A year ago, I would’ve given anything to get Jacey to see me for me…. A grown man in love with her.
But things have changed, and the only thing I feel at the moment is annoyance, that her arrival has triggered doubts in Nora.
Because I saw the doubts in Nora’s eyes. I saw that she questioned my feelings for Jacey, that those doubts caused her to question my feelings and my intentions for her.
We’ll hang out with Jacey for a few days, but I’m going to have a talk with Nora. I know she wanted me for the summer, but I’m not cut out for that. Gran was right… when I open myself up to someone, I’m in it for the long haul.
The summer won’t be enough.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nora
I wake up to laughter and an empty bed.
Brand is gone, and as I glance out the bedroom windows, I see why. He’s sitting at the picnic table in the sun, eating breakfast with Jacey.
I feel the early stirrings of jealousy in my belly and I fight to tamp them down. I don’t own him. He’s not mine. But he sleeps with me at night, he holds me all night long. I don’t have anything to be jealous of.
That’s what I tell myself.
It’s hard though. Jacey keeps laying her hand on his arm, and they keep laughing over jokes I don’t know. There’s a familiarity between them that comes from years of knowing each other. Really knowing each other. It’s hard not to be jealous of that.
Even though, at the same time, Jacey isn’t throwing herself at him. Maybe she did at one point, but now, today, there doesn’t seem to be sexual tension there at all.
I pull some clothes on, and run a brush through my hair, then join them outside with a cup of coffee.
“I wasn’t sure how strong you like your coffee,” Jacey tells me, looking up from their conversation. “So I just made it pretty mild. I hope that’s fine.”
“It’s perfect,” I assure her. I glance at the table, trying to decide which side to sit on. Jacey solves that problem by patting the bench next to her.
“Come tell me all about you,” she sings cheerfully. “I’ve got to know all about the girl who has Brand intrigued.”
He sighs loudly, but doesn’t try and steer her away, so I sit down next to her.
We chat for the next hour.
Where do you live?
What do you do?
Where did you go to school?
The entire time, I find myself wishing that I was at Brand’s side instead of Jacey’s but I smile politely and chat and play the game. Because it’s a game. I know it and Jacey knows it.
She’s acting friendly and cheerful, but she’s also acting on Brand’s behalf. She’s searching my motives, trying to decide if I’m good enough for her friend.
But she has no right.
She hurt him more than anyone else ever will.
But I keep a smile pasted on and I answer every question.
I even ask a few of my own.
What’s it like being married to Dominic Kinkaide?
Where do you live now when you aren’t on set with him?