“Okay, but if you’re wrong…” Kacey pulled her legs onto Travis’s lap. “No sex for a week.”
“You do realize we’re not even having sex now?”
“Once we’re married.”
“You’d withhold sex from your husband?”
“To win a wager?” Kacey winked. “Absolutely.”
“Heartless.”
“No.” Kacey kissed his cheek. “That would be Grandma. She’s the one who’s banned you to the couch.”
“I’m only listening to her because she bought a shock collar the other day.”
Kacey gave him a confused look.
“She doesn’t have a dog, Kace. She bought a collar. If I don’t listen, she may use it on me. I put nothing past that woman.”
“Kacey! Travis!” Grandma called from the back room. “Time for breakfast! I’m hungry!”
Groaning, Travis put his face in his hands. “Do you think she has a quiet button? Forget dying from lust. I’m going to go deaf.”
It was quiet for a second then, “Heard that!” From Grandma.
Travis wordlessly lifted his hands into the air in frustration, then got up off the couch. He held his hand out for Kacey and pulled her in for a hug. “Seriously, Kace, don’t worry about it. I promise. Jake’s just being Jake, okay?”
She nodded, but she wasn’t convinced. Because for the first time in years Jake actually looked… sad about the way that his night had gone. He looked anything but happy and, that was the thing: he’d never let a girl affect him like that before. Not even when she and he had been together. Which really made Kacey wonder if he was falling for her best friend.
Chapter Twenty-three
“Can you drive faster?” Char asked, a bit annoyed that it was taking them so long to get back into the city. She had exactly forty minutes to get ready and be at the office.
“Sure. I’ll just get a speeding ticket,” Jake said.
“It’s not like you can’t afford it.”
“What is up with you?” He pulled into the carpool lane. “Everything was fine last night and then all of a sudden you’re a cold b—”
“If you value your life, you won’t finish that sentence.”
“Brat.” Jake grinned and sped past another car.
Char ignored his ridiculously flashy smile and looked out the window. “It’s fine; everything’s fine. I just have a lot to get done if I’m going to take all that time off from work for the wedding.”
They fell silent.
After a few minutes, Jake asked. “Is it something I did?”
Something he did? Was he really that dense? He was toying with her feelings! Making her fall for him when he really had no interest beyond friendship. “No,” she lied. “I’m just tired.”
“I’m sorry.” He pulled the car on to Queen Anne Hill. “You know, if it was me, I didn’t mean to upset you with your parents or get us arrested or—”
“Jake.” Char interrupted. “It was the best birthday ever. I promise. I just have to return to reality, you know?”
Gosh, how depressing did that sound? Returning to reality, where she wasn’t a princess, Jake sure as hell wasn’t her prince, and she worked at a job where people still snickered behind their clipboards.
He seemed satisfied with that answer because he didn’t say anything, just parked the car and let her walk away without as much as a good-bye.