“What?”
Before I could answer, the bow-tied host peeked his head out of the restaurant. The smile he directed at me faltered a bit when he spotted Jake at my side. “Oh. Um, Mr. Kinsley requested that I come out and find you, Miss Pierce. He said that your drinks are ready.”
I managed a polite smile back, thanking him before he disappeared back into the restaurant. I walked ahead of Jake. “Don’t come back at the same time.”
“Hold on.” He started after me. “Jackson slept with Gabrielle Winter?”
I cut my eyes at Jake, grabbing the brass handle of the front door. “Yes. And in case you haven’t heard, she’s been missing for the past three months,” I muttered before returning inside.
Chapter Fifteen
I was beyond happy to leave Jackson alone with Jake after our lunch in SoHo. Through our faked pleasantries, I could see that Jake was dying to get me alone again – dying to hear more of what I’d told him outside. But all I wanted was to go home, crawl into bed and hug my pillow while contemplating whether or not to tell Sloane.
“That’s fine, go home, babe. Jake and I have a lot of catching up to do. And we’ll probably be out late,” he squeezed my waist. “We haven’t gone out together in ages.”
I managed something of a smile. “You boys have fun then.” As he whispered a sweet goodbye in my ear, I stared past his shoulder at Jake. He didn’t glare anymore, or look at me with anger. His green eyes glinted, staring intently at me with a look I couldn’t read. My lips parted as I gazed back, Jackson’s hand all the while sliding down to my backside. I flinched, closing my eyes for the second that he gave my ass a firm squeeze.
When I opened them again, I saw Jake’s lip curl before he turned on his heel to start walking away.
~
I still couldn’t escape the thought of Jake when I got home, so in hopes of distracting myself, I invited the girls over for some wine and trashy reality TV. It was Sloane, Emily Rocha and her younger sister, Piper, best known in our circle for her racy underwear ads, which graced billboards in both SoHo and Times Square.
They were barely through the front door when the topic of Jake was brought up with squealing excitement.
“I heard the wild Kinsley is back in town!” Sloane said, setting a bottle of Amarone on the kitchen counter. I stiffened as I plated our paella but recovered quickly enough to cock my head curiously at her, a playful smile on my lips.
“Aren’t you engaged?” I teased convincingly. “And what do you mean the ‘wild’ Kinsley?”
“Well, you know. He’s the one who escaped the boys’ crazy world and moved to a bunch of different tropical beaches to surf his sexy heart out. And yes, smarty-pants, I am engaged. But the key to a long-lasting relationship is harmlessly flirting with other people! Just not sleeping with them.”
“Yeah,” I laughed nervously as I reached for the red wine. “So did you guys ever meet Jake?” I asked Emily and Piper. I knew Sloane never had – she had moved to New York two years before me but Jake was long gone by then.
Emily nodded vigorously as I opened the bottle. “By the time I met him, I was already with Erik, which was good because one look at that man and your brain just goes, ‘Take me! Throw me over those man shoulders and take me however you want!’”
My laugh was real as Piper tossed her blonde hair back and snorted. “Em, you’re not even drunk yet.”
“What? He’s hot. He’s very different from our boys. He like… rejects the whole buttoned-up society thing. He used to always come to the galas with like messy hair and a full beard. One time, Jackson and Erik were bugging the hell out of him to come to one of Sofie’s big parties, and he showed up in his gym clothes. Like, sweaty hair, white T-shirt and basketball shorts. I thought Sofie was going to have a heart attack but she was totally fine with it.”
“Because they were thin basketball shorts and when he moved certain ways, you could see the outline of his dick,” Piper said.
“Piper!” Emily scolded. “I wasn’t going to tell that part of the story.” She took a big gulp of wine. “Just kidding, I totally was. But I was going to wait till Lady Prim and Proper got drunk so she wouldn’t mind the inappropriate language.”
“Give me some time, I’m getting there,” Sloane sipped her drink like a lady.
I giggled, working on my own glass of wine as I listened to my friends banter. Talking about Jake with the girls was less painful than I imagined, perhaps because their boozy gossiping made it feel like any other girls’ night. Emily and Sloane went back and forth for several minutes before Piper, finishing her drink, interrupted abruptly.
“So, this Jake – is he single?” she inquired, cocking a dark blonde eyebrow.
“Girl, he’s only ever single,” Emily answered.
“Man-slut?” Piper asked.
“Work addict,” Emily corrected before turning to me. “I heard the boys hired him as the architect for the new restaurant in the Monarch hotel. Isn’t that why he’s in town?” she asked.
I blinked. “Yes. Something like that,” I said, though I hadn’t known this at all. But it did make sense. Jake was an architect and the hotel’s opening had been delayed several months because they couldn’t find the right person to build its restaurant. Apparently now, that person was Jake. “I guess that means he’ll be in the city for longer than just a visit,” I realized aloud.
“Oh, that’s perfect! We should definitely have him come to Labor Day weekend. Piper’s been desperate to find a new boyfriend!” Emily squealed. Piper rolled her eyes like a teenager.