“What’s wrong, Presley? Are you getting sick? You look a little pale.”
“No, it’s nothing like that. I just...”
Just what? Kissed Lennon last night and feel like I should probably tell you before you find out when they broadcast it on TV.
Yeah, that.
“Are you sure you’re not sick?”
“I kissed Lennon,” I blurt out, looking down at the coffee in front of me.
I can’t make eye contact with him. I can’t see the hurt on his face. The betrayal in his eyes. It might just cause me to break.
“And?” Jace asks, sounding unaffected by my outburst.
“Last night,” I mumble. “I kissed him last night.”
“So? I kissed Teegan last night.”
He what?
My head flies up so fast it takes me a second before I can focus on where he’s sitting two feet in front of me.
“Before you freak out, I did it to shut her up.”
“Pressing your lips against hers will definitely shut her up.”
“Not like that. She has it out for you. You already know that. She’s made it her mission to get you kicked off so it can be her and Bella next week. She doesn’t see Bella as a threat, but you... you have what she wants. Me. I’m not saying that to sound full of myself or anything. This is all straight from her mouth.”
Leaning back in his seat, Jace waits for me to respond, but when I don’t, he continues, “I kissed her because she needed an incentive to stop coming after you. I may have also lied to her and told her I was using you and that Lennon and I had been stringing you along this whole time. She bought it, ate up every detail. Which meant I had to get a little creative. She now thinks it’s going to be me and her at the end of this. Together. Forever.”
My breath hitches in my throat.
Poor Teegan.
Wait, what? No, she’s been nothing but a bitch to me. I shouldn’t feel sorry for her. In fact, I should be smiling even bigger knowing she’s going to be pissed when she learns the truth.
But I can’t.
Because that’s not the kind of person I am.
“You should tell her the truth. I know you two started out rocky last night and that you thought it was a good idea, but it wasn’t. Her not having your attention hurts her enough. Lying to her wasn’t necessary.”
Jace stares at me like I’ve grown a second head and then reaches across the table and takes my hand in his.
“You really are the best person I know.”
Brushing his lips across my knuckles, he gently kisses the back of my hand before releasing me and gathering our plates. “I’ll talk to her later this week. Poor Lennon has to deal with her on Saturday night. I’ll tell her after that. I don’t want him to have to deal with her after she finds out I lied.”
The mention of Lennon’s name has the hair on the back of my neck standing at attention.
“About Lennon...”
“I expected you to kiss him, Presley. He’s told me on more than one occasion that he wasn’t giving up, and I know he’s told you the same thing. If he hadn’t tried, I would be surprised. If he hadn’t gotten constant calls from work the night you had dinner, he probably would have tried to kiss you that night as well.”
Jace keeps his back to me as he talks, but I can still see the shift in his posture despite what I hear in his voice. The thought of me with Lennon bothers him, as it should. The same way the thought of him with Teegan kills me inside.
“He told you that? Why?”