Her only hesitation about the entire move was seeing Jack.
How would he take her being in Warrenville?
Would he even care? How much longer would he even be there? A few months at most.
A few months that would fly by.
Regardless, her butterflies at seeing him had been unfounded as she made it through her first day without bumping into him once.
As she lay in bed that night, she wasn’t sure if she felt relieved or disappointed.
Disappointed, a voice inside her head whispered. Definitely disappointed.
CHAPTER NINE
TO HAVE NOT seen Jack the day before, Taylor started Tuesday morning out by almost crashing into him first thing in the hospital hallway.
“Jack,” she rushed out, hating how breathless she sounded as she stared up into eyes so blue they pierced her. Just as quickly, she averted her gaze.
How could she have forgotten how intensely blue his eyes were? How masculine he was and how every female bit of her responded to that virility?
Face it, Taylor. Your body recognized what a potent man he was from the moment you laid eyes on him and went from zero to a hundred. He woke you up inside.
“Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going,” she told him, staring at where his almost neon-green scrubs brushed over the tops of his equally bright tennis shoes.
“Taylor.”
Her name on his lips dried up all the moisture in her mouth, making her tongue stick to her palate. She couldn’t look at him and not remember, not ache inside at how it had felt to be beneath him, over him.
He’d made her feel really good.
Get a grip, Taylor. It was just a fling. Rebound sex.
“I heard you were starting at the hospital,” he continued, causing her eyes to drift upward.
His smile was full and dug indentations into his cheeks. No doubt if she looked into his eyes they’d be all sparkly and happy.
Part of her felt all sparkly and happy at seeing him, too.
“From Amy, no doubt.” Not having been pr
epared to see him so early after not seeing him at all the previous day, before even making it to her Tuesday orientation class, she stumbled over her words. “For the record, I interviewed for this job prior to arriving at Rockin’ Tyme, before you and I had met, and I was lucky enough to land the job.” Acclimating to the fact that he stood a foot away, Taylor steeled herself and met his gaze. “My being here has nothing to do with you or what happened.”
His smile didn’t waver. “I understand.”
Did he? She hoped so. Only she hoped he didn’t understand too much.
Like how good it felt to see him and yet how part of her wished their paths had never crossed again so she could keep the memory of their night tucked away as something precious that had helped her along her path to discovering who Taylor was.
Trying not to stare, she reminded herself that she should get to orientation before they started without her or she lost her new job.
“That’s good because, although it’s good to see you—” definitely not a lie “—I don’t want you to think I’m here because of you. I’m not.” She gave a little laugh. She was rambling but wanted to make it clear that he shouldn’t feel any type of obligation to her because of what had happened at Rockin’ Tyme. “Honestly, considering, it would be simpler had we never seen each other again.”
She pasted a cheery smile on her face. “But no worries. You’ll be gone soon, right?”
* * *
Jack stared at the woman who’d haunted him for the past month.