Saying Yes: Stormy Love: Book 1

by Ella Sparkle

  “Tonight?” I suddenly got nervous. Could I really do it tonight?

  Chapter 42

  Nick

  I had been a mess ever since the conversation Jenna and I had about her leaving. She was all I could think about, and the more I thought about her, the more I realized I was absolutely in love with her.

  I, Nick Blaine, a self-proclaimed bachelor for life, was in love with Jenna Morgan.

  Problem was, I couldn’t tell her. I had never told a woman I loved her before and the thought of it completely scared the shit out of me. I wasn’t sure the words would actually come out of my mouth even if I wanted them to. There was also the fact she was leaving for law school and I wasn’t going to do anything to fuck that up for her.

  I had to put some distance between us... which I tried to convince myself was the right thing to do. I thought it would somehow make everything easier when she left if things had cooled down between us a bit. Good idea in theory, but in reality, I was a miserable mess without her. The fact I was so miserable without her just reaffirmed how much I was in love with her, and the vicious cycle in my mind would start all over.

  “You are an absolute fucking miserable prick to be around, Blaine. I'm regretting bringing burgers to your office for lunch. I could be doing something way more fun. Like having a root canal. Or trimming my Granny’s toenails. Or scrubbing the bird shit off my car with a toothbrush... should I go on with my list of significantly more fun things I could be doing instead of sitting here with a sad sack like you?” Bax popped a fry in his mouth as he gave me a disapproving look from the other side of my desk.

  I looked down at the burger he'd bought for me. It was usually one of my favorite lunches, but I just didn’t have an appetite. Not since Jenna and I had spoken about our future. I tossed the burger down on my desk. “Sorry, man. I just have a lot on my mind.”

  “Let me guess, it has to do with a petite, brunette, pizza-delivery-driver-soon-to-be law student? Am I close?” Bax had a smug expression on his face as he popped another fry in his mouth.

  I rubbed my hands down my face and realized I hadn’t shaved for a couple of days. Fuck, what was I going to be like when she really left? I looked up at Bax and knew there was no point in trying to lie to him. “Yeah,” was all I said.

  “Isn’t she still here?” Bax pointed to my burger. “Are you going to eat that? Because if not, I will. Can’t let a masterpiece like that go to waste.”

  “Have at it.” I handed him the burger. “And yes. She is still here,” I said, sighing.

  “Then why so glum, chum?”

  “Has anyone ever told you, you can be really fucking annoying?” I snapped at Bax and he started laughing.

  “Pretty sure that you have told me a few times during the duration of our friendship. But seriously, why are you acting like such an ass if she is still here?” Bax took a big bite of my burger.

  “I just...I just can’t be around her right now. I need to put some distance between us.” I leaned my head back in my chair and closed my eyes.

  “If that is the case, why don’t you just end it? If you don’t want to be with her, just move on.”

  Bax had no idea how I really felt about Jenna, but his statement still pissed me off. My eyes flew open and I sat up quickly in my chair. “I never said I didn’t want to be with her. I said I can’t be around her. Big fucking difference, Bax. Watch what you say when you talk about her!” I shouted much louder than I had intended.

  “Jesus, Nick. What the hell?” Bax shouted back at me. Slowly, a look of realization started to move across his face. “Oh fuck, Nick! Are you in love with her?” His look slowly changed to one of shock. I didn’t say anything. “You are! You are fucking head-over-heels in love with her!” Bax leaned back in his chair. “Holy shit, man!” He suddenly started laughing. “I told you so! I fucking told you so!” He said pointing at me as his whole body rocked with laughter.

  “Shut up, Bax,” I snapped like a school boy, unable to come up with anything better to say.

  “Fill me in on how you, Nick Blaine, the man who hates feelings, is committed to bachelor life and has repeatedly said... he has ‘no time for relationships or the drama that comes with them,’” Bax was obnoxiously making air quotes, “finds himself in love. Inquiring minds want to know.”

  I realized I had been acting like a giant asshole to Bax and tried to rein myself in a little. “I don’t know. It just happened. We were talking about her leaving and it just hit me that I didn’t want her to go and that I was in love with her.” I shrugged my shoulders at him. I was happy to be in love with Jenna but I felt defeated, not jubilant or buoyed up by the feeling, given our circumstances.

  “So what did she say when you told her?”

  “I... I didn’t.” As I said the words out loud I realized how ridiculous they sounded.

  “Sorry? I must be losing my hearing. It sounded like you just said you didn’t tell her.” Bax looked at me like I had lost my fucking mind, which really wasn’t too far from the truth.

  “I didn’t,” I repeated.

  “Why the hell not?” Bax said in exasperation.

  “It's complicated.” I said stubbornly.

  “You are stupid, Nick, if you think I am going to be satisfied with that answer.”

  I sighed. “Jenna had this plan to go to law school before we even met. It's been one of her goals for a long time. I am not going to do anything to fuck up any part of that for her. Her plan has never included me. I don’t know how I would even fit into it. I can’t leave, she can’t stay; we are just going to keep things like they are but see each other less.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Only that is already proving to be more difficult than I thought, which is why I need the distance.”

