The Reluctant Romantics Box Set (The Fall, The Mind, The Heart)

“I called TJ last night,” Jules confessed after an hour of alcohol and sun worshiping.

I looked over at her with wary eyes.

“Don’t look at me like that. I can’t shake him.”

“I know,” I said as she unfastened her top and flipped on her stomach.

“He’s my kryptonite. I mean, how in the hell am I supposed to resist a man like that?”

“No one can, that’s the point. He’s not conservative in the monogamy department and you—”

“I’m no saint, so save your breath…I know,” she cut me off and gave me a pointed look. “I know.”

TJ was everything I thought Jules wouldn’t want in a man. Her weakness was cowboys, the kind that rope and ride. She liked them as southern and as rugged as possible. She was crazy about them, which made her personal life seem almost comical. It was like watching a mafia and a western movie collide. For some reason, they couldn’t get enough of her, either. TJ was her ultimate catch, or so she thought until he’d decided he wanted to date around.

“Did you sleep with him?” I asked, knowing the answer.

“Yep,” she said, her lips popping. “Don’t tell Jamie. Don’t give her any ammo. She’s still pissed about the last time.”

“It’s because she cares.” I decided to give her some of her own hard truth. “You’re only hurting yourself.”

“Yeah,” she said with a sigh. “Fuck him.”

“No,” I said with a chuckle. “Stop fucking him.” I was rewarded with a spray in the face from her water bottle. I closed my eyes, loving the feel of the lukewarm water.

“Rose?”

“Yes, Jersey?”

“I know you’re scared. I like our talks the way they are, with neither of us really prying too much and all that, but can I just say something?”

I let out a sigh and gave her my full attention.

“I know TJ is going to hurt me, you know it too, and we both know I’m going to keep on doing what I’m doing until he does. I’m not naïve enough to think I can change him or that he wants to change at all. I think it goes with being in your thirties. The optimist in me is slowly dying, anyway. I’m stuck in this pattern because I want to be, because I want him.”

I nodded, unsure where she was going with the conversation, but certain it was hard for her to admit what she just had.

“You have no idea what’s going to happen next. I mean…that’s something to be excited about, you know? It’s not over for you, Rose, no matter how much you think of it that way. There is no way you’re living the rest of your life alone.” She gave me a knowing smile. “Not you. I just want you to keep an open mind, okay? Half of the fun is figuring out who it is. I think you forgot that.”

“Kind of an optimistic way of thinking for a girl who’s condemned herself to a lot less.”

Jules looked over at me with a level of seriousness I’d

never seen. “Then you get out there and give me a reason to want different.”

“Afternoon, ladies.”

Cajun.

“Fuckello,” Jules said, pulling a t-shirt to her bare chest and giving me wide eyes.

“Jack,” I said with a grin, water dripping from my chin as our eyes met. His gaze unabashedly raked my bikini-clad body. A halo of sunshine surrounded his rugged features as I got lost in them. He looked like the devilishly handsome southern gentlemen he was. I couldn’t help but note how well he filled out his jeans. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jules size him up and devour him with her wide eyes.

“I was coming by to grab you to test the new equipment, but I can see you’re busy.”

“I totally forgot,” I replied. It wasn’t like me at all to forget something like that, especially when it came to the center. Jules looked between Jack and me, then kept her eyes narrowed at me. I could feel the Spanish Inquisition coming.

“It can wait,” Jack offered, completely oblivious to Jules’ reaction. After three liquor-filled teas, I suddenly found it all hilarious. Jack eyed me with curiosity as I chuckled at my own thoughts. His eyes were zeroed in on me, and suddenly his invitation seemed more than appealing. “I can be there in an hour or so—”