“Thanks, Nickel. I’ll let you know.”
“No problem. Glad you’re back.” Nickel went back outside, closing the door behind him.
Jewell looked at her watch. It was another couple hours before the factory’s quitting time. Being that it was a Friday, there was no smell of food filling the air. With most of the lights off, the house looked gloomy.
Chilled, she kept her jacket on as she went into the kitchen. She hadn’t seen Rory’s vehicle in the parking lot, and she had been afraid to ask Nickel if he was still here.
Walking behind the counter, she made herself a mug of hot chocolate, adding a large handful of marshmallows. Jewell stood at the counter, watching the marshmallows melt until she was sure it was cool enough to drink.
Unable to bear not knowing any longer, she carried her mug downstairs to the bedroom he had stayed in. Flipping the light switch on, she didn’t have to look in the drawers to see he was gone.
She set the mug down on the dresser and went to sit on the end of the bed to stare morosely around the empty room.
You have no one to blame but yourself.
Burying her face in her hands, she started crying for all the opportunities she had wasted in her lifetime, for not being there sooner for her mother, for giving Rory an ultimatum, which left him with no choice but to leave.
A sound from the doorway had her raising her head.
“You’re still here?” she whispered achingly.
“I’m still here.” Rory walked across the room to sink to his knees on the carpet between her legs. “Why are you crying?” He raised a hand to wipe her tears away.
Could she do it? Could she be one of those women who put her feelings out there to be stomped all over? Even before all that shit had gone down in her life, she had never been the type of woman who could lay her emotions bare.
“Why are you crying, Jewell?” he repeated his question.
“I didn’t want you to have left before I could say goodbye.” Even as she said it, she hated herself for not giving him the full truth.
Rory’s reaction had her biting her lip when he stood up to give her his back.
“Then I guess it’s a good thing I stayed. I have a couple of lessons to give tomorrow, and then I’ll be leaving on Sunday.”
“You are?” Jewell nibbled on her lip. “You don’t have to leave just because you’re done.”
“I thought you wanted me to leave?”
Rory started to move away, and Jewell reached out, grabbing the bottom of his T-shirt and holding him in place. “I want you to stay.”
Rory twisted around, shaking her hand loose. “Where would we live?”
She curled her fingers over the edge of the mattress. “If you stay, you can pick where we live.”
Rory cocked his head to the side as he folded his arms across his chest. “Are you bargaining with me to get me to stay?”
If she could get him to stay without completely admitting her innermost feelings, it was a win-win situation.
“Yes.”
“So, you do want me to stay?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Just checking.” Rory shifted his stance until his feet were apart, as if he was about to go to battle.
Jewell thought he looked so cute. She could take him down with one good kick to his nuts. The Last Riders would chop him into bits and toss him into a salad if they ever went head-to-head.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
She quickly smoothed out her expression. “Just waiting for you to choose where we would live if you stayed,” she lied, not wanting to hurt his feelings.
He didn’t appear to believe her, but gave her a pass.
“We could find a place to rent in town,” he suggested.
“Or I could ask Viper if he would be willing to sell a small part of land next to Train and Killyama’s house. I’ve actually been wanting to build my own house. You could move in with me when it’s finished.”
“I won’t live next door to Killyama,” Rory refused that suggestion outright.
The land she was wanting to build on was the last piece of property available to be built on unless Viper could convince the Porters to sell. She knew that wasn’t likely.
“There is another option. I could ask Cash if I could buy his grandmother’s house. It’s been sitting empty since he moved her into his house.”
“Where’s it at?”
“About four minutes from here. The house sits on the mountainside, like the club. You’ve driven past and probably didn’t notice it because of all the trees blocking it from sight. The problem is that it’s an older home. I can imagine it would need a lot of work.”
“That wouldn’t be bad. I could make videos of us redoing the house.”
“You would help out?”
“I like working with my hands,” he teased, dropping said hands to his sides.