Chapter 46
JETT
We fly back to New York in first class again, but this time it’s different. Instead of having Cari and Brooke seated rows behind me, they’re close. Brooke is her usual bubbly self, happily coloring, but Cari … Cari is quiet. Too quiet.
We didn’t spend our last night together. We kissed and went our separate ways, maybe we’re both trying to process what these weeks have meant and what the future holds. It’s something we would have talked about had we managed to get away, but my father’s suffocating presence put an end to that.
It feels like my father left something behind when he flew out—a heavy lingering shadow that presses down on both of us. All the possibilities that existed before his arrival now seem dead, replaced by silence of what-ifs.
On the flight, I try to make conversation, but it’s like speaking into a void. Cari has her nose buried in a book, and while I pretend to work, my laptop stays closed. My focus isn’t on the Pinewood deal or anything else—it’s on her. On us.
I glance at Brooke. She’s coloring, blissfully unaware of the tension between me and Cari. She doesn’t understand what’s happened over the last few days, and I envy her innocence.
When we land back in New York, the familiar black SUV is waiting for us when we land, sleek and polished, like a reminder that reality is waiting to swallow us whole. The ride is quiet, save for Brooke’s occasional chatter, and when we finally pull up to Cari’s building, my chest tightens.
This is it.
Cari opens the door, stepping out as Brooke immediately leans over, reaching for her. “Why don’t you come back home with us?” Brooke asks, her voice light, hopeful.
Cari freezes, her eyes darting to mine for guidance. I can see her struggling, her lips parting but no words coming out. Finally, she crouches down to Brooke’s level, her voice soft. “I have to go back to my place, sweetie.”
Brooke frowns. “But why? Why can’t you come live with us? You were living with us there!”
“I know, sweetie.” Cari cups Brooke’s face gently. “That was just for vacation. I was looking after you while we were away.”
“But I want you.” Brooke’s lower lip trembles.
I step in, my voice firm but careful. “Come on, Brooke. Cari’s tired. We all are. We have to go back to work tomorrow.”
Brooke’s shoulders slump, but she doesn’t argue. Cari leans in, hugging her tightly. “I love you so much, sweetie. I’m going to miss you, but I’ll see you soon, okay?”
“Promise?”
Cari nods, but doesn’t make the promise. She straightens, her eyes meeting mine. “So long,” I say, the words bitter in my mouth because they’re not what I want to say. I want to tell her to come back with us. To not walk away. But I don’t.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she replies softly.
Her smile is small, sad, and resigned, and it feels like a punch to my gut. The ache spreads as she turns and walks toward her building, her silhouette fading as she disappears inside.
Brooke leans against me in the backseat, quiet now. She doesn’t understand the gravity of what just happened, but I do. Cari is walking out of our lives, and I don’t know how to stop her.
The SUV pulls away, and I look out the window overcome by a sense of loss—for everything we could have been, and everything we weren’t.
CARI
Eliana throws open the door and wraps me in a hug so tight I almost can’t breathe.
Her smile is huge, beaming like I’ve just come back from the trip of a lifetime. I guess I did—until the last few days unraveled everything.
“Why the long face?” she asks, grabbing my suitcase and wheeling it in like it’s her duty to carry my burdens.
“I’m just tired.” It’s not a lie, but it’s far from the truth. There’s a hollow ache in my chest. That last glance at the SUV, with Brooke and Jett inside, stays etched in my mind. They didn’t drive off right away. I couldn’t see them through the tinted windows, but I could feel their presence, like an unspoken pull. Their sadness mirroring my own.
“Well?” Eliana prompts, eyes wide with curiosity as I slip off my pumps. “You look beautifully tanned, and there’s something different about you.” Her gaze flickers over me, scrutinizing.
I force a smile. “I had a really nice time.”
“Why so sad?” She narrows her eyes and grabs my hand, peering at me like I’ve come down with a rare illness. Maybe I have. Lovesickness isn’t in the medical journals, but it should be. “Oh, babe.” She clutches her chest dramatically. “You’ve got it bad.”
“What?” My cheeks heat under her scrutiny. I feel exposed, as if the sadness of leaving Brooke and Jett has scrawled itself all over me. Coming back here—to this apartment, this version of my life—feels jarring, like I’ve stepped into a space I’ve already outgrown. What I had in Bermuda feels too vivid, too alive, to leave behind.
Eliana collapses on the couch and pats a place next to her for me to sit. “I have all the time in the world. Come on, spill it. You’re glowing, but not in a just got a tan way. This is I had a life-altering time kind of glow.”
Her words make me think of Jett rubbing sunscreen on me the first time I put on that bikini. My skin tingles with the memory, and I want to go back—rewind to every glance, every touch, every conversation that left me breathless.
She snaps her fingers in front of my face. “See? You’re not even here. You’re still in Bermuda, with Jett.”
“What? No, I’m just tired from the flight.” My deflection is weak, and she sees right through me.
“It’s a two-and-a-half-hour flight, Car. Did you even sleep? Or were you too busy—” She waggles her eyebrows suggestively. “Spill. I want details.”
