Chapter 19 – Jace
While I had to sit and suffer through watching Grant put his hands all over Cassie, all I could think about was how that could’ve been me.
We could’ve been seated together at the rehearsal dinner talking about music and football and all the other things Cassie liked.
We could’ve been slow dancing together on the dance floor right now.
We could’ve left here and gone back to my place and done a hell of a lot more than just dancing.
But that wasn’t going to happen because everything I touched, I managed to destroy.
Now I was watching her walk away, arguably more painful than breaking my actual foot.
“Why the long face, honey?” my mom asked, walking up next to me.
“Long story…” I huffed, exhausted from having to tell the same story over and over again about how I had pulled the clip and thrown the live grenade on Cassie and my relationship—situationship—whatever people wanted to call it these days.
“Don’t worry, your dad already spilled the beans to me.”
I rolled my eyes, not surprised for a second that my dad and his big mouth had already told my mom everything.
“Let me guess, your best advice is to say sorry?”
“No, it’s to stop being a dumbass, actually,” she said, crossing her arms. “That girl’s the only one strong-willed enough to put up with your bullshit, and you managed to screw it all up before it even started.
So, sure, you could apologize till the cows come home, Jace. But something tells me getting back in Cassie’s good graces is gonna take a lot more than a couple ‘I’m sorries.’”
I stood there, nodding my head. My mom was right. The problem was, I had no idea where to start. I didn’t even know what to say to her to get her to forgive me, let alone what to do.
“Whatever you do, better make it come from the heart,” she said before walking away, disappearing back into the crowd of people on the dance floor.
My first idea was to send her a bunch of flowers. Was Cassie a roses kind of girl, or maybe she liked tulips or sunflowers better? Hell if I knew.
But deep down, I knew even a bouquet of the best roses this side of the Mississippi wouldn’t get me anywhere with her. She’d probably look at them once and toss them in the trash.
Liam walked up to me, playfully punching me in the arm.
Liam was my childhood best friend. I met him for the first time in middle school, and we’d been basically inseparable ever since. He knew all the skeletons in my closet, and I knew his.
So he knew exactly why I was standing here staring off into space, trying my best not to seem so distracted.
“After we leave here, I was thinking about going to Maggie’s and grabbing a bite. You wanna come with?”
“Anything to get away from Cassie Blake and that damn dress she’s wearing.”
“Killing ya, huh?”
“Just put me six feet under already, will you?” I begged, stomping off like a toddler going to time-out.
After saying goodbye to Colt and Ellie, Liam and I hopped in his truck, headed for food. Nothing cheered me up like a greasy cheeseburger and crinkle-cut fries.
“You managed to pull off an entire day around Cassie without pissing her off to the point that she broke your other foot, so that seems like a win,” Liam joked, pulling into the gravel lot in front of Maggie’s Diner.
“As soon as we walked out of that place, I let out the deepest sigh of relief I probably ever had in my life. I spent the entire day walking on eggshells. If I ruined Ellie’s day, Colt would’ve kicked my ass—followed by my mom, Molly, then Ellie herself.”
“Your sister has never been afraid of a fight, that’s for sure,” Liam said, his smile extra wide for some reason.
“Maybe if we’re real nice, Maggie will bust out the peanut butter pie from the back that she likes to pretend she doesn’t have hidden in the fridge,” I said, pulling the door open, the smell of cooking food encasing us as we made our way to our usual booth in the back.
“Special occasions call for special pie,” Liam said, sliding into the booth, scanning the room for all the exits like every cop who walks into a room does.
“Don’t worry, we left the danger back at that wedding venue,” I laughed.
“You can never be too careful.”
“What can I get you two cuties?” the waitress said, smacking extra hard on her gum.
“I’ll take the special, please,” Liam ordered, not even opening the menu.
“I’ll take a cheeseburger and crinkle-cut fries,” I said, handing both menus back to her before she walked away.
“You broke in that cabin of yours yet and brought a lady back to it?” Liam asked, giving me an exaggerated wink.
“Hell no. Last time I went out on a date, all that chick did all night was talk about her damn self. Kept going on about her job and her dog. Something else about how her Cancun vacation got canceled last second and it was like the end of her life as she knew it. After that, I tuned her out until the waitress brought us the check, then I bounced and got the hell out of there.”