  Bax had a look of utter surprise on his face, his mouth was even hanging open a little bit. “Are you being serious?”

  The question confused me. “Yes,” I said blinking at him, was I missing something?

  “Nick Blaine, for someone who runs what is on the cusp of becoming a multi-million dollar construction company, you have got to be one of the dumbest fucking people I have ever met,” he said, a smirk spreading across his face as he slowly shook his head at me across the desk.

  “Fuck you, Bax.”

  “Ok, maybe you're not totally dumb. Maybe you're just emotionally stunted from all those years of repressing your feelings about... well, about everything.” Bax held up a hand to keep me from talking. “First of all, I get that you think you are being all noble by not wanting to mess with her plans, but Nick, they are her plans. Shouldn’t she be the one that gets to decide what to do with them? If you tell her that you love her and she decides to do something different, that is her choice. Not yours. Secondly, have you talked to her about how you could fit into her plan for going to law school? People do relationships long-distance all the time and make it work. She is only going to be four hours away. So you stop working so fucking much and go see her on the weekends. You are both smart people and can figure it out. I don’t even know what this bullshit is about ‘being together but seeing each other less.’ What, do you want to just be friends with benefits with her? Is that what you want?” He was ticking off his points on his fingers as he made them, I hated that he could be right about a lot of them.

  “No... fuck. I don’t know Bax. This is a lot.” What he said made sense - maybe I had been going about it all wrong? I rubbed my hands over my face. I was even more confused about things with Jenna than I had been before talking to Bax, and I'd been pretty damn confused, let me tell you.

  “You guys really talked about it and this was the best you came up with? Not telling her how you feel and some weird not-really-a-relationship plan?” Bax tossed the burger wrappers and fry containers into the garbage. “When are you going to see her again?”

  “Tonight. She's having a going away party with her friends from work at High Five.” I ran my hand through my hair.

  “Well, don’t fuck this one up by missing
it and getting your phone run over. You can’t recover from that twice.” Bax laughed at his own joke.

  “Bad timing, Bax,” I mumbled.

  “No time is ever a bad time to bring up that little golden nugget," he said, grinning at the idiocy of the whole saga. It was clear I was never going to live that night down as far as Bax was concerned. "Back to the topic at hand: you have got to tell her how you feel tonight and let her make her own choices for what's next.”

  “What if I can’t say it? Bax, this is big. I'm already screwing it all up. What if this makes it even worse?” I couldn’t seem to adequately express how scared I was to say those three words out loud to her.

  “What if it doesn’t? For some unknown reason despite your many, many flaws, Jenna seems to really care about you. Has she told you how she feels about you?”

  “No...”

  “Well then, it appears you two are a match made in poor communication heaven,” he joked.

  I glared at Bax. “If you're so wise to all the ways of relationships why are you still single?” I challenged trying to get a point against him, though he'd trounced me on every level the entire afternoon.

  He just laughed as he turned to walk out the door, “Ain’t no woman around who's been able to tame the wild stallion, also known as Baxter Douglas.”

  “You are so stupid,” I said to Bax as I rolled my eyes, suppressing a grin and trying really hard not to laugh.

  “Tonight, Nick!” Bax shouted as he walked out the door. “Tell her tonight!”

  “Tonight?” I muttered to myself as I suddenly got nervous. Could I really do it?

  Chapter 43

  Jenna

  Cassie and I arrived at High Five and grabbed a table in the back. We were the first ones there and the place was already starting to get busy.

  “First round of drinks is on me. What do you want?” I asked Cassie as we settled into our seats.

  Cassie rolled her eyes at me. “You should not be buying drinks at your own going away party! However, if you absolutely insist, I would say surprise me, but don’t pick wrong,” she said with a wink.

  I laughed. That was Cassie’s standard answer whenever someone asked her what she wanted for food or drink. The secret was, Cassie was the most un-picky person I had ever met when it came to food and drinks so there was rarely ever a ‘wrong’ answer.

  I walked up to the bar and ordered our drinks. While I was waiting, I noticed a guy sitting at the table to my right looking at me. He looked to be about my age, blond, clean-cut and wearing jeans with a button-down. I could feel his eyes on me and when I glanced over again he smiled at me, so I smiled back. Thankfully our drinks were ready. I quickly grabbed them and hustled back to the table. Something about the whole situation made me uneasy.

  When I got back to our table, I saw everyone had arrived, including Nick. My eyes were immediately drawn to his and I could tell something was not quite right with him. “Hi, Jenna,” he said softly.

  “Hi, I'm glad you could make it tonight.” I smiled at him but the whole interaction felt weird.

  “Me too,” Nick said with a half-smile. He sat down across the table from me looking nervous and uncomfortable. I was a little upset he did not make any move to come over and sit next to me. As soon as he sat down, he started talking to Steven.

