Chapter 30
Thirty
After letting her out of their sight long enough to shower and change, her friends sat her on one end of the sofa with a mug of tea in her hands, clustered together on the other end, and demanded every detail since she and Ciaran had left Reina together the night before last.
Jal still couldn’t believe that it had been less than forty-eight hours.
So much had happened in such a short amount of time, and there hadn’t been time to digest it yet, but telling her friends helped.
She couldn’t help but laugh, and then blush spectacularly, when Elena pumped a fist in the air and crowed, “about damned time, nena!” when Jal told them about the night of, and the early morning after, the penthouse dinner.
Face flaming, Jal had thrown a pillow at her, then told them the rest, including that Ciaran now knew her biggest secrets: Andy, her real name. Her daughter. And what had he done?
The last thing she would have expected. The opposite of what any sane man in his position would do when she confessed to such a checkered past and far, far too many secrets.
He hadn’t said that it was all too much after only a few short months and walked out the door.
Or, since they’d been at his place, kicked her out.
Instead, he had held her, comforted her, and said those three very big words.
Lexi squealed and bounced in her seat at the news and wrapped her in a hug. Elena sprang to the rescue and deposited her mug on the coffee table before she could spill lukewarm matcha over them both.
Over Lexi’s shoulder, Jal caught Elena’s eye and her friend gave her a look that said she understood. But still, Jal eased back and brushed her hair, and maybe a little wetness out of her eyes. “And then I ran.”
Elena tilted her head. “And he followed,” she countered.
“Only to get into a fistfight with my ex-boyfriend!”
“Stop,” Elena demanded. She got up and gently elbowed Lexi back so she could sit between them and wrap an arm around Jal’s shoulders. “We’re not going to go there, and do you know why?”
Jal shook her head. This time when her hair fell in her eyes, she left it there. If she couldn’t see her friend, her friend couldn’t see the shame that colored her cheeks. “Why?”
Elena gently brushed the curls behind her ear. “Because after everything you’ve been through, you deserve a guy like Ciaran,” she replied. She glanced at Lexi and jerked her head. Their friend got the message and rose to her feet, squeezing in on Jal’s other side. “You deserve to be happy.”
“He fought Andy off so you could be safe,” Lexi added, cupping her hand around Jal’s shoulder and ducking so she could look Jal in the eye.
“And he came when you needed him and stayed with you all the way to a police station for chrissakes. Why are you fighting us on this? And against your feelings for him?”
Why indeed?
Jal blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “It’s all just happening so quickly.” She grimaced at how whiny her own voice sounded.
“Sometimes love just happens that way,” Lexi replied, then shot Elena a look. “Not that we would know.”
Elena laughed. “Speak for yourself, Lex. I happen to fall in, and out, of love all the time.”
Lexi snorted and Jal couldn’t help joining in and soon they were clutching at each other, their laughter egging the others on until Jal felt like she couldn’t breathe.
“I love you guys,” she said, pulling them even closer. They threw their arms around her so Lexi’s chin rested on her shoulder, and Elena’s at the top of her head.
“Isn’t there someone else you should be saying that to?” Elena countered from above.
Jal scoffed and swam through their arms to snatch up the remote control from the coffee table and aim it at the TV, jabbing meaningfully at the power button. Elena snatched it out of her hand and started scrolling through movie options.
“Fine, if you want to be evasive, I’m picking the movie.” She waved the remote in the air out of Jal’s reach. “You can just sit there and deal.”
“It’s my TV!”
Elena pivoted to put her head in Jal’s lap, her feet draped over the back of the sofa. “And?” she asked, looking up through her eyelashes.
Jal playfully bared her teeth at her just as a familiar country tune started to play.
It was soon joined by the rumbles of an approaching thunderstorm as two kids appeared running down a beach.
Jal recognized it at once. If it was an option, Elena was going to watch it, there was never any negotiation.
Jal groaned loudly and collapsed back against Lexi, who patted her arm in mock-pity.
She batted her hand away, but she was grinning and Lexi just put it right back on her shoulder again.
This time, Jal hung on to her fingers like they were a lifeline, and in a way, they were.
Her friends had no way of knowing just how much she had needed them after everything that had happened over the last few days. Or maybe they did.
Her phone buzzed and Jal dug it from the pocket of her hoodie to find a text from Ciaran.
Ciaran: I’m going to be here for a while yet.
Ciaran: Hopefully, your friends can keep you company a little longer.
Ciaran: I’ll be there by eight.
Lexi, unabashedly reading over her shoulder, squeezed her fingers in confirmation, or sympathy that she was stuck with them, and Jal shook her head ruefully while she typed a quick response and stowed her phone away.
To cover her disappointment, Jal reached for her tea, but it was out of her reach, and her hand just swatted empty air.
Elena huffed dramatically and handed it over.
The movie moved on to show that the thunderstorm had been a dream.
“She stays with the ridiculously attractive estranged husband, who looks a little like Maks,” Jal told her even as she cast a meaningful look over her shoulder at Lexi.
Her friend rolled her eyes, which made Jal’s grin a little bigger.
It wasn’t like she was spoiling an ending they didn’t all know by heart, and, despite herself, had come to love.
Not that she would ever admit that to Elena. “You know that right?”
“Hush now,” Elena chided, wriggling her head and shoulders to find a more comfortable position, when all she really did was dig the clip holding her hair in a twist into Jal’s thigh.
She plucked it from Elena’s head and tossed it to the end of the sofa.
