Chance Encounters

Shock instantly covered Alex’s face. “What? Don’t listen to Tommy. Have you even told her you love her?”

“Does it matter?” Tommy asked.

“Of course it matters! How can you be pissed at her, if she doesn’t even know how you feel?” Alex asked logically.

“I hung up on her before she could tell me anything else,” Jackson admitted, his gaze falling to the floor.

“You’re a charmer,” Tommy choked out.

Jackson quickly looked up and shot his buddy a nasty look. “Shut up and pour the beer.”

Alex chimed in quickly, “I’m just going to say this one time, okay?”

“Here we go.” Tommy rolled his eyes. “Dr. Phil to the rescue.”

Alex gave Tommy a quick punch in the arm. “You have to lay it all on the line. You can’t expect the girl to ruin her life for you if she doesn’t even know how you feel about her.”

Jackson peered up from behind his beer glass and then continued chugging it.

“I mean it, Jackson. You want her to leave her boyfriend…”

Tommy interjected, “Ahem! Fiancé!”

Alex continued, “My bad. You want her to leave her… fiancé…”

“Thank you.” Tommy tipped his head and lifted his glass in the air.

“But for what? For some guy who hasn’t even admitted what he really feels for her? She doesn’t even know you love her. She probably thinks you don’t. No girl in her right mind would leave what she has for that.”

A subtle spark of light flickered from deep inside Jackson’s eyes. “You’re right.”

“Of course I’m right.” Alex smiled. “And by the way, everyone knows you’re a good guy. You’d never intentionally hurt anyone. You’re not the girl-stealing type. I know it goes against everything you believe in to be in this type of situation, but you have to give your pride a rest and listen to your heart, or you’ll regret it.”

Tommy rolled his eyes. “Jesus, Alex, are you really a girl? Do you have a vagina?”

“You’re such a dick,” Jackson commented half-heartedly.

“At least I have one,” Tommy bit off in response.

Alex interjected. “My point is…would you be okay with losing this girl forever?”

Just hearing those words made Jackson want to beat the living shit out of every guy in that bar. It also made his knees want to buckle and his stomach turn inside out. He couldn’t answer Alex, so he simply shook his head and lost himself in the pattern of wood on the table.

“Then you have to tell her how you feel…give her all the information she needs…that’s the right thing to do. Expecting her to make life-changing decisions based on how only she feels isn’t fair, especially when she doesn’t know that you feel the same way.” Alex glanced down toward his friend who refused to look up.

Jackson swallowed the last of his beer and asked, “Are you done?”

Alex laughed. “Yeah, I’m done.”

“

Good.” All Jackson could think about was how much physical pain he was in, and how much beer it would take to numb it. “Someone get another pitcher.”

Chapter Eleven

Caroline felt ill. If you’d asked her a year ago what she wanted out of life, this was definitely part of the plan. She had always felt that Clay was the one.

That is, until she met Jackson.