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

“Hellooooo,” Jamie call out as she walked up the steps with her own crazy brand of commentary. Jack and I stared at one another with amused grins.

“Up on the deck,” Jules called out as she pulled her hair into a tight, neat bun.

“Jesus, what a day. I swear to God, Dr. Nichols is going deaf and if All-Hands Fischer accidentally grabs my ass one more time…Anyway, damn this place was hard to find, Rose. You’ve been holding out on us.” I knew the minute she saw Jack, due to the fact that she made it fairly obvious. “Where are you bitches hiding—holy fuckello,” Jamie sputtered out as she set down her bag and sauntered her way over to Jack without so much as a glance in Jules and my direction. “My name’s Jamie.”

“Jack,” he said politely with a nod and the smile of all smiles.

“You don’t eat processed meat do you?”

Jules and I burst into laughter as Jack raised a brow at her and took her offered hand with a chuckle.

“Not recently, no.”

“Perfect,” she said, shaking his hand a little longer than necessary.

I held out my hand with a snap toward Jules, and she gave me a wicked smirk as she handed me the water bottle. I shot a few sprays on the back of Jamie’s thighs and she jumped to attention.

“Jamie, drink mixes are on the kitchen counter,” I said, trying my best to divert her attention from the golden god consuming all of the intelligence out of the three of us. We were adults, and yet with Jack around, we showed no signs of being mature women. Jack had that effect. Even as I scorned Jamie internally for making a fool out of herself, I was just as enamored by his perfection. I almost groaned as I thought of how close he’d been to kissing me the night before.

“I’m obviously interrupting your plans, ladies. I’ll make myself scarce,” Jack mused at Jamie, who was blocking his path to freedom. Jamie, seeming to snap out of her daze, gave Jack a huge tooth-filled smile as she did what she could to keep him from leaving.

“Would you like a drink?”

“No, thank you. I’m working today.” He turned to me, his blue-gray eyes swallowing me whole in my bikini. “How about that ride… later?”

“Okay,” I said without hesitation. “Thanks for coming by, Jack.”

He gave me a knowing grin. “Nice to meet you, ladies,” he offered, making a quick move to get out of the den full of hungry women, myself included.

After Jack disappeared from sight, Jamie turned to me expectantly at the exact moment as Jules. I shrugged, grabbed our empty glasses, and walked into my kitchen as they followed close on my heels.

“You two just made total asses of yourselves,” I scorned as I replenished the glasses with ice.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man that fucking hot in my life,” Jamie said, looking back in the direction Jack left. “Seriously, you guys could have warned me… you know given a bird call… something!”

I shook the bottle of mix as I scorned her. “Uh huh, well, your flirting was shameless. What about Bart?”

“Oh God,” she said animatedly as she braced herself on the counter. “He works out naked.”

I rolled my eyes as she continued. “Just hear me out. I was fine with it at first… but… okay, but… have you ever seen a man do naked jumping jacks? Things were just flying everywhere! Seriously, ladies, no… just no.”

“You could ask him to cover up,” I said through a laugh.

“I will never get that picture out of my head,” she groaned. “It’s like there are no normal men out there anymore. Why do the ones I pick have to have the strangest habits? I’m on hiatus as of this moment. One month.”

Jules remained quiet but entertained as she looked at Jamie then me for an explanation, her olive skin darkened by the second from our short time in the sun.

Before she could give me any verbal grief, I came clean. “He’s a contractor, lives in New Orleans, and he’s installing all the medical equipment for the center.”

“You didn’t say a word,” Jules said, sizing me up as I poured our drinks.

“Because there’s nothing to tell. He took me for a ride last night on his motorcycle. It stayed PG.” I was lying, but I didn’t know any woman who would openly admit she was so hard up she’d had an orgasm on the back of a Harley. I looked between them. “Look, make your play if you want. We’re just friends.”

“No you aren’t,” Jules said, taking her drink. “At least he’s not interested in just friendship with you.”

“I hate to admit it,” Jamie said, tapping a manicured nail against the side of her glass, “but she’s right. He was looking at you like he wanted to tear your ass apart.” A small amount of pride swelled within me. I knew my attraction to Jack was sexual, because honestly I had nothing to go on other than small conversation, but I loved that the girls picked up on it.

Jamie took a long drink of her spiked tea and gave me a wink. “I’m seriously depressed I can’t have him.”