9. Lacie
LACIE
That moment Jared and I had shared wouldn’t leave me alone.
I woke with the sun. After dinner the night before, Jared and I had gone to our rooms, and I’d stayed up late scrolling through social media and forcing myself not to think of my ex. Work was my best distraction—except I’d made a personal goal not to do that on this trip.
That was a hazard of working as much as I did. When I had spare time, I had to make sure I spent it differently because I could for once.
Even so, I hurriedly dressed in my favorite designer jeans and blue-and-gray-striped shirt and brushed my teeth, running a comb through my hair and putting on my makeup in my usual morning routine before going over the day’s planner page.
As always, every hour was accounted for. Even if some aspects were marked as “free time,” the slot was still scheduled in.
I prided myself in such functional time management. This wasn’t something that came easily to me. This was a solution to previous problems and a way to make sure I didn’t dally away my time.
I skimmed over my notes for the day, my stomach fisting at the sight of Wyatt’s name on the schedule.
“Move on, Lace,” I muttered to myself. “Move on.”
For a minute, I considered tossing my planner into the nearest garbage can. Wyatt’s painfully true words about how I could never relax and enjoy myself still stung.
Insults were the worst disease ever to plague the earth. Whoever made up that “sticks and stones” rhyme was an idiot because words did more damage than any rod or rock. I’d gone to sleep with the lullaby of insults Wyatt had pelted at me.
I tapped my finger on the page, thinking. Jared had acted so aloof during dinner.
Oh, he’d smiled and been friendly, but the easiness that was usually between us was nowhere in sight. He’d kept glancing around at people, and I knew he was worried others might think the same thing Junie did?—
That we were together together.
So what if people assumed as much? We’d never see the majority of guests here again.
What did it matter what anyone else thought as long as the two of us knew the truth?
With a huff, I stared at my page again. I had to put Jared at ease. So I’d made all these plans. Most of them were for couples —hello, the massage?—and I knew he’d be completely uptight about doing any of them with me.
Maybe we could do our own thing.
He’d come here with me, but he wasn’t with me. That meant he could find his own things to do. He could stay in his room all day, if he wanted.
A knock on my door made me jump. I set my planner aside to find Jared waiting in the hall.
His gray shirt displayed just how shapely his arms were, and his brown hair was the perfect toss between just-woke-up and styled-on-purpose. A shiver of awareness trailed over me, but really, I couldn’t help checking him out.
“Hey, there,” he said, seeming significantly happier than he had during dinner last night.
After that little moment we’d shared when the radio had played.
My stomach fluttered. I rubbed my arms, remembering the sweeping frissons that had run over me while the song had played.
I stepped back, allowing him to come in and getting a breezing inhale of his cologne that had way too much effect on my insides. Honestly, I’d smelled it a thousand times before. Why did it stand out so much to me now?
“So…” I began to dive into my recent idea to spend time on our own.
Jared peered past me, pointing to the planner lying open on my bed, and beat me to it. “What’s first on your immaculately planned schedule for us today?”
“Who says I have a schedule for us?”
“My Lacie plans everything.”
His Lacie. My heart did a little flip.
Did he realize what he’d said? He didn’t seem to catch the reference, and I was glad. He’d been far too touchy about our relationship lately.
“I guess I did mention I had things organized,” I said.
“Yep.” He plopped down on my bed, which was a feat for someone so huge, and slapped his hands on his legs. “So what’s first? The spa? Don’t tell me you didn’t plan a spa day for us. I’m looking forward to a massage, if we’re being honest.”
I squirmed a little, doubting he’d feel that way if he knew it was a couple’s massage, the kind where we both lay on tables shirtless, close enough where we could hold hands and then share the hot tub together afterward.
The thought speared heat into my face with a slap.
It meant a lot that he was willing to spend time with me.
“You’re in a better mood today,” I said.
“I figure, we’re here. Might as well enjoy ourselves. People can think what they want, right?”
“Right.”
My voice agreed.
I wasn’t sure I did inside.
He tilted toward me. “So what is it?”
“Huh? Oh, right. We’re having a snow day today.”
“A…snow day?”
I’d written it in. Play in the snow for at least an hour .
“I told you to pack warm.”
“I know, but I didn’t think you meant prolonged exposure.”
I folded my arms. “Something wrong with that?”
“Nothing at all.” He stood and towered over me. “I just like giving you a hard time.”
In an age-old gesture that he’d done since we were in high school, he gently knuckled my jaw. The touch cascaded over me like an earthquake, rumbling and disassembling everything inside of me.
He frowned and lowered his hand, and I brushed a hand against my face where he’d touched it.
And his voice was uneven as he said, “I’ll meet you outside.”
The instant he was gone, I braced myself against the nearest wall with a kind of awe I’d never felt before. What was going on? He’d done the same thing to me a dozen times before. In fact, there wasn’t really a documented first time for the knuckled-jaw move—it was just something we always did.
Like finishing one another’s sentences or playing pranks on each other.
I’d been the one to prank him last. I’d planted a can of whipped cream in such a way that it would explode the instant he opened the fridge. It’d been months since I’d gone over to help him clean up the mess.
That meant it was his turn next.
A pit hollowed in my stomach. Did ending our friendship mean no more pranks, too?
Was Tia fun-loving and playful? Or would she suck the fun right out of Jared and make him change that part of himself as well?