11. RAE
11
K arma is playing a trick on me, I just know it.
I’ve been reprimanding him for the last five years, scolding him for hanging around with those homewreckers, and now, I’m the one who’s the homewrecker. I know it’s not completely true since he told me it’s more an arrangement than a relationship, but it still feels wrong.
I’m sitting behind the wheel again, my eyes focused on the long road ahead of me as I resist the urge to let my gaze deviate to the two men in my car.
Bodi is working on his laptop in the backseat while Jensen has been silently staring out of the window for the last couple of hours. There is an awkward silence between us, and I have no clue if it’s because of how we woke up together or if something else is on his mind.
When I woke up in Jensen’s arms, I felt mortified.
Comfortable as fuck. But also mortified.
It can never happen again.
But my brain keeps looping me back how it felt to wake up listening to his heartbeat, his arms wrapped around my body, and feeling the warmth of his skin against my cheek. Every time I push the thought away, scolding myself, it gets bounced back inside my body within seconds.
He made me feel safe in a way I haven’t felt since the crash. I try to keep telling myself it's nothing, just a coincidence, but my heart keeps corrupting my head with silly thoughts… like wanting to touch him.
Kiss him.
Run my fingers through his short hair.
“Are you close to your family?” Jensen’s voice snaps me out of my daydream as if he could hear my thoughts, and I glance at him, a bit puzzled, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter.
“Back home? Your family? Are you all close?” There is a serious wonder in his eyes that has me thinking he’s looking for something in my words.
I shrug, not sure how to reply. “I mean, I haven’t seen them much in the last five years. Only twice a year. But I know they are there when I need them.”
They would never reject me in any kind of way, history proved as much, so yeah, they are there when I need them. I’d like to think we are close, and I definitely feel loved. Just not safe.
“That’s good,” he replies softly. “Any siblings?”
No. A pang twitches in my heart.
“A little sister. She’s ten.”
“Ten? She’s a caboose baby?”
“Something like that,” I mumble.
“What about Johnny? Are you close to him?”
Yes, why ?
I narrow my eyes at him, snapping my focus between him and the road. “Why do you ask?”
Hesitant to disclose my relationship with Johnny, I press my lips together in wariness. If he’s asking because he’s my uncle, there is no harm, but I have to remind myself this is also his General Manager he’s asking about. Even though this might be a personal interest, I have to keep it professional.
Before he can open his mouth, the ringing of my phone echoes through the Bluetooth of the car.
Speaking of the devil.
Johnny.
“Shit,” I mutter, gripping the wheel a bit tighter as I contemplate what to do.
He doesn’t like me driving all the way to the East Coast by myself, but I’m not sure how he is going to react when I tell him Bodi and Jensen are tagging along.
When I called him last night, I thought he’d already seen the picture on TMZ, but since he didn’t mention it, I decided to postpone the inevitable. I know his schedule, and it’s packed with meetings today, so I figured I wouldn’t have to deal with him before tonight.
I figured wrong.
“Are you gonna take that?” Jensen questions.
A deep sigh escapes my throat, knowing this conversation will be a pain, while ignoring Jensen. There is no way I’m going to have this conversation with these two breathing down my neck.
I stop the car on the side of the road, parking it in the grass.
“What are you doing?” Jensen asks anxiously as I grab my phone out of the center console.
“I need to take this.”
“Rae! We are on the interstate! Are you crazy?! You can’t get out!”
“Yeah, Goldilocks, I don’t think this is a good idea,” Bodi chimes in.
I neglect their worry, exiting the car before I check the road for any traffic. It’s not very busy, and I make sure I have enough time to make it to the grass on side of the car. “I’ll be right back.”
Jensen's eyes are shooting daggers at me as he yells shit that’s muffled by the door I slam shut.
He can wait.
He’s not going anywhere.
“Hey,” I answer the phone while I walk away from the car, the distinct smell of exhaust fumes reaching my nose as cars drive past us over the pavement.
