Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Jace
“How is she?” Zac asks as I flip the French toast over, ignoring the need to be defensive. I have to remember his question is out of concern for a friend and not insinuation that I can’t take care of her.
“She’s still sleeping.”
“Did she sleep through the night?” He asks, like we are talking about an infant. “Normally she’s up four or five times. Flipping through channels, scrolling through her phone. Fuck one time she was making cookies at two in morning, it smelled like she was trying to burn the fucking apartment building down.”
“Wait,” I interrupt him, “so you spent the night with her?”
Zac is quiet for a few seconds before responding. “Yeah,” my jaw flexes as I grip the spatula a little tighter.
“You slept with her?”
“On the couch bro,” he assures me and my racing pulse begins to slow as the tension eases. “She stayed at my place a few times and I still slept on the couch. I told you it was never like that with Aurora, we’re friends. It’s never been more, never came close to being more.”
I flip the French toast again and nod though he can’t see me, it’s all I can manage at the moment. The knowledge that he’s been there for her when I should have been is still so hard to accept.
“After a while even when I wasn’t actually there, I could imagine what she was doing because it was always the same.” He continued. “She’d get all quiet when we were on the phone after she’d text me or called cause she couldn’t sleep. But when she got quiet, I knew it was because she was scrolling through photos.”
“What photos?” I move the last piece of toast to the plate.
“Take a look through her phone sometime,” it’s the only answer he gives.
I swear I hear a woman in the background but before I have the chance to bring attention to it, Zac is hurrying to end our call.
Wondering when he had time to meet up with anyone and then a thought hits me. Presley? He took her home last night. Or did he take her to his place instead?
“It smells really good in here,” turning around I find Aurora standing in the doorway, leaning against the opening. She pauses, displaying that she’s wearing one of my favorite t-shirts, the red material hitting her mid-thigh. For a moment I am awe struck, seeing her in my clothes does something to me, taking my breath away for a few seconds. I swallow past the lump that feels as though it has formed in my throat, only offering a nod. Fuck my chest feels so tight.
“Zac was right, you do cook.” She adds with a smile.
Walking closer, peeking over my shoulder to see what’s behind me. Her hair falls forward tickling my arm. “French toast,” she hums with appreciation.
This is the first time I’ve cooked for any woman besides Bree or Luna. It’s different, because I don’t look at Ror like a sister.
“Bacon is in the oven, and fruit is cut up in a bowl, in the fridge.” She leans back looking up at me with an arched brow. “What?”
“You cut up fruit?” The smile of her face hits me deep and I can’t keep myself from grinning ear to ear.
“Yeah,” I chuckle. “What’s wrong with fruit?”
“There is nothing wrong with it, I just never imagined you being the Betty Crocker type.”
“I think we can both safely say that there are a lot of things we don’t truly know about the other.” I hate the idea of her and Zac knowing more about each other than the two of us. It’s hard not to be jealous of the closeness they’ve shared and still do.
“True,” she nods, before leaning back against the counter opposite me. “You never really took the time to learn anything new.”
I know she isn’t saying this to be cruel, she is only simply stating the facts.
“Time to change that,” I say leaning in, I kiss the corner of her mouth and move to the refrigerator. “Starting with breakfast.”
Grabbing the bowl of fruit, I place the cut-up strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries on the counter. Next retrieving the plate of French toast and bacon to join it. Then I grab the syrup, powdered sugar and add everything else we may need, before pulling out a chair, waiting for her to join me.
“Coffee, or milk?” I ask ignoring the curious look she is still giving me. A hint of a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
“Coffee is good,” she replies while taking a seat and allowing me to scoot her closer to the counter.
After I get us both a cup, I set them down and start to step around her when she grabs my shirt and I pause.
Looking up at me, she worries her lip but only for a second. “Thank you,” her chest rises as she takes a deep breath. “This is really nice.”
I stare at her, loving her current disheveled look. Sleepy eyes, hair a little wild from tossing and turning throughout the night, she is incredibly beautiful on any given day but this version of her, it knocks me on my ass. If only she knew just how incredible she was without all the makeup, and fancy clothes. In this moment she is her true self and it’s my favorite version of her.
“You’re welcome, babe,” I say, placing my hand over hers I give it a squeeze, lifting our now joined hands up so I can press a kiss to the inner part of her wrist. Her breath hitches as I lower them and then join her.
We eat in silence for a few minutes and I wonder if it’s always going to be this strange. We’ve created this weirdness between us that I’m not sure how to correct. I want her to freely ramble with me like she does Zac. I want the uneasy feeling I know she has to disappear. But I also know that I have to give it time to develop. Aurora and I have had one speed since we met, we don’t know how else to navigate. Or we never gave ourselves the chance to.
That all shifts now, it’s long overdue.
“I did something.” Zac barges into my room and flops done in the chair. Running his fingers through his hair, he looks like he’s gone to battle and lost.