“Oh, El.”
“What is it?” she presses, her voice softening.
And just like that, the dam breaks. I tell her everything. Not the R-rated specifics, but the broad strokes—the dress, the library, the night we ended up in Jett’s bed. Her mouth falls open, her hand clutching her chest like she’s about to faint.
“I’m so proud of you!” she exclaims, clapping her hands in delight. “You’re finally living your best life!”
“Am I?”
“The sex … so much sex! You lucky girl. Was he good?” I blush. Heat surges across my skin. “Well hung?” Eliana pushes.
It shouldn’t, but it does—Jett’s enormous member, thick and glistening, flashes into my head. I get goosebumps.
“Oh hon!” Eliana clasps both her hands to her chest. “He must have been beyond amazing. Nothing like Rory.”
I chuckle, remembering Jett’s comments about not wasting time on boys. “He was … so good. I can’t even begin to tell you.”
“I’m not giving you specifics!” I cry. What we shared is buried deep in my heart, memories I will cherish forever.
“How did you do it? I mean, you were always falling apart around him. How did you manage to get naked in front of him?”
Eliana makes me laugh. Given who I was around Jett, before I left, I can see where she’s coming from. “It was the dress,” I say, though the memory of Jett’s hungry gaze when I wore it sends a shiver through me. “And the stilettos. I felt ... powerful.”
“Dress, stilettos? That dirty, sexy man,” she teases, eyes gleaming mischievously. “What a combo. So, what now? How did you leave things?”
I take a deep breath. “That’s the thing ... I don’t know where we stand.”
Eliana’s expression sobers. “You don’t know?”
“We had plans to spend a few days on a private island,” I explain. “But his father showed up out of nowhere, and everything fell apart. Jett thinks it was intentional, to keep us from—” I pause, unsure how to phrase it.
“From being together?” she finishes for me.
I nod. “We stayed away from each other after that. His father’s intense. He sees right through you. I couldn’t go near Jett, and he didn’t come near me. We both just retreated. Brooke was so disappointed in the car just now, and honestly, so was I.”
Eliana shakes her head. “That man of yours needs to grow a backbone when it comes to his father.”
“He’s not mine,” I say softly, the words cutting more than I expect.
Her hand rests on mine. “Car, if you think this is over, you’re wrong. Men like Jett don’t let go of something—or someone—they truly want. I’ve been so angry with him in the past, for how he’s treated you, and how badly you’ve longed for him. It was painful to see, and I wasn’t gonna sit around and do nothing while a big shot, arrogant, big dick energy billionaire had you running around after him—”
“He did not have me running around after him.”
“Buying sexy lingerie for his girlfriends? Booking their vacations and dinners, while I knew your heart must have been breaking.”
She doesn’t know what I know, that he did these things partly to keep me at bay. But I love that she’s my wingwoman and she has my back, no matter what. Billionaire or not.
Eliana pauses, her soft brown eyes glistening under the light. “But looking at you now, something’s changed, and I can see he’s brought you a lot of happiness. You look so different. Not just sunkissed and golden all over. But … you’re radiating something. All that sadness that sapped your spirit after your mom passed, it’s gone, hon. There is no dark cloud hanging over you—that’s not to say you don’t miss your mom or—”
I nod, loving that she’s always so careful and mindful when she’s talking about my mom. She throws her hands up in the air. “I don’t know if it’s happiness, or the fact that you’ve had lots of great sex, or … even if it’s love.”
I look away and let her words sink in.
Love. My heart swells. I feel the space inside my chest grow bigger and bigger. My mind flickers back to Jett’s quiet confession that he’d had feelings for me for years. How he used his arrogance to push me away, how he buried himself in meaningless relationships to avoid the truth.
“Babe, you’ve gone all quiet.”
My eyes well up and I suddenly feel like crying, feeling like we already had our ending but didn’t label it as such. “I don’t know what happens next. I don’t know if there is a next .”
Eliana’s eyes soften. “From what you’ve told me, it sounds like there most definitely is. His daughter is the most important thing in the world to him, and the three of you spent time like a family. I don’t think your boss would risk his daughter getting used to that if it was only fleeting.”
Her words give me something to consider. She has a point. “I don’t know. I just don’t know anymore. His father turning up unexpectedly ruined everything.”
“From what you’ve told me about that old man, that’s the role he always plays, doesn’t he? I don’t think Jett will let his happiness get in the way of whatever his father dictates. From what you say, it sounds like you had a fantastic time. Jett, too.”
I hope so. Last night Jett was pensive. As was I. We both had so much on our minds, a brooding heaviness that overwhelmed us. Making love didn’t seem like an option.
Eliana stands up, a grin on her face. “Let’s eat. I made your favorite quesadillas.”
I love this woman. “You always know how to cheer me up.”
She winks at me. “That’s what I’m here for. Bianca is coming over later, so you’ll have to tell us your dirty bedroom stories all over again.”
But as I dig into the familiar comfort of melted cheese and crispy tortillas, my mind is miles away—with him.