Chapter 24
“You fucking moron.”
Jason couldn’t argue with that. He’d seriously screwed everything up and desperately needed to find a way to fix it, which is why he’d called in the big guns.
His father.
“Tell me this is some sick joke,” his father said, sighing heavily.
“I wish I could, Dad,” Jason said, glancing over his shoulder at the small cottage as he walked along the edge of the water.
For the past three hours, he’d been out here pacing, trying to figure out what he should do. Finally, he came to the conclusion that he was in way over his head here and needed someone with a history of charming his way out of fuckups with women and only one person came to mind.
His father had fucked up more times with his mother than should be humanly possible.
Not that his father ever screwed around on his mother.
She’d simply kill the man if he even thought of it.
No, his father was an arrogant, hardheaded bastard who had driven his mother to the brink of insanity countless times over the years.
“Let me get this straight, you let some dumb bar bimbo convince you that my poor, sweet little Haley-” his father said, making him shake his head ruefully.
Haley had managed to wrap his father around her little finger with those cupcakes and had bought his undying love with fried chicken, potato salad, and M & M cookies. The man’s obsession with food was really pathetic.
Thank God, he didn’t have that problem.
“-could ever do something so heartless? Then you go ahead and screw it up instead of talking to her? What in the hell is wrong with you?” his father practically yelled, making Jason hold Haley’s cellphone away from his ear.
“I know that I messed up, Dad,” Jason said once his father stopped yelling. “Look, I just need help figuring out how to fix this.”
“You don’t deserve my Haley,” his father simply said.
Jason barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes. His father was such a food slut.
“Has it occurred to you that if I don’t fix things with Haley that she’ll never make you that Boston cream pie that she promised you?” Jason asked, knowing the only way to get his father to focus was to threaten his food.
His comment was met with a short pause.
“Okay, this is what you need to do,” his father said, all business now. “You need to back off and stop apologizing.”
Jason frowned. “Stop apologizing?”
That didn’t sound right.
“Mmmhmm, no need to keep reminding her how much of a fucking idiot you are. She already knows, trust me. Right now, you need to work on being there for her. Don’t pressure her. In fact, I would suggest that you work on reminding her just how much you care about her and how good you are for her.”
He nodded slowly. “I could do that.”
His father snorted in disbelief.
“I can,” Jason stressed, promising himself that after Haley took him back that he’d get her to make him a Boston cream pie just so he could rub it in the old man’s face.
“Just try not to fuck this up because if you cost me Haley, I will disown you,” his father said before he hung up.
Jason placed the phone in his pocket and headed back to the cottage, deciding there was no time like the present to get started.
He’d remind her how good they were together and why she adored him.
It shouldn’t be too hard. In fact, he already knew that one problem in particular was going to guarantee that she couldn’t live without him.
He stepped into the kitchen just as Haley stormed angrily into the room wearing nothing but her “Geek” tee-shirt.
She threw him a glare and muttered something about his balls that he decided to ignore as she headed for the refrigerator.
She grabbed an ice-cold soda and sipped it as she continued glaring at him.
She looked exhausted, Jason noted as he leaned back against the counter and had to stop himself from grinning. This was going to be so easy.
“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked casually, already knowing the answer. She needed him and she damn well knew it. This was going to be the way he stayed close to her while he did his best to convince her to forgive him for being a fucking moron.
Haley pushed her glasses up her nose, took a sip of Coke, and simply flipped him off as she walked out of the room.
Great. He was already fucking this up, Jason thought, walking after her only to have the bedroom door slammed shut in his face. After counting to ten, twice, he knocked on the door.
“Go. Away.”
Sighing heavily, he opened the door just in time to see the bathroom door slam shut. He walked over to the bed and sat down.
“Haley, I-”
“Look, Jason, I really can’t do this with you right now,” Haley said, not bothering to open the door to face him, making Jason wonder if her pushover tendencies were once again showing up.
That wouldn’t be good for either one of them.
He needed her to deal with this, not avoid him.
“Let me finish getting dressed, then I’ll give you a ride to a hotel. ”
“No,” he said firmly because there was no way in hell that he was leaving. They were going to work this out whether she liked it or not.
“Fine,” Haley said, sighing heavily. “Then, I’m leaving.”
Oh, hell no.
If she left now, there’d be no stopping her from leaving his ass for good.