“What did you do?” I’m afraid to ask but I do anyway. I know it can only be something bad with how unsettled he is. The guy is always so put together, so calm and collected. Right now, he is nothing but a mess.
“What,” he groans surprising me, “not what, who?” He waves his hand. “Who did I do,” his eyes widen and I do my best to hold back my laughter. A disheveled Zac is comical. Like a squirrel trapped in a box. “I just know that I fucked up.”
Chuckling at his moral dilemma, I sit on the edge of my table and cross my arms over my chest. For weeks Zac and I didn’t talk. Hell, I barely talked to anyone here. I missed each one of them tremendously. It feels good to have that back.
“Aurora is going to be pissed at me.” He hangs his head and shakes it. “Dude, I don’t know what I was thinking. Well…” He lifts his gaze to meet mine once more. “I know what I was thinking. She fucking dropped down in front of me undid my fly and before I knew what was happening had my dick in her mouth. So I was thinking hell fucking yeah, but still.”
“Wait, what, who?”
“Presley,” he growls her name. I shouldn’t, I know this, but I chuckle and he groans. “Seriously she is like a little fucking spider monkey and the strength she has for such a little thing.” I laugh harder. “Stop fucking laughing asshole, I swear she sucked me off, tossed me to the couch and before I knew it, she was bucking around like she was riding a bull.”
At this point I am hunched over, laughing to the point of tears.
“I was fucked, literally and it all happened so fast.” He looks at me all wide eyed as he runs his fingers through his hair. “Then this morning she comes walking out of my room where I let her sleep and she acts like nothing happened. I’m torn man.”
“So she doesn’t remember?”
“I don’t know, I mean she didn’t say anything. She thanked me for letting her stay, told me she’d called a cab and had to get home because her son was going to be home at one. I stood there waiting for her to say something, anything, but she was gone before I knew it and I was left standing there feeling like I had whiplash.”
“How did you all get from you taking her home to being at your place instead?”
“We left the club; she couldn’t find her house key and after digging through her purse for more than fifteen minutes, I decided our only option was to go back to my place. I figured she’d pass out, and I’d call Aurora in the morning and pass her cousin off to her.”
“Your plan didn’t work out so well, did it?” I break out once again in a fit of laughter because the shit is hilarious.
“I’m not joking, Jace,” he whines. “Don’t get me wrong, it was hot, but we are talking about Presley. She is the one girl I shouldn’t be fucking.”
“Who you fucking?” Oliver barges in followed by Daxton and then Luna. Zac looks at me, then to each of them and then back to me.
“Don’t look at me man, go on, tell ‘em.”
He groans, stands, and walks out of the room, mumbling on about a tiny sex machine that came out of nowhere.
They all look at me with confused looks on their faces. “Oh no,” I hold my hands up in the air. “That story is all his to tell, don’t look at me.”
After a few minutes each one of them, besides Dax, go in search of Zac doing everything they possibly can to persuade him to give them a clue.
“So is this new girl gonna trigger another brawl between the two of you?” Dalton asks me, regaining my full attention. Through it all, knowing that I’d disappointed Dax was right up there on the list of most shameful things I’ve done.
Daxton is a guy we all look up too. He is the reason we are all here.
“No more fighting,” I assure him and he holds my stare leaving me nervous.
“How was your night with Aurora?”
And there it is. The joys of his girl being best friends with Ror.
“It’s gonna take us a bit to iron out all the kinks and find our way. But I’m not walking away this time.”
“Don’t play with her head,” he doesn’t sugarcoat anything, he never has. “If all your looking for is some conquest, some kind of feat you can brag about conquering then find another girl. Aurora may be a pain in my ass, almost hip to hip with Bree when I’d rather be alone with my woman, but she is Bree’s best friend. She’s my friend, and she needs a guy that is in it with her completely. No games, she deserves better.”
“I know,” I nod. I could get pissed about him lecturing me but nothing he’s said isn’t true. “She does deserve a guy that’s there one hundred and ten percent and though I may not know what the hell I’m doing when it comes to being that guy, I’m willing to do whatever I have to become him. I’ve hurt her enough, I’ve given everyone reason to doubt me, but I think we can all agree that her being with anyone else isn’t an option for me.” I smile, and a hint of a smile tugs at his mouth.
“There has never been a time that Ror hasn’t made me feel things I’ve never felt before. The difference now is that I’m done trying to run away from those feelings.”
Daxton seems pleased with my explanation as he grips my shoulder and offers a squeeze before he leaves my room, and I’m left alone. Having her at my place, the two of us eating side by side and then cleaning everything up together. The awkwardness still there, but I know with time that will fade.
It has too.
And I will give her whatever she needs from me to ensure that I want this.
I’m not saying I will be good at it, but I’ve never wanted anything more.