Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
We walked through the mall. A voice squealed from behind me.
“Emily?”
I spun around to see my friend, Julie, standing there. She looked gorgeous with her cute green jacket and windswept dark hair.
“Julie,” I smiled as we hugged. “So good to see you.”
“You too,” her eyes were wide on Jackson’s face. “Oh, my gosh. What are the odds?”
“Julie, this is Jackson. He’s a family friend who’s staying with us until the wedding. Jackson, this is Julie, one of my friends from university.”
I watched as they shook hands.
“Pleased to meet you,” Jackson’s voice rumbled low.
Julie’s eyes fluttered. “The pleasure is all mine.”
She turned back to me, her eyes wide. She was sending me a message I’d recognized. She wanted me to be her wing woman. “Sweetie, it has been way too long. Seriously. Come now, we need to get together. ”
I glanced up at Jackson who had zero expression on his face. “I know, I'm so sorry, this wedding has been taking up all my time.”
A complete lie unless you counted stressing about something and not taking action as good reason for being busy.
“I still can’t believe you're getting married before me, how’s that even possible?” She shook her head with a teasing smile. “How’s the wedding planning going?”
I sighed. “Slowly. We ordered the invitations today.”
“We?” She raised her eyebrows.
“Jackson helped.”
She smiled up at him. “You don’t look like a typical wedding planner.”
“Jackson introduced me to the process of elimination. It’s very effective.”
“I can’t wait to see what you both chose.” Her laugh sounded louder than normal. “Are you bringing a plus one to the wedding, Jackson?”
I blinked at her brazen approach. Julie had no fear when it came to men.
“Not currently attached.”
She beamed at Jackson and then turned to me. “The four of us should get together for dinner.”
The last thing I wanted was to spend the evening watching Julie bust moves on Jackson. I nodded. “Okay. Should I make a reservation somewhere?”
“Why don’t you cook for us? Not all of us are swimming in money like you.”
I had no idea why she said that. When we ate out together, Julie never paid because I always picked up the bill. “Okay. I don’t mind cooking.”
“Perfect, I'll bring the wine.”
Julie bestowed Jackson with a beautiful smile and tossed her brunette hair over her shoulder. “How long are you in town for?”
He glanced at my face. “Twelve weeks. ”
“Are you here on vacation?”
“Something like that.”
“Well, I can’t wait to hear more about this something,” she flirted, batting her eyelashes. I gritted my teeth together. I recognized Julie’s signature moves. They usually didn’t bother me, but today annoyance tickled my skin.
My voice sounded thick to my ears. “Great. How about Saturday night?”
Jackson glanced down at me. I feared he was reading my flaky tone.
“Perfect.” She beamed another megawatt smile towards Jackson.
“Great,” I repeated, struggling to keep the displeasure out of my voice. “How about 7 PM?”
“Love it,” She had eyes only for Jackson.
“Well, we should be going,” I hedged. “I’ve taken up enough of Jackson’s time today.”
“Okay.” She cooed as she pulled me into another hug. Her voice changed as she whispered in my ear. “If you tell anyone else about him, I'll seriously kill you. He's mine, okay?”
I pulled back and worked to keep the shock off my face. “Uh, okay.”
“Bye.” Her eyes clung to Jackson before she turned and sashayed off.
Jackson and I continued to walk through the mall, this time in silence. I fumed over Julie’s last comment. That exchange had pissed me off. She wasn’t allowed to call dibs on Jackson just because she saw him first. I bristled at her assumptions. She always did this. She found someone she liked and declared her feelings to the world so that no one else could make a move. But did that ever stop her when someone else liked a guy? I remember actively hiding my crushes from her in University because the moment she found out whom I liked, it seemed like she inevitably found a way to date the guy. She would give me a sympathetic look and say, “It just happened. We couldn’t help ourselves.” Julie was never to be trusted when it came to men. I didn’t tell her Matt’s name or introduce them when we first started to date. It wasn’t until we got engaged that I let them meet.
What did it matter to me that she wanted to get her little man claws into Jackson? Was it any of my business?
“You okay?” Jackson asked. I worked to keep pace with his long easy strides.
“Yes, why?” I huffed. Julie gobbled up men like they were going out of style. Matt called her a man-eater.
“Is she a close friend of yours?”
Air puffed out of my lungs. “Yes.”
“She upset you.”
I refused to look up at him. “They teach you to read minds in the Navy SEAL program?”
“You’ve adjusted the zip on your jacket four times, your lips are moving, but you’re not speaking. They teach us how to read body language, and I would say that you're seriously agitated.”
I stopped walking, and he turned and stopped too.
“I hate you right now,” I said without feeling.
He half-smiled. “I like to fix stuff.”
“Like my car?”
“And other stuff.”
“I’m unfixable,” I said. A hollowness carved out my chest. I hated my emotional response to the idea of Julie and Jackson. It occurred to me that I was a terrible partner to Matt. I allowed myself to notice how thick Jackson’s forearms were and how soft his hair looked which was the ultimate betrayal. I deserved my misery.
“Come on,” he said. “We need something to cheer you up.”
“I'm un-cheerable.”
He laughed. “I love the drama queen act. And I would kill to know what just happened.”
“Nothing. ”
I started walking. He matched his gait to mine.
“So is this a setup?”
Again, my teeth started to grind. “Why would you say that?”
“Just a question.”
“Julie’s sophisticated, and she’s single.”
My words hung between us.
“Okay.”
I worked not to grab the coffee maker from his hands and toss it on the ground. “Okay.”
We walked again in silence.
“Kind of a lot of pressure, don’t you think?” he asked. A smile teased his voice.
“Totally,” I said. “I thought so too.”
“Do you think I can handle it?”
“I think it is rude of me to make you try.”
“Huh.”
“An intimate dinner party is too much.” My mind whirled.
“You think?”
“So I think I should have a party instead. I'll invite a lot of people.”
My eyes locked on his face. An enigmatic expression reflected back on me. “Okay.”
“Okay.”
We walked outside to the truck. He put the coffee maker in the back behind my seat and then turned around and looked at me, blocking my path into the truck. “So, is that what upset you?”
I stared up at him. My heart pumped in my chest. “What?”
“The fact that Julie wanted you to set me up with her?”
“No!” I sputtered, unable to think of a quick response. I avoided his gaze. I envisioned her slender arms wrapped around that thick neck. My stomach burned. I wanted to rage when I imagined him leading her up to his guest room for an overnight stay. My emotional response was disturbing. This was Jackson, my fiancé’s childhood friend. Desperation stabbed me, as I drowned in these swirling dark feelings. Shame flooded me too.
“So you would be okay if I dated your friend?” He brought me out of my thoughts.
My gaze clashed with his. His words stabbed my heart. I imagined her tall and willowy body snuggled up to his massively strong frame. Ringing sounded in my ears.
“You can do what you want.”
He hesitated. “I can’t always do what I want.”
I struggled to keep my breath even. He regarded me with his green gaze, making me feel like he could read everything I was feeling. I felt naked and exposed. I needed to remember that I was engaged. I loved someone else. I had this monstrous thing growing inside of me, spinning me out of control. I hated it.
My voice wavered. “Me either.”
He reached out. Big hands wrapped around my waist and then I was being lifted onto the passenger seat. My breath slammed into my lungs.
“You don’t have to do that anymore. I'm not wearing a skirt.”
He looked at me. “I just like how little you feel.”
Then he shut the door.