Page 60 of Just for Tonight

“Well, that’s the tricky bit, but I have an idea. I need to do some research and organize the details, but I’ll try, Abbie. I’ll try.”

“Thank you, Jake.”

“Thank me when it works.”

“No,” I say and I see his surprise. “I’m going to thank you now for even trying to make it work.”

“Don’t go telling anybody about this,” he warns. “Last thing I want is for everyone to think I’m a pushover.”

I laugh then, because there’s no one on the planet who is less of a pushover than my oldest brother. He grins as he merges onto the highway, and I sit back to daydream about Grandma’s house. Would I restore it just as it was? No, I’d update it and make it my own, but keep some of the key details.

The garden. The garden used to be amazing. I wonder how many of those perennial flowers are still there under the weeds. I’m composing lists of what I remember being there, more excited about the future than I’ve been in a while.

Me back in Empire. Who would have guessed?

And if I come back to stay, I might have the nerve to knock on the door of the Grand Hotel until Cole Henderson opens up. I stopped by once on this trip, but either he wasn’t in the hotel he inherited, the one that is empty except for him, or he didn’t want to talk to me.

The thing is that I want to talk to Cole. I want to finish what we started, for once and for all. It won’t be easy and it won’t be neat, but it’s time to either follow that path or destroy it forever. I know he’s not the guy I knew. I know war changed him – really, what kind of person wouldn’t be changed by a tour of duty in Afghanistan?

But I think the Cole I loved is still there, and I want to talk to him, even if it’s for the last time.

Yes, I will come back to Empire, to restore Grandma’s house and have that conversation. I have a feeling it’s the only way both Cole and I will be able to continue our lives.

By the time we come down the mountain and get to Milton, the traffic is much worse. The highway is also much wider and it seems to me that the cars are moving even faster. We could be in a game, and I’m glad Jake is driving and not me.

He seems at ease with it, which is also a good thing. I keep my mouth shut, though, not wanting to distract him.

Suddenly, his phone rings and I jump. He taps something on the dash without even looking at what he’s doing. He’s done that a thousand times, I manage to think, before a woman’s furious voice fills the car.

Is that Mackenzie?

But how could that be?

15

Jake

It is the worst possible moment for anyone to call. We’re sandwiched between two tractor trailers, trapped behind the one person on this highway determined to do the speed limit. Fortunately, I don’t have to look at the dash to answer the call.

“Jake Cavendish.”

“And that is what you call kindness?” Mackenzie asks furiously. I’m startled to hear her voice, never mind that she’s so loud she could be in the back seat, yelling in my ear. “If that’s how you treat people when you’re trying to let them down easy, I don’t even want to know how much of a prick you can be when you’re getting even.”

I open my mouth and shut it again, because she doesn’t even pause for breath.

I can feel Abbie staring at me, and her shock is inescapable. There’s no way for me to alert Mackenzie to the fact that I’m not alone, let alone that my phone is on hands-free, never mind that I’m trying to avoid being a part of a major accident. The jaws of life are not part of my immediate future plans – and neither is blowing up Mackenzie’s sex rules.

“I thought you weren’t as bad as you want everyone to believe. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt. I believed in you and I trusted you, Jake Cavendish, but this – she fumes silently for a minute – “this is reprehensible and disgusting and the worst thing anyone could do. It was mean and it was vindictive, and you are such a jerk that I don’t even want to know you anymore.” She takes a breath. “You are the worst kind of bastard, a selfish son of a bitch, a… a rotten person and mean, too.”

In a way, it’s endearing that she can’t even find enough words to chew me out. I’d appreciate that more if I wasn’t embarrassed.

Ashamed, even.

“I never thought you could sink so low,” Mackenzie continues with fury. “You can’t apologize for this and you can’t fix it, so don’t even try. You’re dead to me and good riddance. Have a great life, Jake.”

And she ends the call.

Message received.