The parking lot was nearly empty, as the museum closed at five and stopped flight tours at four. I whipped into a front row spot, threw the car into park, and stormed up to the hulking warehouse-style building that housed dozens of antique planes and artifacts from different time periods. I bypassed the front doors and snaked down the side of the building. The large bay doors on the hangar were always one of the last things to close down and I knew that my best shot at finding Jack—assuming he wasn’t off fucking his new gal pal—in the shop or with Aaron in his office.
“Holly?”
I turned at the sound of my name and found Nick, Carly’s fiancé, standing at a work bench, wiping his hands off on a grease rag. He looked puzzled to see me, which made sense. I hadn’t set foot on the property since Jack and I had broken up. Not even to visit my friend Gemma. It was all too painful. Not today. Today I drank in the pain and shards of memories and used it to fuel my impending wrath.
“Hi Nick. Where’s Jack?”
Nick looked away quickly and I wondered if he was debating whether or not he should tell me. Or maybe wondering if he could play dumb and pretend he didn’t know Jack was back in town. I followed his gaze and my stomach lurched. Nick wasn’t trying to avoid my question—he answered it. Jack sauntered into the shop from the second set of hangar doors that led to the airstrip.
And he wasn’t alone.
The busty bitch with long, chestnut curls and a fuck me smile was hanging on his arm. Anger and rage twisted together in the center of my gut, then suddenly drained away and all I wanted to do was throw up. Jack was smiling at the home-wrecker—whoever she was—and laughing at something she’d said. She grinned and then lightly slapped the arm she was clinging to with her opposite hand, like he’d told a dirty joke.
Tears blurred the edges of my eyes as a lump settled in my throat.
Nick coughed into his fist and Jack looked up. Time moved slowly as his eyes—those eyes I knew so well—shifted from Nick over to me. His steps slowed and he stopped a few yards away from me. The brunette’s smile faltered as she noticed the change of his expression and pace. She stopped too but made no move to untangle her arm from Jack’s.
Jack’s eyes settled on mine and just like that, all the anger and bile swelled back to the breaking point. “How dare you!” I growled.
“Holly—”
I closed the distance between us, stopping a foot away. I wanted him to feel my rage pouring off of me. I cut a sharp glare at the woman at his side but she didn’t move—or even flinch. I snapped my gaze back to Jack. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Is this some kind of sick, teenage trick to get back at me? You thought you’d roll back into town and see if you could get my attention. Is that it? This is all some kind of pathetic attempt to manipulate me back into your arms?”
Jack pulled his arm from the brunette and cast a sidelong glance at her. She frowned as she looked from him to me and then back again. “I’ll catch up with you, okay?”
She nodded but gave me one more cutting look as she walked across the shop and into the museum offices.
When the doors swung shut behind her, Nick cleared his throat. “Guys, listen, I’m friends with both of you. I don’t think either of you wants to say something you’ll regret here. Maybe this isn’t a good time for a conversation?”
Jack spoke first, keeping his eyes on me the entire time, “It’s all right, Nick. I think there’s just been a misunderstanding here.”
I hated how even-keeled his voice was. Like I was some gum stuck on the bottom of his shoe or something. A minor annoyance. Where was this version of him a few months ago when everything was falling apart? I’d needed calm, cool, collected Jack but got floundering, wishy-washy Jack instead.
It didn’t matter now. He’d made his choices and I’d made mine. But I’d be damned if I was going to sit back and watch him flaunt his newfound “freedom” all over town and right under my nose. He’d chosen New York, Europe, traveling the world. That was what he wanted. And I wasn’t going to leave that hangar until he was ready to leave again.
Nick sighed but he walked away, his steps echoing through the empty shop until we were left alone. Jack folded his arms and leveled me with an intense, cold stare. “I have no idea what kind of stunt you’re pulling here, Holly, but I gotta say, this is a little uncalled for.”