Elena rolled her eyes up and shot her a grin. “And watch the damned movie.”
For the rest of the afternoon, they did just that, only taking breaks long enough to replenish drinks and snacks, or to use the restroom.
While the credits rolled on a sappy rom-com about a dad making his young daughter guess which of three ex-girlfriends was her mother, Jal headed for the bathroom and her attention was drawn to the metal grate over the bathroom door, concealing an emptiness that she could almost feel in her bones.
If she thought too long about how most of her life savings was sitting in a police evidence bag, she’d… no, she was not going to worry about that today.
When Jal returned to the living room, she snatched the remote out of Elena’s hand.
“Hey!”
Jal stuck her tongue out at her as she plopped into the oversized armchair, ignoring the knowing grin Elena’s indignation turned into when she did.
Jal scrolled until she found the movie she was looking for and relished in the groans that erupted when the first notes of the score to a sci-fi masterpiece where a campy tv series became real life for the show’s actors trumpeted through the speakers.
Like the movies they’d already watched, she had discovered this one thanks to the wonders of streaming, and knew the lines by heart, badly dubbed swear words and all.
“My turn.”
Just as the engineer turned out to be the bad guy with a shapeshifting device, an alarm blared from Lexi’s pocket and her friend leapt to her feet. Jal glanced out the window and noted for the first time how dark it had gotten.
They watched with amusement as Lexi raced around, gathering her purse, coat, and shoes. “Got a hot date, nena?”
Lexi swept a curtain of blond waves back as she wobbled on one heel, struggling to secure the ankle strap of the other. “Nah,” she replied, “I just have a game to get to.”
Elena caught Jal’s eye and raised an eyebrow as Lexi circled the room to hand out goodbye hugs. “I thought I saw some country band was playing the Garden tonight.”
Jal’s first thought had also been hockey. Lexi paused for a split second with her hands in mid-air before settling the strap of her purse diagonally across her chest. “Are you sure?” she asked as she pulled the door open. “Later, girls.”
The door swung shut leaving Jal and Elena staring at each other, neither paying any attention to the intrepid crew winning the day.
“That was weird,” Elena finally said. She bent to look out the window, even though it was too dark, and they were on the wrong side of the building, for her to see Lexi leave.
She flopped back on the sofa and dug out her phone, her thumbs flying across the screen. “Ha! They’re on the west coast this week.” She didn’t need to say who ‘they’ were.
Jal glanced at the door as if Lexi would realize the same and come back any second, then turned back to Elena when she didn’t.
She shrugged and burrowed back into the chair.
The overstuffed cushions almost seemed to embrace her, which absolutely did not bring to mind other arms that had held her, and done other things to her, in the same chair.
Reminded of Ciaran, Jal dug her phone out again and glanced at the time. It was past eight, and she had another missed text from Ciaran apologizing that he would be a little longer.
Elena raised an eyebrow at her from where she once again reclined across the sofa cushions with one arm draped over her head like she was one of those French girls rather than Latina.
“One more?”
By the time Ciaran arrived, it was nearly ten, but the pizza boxes he carried were a good first step in making up for it. The zesty scents of pepperoni and oregano wafted out as he planted a quick kiss on her lips and breezed by to drop the boxes on the kitchen counter.
Jal’s stomach growled loud enough for Ciaran to shoot her an amused look as he shrugged out of his coat and draped it over a kitchen chair.
“Hey, Ciaran!” Elena’s hand popped up over the furniture between them from her prone position on the sofa. Ciaran chuckled and returned the greeting with the same half-bored cheerfulness.
Jal studied him as she crossed the room.
Though there were shadows under his eyes, the whisky gold depths were bright as they took her in.
He held open his arms, and Jal stepped into them, wrapping her arms around his waist, and buried her face in his shirt, breathing in clean laundry and musky soap.
“Where’s Lexi?” he asked, his chest vibrating under her cheek.
Jal eased back enough to look up at him. “She said she had a game to go to.”
Ciaran lifted an eyebrow as he reached to brush a curl out of her face. His fingers skimmed over her cheekbone and left a trail of warmth there.
Jal shrugged, and warmth gathered elsewhere the longer he held her gaze. A few moments later, Elena sighed dramatically from the sofa and climbed to her feet.
“Okay, okay, I get the hint,” she said, though neither of them had said anything about her leaving.
Jal lifted the lid on the top box to find pepperoni and cheese with just the right amount of crust. “Please, take some pizza with you.”
“There’s a veg one underneath.” Ciaran added helpfully.
“A what?”
Jal rolled her eyes at the devilish glint in her friend’s dark eyes. “Vegetable,” she responded, enunciating each syllable carefully.
“Oh right,” Elena replied, in a tone that was all innocence. She reached around her to tear off a length of paper towels and held it out for Jal to hand over a slice. “Gracias, nena.” She looked over at Ciaran. “She’s all yours.”
Elena strode to where she’d kicked her shoes off by the door and slid her feet into them, then left without another word. Jal watched as Ciaran went to the door and locked it behind her. He crossed the kitchen and took down two plates from the cupboard.
He lifted the lid a little further and reached in for a slice. “Are you hungry?” he asked, and froze with the pizza in his hand at the look she cast his way.
Jal put her hand on the lid and pushed it closed, forcing Ciaran to drop the slice inside. Her hand went to the zipper pull on her hoodie and drew it down. His eyes darkened as she bared one shoulder and then the other. “I sure am.”