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“It’s where I knew I’d find you,” he snarls.
“For heaven’s sake, Bryan. Why don’t you just go back to the city? I don’t love you, and I don’t want you here. In fact, I don’t want you, period.”
“I told you before, I’m not leaving this town without you.”
“I’m married,” I cry, lifting up my left hand. “There’s no chance—”
“What’s going on here?” I hear Jake’s deep voice behind me.
A second later, he’s taken a protective step in front of me. A wall between me and Bryan.
“This is none of your darned business,” Bryan spits. “Take your hick self out of the way so the adults can speak.”
But Jake doesn’t move a muscle, and evidently frustrated, Bryan launches toward him and tries to throw a punch. Jake ducks and avoids it easily, and with a long arm, he gives Bryan a hefty shove. Bryan stumbles backward and ends up on the ground, which only makes him angrier.
“You’re going to pay for that,” he rages, hurriedly pushing himself up.
Shaking with anger, he comes back at Jake, but Jake takes a step back.
“I’m not going to fight you, Bryan.”
“Why? Are you a coward? Are you too afraid I’ll—”
Before I know what’s happening, Jake has spun on his heel, and grabbing me at the waist, his lips plunge down to mine. I’m utterly astonished, but that feeling immediately disappears as I melt into his arms. My heart thumps, my stomach does somersaults, and, hardly noticing Bryan’s sudden silence, I slip my arms around Jake’s neck and tenderly kiss him back.
My body comes alive and I feel every sensation. His muscular frame pressing against mine, his soft, sweet lips, his fingers against my rib cage. And then I don’t feel any of it. All the noise around us disappears, and I feel like I’m floating blissfully in some faraway place.
Eventually, he pulls away and gazes down at me, his soft eyes full of everything I used to see when we were together: desire, love, adoration. And then he blinks, and it’s gone, making me wonder if I might have imagined it.
When he turns back to Bryan, Jake’s about to speak when Chris, Phil, and Joey arrive. They wrap their arms around Bryan, jovially telling him that he’s missing the party, all of them talking over each other.
Bryan doesn’t fight them when they pull him away. With his jaw still hanging open, he gives me one long look and then lets the guys hustle him into the barn.
20
Jake
I watch as myclosest friends haul Bryan into the barn, Chris throwing a glance over his shoulder at me and raising a hand.
I lift a grateful hand back, and then I turn to Tilly. “Let’s take a walk”
After that kiss, I need to do something. I don’t know what came over me. Fighting wasn’t going to solve anything, but I had to think on my feet. Actually, I didn’t think about it at all. I just knew it would stop Bryan in his tracks. No matter what kind of idiot he is, he was hardly going to throw a punch at me with Tilly in my arms.
Besides, I wanted to show him that she was mine now.
Alright, it’s not like I haven’t thought about kissing her, moreso since our fake marriage. I also imagined it would feel like it used to feel all those years back. But it shocked me that it didn’t. It felt a hundred times better. Parts of me are now awakened that haven’t seen the light of day in a long time. Whichis why I now need to do something to get rid of this pent-up desire.
We walk in silence for a while, neither of us knowing what to say. I don’t want to say I’m sorry because that would be a lie. I’m not sorry at all. In fact, if I had the chance, I’d do it again.
But even though Tilly kissed me back, and when I gazed down at her afterward, she looked up at me with those beautiful soft eyes, I can’t know if that reaction was because she was just caught up in the moment. Really, I should have asked first, but there wasn’t time. I just wanted to put out the fire.
And instead start a new one.
Yes. Something like that.
“Bryan thinks you’re a simpleton,” Tilly says after a little while, “but he doesn’t really have a clue who you are or what you’ve accomplished. All he sees is your outer appearance, which, I will admit, fooled me, too, when I first saw you that day in the grocery store.”
Okay. So we’re not talking about the kiss. Good. That makes things a little easier, I think. For now, at least.