“How many times did Cassie talk about herself when you guys went out on your date together?”
“It wasn’t a date,” I reminded him. “And for your information, not a single time. We talked about normal shit—like our similar taste in music and sports. We even talked about serious stuff like life and our goals. But you know how the ending goes, so let’s change the subject, OK?” I begged.
“That might be kind of hard to do.”
“Why?”
“Because she just walked in with your sister.”
I turned around quickly, immediately discovering that Liam was, in fact, not lying.
Cassie was standing next to my sister, laughing about God only knows what. To make things go from bad to worse, the hostess started walking them towards our direction. Since the booth behind us was the only one empty, I knew I was doomed.
I shot back around, lowering my head. Maybe if I hid good enough, they’d never even notice us.
Liam shot his hand up in the air, whistling to get their attention.
“What the actual fuck, dude?” I whispered angrily.
“What? I haven’t seen your sister in a while. I wanted to say hi.”
“Is that really necessary?” I rolled my eyes, trying to quickly come up with a game plan in my head.
Didn’t matter though—here I was, back to walking on eggshells.
I couldn’t get away from Cassie Blake, no matter how hard I tried.
At this rate, I should just move away. Build another cabin somewhere in the middle of Alaska and go off the grid. It was my only hope.
“Hey, you two,” Molly said, standing in front of our booth. Instead of following suit, Cassie ignored us, sitting down in their booth directly behind us as if we didn’t even exist.
Fine by me.
“You’ll have to excuse Cassie. Jace pissed her off,” Molly said to Liam.
“Oh, I’ve heard,” he whispered back to her, trying to make sure Cassie couldn’t hear him.
“You two don't get into too much trouble tonight,” Liam warned. “I’m not on duty tonight to save your asses.”
“You know I love some trouble,” Molly joked, winking at us before walking back to her own booth.
The waitress walked to our table a few seconds behind Molly, food in hand.
“Here you two go. One special and one cheeseburger. Made with extra love,” she said, smiling at me in a way that kind of freaked me out.
She was wearing bright red lipstick, and some of it was stuck to her teeth. Paired with her sparkly blue eyeshadow, the girl looked like my four-year-old niece had done her makeup.
The only person I had ever seen who wore bright red lipstick and looked beautiful while doing it was sitting right behind me.
As Liam and I started to eat, I could hear Molly and Cassie talking about what they should do after they got done eating. My attention was piqued when Molly mentioned wanting to go somewhere to see the stars.
Cassie and I had watched the stars together.
“I wanna go somewhere, like super pretty, with the best view of the stars and take some pictures,” I could hear Molly say behind me.
I knew the perfect spot. And so did Cassie. I wondered if she would break the promise she made to me about not telling anyone about it.
“I haven't been stargazing in ages,” she replied.
Huh.
Guess she wasn't going to rat me out after all. Even if she had, I knew deep down I deserved it.
Liam’s snickering pulled me from my eavesdropping session. He held the receipt up that the waitress left at the table, giggling like a little girl.
“What’s so funny?”
“The waitress left her number on the back of our receipt for you.”
“How do you know it was meant for me and not for you?”
He pointed at the words on the back. “It says for the hot tattooed cowboy.”
I could hear Cassie scoff behind me.
I twisted around quickly. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. I’m sure you’d love any opportunity to add her to your ever-growing roster,” she said sarcastically.
“No, I wouldn’t.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“I don’t just sleep around with anyone anymore, you know?” I shot back.
“So you only hit it and quit it with me then, huh?” she said, her voice sharp enough to cut me.
Molly looked up at me wide-eyed. Liam was looking at me the exact same way.
“You know what? Maybe I will call her. Maybe her red lips can help me get my mind off the other pair of red lips I can’t get out of my fucking head no matter how hard I try,” I said, pulling my phone from my pocket, opening the picture Cassie and I took together at the Grizzlies game—making it very clear exactly which red lips I was talking about.
“Go cry me a damn river,” she snapped before turning back around.
After this conversation, one this was clear––Cassie was ready to go to war.