What is Jack to me? We said ‘I love you’ to each other, but we never talked about dating or girlfriend/boyfriend status. Are we exclusive? I just don’t know what to say, so I say, well, probably the worst thing I can possibly say in this moment.

“He’s a friend, OK? Now please just leave.”

I feel Jack tense up beside me. I don’t have to look at him to see the shock and betrayal in his eyes.

“OK, but if I don’t hear from you I’m coming back. We will talk, Sarbear,” Steve finishes. He tries to reach for me, but Jack stands in his way. Not wanting to go to battle with him, Steve decides it is best to skip the embrace and he turns and walks to his fancy BMW and drives away.

I just stand there.

Afraid.

Jack speaks first.

“How many times have you seen him since we’ve been together?” he asks, his voice chilling.

“Once before today,” I answer.

“Were you ever going to tell me about your little make-out session with your ex?” he asks, his voice on fire.

“Yes, I was going to . . . Maybe. I don’t know. It happened so fast. It wasn’t what I was expecting. I didn’t know he was going to kiss me.” I am stuttering over all my words. I just don’t know how this got so—

“So I can assume that day I came to pick you up, those flowers, they were from Romeo?”

“Yes,” I answer in a scared whisper. I don’t like where this is going. Jack is sweltering anger and I can feel it coming off his skin. He won’t even look at me.

“When he was sticking his tongue down your throat I assume you didn’t bother mentioning me?”

“It wasn’t like that, Jack,” I say, almost panicking. I can tell this is not going to end well. I turn to face him but he is like stone, staring out into the lawn. It is obvious he can’t even look at me.

“He said you two were together. Did you fuck him?” he spits out.

“God, no! It wasn’t like that!”

“So just now you let him put his hands on you and call you, what? Your bedroom pet name he has for you?!” His tone is harsh and striking.

“No! Jack, it’s not like that. I just wanted him gone. I didn’t know any other way—”

“So you degrade me, when I am trying to defend you from this jerk who tossed you aside for your fucking roommate, so you can just refer to me as nothing more than your friend?!” Now he is yelling.

I have pure panic in my tone and fear on my face. He is so angry. I should have told him about Steve coming over. I should have told him everything, but I just wanted to forget. I didn’t want it to be significant enough to even talk about.

“Jack, please, listen to me,” I plead and attempt to pull his shoulders to look at me. Shocking me, he throws my hands off him.

“You know, Sarah, I really thought you were better than that. I thought you were smarter and realized you deserved better. I guess I thought I had a part in that. But you seem to be still too swept-up in your ex to see what’s around you,” he says flatly.

“What! What are you talking about? I
do
see what’s in front of me. Jack, it’s you I see. I love you!” I say in shear panic. What is happening right now?