Chapter 19
CHAPTER 19
JASPER
Walking out of the courthouse after the big win, I feel like I am in a daze. Maybe it was the closing arguments. Or cross examination. Or…just seeing Marsh do his thing so well to bring justice to his clients. But somewhere during that trial, it became less about my internship and my ambitions for the last year of law school and more about watching Marsh.
One minute I was sitting on the hard bench of the gallery of the old courthouse and the next…well, I looked down and my heart was gone.
My hands are still shaking from that realization.
I say the right things, enjoy the win I helped craft and the team I helped craft it with, but by the time I slide into the back of Penny’s car, I’m in a panic.
I cannot fall in love with Marshall. That has to be the golden rule of summer flings. Do. Not. Fall. In. Love.
I stare dumbly out the window as the landscape flashes by, taken out of my circling thoughts only when my phone vibrates.
Looking down, I see the airline confirming my check-in. I blink a few times, trying to figure out why I would be getting on a flight back to Florida.
Oh shit. When I first arrived, I had moved my flight up because Marshall was being an ass, and then I got caught up in the case and him and I never changed it.
Tomorrow morning, it reminds me.
I can check in now.
I stare at the screen, swallowing hard.
Six weeks later, I am riding high on the pace of the third year of law school. The work is hard—would have been crushing in my first year—but by now it’s shockingly manageable. It allows me to focus on the Law Review, the symposium, and the way my heart aches in my chest.
I stare out at nothing sometimes. There are days it feels part of me is still in Bear Valley. I don’t go out much. But, otherwise…I’m fine. Perfectly fine. Even as I sit here at the Law Review offices at school doing nothing except avoiding the quiet solitude of my apartment.
Professor Rutherford passes by in the hall but then backtracks.
He pauses like he might just linger in the doorway, but then plops down in the unused chair of the other desk in the office.
“You want to talk about it?” Professor Rutherford asks.
“The symposium is going fine, Professor. I just checked in on the reception tonight?—”
He holds up a hand.
“That’s not what I meant, Mr. Dawson.”
I blink at him, feeling my cheeks heat as his look gets more knowing. He is my professor and I did spend the summer doing very naughty things with his best friend and former law partner. I feel my face ignite in a blush.
“I know Marshall Caffrey pretty well, as I have gotten to know you. And I am just wondering what I will be walking into when you are both at this reception tonight.”
I start. “He’s coming to that?”
“I didn’t pick him up from the airport for a weekend of fun. He’s the keynote at the symposium and you and I both know the fact he wrote one of the articles for the journal is, standing alone, a fact that will draw national attention.”
I swallow hard. I hadn’t thought he would be here until at least the symposium itself, which is a few months away. I thought I had more time to get over him. Him being here just reinforces what I knew—it was just a summer fling for him. He hasn’t called or tried to reach out since I left after the win, and I’ve been telling myself that’s a good thing.
“So I’m right,” Professor Rutherford continues. “Something went down this summer.”
I almost snort a laugh. Yeah, something went down. Me. And all I got was a broken heart.
I wet my lips, sliding my now-damp palms down my thighs. “He won his case?—”
“I know, I read your article for the review, Jasper. I do turn on the news every now and again as well.”
“Then what?”
Rutherford huffs. “I know heartbreak when I see it. And it’s all over both of you. My suggestion is that you go talk to him before tonight.” He reaches into his pocket and hands me a piece of paper. “He’s staying out on The Wyn,” he says, referencing the resort island just a bridge away from where the law school is located. Rutherford lives there with his husband. “I know the owner of the resort, and that’s Marsh’s room number. Do with it what you want, but you didn’t get it from me.”
The paper burns in my pocket during the short trip out to the island. I’m not thinking about what I will say when I get there, I just get there and in front of his door as soon as I can. I want to pause, but I don’t. I knock before I can talk myself out of it.
My heart hammers in my chest, threatening to crawl up my throat.
I’m just here to clear the air, I remind myself.
The door opens with a jerk, “Damn you, Lin, I told you I—” Marshall halts mid-sentence, his eyes roaming over me like he’s cataloguing every change from the last time I saw him.
I do the same, tracking the dark stubble, the sunken eyes. He looks just as sexy as I remember him, but if I’m honest, he also sort of looks like shit.
“Want to come in?” he asks, opening the door wider.
I nod and enter, with him so close behind me I can feel his body heat.
Strong arms wrap around my waist, and I melt into him, burying my nose against his neck and feeling just for a moment that all is right with the world. I shiver in his arms as his nose runs down my neck.
“Jasper,” he breathes, catching my lips as I try to get as close as possible, and he doesn’t hold back from clutching my ass and pulling me to him and pushing me against the wall.
“This isn’t what I expected,” I manage between kisses.
He nips my lip. “You left.” Another nip. “Didn’t say a fucking word to me, Jasper.”
I moan when he kisses me even more aggressively, making me forget why I left in the first place.
“Never work,” I tell him, while still kissing the hell out of him and rubbing my body all over his with no shame. “I was getting too involved, Marsh,” I whisper, and his hand tangles into my hair, making me look at him.
His eyes are full of heat and questions, bouncing from one of mine to the other.
“Did you think I wasn’t in it?”
I blink up at him.
“We were a summer fling.”
Marsh’s grip relaxes, his hand cups my jaw. “That’s not all we are. I know love, Jasper. And it showed me what I fool I was when I didn’t chase you down and keep you from getting on that plane. I love you.”