Avoiding Decisions (Avoiding 1.5)

God, he hated crying.

“Stop crying, Jesus. You’re not last in my life.” Was she?

“Yes…yes, I am! You don’t even know how you treat me!”

“How do I treat you?” he asked in frustration.

“Like I’m last! Work, school, the guys, parties…everything comes before me. How can we have a relationship if that’s how you treat me, Jack?”

“I don’t know.” And he really didn’t. Maybe…they couldn’t.

“Well, if you don’t know, then I certainly don’t. So, maybe…maybe we should just take a break!” she chirped

“Fine,” he responded immediately. “Whatever.”

“Fine!”

The line went dead in his hand. She had hung up on him. They were on a break.

Whoa. What the hell had just happened? And how had it spiraled out of control so fast?

He flung his phone onto the couch and stormed into his bedroom. He needed to take a shower or do something to get his mind off of this. He couldn’t believe she had just done that.

CHAPTER 6

THAT MOMENT

Jack heard a knock at the door. He grabbed a blue T-shirt from off the clean clothes pile and threw it over his head. His hair was still damp from the shower, but it had calmed him down and made him think more clearly. Whatever had just happened with Danielle…whatever break they were on was probably for the better.

When he opened the door, he saw Lexi standing on his front porch. She was the whole reason that this was for the better. She looked amazing in tight pants and a bright silky shirt. Her hair was down, her eyes lined, making them look even bigger than normal, and she was wearing that pink lip gloss. He was going to try that today and see if it tasted as good as he had thought for the past month.

“Hey,” Lexi said with a smile, walking into his house.

“Hey, it’s good to see you.” And it was.

He reached and drew her into a hug. She folded into him like she had been anticipating it as he slid his hands around her small frame. He didn’t want to let her go, but he did.

“What are we doing tonight? Is Luke going to try to beat me at Mario Kart again? Or would you prefer to study?” She continued without waiting for him to answer. “I’ve already had such a long week. I could seriously use a drink.”

“Do you want me to make you one?” he asked.

“Oh, you don’t have to!” She threw her hand up like she didn’t care one way or another, and then she dropped her purse at the foot of the couch. Lexi kicked off her flip-flops and turned back to face him. “So, what are we doing?”

“Let’s just relax. Maybe a movie?”

“Sure,” she said, bending down and sorting through his collection.

She popped in Pirates of the Caribbean, and then she sat next to him. When he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, Lexi rested back against him.

He had seen the movie a hundred times, but he couldn’t have told anyone a thing about it this time. All he could think about was the feel of Lexi in his arms, the touch of her breast against him as she adjusted in her seat, the feel of her fingers caressing his hand. His mind was set solely on the woman lying next to him, and it all felt right. He didn’t feel rushed or unsure about what to do next or where to go from here. It just felt right.

Too soon, the movie ended.

“I think I have to go home and study. I’d like to stay, but I think that philosophy paper is calling my name,” she said, standing and stretching.

“That’s all right. Maybe you can come over tomorrow?” he asked.

“Sure. Sounds good.”

She put her shoes back on and grabbed her purse, and he followed her to the door.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” she said. She had a smile on her face when she turned back to him for their obligatory good-bye hug.

When she moved forward to wrap her arms around him, his hand found the smooth shape of her jawline. She stopped when he touched her and stared up into his eyes. He was sure that he saw surprise written on her face. The last time she had tried to kiss him, he had backed off.

“Jack,” she said, her voice coming out breathy and needy.

It was addicting. He wanted to keep leaving her breathless.

He pushed his fingers up into her hair, and her eyes closed of their own accord. His other hand moved to circle her waist.

“Lex,” he whispered, hearing the urgency in his voice.

Tilting her head up to him, he bent down and kissed her mouth. She tasted like strawberry lip gloss and every addictive substance on the planet. He couldn’t get enough.

He pulled her hard against him and angled his mouth, so he could trace his tongue across her lips. She moaned into him and opened her mouth. As their tongues connected, he wondered why he had waited this long. Their kisses were urgent, like they had both been waiting too long for this. Still they weren’t rushed as their lips melded together and moved in uninterrupted unison.

Lexi drew his bottom lip in with her teeth, and he nearly lost it. In that moment, he was using every ounce of self-control to stop himself from just grabbing her, throwing her back against the wall, and taking her right then and there.

He kissed her deeply, hungrily, like how a starved man devours food. He could never and would never get enough of the way she tasted and felt.

How he pulled back, he didn’t even know.

When he kissed her now swollen lips one last time, she was putty in his hands. She wrapped her arms around his middle as much to steady herself as to hug him good-bye…and he really, very seriously considered keeping her here. She didn’t really need to study today…did she?

“Jack,” she whispered.

“Yeah, Lex?”

She sighed pleasantly like there was nowhere else in the world she wanted to be. “I like when you call me that.”

“Then, I’ll never stop.”

Jack smiled and drew her in closer. He didn’t care if everything seemed to be spinning off axis. He only cared that he was hopelessly falling for her. And all he wanted was to stay exactly where they were with his arms wrapped around his girl. Because when he was with her, there was nothing and no one else.

“I think…I think I have to really go this time,” Lexi muttered.

She hugged him mob!ilism tighter and then released him. He kissed her one more time on the lips, and then she opened the door.