“Obviously I’ve talked about him to the point of ad nauseam. Sorry,” Amy apologized. “Forget Jack. I can’t wait until you get here! I’ll get the spare room cleaned out.”
Taylor was just as excited and wished she could pack her things and leave for Warrenville this very moment. Instead, she’d work out her notice first.
“It’s time you moved away from that town and memories of Neil,” Amy continued in a more serious tone. “He’s not worth holding onto, Taylor. Surely you’ve figured that out by now.”
“Memories of Neil could never hold me here.” If anything, they’d drive her away. “And I’m certainly not holding onto him. I fought hard to rid my life of him and can’t imagine circumstances where I’d ever let him or any man steal my joy.”
“You go, girl!” Amy praised. “Thank goodness you finally saw the light.”
Taylor nodded. She had, right? That’s why she’d let Jack walk away, let him think he hadn’t mattered, right? Not that he’d offered, but she’d not wanted more. Not really.
Sure, had she met Jack years ago, before Neil, it would have been fun to have spent more time with him. The sex had been phenomenal. But she’d not been thinking long-term relationship. Neither had he.
“We’ll have so much fun.” Amy’s excitement was almost palpable. “You moving here will be like old times. Plus, you’ll be able to get to know Jack better.”
“Amy, please don’t push us together.” Taylor took a deep breath. “Jack is a good guy. Thanks to you insisting that he babysit me, we watched a few concerts together, but it wasn’t a big deal.”
Liar, liar, pants on fire. Everything about Jack was a big deal.
Especially the sex.
Her pulse sped up just recalling how it had felt when she’d crawled onto his air mattress with him.
Taylor pushed back the memories. Rebound sex. Nothing more. Just rebound sex.
Very good rebound sex.
“And?”
“And nothing,” she assured her friend. “Amy, we didn’t even get to know each other well enough to exchange cellphone numbers. You’re making something out of nothing.”
True, yet not true. They hadn’t exchanged numbers and yet she felt she knew him very well.
But the reality was that she didn’t know Jack at all.
Taking the job in Warrenville meant having to come face to face with him again, but only for a short while.
Regardless, she’d never let another man prevent her from making the right choices for her. Taking the job in Warrenville and sharing an apartment with Amy was the right choice.
If Jack didn’t like it that she’d be around, tough.
He could go work a music festival or something.
* * *
“Taylor starts orientation today. Isn’t that great?”
Jack fought looking up from the chart he was finishing.
Thrilled her friend was relocating to Warrenville, Amy had talked about little else for the past month. Jack had been a bit blown away that Taylor would be in town, that he’d see her again, would get the chance to make up for his verbal blunder.
“Great,” he agreed, and meant it. He was happy for Amy that her best friend was going to be close.
As for having his last two months in Warrenville interrupted by a beautiful blonde who’d turned his Rockin’ Tyme experience upside down, well, worse things could happen.
Taylor was a beautiful, sexy woman with whom he’d had a great time. Other than her having overhead his conversation with Duffy and the fact they’d had sex at all, Jack had no regrets.
Duffy had been right that Taylor deserved better than a music festival affair, and Jack wasn’t a man who could give that to her. Still, he believed the affair had been good for her.