“Can you explain to me why your face is mentioned as Jensen’s new girlfriend?” Johnny’s voice is calm as always, but I can hear his frustration seeping through. “You wanna tell me something, Rae?”
“It’s a misunderstanding.” I run a hand through my hair. My ears register the sound of a car door opening, and I watch as Jensen exits my car with a furious glare on his handsome face.
Dammit.
“A misunderstanding? Rae, this picture looks like it's a bit more than a misunderstanding.”
“You know how Jensen is. He flirts. He was getting on my nerves again at the party. Someone snapped that picture. There is nothing going on between us, I swear.” I hold my hand up to Jensen, silently telling him to keep his distance, but like the caveman that he is, he just storms at me like a raging bull.
“Get in the damn car, Rae!”
“No!” I mouth with a scowl.
“You’re getting in the car right now!”
“I’m talking to Johnny!”
“Yeah, and I’m not going to tell him you were run over by a truck on the interstate! Get in the damn car, Rae!”
Who knew Jensen could be so dramatic?
After what I’ve survived there is no way I’m going to die by getting run over by a truck.
“There are no trucks!”
“Who is that? You’re on the interstate, Rae?” Johnny grunts in my ear.
Abruptly, the hairs on my body stand up and the sound of a roaring plane engine has me glancing to the sky with a jerk before my focus moves back to the scowling man approaching.
“Get. In.” He grinds his teeth, stalking the last steps toward me until he’s huffing in front of me, peering down with his nostrils flaring while the sounds of cars flashing by drown out his heavy breathing.
“Shut up, Jensen,” I hiss, covering the phone with my hand. “I’ll be right there!”
“You are with him right now?!” Johnny screeches with a shitload of suspicion.
“Thanks,” I mouth to Jensen before I let my head hang, wheezing. “Yeah. He and Bodi are coming to Jacksonville with me.”
“He and Bodi?! Bodi McKay? What the hell is going on, Rae? Are you dating Jared Jensen?”
I’m a little offended he’d think I would keep that a secret from him.
“I’m not, Johnny. I would’ve told you. Emily broke up with him because of the picture. He asked me to come see her in New York and convince her there is nothing going on between us.”
“Y’all have phones, don’t ya?” Johnny’s southern accent comes through in its full glory, telling me he’s pissed.
“She changed her number. She doesn’t want to see him.”
Johnny stays quiet for a moment as if he’s gathering his thoughts while my eyes stare at Jensen’s chest, unable to lift them to his eyes, because I can still feel his raging energy coming at me.
Like I’m mentally sandwiched between one raging man and another.
“Doesn’t explain why they are there with you,” Johnny finally responds.
“I don’t fly,” I state matter-of-factly.
“I know that,” he replies, the tone of his voice impatient.
“I don’t know, okay? They jumped in the car when I left. Said they needed a break. I figured you’d be happy that I’m not driving by myself anymore.”
I’m totally bluffing, trying to turn the conversation around, and I’m pretty sure he knows it. He stays quiet, but I can hear his heavy breathing through the phone, the sound of cars rushing by muffling the sound of my heart rate that starts to race.
Finally, he speaks.
“This conversation isn’t over yet. Put Jensen on the phone,” he orders.
“You wanna talk to Jensen?”
“Yeah,” he says with a tone that says duh . “Put him on the phone and get off the fucking interstate! I don't wanna tell my sister you got hit by a car.”
“Okay,” I drawl out the words, rolling my eyes, then press the phone against Jensen’s chest. “He wants to talk to you.”
He places his hand over mine, our fingers touching and I frustratedly empty my lungs.
As soon as the phone is within his grasp, I move past him, a whiff of his fresh scent heightening my senses as my feet move back to the car. His eyes burn through my back, his gaze waiting until I’m safely inside the vehicle before he finally puts the phone to his ear and I softly curse him under my breath.
First he hijacks my damn car, and now my fucking phone.