AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I took a deep breath, gathering the strength that had been driving me through this day, and went inside.
In the hallway where the security team was sleeping, I found Chessy nestled into a blanket just outside Jack’s door. She eyed me suspiciously in the dim light, but didn’t say anything. I chuckled at the hen who’d fallen in love with a handsome strong man. I knew how she felt. “Wish me luck, Chessy,” I said softly, just as I was about to knock on Jace’s door.
It opened before I had a chance. “Hi.”
“Hi.” I tilted my head at him, a little confused. “How did you know I was here?”
“Heard you talking to the chicken.” He gazed past me toward Chessy, who gave him a low squawk before closing her eyes again. “Or maybe I just felt you out here. I don’t know.”
I liked that. I liked thinking Jace could feel me, could know I was nearby without seeing me.
“Can I come inside?” He looked so sad, I wanted to reach up and rub my fingers along the side of his face, comfort him. The dark eyes glimmered in the hallway light and his big shoulders, which stood out thanks to the white tank undershirt he’d stripped down to, were tight and tense.
“Yeah.” He opened the door all the way and closed it behind me, and then he moved to a chair in the far corner and sat, looking defeated. He dropped his elbows onto his thighs and hung his head. His powerful legs were spread wide, the broad shoulders hunched.
“You’re angry at me,” I said. It had been clear on the porch, so there was no point dancing around it.
“I was. I’m not.” He wasn’t looking at me, staring instead at his fingers as he flexed and tightened them where they hung between his knees.
“Then—?” I moved to sit on the edge of the bed. My fingers were aching to touch him, but I knew I couldn’t right then. There was something between us, something stopping us from being together. We needed to defeat it, and then the path would be clear for us to move forward.
“Shit, Juliet,” he said, his voice almost a whisper. “How can you even look at me?”
I felt my eyebrows lower in confusion as I tried to understand his question. This was not what I’d expected. “What? What do you mean?”
“In your eyes, I’ve gotta be just some sad asshole from the wrong side of town who can’t manage a goddamned thing for himself.” His words were filled with self-loathing and they sounded like they hurt coming out.
My heart squeezed itself into a fist, aching for the pain I could see in his face. “Jace, no. Where is this coming from?”
“You called Austin. You’re the only reason he offered me the firm.”
“That’s ridiculous.” I said the words immediately, but after they were out, I realized what he had been thinking—that I’d told Austin to give him the firm, that somehow I’d made this happen for him. No wonder he was angry.
“You saved me again. I couldn’t take care of myself, so you saved me.”
Would we ever get past this same argument? Frustration bubbled in my stomach, making it difficult to sit. “That’s not what happened. That’s not how any of this happened.”
He blew out a sharp breath, a sound of disbelief.
That little sound set me off, and the strength I’d found today pushed me to my feet. “No, Jace. It’s not.”
He didn’t look up, but I kept talking.
“I admire you for the pride that makes you want to do everything for yourself—I know it’s a big part of what makes you who you are. It’s part of your strength, your integrity. You see the world in black and white, fair and unfair, right, wrong. And that’s admirable. But it’s also a distorted view of reality.”
He glanced at me, narrowing his eyes. I felt his gaze like a spotlight, hot and focused.
I went on. “The world doesn’t work that way, and I’m sure you know it. Things aren’t always clear or straightforward, and no one person gets through life entirely on their own. We start our lives needing other people desperately—as helpless babies. And once we’re raised, we go out in the world, leave our families, and we meet other people along the way who hopefully offer us guidance so we can continue to grow. And sometimes, we meet exactly the right people at exactly the right time to help change our lives so much we’re able to become entirely new versions of ourselves.” It was a little out there, but I was circling in on what I was trying to say.
“No one does everything alone. What a shitty, horrible life that would be.” An ironic laugh escaped me as I thought about it. “We are social creatures, Jace. We need a community. And the reason we need that is because we can’t do it all alone.”
He shook his head, still not getting the message I was trying to give him.
“You’re not my charity case,” I finally said plainly. “You and your family, the things I’ve tried to do, it hasn’t been charity. It’s been humanity. Community. Paying it forward.”
He opened his mouth, about to argue, and I held up a hand, stopped in my pacing in front of him.
“You’ve met my Gran, my sister. You see where I came from. I didn’t emerge, a fully formed person in Hollywood, suddenly famous. And I didn’t get there by myself. I got lucky, and I had a lot of help. I had people step up, people who’d been lucky before me, people willing to pay my way for a while as I forged a new path. I had a community.”
