Her mother had always preferred to leave the pasta in small spiraled piles on the counter. Jewel’s grandmother had used racks similar to the ones Jewel had installed in order to drape the dough. It felt more authentic that way, though Jewel really wasn’t sure there was any difference in the outcome.
When she was done, she popped a loaf of Italian bread in the oven while Rogen stirred the sauce. The fragrance of the herbs and meats filled the room. Though all the activity provided absolutely no distraction from her new obsession over what it might be like to be with Rogen and Vin.
At the same time.
Nor did the sight of Rogen, so skilled and helpful alongside her, looking so right in her kitchen, make it easy to push her forbidden thoughts aside. He kept her pulse thumping erratically. Especially since he hadn’t put his shirt back on.
As she watched him clean up again, her gaze on his large hands, rock-hard biceps, and broad shoulders, she couldn’t think of much beyond her bare chest melded to his … and Vin’s pressed to her back. Their hands and mouths all over her.
What must that feel like?
And how was it that Holly McCormick had experienced it all—and Jewel had not?
She dragged her gaze from Rogen’s shirtless form, his well-defined pecs, his ripped abs on full display and making her mouth water, and went back to the sauce. Before sensory overload made it impossible for her to function.
Rogen said, “If I wouldn’t have answered Vin’s e-mail that day, the two of you would’ve stayed together. You’d still be together.”
Jewel found it oddly difficult to fully validate that notion.
“Maybe,” she said. “Vin’s very unpredictable. Impulsive. Daring. I’m not so sure staying in California and going to SFSU would have panned out for him. Chances are good he would have changed his mind when he realized all he was missing out on by not going to Yale with you.”
“But then he would have been missing out on you. I don’t think he would have chosen Yale, Jewel. Under different circumstances.”
“Doesn’t matter,” she said with a sigh. “Speculating doesn’t alter the course our lives took. It’s all in the past.”
“Really?” He gave her a pointed look. “Or is it all staring you in the face now?”
She moved away, unable to meet those mesmerizing blue eyes of his. Especially without seeing Vin’s piercing green ones as well, in her mind.
Wine was her current escape.
So she’d hoped.
Rogen joined her at the island and asked, “Did you want to end up with Vin?”
Her hand shook, so she set the glass aside. What a loaded question he’d lobbed her way!
“Jewel,” he prompted in a tight tone. “You didn’t tell me about the two of you when you’d intended to do just that. What did you really want when you visited me at Trinity? For me to change my mind about Yale? Come back to California?”
She blinked a couple of times. That was a dream she’d never allowed herself to weave, because it’d seemed too far-fetched. Why torture herself over something that would never be? And she and Vin had had plans to—
The doorbell rang.
Jewel and Rogen stared at each other for several suspended seconds.
Then Rogen tossed aside the dish towel he’d used to dry his hands and said, “I’ll get it. You—” He let out a strangled sound as disconcertion etched his strong visage. “Try to look a little less devastated.”
TEN
Vin had no fucking clue what Rogen and Jewel were up to, but he was cagey, regardless. It wasn’t so much that Jewel had called him on Rogen’s phone. Or that she’d mentioned a business venture. It was that Rogen was here at her house. That his Range Rover was parked in her driveway. That they were together.
Again.
In Vin’s mind, it made him ten kinds of a fool.
Again.
Because he’d wanted her the night of the gala—had even forsaken his own after-party with Holly in hopes of hooking up with Jewel. Yet she’d ended up in Rogen’s bed.