There was no doubt in his mind that she didn’t intend on giving him a ride home now, which meant that he probably wouldn’t get home until sometime tomorrow afternoon.
By then, she could be anywhere, doing her best to convince herself that she could do better, she could, but that wasn’t the point.
He couldn’t let her walk away from him, not now, not ever.
Jason threw a quick glance at the bathroom door before rushing over to the backpack that she liked to call a purse.
He tore through it until he found what he needed.
No doubt, this was only going to piss her off more, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
He pocketed her wallet and quickly checked her discarded pants, stealing the money that she had in the front pocket before grabbing her car keys and rushing out of the room.
It only took him a minute to find the perfect hiding spot, one of the dozen decorative baskets lining the ceiling.
There was no way in hell that Haley was going to reach it, never mind find it.
After a minute, Jason decided to add her cell phone as well.
He shut it off and added it to the pile before he covered his tracks.
Knowing that there was no way that Haley could leave him until they’d worked things out, Jason relaxed for the first time since this whole thing started. He walked into the kitchen, feeling confident that his plan was going to work.
He grabbed a cold soda from the fridge, wishing that it was a beer, and headed for the beach. As long as his little grasshopper wasn’t allowed to drink, then he wouldn’t drink. Not that he really expected her to be pregnant on the first shot, but he wasn’t taking any chances.
Until he knew for sure that she wasn’t pregnant, she wasn’t so much as looking at a drop of alcohol, which was probably going to make it more difficult for her to deal with him.
Granted, it might help his case if he got her drunk, but he wasn’t willing to take the risk.
Besides, he didn’t want her to throw it in his face later that she hadn’t known what she was doing when she forgave him.
He wanted her stone-cold sober for this, especially since she would most likely end up being the one to figure out how to fix this mess because he was pretty sure that he’d only manage to fuck this up more.
“You bastard!” he heard Haley yell from somewhere behind him.
He looked back at her and smiled, watching as she stormed over to him with her little fists of fury swinging by her side. She shoved her glasses back up her nose as she glared up at him, looking fucking adorable as she contemplated killing him with her bare hands.
“What did you do with it, you bastard?” Haley demanded.
“What?” Jason asked innocently, taking a sip of soda.
“You know what!”
“Hmm, I really don’t,” Jason mused, trying not to smile when she growled.
“My wallet,” Haley bit out through clenched teeth. “I need it back so that I can leave.”
“Then, you’re not getting it,” Jason said with a sad shake of his head and a pitying sigh.
She really thought that he was going to help her leave him? Damn, his little grasshopper still had so much to learn, he thought, biting back a sigh.
“Fine,” Haley bit out. “Then, give me back my cellphone so that I can call someone,” she demanded, holding out her hand expectantly.
“Sorry, I can’t do that either,” Jason said, sighing heavily because really, did she not know him at all?
“What about my car keys?” she asked, narrowing her eyes on him.
He pursed his lips up in thought. It would be best for both of them if she was limited to the cottage and the center of town for now.
“No, sorry, that’s not going to work for me either.”
“This is kidnapping!” she sputtered in disbelief.
“No, it’s not.”
“Yes, it is!”
“Nope.”
“What the hell would you call it?” Haley demanded, snatching his soda from him and finished it off while she continued glaring at him.
“A romantic getaway?”
She snorted.
“If you really don’t want to be here, then go inside and use the house phone to call someone,” he suggested innocently.
“You know damn well that I don’t have any phone numbers memorized,” Haley snapped.
Yes, he really did know that. Haley, thankfully, was heavily dependent on technology. Once a number went into her contact list, she never looked at it again. That little tidbit of information used to earn an eyeroll from him, but now it pleased him immensely.
“Then, I guess you’re stuck here,” Jason said, biting back a smile.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously on him.
“So, do you want to go for a swim or go fishing?” Jason asked as he gestured to the long rock wall that went out about three hundred yards into the ocean, “Are you hungry? I can whip some burgers up in no time.”
With one last look that promised pain, Haley stormed off back to the cottage.
Jason walked back to the cottage, not even bothering to check the sliding glass doors since Haley’s smug smile told him everything he needed to know.
She’d locked him out. He’d allow her this victory, he decided as he grabbed his shirt off the lounge chair and pulled it on as he headed for town.
There was probably no need to tell her that he’d snatched the cottage keys earlier since she’d figure it out later.
Besides, she’d have to come to him sooner or later for her fix.