I backed away, took the beer, and took a big drink from it.
“That’s what you forgot?” Jett asked.
“That’s what you forgot,” I said. “Now show me around this house of yours. It’s definitely not my style.”
“Then I guess that means I have to sell it,” Jett said.
He opened the front door and I wasn’t sure how to take that comment.
I had been in plenty of houses in Hidden.
Seeing a house as big as Jett’s did nothing to impress me.
I never understood the appeal of having rooms that nobody would ever use.
But his house…
It was inviting.
It was gigantic yet cozy, which made no sense in my mind.
“Over there are a bunch of rooms that meant shit to me,” he said. He shrugged his shoulders. “They came with the place. What can I say, right? Upstairs to the right is my part of the house. To the left is where I had Wes crashing whenever he needed a place.”
“Which means Aira has snuck through here more than a few times,” I said.
“Not my responsibility,” Jett said.
“She was… and is… mine,” I said.
“Nineteen, in love, and not going to hear a word you say, sweetheart,” Jett said.
“Wes would have been better off being raised by a broken down car,” I said.
Jett lifted an eyebrow. “Is this you coming to my house to attack me?”
“I’m not sure what I’m doing here yet,” I said.
“Then let’s keep walking,” Jett said. “Want to leave a trail to find the front door?”
“Funny,” I said.
“You could just use your clothes.”
“Oh, got it,” I said. “This is your cheap pickup line routine, right? You get a woman here and then get her to, what, slowly undress herself as you take her… where? To the kitchen?”
Jett ignored me.
Which left me in my mind, wondering if I was right.
I hated that Jett knew to do that to me.
The kitchen was cool.
Actually, everything was cool.
Only Jett could buy a mansion and make it cool.
He could take everything I didn’t like and judged about this town and somehow make it really cool.
“Now out there is the best part,” Jett said.
He walked to a large glass door and slid it open.
My eyes saw the color pink slowly turn into a purple.
“You can say you hate the pool all you want, sweetheart, but it’s awesome,” he said.
I stepped outside and shook my head.
It was beyond awesome.
It was quiet, secluded, and relaxing.
And just on the other side of some bushes or little trees or whatever they were called was the beach and the ocean.
I could hear the waves smashing to the shore.
I drank my beer and nodded.
Jett stepped up next to me. “So I take it you approve?”
“How the hell did you pull this off?” I asked.
“What? I’m just some dumb mechanic to you?”
“No. You’re a dumb fighter to me.”
“Well, for all the times I got punched in the head, my ability to figure life out never went away. I guess I got lucky there. Other parts of my brain though have been messed up.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“The part that lets you go and moves on.”
“Ohgod,” I groaned. I finished my beer and slammed the bottle to his chest. “Get me another one.”
“You’re not leaving then, Julia,” he said.
“Duh,” I said. “I came here for a reason.”
“And what reason is that?”
I touched the top of my jean shorts and bit my lip.
One way or another I was going to end up naked in that pool tonight.
* * *
It took three beers and Jett chasing me down to the beach for the line to finally get crossed.
He picked me up as the ocean water rushed up against my ankles.
I put my hands to his shoulders and pushed myself up so I was taller than him for once.
I was the one looking down at him.
And he was looking up at me.
“This is fun,” I said without thinking.
“It’s not bad. It’s getting old having me chase you around the beach. You’re like a puppy dog on the loose.”
“Just reminding you I’m worth chasing,” I said. “Since you couldn’t man up and leave town.”
“You had no problem there,” he said.
“Blah, blah, blah,” I said, lowering my mouth down to his.
Our lips touched but I didn’t kiss him.
And he didn’t kiss me.
“Hey,” I said. “We were sort of screwed from the start when you think about it.”
Jett put me back on my feet and walked behind me, his fingers interlocked with mine, making me walk toward his house.
“How so, sweetheart?” he asked.
The beach so dark and quiet.
It was so private.
The glow of the lights from his giant house shined into the night.
I felt like I was going against everything I believed in being there with him.
But I had to leave the notion of then and now and everything else I felt behind.
“We were sneaking around kissing when we shouldn’t have been,” I said.
I wasn’t willing to admit that I was a cheap date with three beers and I was stumbling and giddy.
“Oh, so now we can talk about things that happened?”
“Shut up,” I said. “I was really wrong for all of that.”
“Yeah you were,” he said. “Your innocence was all mine from there on out.”
“I wasn’t exactly innocent, Jett.”
“Oh yes you were,” he said with a laugh. “Believe me. You were.”
I made him stop and I turned. “I never told anyone about it. Just so you know.”
“What?”
“The way we met,” I said. “I mean, there’s a version of it I’ve told others. If they ever asked about us. But the truth… that’s between us.”
