Chapter 32 Love to Hate
THIRTY-TWO
Love to Hate
Noelle
Our lips parted. Eyes wide in shock. I touched my swollen mouth, bruised by Jack’s frenzied kisses, and glanced around.
Shit! Fuck! I had forgotten about the hidden cameras in my parents’ house!
A crackling sound followed the angry voice, but I knew exactly who the warning belonged to.
“Daddy?” I glanced at Jack.
Jack stared at me with regret written all over his face, and he took his hands off me as if I were a gift he’d never wanted to receive. The harsh reality hurt, but he stepped back. Distance didn’t make the heart fonder; it only tore me in two.
“I’m disappointed in you, Noelle,” my father scolded me.
“Daddy... I’m sorry you had to find out like—” Jack held up his hand to stop me.
“This meant nothing, Gabe. Noelle was a mistake I never should’ve made.” Jack ran his hands through his hair and peered up toward the ceiling. “The kiss shouldn’t have happened and—”
“A kiss?” A brief pause. “That’s it?”
Jack cracked his knuckles, his body went rigid with tension, and he locked eyes with me in a stone-cold stare. His body language was expressionless except for the bitterness I remembered. The grumpy old man was back, and I hated him but loved him all at the same time.
“No.” I turned my back to Jack, crossed my arms over my chest and stared toward the hidden camera. “Not that it’s any of your business, Dad, but we slept together too.”
My father cursed. “How could you, Jack? She’s my little girl.”
Silence.
I glanced over my shoulder at Jack. “Go on, Jack. Tell him. Admit how much these past few weeks have meant to you because they sure as hell meant a ton to me.”
“Elle, please,” Jack whispered in a hiss.
The reluctance to express his feelings for me made my head spin. I wanted to hear him voice his devotion to me. I needed to find out whether Jack loved me too.
“Come on, Jack. Admit how much I mean to you.” I ambled toward him. “Because I can’t be the only one feeling like this.”
I held out my hands and held my breath. Jack peered down at the loving gesture for a whole sixty seconds while I counted each number off and he finally met my gaze again.
I couldn’t read him. There was no sign of whether his thoughts were reeling through his head at full fucking speed like mine were.
Jack reached for my hand and opened his mouth.
“If you tell my daughter you love her, we are done,” Gabriel cautioned, his tone loud and full of rage. “Jesus Christ, Jack! I trusted you to take care of Noelle. Not fucking take her into your bed.”
Jack dropped his hands to his sides. He snapped his mouth shut and pressed his lips together in a straight line. His jaw was tense as he took a step away from me, and tears bit at my eyes.
I spun around and made direct eye contact with the camera. “But, Daddy, I love him!”
“No, you don’t, Noelle. This relationship is off-limits—Jack is my best friend, and this never should’ve happened. Tell her it’s over, Jack, now,” my father snapped.
“But I do, Daddy! I love Jack so damn much,” I wept, tears streaming down my face, and I turned back to Jack. “Don’t let him do this to us. We can make this work. We can be a family. Me, you, and Faith. Chip too. I know you love me too. Tell my father the truth, Jack. Please.”
I fell to my knees, my arms wrapped around Jack’s legs, and I didn’t give a damn anymore how ridiculous this all seemed.
I never wanted him to leave. The grumpy man had stolen my heart, locking my love for him away with his hidden kindness, and he threw away the key.
I was stuck with him for the rest of eternity.
“Evergreen?” Jack said.
I peered up at Jack. “Yes?”
“We can never be.” Jack pulled my arms off his legs. “Let go of me.”
“No, Jack, please. You don’t mean that,” I pleaded.
“I do, Elle. I never should’ve touched you.” Jack took a step back.
My hands fell to the floor. I sobbed with my forehead against the cool tile, and my head throbbed. My father talked to Jack, but I couldn’t hear them. The constant ringing of heartbreak in my ears wouldn’t stop.
This can’t be real. Jack loves me. He does, and I’ll prove it.
I popped my head up, stood tall, and pointed directly at Jack. I was determined to find out the truth as I walked toward him, and we faced off.
“Look me straight in the eye and tell me you don’t love me,” I insisted as I made eye contact and shoved at his chest. “Go on. Say you don’t love me.”
“I don’t fucking care for you,” Jack whispered in a low, unsteady tone.
I shoved Jack harder. He hit the countertop, and a glass cup shattered on the floor. I pressed my body against his, and the tension sizzled between us. The grumpy man before me wouldn’t touch me, but I trailed my hands up his chest.
“No, that’s not what I asked.” I clenched his shirt in my hands and pulled him in closer. “Enlighten me, Jack.”
Jack breathed heavily against my face, and his upper lip twitched. His brown depths swirled with anger, but a touch of warmth fought through the chaos in glimpses while he searched my face. All Jack had to do was let me in, and I’d willingly accept.
Screw what Dad thought. He’d come around in time. Age was nothing but a number, and we’d let our love shine. His devotion to me was true, and he’d declare his feelings for me too.
“I love you...” A burst of light shone through his intense stare but vanished in the blink of an eye. “Like a family friend.”
“Bullshit,” I whispered against his lips.
Jack pulled back.
“Face the fucking facts, princess.” Jack held my face in the palms of his hands. “It was sex. Nothing more.”
“Christ, Jack,” Gabriel hissed.
I narrowed my eyes and pushed his hands away. “Only sex?”
“Yep.” Jack harshly popped the P.
Jack was dead serious or a good fucking liar because my father was clearly eavesdropping.
I wiped the tears off my cheeks, and my entire body trembled with sadness. Heat fused inside me, and the anger took away the sorrow. Though my knees were wobbly, I stepped away.
“I expect this is over with my daughter, Jack?” Gabriel questioned his best friend.
Jack crossed his arms across his chest. “It never even started.”
“Noelle?” Dad asked me.
The man I loved had rejected me. Jack never loved me. He only saw me as a family friend, and his supposed love made my heart hurt a million times worse. He shattered me, used me, and humiliated me. I hated Jack Timber’s guts.
“Whatever this was between us is over,” I hissed through clenched teeth and crossed my arms too. “This relationship will go back to the way it used to be.”
“Fine by me.” Jack shrugged.
Ignorant, smug dick.
“Glad we’re all on the same page. Your mother and I will be on the next flight home.”
“But what about your vacation?” I asked.
He sighed. “There’s always next Christmas.”
My father went silent. Jack and I were alone, further away than we had ever been and more at odds than before.
Jack got what he wanted. A good roll in the hay, as an old guy such as him would call the hottest sex I’d ever experienced, but that was beside the point. I’d never have faith in him again. Our trust broke when he admitted I meant nothing to him.
“Don’t cross onto my side of the lawn. Stop texting me, and don’t you dare knock on my door because you won’t get an answer.” I glared through tears. “I hate you, Jack Timber, more than I have in my entire life.”
Jack glared right back. “Likewise, princess.”
I ran out of my parents’ house and didn’t turn back.