Longer than that.
She’d haunted him since he’d first seen that photo in Amy’s apartment.
Maybe a premonition of things to come?
He’d missed her.
Crazy.
They’d spent less than a week in each other’s company and he’d missed her.
Taylor was here and for the next two months, they’d be working together.
Taylor kept her expression guarded. Despite the tension when they’d said their goodbyes, he hadn’t thought she’d regretted what had happened, but regret was written all over her lovely face.
Of course she had regrets. Just as she’d likely been dreading their reunion. He’d been her rebound sex. Who wanted to come face-to-face with their rebound sex every time they went to work?
Lucky for her. Jack never stuck around any place too long and had already been in Warrenville much longer than anywhere he’d been since med school graduation. Soon enough he’d be out of here until next year’s Rockin’ Tyme.
The thought of leaving, of heading to the event in Daytona, should have his feet itching to get on the move. He loved his life.
Only he didn’t like it that Taylor so obviously wanted him to hurry up and leave. Yeah, he didn’t like that at all.
“Great to see you again, too.” He gave a low laugh that echoed hollowly through him.
“Oh, I didn’t mean...” Pausing, she winced, then gave a repentant little shrug. “Um...can we just start over? Hi, Jack.”
She glanced up, met his gaze for the briefest moment before her big brown eyes filled with panic and she shook her head. “I’ve orientation this morning. Probably wouldn’t look good for me to be late my second day to work. Nice seeing you, Jack.”
Before he could get out another word she took off down the hallway at a pace meant to get her away from him as quickly as possible.
Watching her go, Jack scratched his head.
Seeing Taylor again hadn’t gone anywhere close to any of the dozens of different scenarios he’d imagined over the past month.
* * *
“Hope you don’t mind, but I invited company for dinner.”
Even before Amy finished her sentence, Taylor guessed who she meant and wanted to throw her cellphone across the room.
No. No. No.
She needed to tell Amy everything and just be done with it so her friend would let up.
“I knew you had bought stuff last night to make something yummy for dinner,” Amy reminded her, “so, I invited Jack over. I told him what a great cook you are.”
Gripping her phone tighter, Taylor winced.
Oh, Amy, what are you doing?
“My cooking skills are mediocre at best. Call and tell him you’ve changed your mind about the invite before I poison the poor man.”
“But I haven’t changed my mind,” Amy insisted. “I’m almost home. Or maybe I should say we’re almost home because he’s following me. I just wanted to give you a heads-up so you could look your best.”
“You know I was looking forward to a night with just you and me catching up, right?” Taylor sighed. “I think I’m going to put on my oldest, most ragged outfit and toss flour everywhere.”
“We’ll have plenty of time to catch up.” Amy had the audacity to laugh. “And just remember, you make the mess, you have to clean it up.”