“I like that, sweetheart,” he said. “We have our own secret story.”
“I kind of want to keep writing it too, Jett. Without everyone and everything. I’ve been a mess because of you. And only because I know what happens when I’m near you.”
“And what happens?”
“I lose myself. Or maybe I find myself. I haven’t figured it out yet.”
“Julia, there’s nothing else you need to think about but yourself. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for you. Your heart is bigger than you realize. Bigger than you know what to do with. And that’s not a bad thing. But you should take that heart of yours and do something for yourself. No matter what happens to anyone around you.”
“That’s what I’m doing right now, Jett,” she said. “And I swear on my life, if you hurt me…”
“Why are you doing that already, sweetheart?”
“Doing what?”
“Thinking about the future. Or thinking something is going to go wrong. You know, you believe in signs and shit, right? What about the fact that what you think is what happens? All that universe shit?”
I smiled big. “See? You do believe in that kind of stuff.”
I turned and he put his arms around me again. We walked together - awkwardly - back to his pool.
My eyes watched the pool water changing colors again.
“How does it do that?” I asked.
“What?”
“The pool and the colors.”
“Really? That’s what’s on your mind, Julia?”
I turned my head and looked up at Jett. “No. That’s a distraction.”
“From what?”
I bit my lip and felt every second of every year - together and not - colliding harder than anything I could ever remember in my life.
I nud
ged Jett away and grabbed the bottom of my shirt.
As I lifted it over my head, I felt heat rise to my cheeks.
Only Jett could be this rich and make me feel like I was young and irresponsible.
I tossed my shirt over my shoulder and hurried to take off my jean shorts.
My mouth began to move with ohmygodohmygodohmygod as I stood next to Jett’s pool in nothing but my bra and panties.
Jett’s rough yet soothing hands touched my sides.
“You’re not jumping in like this, sweetheart,” he whispered.
I elbowed him again. “No shit, Jett.”
I reached back and unclasped my bra.
After stepping out of my panties, and my bra laid on the concrete ground, I dove toward the water as it slowly changed to a red color.
That was my sign. Maybe.
Red for love… or red for danger?
* * *
I wasn’t sure how it was supposed to work, but Jett and I were wrapped up tight together in the pool. My body pressed against his, me eye level, my back against the edge of the pool, feeling everything Jett had to offer.
He kissed from my lips down to my neck.
I put my head back and looked up to the stars.
And then those stars were met with other stars.
The kind of stars that flashed before my eyes thanks to the way Jett knew how to move his body as he took me in the pool.
Right back at it again, huh, Julia? So much for trying to start over and act like you don’t know each other.
That voice in my head faded fast.
And if it dared tried to speak again, I just groaned. Because Jett felt so much better than whatever regret that could possibly follow.
My nails dug at his skin under the water, pulling at him, wanting more, more, more.
Jett dipped his head down toward my chest but the water was in the way.
He growled and lifted his head, staring at me again.
I was out of breath and it wasn’t from swimming.
His lips brushed against mine. “We’re out of here, sweetheart.”
“Oh, we are?” I asked.
“And I’m not like you. I’m not going to make you sleep on a couch.”
“I didn’t make you sleep on a couch. I came and got you.”
“You came… that’s for sure…”
I bit my lip again.
Jett backed away from me, leaving my toes curling in the water and my body begging for more.
He walked out of the pool, leaving me jaw dropped.
There was this little hut looking thing that he went into and came out wearing a giant, black towel and had another one waiting for me.
I playfully swam to the steps and grabbed the towel, covering myself as I stepped out of the water.
It was probably the most seductive thing I had ever done in my life.
Jett had his towel hanging down on his hips way too low. And he knew it. And he knew what that did to me. And it was still very obvious he was very much in the mood.
I felt him against me as he pulled me close.
“This night is far from over, sweetheart,” he said.
“I hope so,” I whispered as I kissed his wet, hard, smooth chest.
My heart pounded in my chest.
“I want this, Julia,” Jett said. “Not just you naked in my pool. Or naked in my bed. Or me sleeping on your couch, waiting for you to come out of your room. I want this. I want us. I want everything that comes with it.”
I looked up at him and just smiled.
After a few seconds, I whispered, “I’m going to get my clothes and then I’ll meet you inside. Don’t go too far though, Jett. I could get lost in your obnoxiously big house.”
He kissed the top of my head and walked away.
I needed a second to be alone.
To exhale the breath that I felt like I had been holding for hours. Days. Weeks. Months. Years.
I gathered up my clothes, my face feeling warm again, realizing how insane this all was.
I stood up and looked to the house.
It was all glass in the back, meaning I could see into the kitchen and other rooms on the first floor.
