Chapter 13 #2
“I love you too.” Luca kisses the top of her head before running his knuckles over the same spot. He looks up at me as Lainey fights free from his roughness. “Let me know when you get her back to her place.”
“I will.” He daps me up, and I don’t miss the opportunity to slap his back as hard as I can as he pulls me in. “Fucking dick.” He slaps me back, calling it even, and I can’t help but to laugh as Luca heads inside, trying to rub the spot between his shoulder blades.
It’s weird, having all three of us back together. It’s somehow easy, nostalgic, and as if we picked up right where we left off, before Cole isolated Lainey from everyone and villainized me.
But this glimpse into the past has been everything.
I don’t blame Lainey for taking his side—that’s what you do when you love someone. He blinded her, and she’ll come to realize that with some time away—she already has to an extent.
I wonder what the final straw was that pushed her past her limit.
Lainey hooks her arm in mine, and all thoughts of Cole disintegrate instantly. “Where are we going again?”
“Our place.” I smile, looking down at her, amused that she already forgot our conversation from a few minutes ago.
Her gaze flicks up at me, the streetlights glistening off her eyes as she holds her breath. “Our place?”
“McDonald’s.” I chuckle, and she laughs as it dawns on her.
“Oh my God!” she exhales. “That sounds so good right now.”
“Probably because you’re a little drunk.”
I know she doesn’t drink much—or at least she didn’t used to—but dear God, she’s an impressive lightweight.
“I want a—”
I finish her order for her from memory. “A McChicken with Big Mac sauce, a large fry, and a strawberry shake.”
She looks up at me with awe and big eyes. “You remembered?”
I smile, feeling more at peace in this moment than I have in a long time. “You’d be amazed by the things I remember when it comes to you.”
Her gaze softens, her lips parting. She stutters a step but I keep her upright as we reach my car.
I open the front passenger door. “After you.”
She playfully chuckles. “Why, thank you, sir.”
Plopping into the seat, she sets her purse on the ground and buckles up as I shut the door and walk around the car, sliding into the driver’s seat.
Pressing the button, I turn the car on, and Lainey wastes no time getting accustomed to my radio system, syncing her phone.
“No, that’s totally fine, Lainey. I don’t mind if you play music.” I mock her, and she giggles unapologetically.
“To McDonald’s!” she orders, pressing play on a song that instantly teleports me back in time.
The song keeps playing through the speakers, and a chill runs through me. I haven’t heard this in years.
“What, you don’t remember the lyrics? Or are you too cool to sing along with me now?”
I shrug. “Too cool.”
She shoves my shoulder playfully. “Shut up.”
I chuckle softly.
This is nice, being with her again like nothing ever happened. It makes me realize how much time we’ve missed, how much time Cole took. I know she has some responsibility in that, but I know he played a bigger role.
There’s still so much to uncover between us, pieces and parts of ourselves that are different than before. Like the scar that runs along her neck. I’m not going to push her about it, but I hope she opens up to me soon. I’m dying to know what happened.
I pull into the McDonald’s parking lot that’s right down the road from The Penalty Box, the one I’ve stopped at many times before after a few drinks with the team.
We order our food, pay, and pick it up at the window before we head to Lainey’s place.
She types her address into her maps, giving me directions through the speaker that I follow for the short ten-minute drive.
Using her key fob, she scans us into the parking garage, and I pull into her empty spot. “You didn’t bring your car?”
Her voice is quiet, and she looks out the window. “I don’t have a car.”
My stomach sinks. “What happened to Carl?” That car was her baby for years.
She grabs our drinks, and I grab the bags of food before following her.
“Since Cole and I moved so much, I sold it. It was too much stress for us to try to move around, and I was in school online, not working. I didn’t really need it.”
“But that was Carl. You never wanted to sell him, even when your parents offered to get you a newer one. I remember it being your pride and joy,” I argue with her, trying to get to the bottom of it.
“It was just a damn car, Jensen,” she snaps, her voice angry and mean.
I resign. “Okay. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I just … talking about that makes me think about Cole, and if I could, I would prefer to never think or talk about him ever again.”
Well, that’s not healthy, but I can understand it, me more than most people. “You got it.”
