Chapter Twelve
Jude
Her taillights disappeared around the bend, and still, I didn’t move. Just stood in the open garage bay, staring at the road like she might come back.
She didn’t.
Of course, she didn’t.
I let out a slow breath and scrubbed a hand over my face, dragging it down my jaw like I could wipe the last twenty minutes off and get my head straight.
Didn’t work.
Nothing about that had been normal.
Not her showing up right on time.
Not Penny’s reaction.
Not the way Ever looked at me like she didn’t know what to do with me.
And definitely not the way I’d looked at her.
I pushed off the spot and walked back toward the lift, grabbing the rag I’d tossed aside earlier and wiping my hands again, even though they were already clean.
Anything to keep from thinking too hard.
It didn’t help because the one thing that kept replaying was her talking about Jesse.
Not her boyfriend.
She’d made that real clear.
Not a hesitation. Not a maybe.
A correction.
He’s not my boyfriend.
I tossed the rag onto the workbench and leaned back against it, folding my arms.
That mattered. Just… seeing him.
Dating him.
Whatever the hell that meant these days.
I tipped my head back and stared at the ceiling, exhaling slowly through my nose.
She had to like the guy. You didn’t go out with someone, let them kiss you, spend time with them if there wasn’t something there.
I wasn’t stupid.
Didn’t mean I had to like it.
Didn’t mean I had to accept it.
Didn’t mean I had to sit back and pretend it didn’t get under my skin, because it did.
More now than before.
A lot more.
I pushed off the bench and started pacing the length of the garage, boots echoing off the concrete in short, restless strides.
She’d been flustered today. She wasn’t that way with Lark or Penny.
With me, it was like she didn’t know where to land. Didn’t know what to say and didn’t know where to look half the time.
That wasn’t nothing.
That wasn’t just her being polite or friendly or going along with it.
That was… something.
And I felt it.
Every second she was in that space with me, I felt it.
The way her attention stuck and the way her voice shifted.
The way her whole damn body reacted when I got close.
I stopped in the middle of the garage and planted my hands on my hips again.
“That’s not nothing,” I muttered.
Because it wasn’t. Not even close.
I’d seen enough women in my life to know the difference between someone being nice and someone being affected.
Ever wasn’t just being nice. And if she wasn’t fully locked in with Jesse and she wasn’t calling him her boyfriend… then there was an opening.
The thought hit clean and sharp.
It finally settled into place like it had been waiting for me to catch up to it.
I blew out a breath and let my head drop forward slightly, staring at the concrete.
This wasn’t something I’d ever thought about before.
Not once.
Ever had always just… been there. Someone I knew and saw, but not someone I wanted. Not in a way that had me standing in a garage after she left trying to figure out how the hell I was going to see her again.
Something had changed, and now… now I couldn’t unsee it.
I ran a hand through my hair and let out a short laugh under my breath. “This is fucked.”
Because it was.
She was seeing someone.
Even if it wasn’t official.
Even if it wasn’t serious.
She still had someone in her life, and I was standing here thinking about stepping right into that space like it was mine to take.
I leaned back against the workbench again, arms crossing tighter this time.
But the more I thought about it, the less that part mattered.
Jesse wasn’t here when she needed him. Jesse wasn’t the one fixing her car. Jesse wasn’t the one making sure she got home safe.
That had been me, and that was the part that stuck.
The part I couldn’t shake no matter how many times I told myself to back off, leave it alone, not complicate things.
I pushed off the bench again and walked toward the open garage door, stopping at the edge and looking out at the empty space where her car had been.
I rested one hand against the doorframe and leaned slightly into it, gaze fixed on the road beyond.
All I knew was I wanted her.
Not casually. Not as some passing thought. Not as something I might get around to if the timing worked out.
I wanted Ever for myself.
And that wasn’t something I was going to ignore.
Not anymore.