I could see Jett in nothing but a towel, getting two more drinks out of the fridge that was built into the wall.
I could see every line and ripple of muscle and every place on his body that I wanted to kiss, taste and keep as mine for the rest of my life.
When we were together, bad things happened.
But that was then.
The past was gone.
There was nothing else to worry about.
Jett looked at me and held up the drinks.
I bit my lip and waved.
He turned and wiggled his hips like I had never seen him do. He forced his towel to fall to the floor, leaving me laughing, jaw dropped, and turned on.
I felt my phone vibrate through my jean shorts and the rest of my clothes.
I scrambled to check it, going into business mode thinking of Whitney and then into mom mode thinking of Aira.
I didn’t need that part of my brain as I read the text message.
I looked up and felt my throat squeeze shut.
But things happened when Jett and I were together.
The text message was from my ex-husband.
Kinney was on his way back to town.
Chapter 23
THEN
Julia
Please, please, please, please, please, please…
It was the only word I had left in my mind.
When I shut my eyes, I saw the flashing lights.
I felt the way the car came to a stop and how fast Jett got out of the car and started to run.
Or the way his hand felt when I tried to hold it as he had to say goodbye.
Dressed in a black suit, looking uncomfortable, his eyes just staring off into a distance that I couldn’t see.
And that distance was his only goal.
When I heard a knock at the door after I closed the bakery, the last person I ever thought I’d see was Pop.
But there he was.
Standing at the door, knocking.
I hurried through the bakery, tears already filling my eyes.
It took a lot to get Pop to leave the shop.
And he looked like he had aged another twenty years, chasing Jett around, trying to keep him sane.
I unlocked the door and opened it.
“He here?” Pop asked.
I shook my head. “I’ve been trying to-”
“He cleaned out some of the safe and took off,” Pop said.
“What?”
“That motherfucker,” Pop growled. “After all we’ve been through together.”
“What are you talking about?”
“He’s gone,” Pop said. “He left. Took cash that wasn’t his. Of all things… of all people…”
I had never seen Pop emotional before.
“Come in,” I said. “Let me get you something to drink. We can figure this out.”
“No, Julia,” Pop said. “Stop chasing him around. He wants to be gone, let him go. Let him be. He’ll turn up. With his tail between his legs.”
“And what if he doesn’t, Pop?” I asked.
“Then everyone lets him go.”
The words crushed me.
Pop walked away.
I shut the door and locked it again.
I turned and collapsed to the floor, my back against the door.
My chin quivered and all I wanted was Aunt Bea to walk from the back. I wanted her to come and lift me up. She could even slap me across the face and tell me she was right about the whole thing. That she knew eventually this would happen.
But Aunt Bea was gone.
And had been for a while now.
Everything in the bakery was mine.
All fucking mine.
I pulled myself to my feet and walked across the floor.
Then I stopped.
The first chair I could grab, I
threw across the bakery.
Then another chair.
Then another.
Then I flipped the table.
And I screamed.
The kind of scream I had been holding for way too long.
I didn’t lose Jett. And he didn’t lose me.
We lost each other.
* * *
I didn’t want to go out.
I didn’t want to go out to some bar outside of Hidden either.
But I was told I needed to do it.
I was told I needed a night out.
It wasn’t just voices anymore.
I wasn’t sure who was a friend and who wasn’t.
Not that anyone did anything wrong to me.
If anything, they really were good friends.
Sticking by my side.
Checking on me.
Telling me things were going to get better with time.
Yeah, it was a long list of clichés, but it was better than truly being alone.
I sat at the bar while everyone else talked.
They laughed.
They told stories.
Guys hit on some of the women.
Two guys hung around.
The others were sent packing.
One guy gently elbowed me and asked who died.
Maybe that was a fucking pickup line or something, but when I looked at him, his eyes went wide and he apologized and ran away.
That made me feel really good about myself.
“Here you go, girl,” the cute bartender with perky boobs said to me as she slid another beer in front of me.
“I haven’t finished this one,” I said.
“That’s okay. This one you don’t have to pay for.”
“Why?” I asked. “Do I look that fucking depressed that the bartender is buying me drinks?”
She smiled. “You know, you are my type. All the way my type. But… this one isn’t from me. If I wanted to get you silly drunk and have a night, I’d serve you something better than a cheap light beer.”
She winked at me.
I felt even more like a pile of crap.
“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean it that way. I… wait. Who bought this then?”
“Guy down at the end of the bar,” the bartender said. “I first told him no. I could tell you’re having a bad night. Figured you didn’t want to be bothered. Plus, you’re my type, why would I want to share you with some guy? But… he said you were old friends. That you’d be shocked to see him here.”
HIDDEN CREEK THEN: a hidden creek high novel Page 20