She leads us inside and into the elevator. This place is really nice.
Silence consumes us as we ride up to her floor, echoing in my ears until we stop outside of her unit.
“I haven’t really had a chance to fully unpack and settle in. Just a warning,” she says nervously.
“It’s okay.” I chuckle, not concerned in the slightest that she might still be living out of suitcases. She just moved here and immediately started a new job. I don’t blame her. “I can help if you want.”
Unlocking her door, she flashes me a fiery look. “Trust me, the last thing I want to do tonight is unpack.”
Her gaze holds mine for a moment longer … long enough to have me guessing if that fiery stare had a flirty meaning.
Fuck. I don’t know if I can handle Lainey making a move on me tonight.
I mean, shit, I would love to handle a flirty Lainey with both of my hands and every part of my body, but tonight should definitely not be that night. Not after she literally just broke up with Cole.
As much as I want to do everything with Lain, I don’t want her to regret it, and I sure as fuck don’t want to be a quick rebound for her to get some anger out on. There won’t be anything short about the relationship between us.
She was not kidding about not unpacking. Four suitcases are open and rifled through, her clothes strewn out on her living room floor in disarray.
I push the door shut behind me. A haughty laugh slips past her lips, the kind that instantly has me worried about the state of her sanity.
Two seconds later, the giggle turns into full-blown hysterical laughter as she drops her purse and phone straight to the ground before covering her face with her hands.
I hastily set the food and drinks on the counter. Circling around to face her, I step toward her, unsure of what she needs right now. “Lainey?”
A sob bursts free from her as I inch closer, reaching up and gently pulling her hands away.
Tears stream down her cheeks, and she keeps her gaze on my chest, avoiding my gaze.
Stroking the backs of her hands, I bend at my knees, bringing myself down to her eye level. “Hey, look at me.”
She hesitates for a moment before meeting my stare, her bottom lip quivering.
“I know I might be biased when it comes to Cole. But as your friend, I also know that you deserve so much better than what he’s given you and could give you. You deserve every single thing you want out of life, Lainey, and he is not good enough to be by your side.”
I take a shaky breath, a lump forming in my throat as she stares at me intently, hanging on to every word. “I want you to be happy, and whatever it takes to fulfill that part of you, I support … except for him. I think you made the right decision, love.”
I emphasize my next breath, and she does it with me, her shoulders relaxing.
With every passing second, she calms. As if a light bulb goes off in her head, I watch her pupils dilate, and her tongue dart out to wet her lips.
She swallows hard, and my body tenses up—not because I don’t want the same thing she does right now, but because I don’t want us to have our first kiss not thirty seconds after we talked about her ex and their breakup.
Leaning forward, she rolls up onto the balls of her feet. My heart sinks because I know what I’m about to do and I know that she might hate me afterward for it.
“Lain,” I say, and she stops dead in her tracks.
Her eyes widen like she’s seen a ghost as they flick up to mine. “Oh God. Oh no, I’m sorry!”
Fuck. This is what I was scared of.
She tries to pull and turn away from me, but I grab her face and keep her in place.
“Stop. Don’t apologize. Please don’t fucking apologize.”
Embarrassment paints her cheeks. “Jen—”
“No,” I cut her off. Leaning forward, I kiss her forehead before rolling my against hers, my breath hitting her lips.
“Don’t think for a second that I don’t want to kiss you absolutely senseless.
I’ve been thinking about it my entire life.
But we’re not doing that tonight. Not until you’re certain, without a shred of doubt, that I’m the last person you want to ever touch you. ”
When she straightens up, her gaze follows mine.
She sucks in a quick breath, wetting her lips. “Okay.”
Kissing her face has done little to ease the tension between us, but I do my best to ignore it. “All right. Now, let’s eat some McDonald’s, watch a movie, and get some sleep.”
“Yeah.” She nods, shaking her head out ever so slightly, like she’s trying to shake off what just happened.
I release her face and walk back over to the kitchen counter, grabbing our food while she walks into the living room and drags a couple of suitcases out of our way.
I may have been the one to set the no-kiss rule for tonight, but that doesn’t mean that being this close to her and not touching her when I know she wants me to won’t be pure agony.