  Kimmy was sitting next to me and squeezed my arm. “I can’t believe you're leaving in under a week! This is all so crazy! I am going to miss you tons, but I'm super-duper excited for you! Please tell me you will at least stop in at the shop when you're back in town.”

  I peeled my eyes away from Nick and looked at Kimmy. “I will for sure! I am going to miss all of you as well. Your friendship means so much to me and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to meet all of you.”

  “Things won't be the same at Pete's without you,” Steven said with a smile, tipping back his chair and crossing his arms over his chest.

  “Things everywhere won't be the same, without you,” Nick said, as he stared directly at me. The tension in the air was so thick I felt like could physically feel it. Nick and I sat staring at each other. A storm of emotions passed across his face, but they moved so quickly I couldn't decipher them. What the hell was going on?

  I think everyone else felt the tension radiating off both Nick and me, as the whole table went completely silent.

  “So, Jenna... how's the packing going?” Mike finally asked, breaking the silence.

  I slowly moved my gaze away from Nick and over to Mike. He was sitting next to Cassie with his arm across the back of her chair. A pang of jealousy rose in my chest. Why wasn’t Nick doing that to me? The pang quickly sparked into anger. Why was he even there if he was going to act like he didn’t want anything to do with me? Wait, why was he acting like he didn’t want anything to do with me? Did it have something to do with our conversation about the move? Or was he really done with us being together?

  My tone was completely flat as I answered Mike. “Ummmmm, it really hasn't been moving along at all. I don’t need to be out of my apartment until the last day of this month and I can’t move into my new place near the law school until the first of next. Cassie is going to help me get packed up over the next few days.”

  “I love me some packing and moving," Cassie started to say, "who am I kidding? I hate it so much the only person I will do it for is Jenna. Even then, I made her swear to keep me well supplied in wine and snacks the entire time.” Cassie was looking back and forth between Nick and me as she spoke.

  Nick shifted around in his chair and refused to look in my direction. There was something behind me he kept looking at that seemed to be distracting him. I finally reached my limit, he was acting stupid and I needed to get away from the table. “I'm going to go get another drink. Anyone else want anything? No? Okay. I'll be right back.” I jumped up and made a beeline for the bar.

  I had not even placed my drink order when I felt someone walk up behind me and stand very close. “Any chance you'd let me buy that drink for you?”

  I turned around and saw it was the blond guy who had been smiling at me when I was at the bar earlier. “Ummmmm...” I stammered.

  The guy put both of his hands up and gave me a big smile that showed off his amazingly white teeth. “No strings attached. I just think you are incredibly beautiful and wanted a reason to come talk to you.”

  I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I never went out much in college, and when I did, Brett was there so guys didn’t come up and hit on me. At least I think that’s what Mr. Blond Guy was doing. Maybe he could tell I was having a weird night and was just trying to be nice? I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I just decided to be polite. “Oh, thank you. Yes, that would be very nice of you to buy me a drink.”

  The guy seemed to like that answer because he moved closer to me and leaned up against the bar just a few inches from where I was standing. “No, thank you. The fact you said ‘yes’ to the drink means I get to stand here a little longer and talk to you some more.” Again, he flashed his perfect teeth in a big smile.

  An awkward giggle slipped out of my mouth and I blushed. Okay, I was pretty certain he was hitting on me and I really had no idea how to respond. The guy didn’t seem to care because he just kept talking. “So, I'm going to be honest and say I was watching you from across the room, trying to figure out how I was going to talk to you tonight. It looks like you're here with a group of friends, but not anyone in particular...”

  “She's here with me!” The guy was cut off by a deep voice I immediately recognized, but the tone was one I had never heard before. It was so sharp and harsh it put me on edge.

  “Nick?” I looked up at him as he rushed up to the bar and put his arm around my waist. His normally warm and caring brown eyes flamed with anger as he stared the guy down. Nick was practically growling as he stood there; his arm possessively wrapped around me, his nostrils flaring.

  This version of Nick was almost scary. I had never seen him like that before and wasn't quite sure
what was going on.

  The guy who had been talking to me didn’t even seem phased by the fact that Nick was several inches taller than him and was clearly pissed off. He turned to me and pointed at Nick. “Do you even know this guy?”

  “Yes, but-” I started, before being cut off.

  “I clearly fucking said she was with me so you had better back the fuck off. I've been watching you checking her out all night and I don’t fucking appreciate it.” Nick's voice was low and every word seemed to have extra emphasis on it.

  The guy stood up a little straighter, but Nick still towered over him. He looked at Nick with all his bravado and said, “Oh yeah? Maybe you better calm yourself down there cowboy, because you sure as hell weren’t acting like she was with you until this very moment.”

  What was happening? A crowd started to gather around us. This kind of stuff only happened in movies, not in real life. And definitely not to me. Nick’s grip on me tightened as he pulled me closer to him. I just stood there, my body completely tense and frozen in place.

  The guy turned and looked at me with a big, cocky smirk on his face. “Baby, I can guarantee you, if I had a woman as beautiful as you here with me tonight, every other guy in this whole damn place would know you were with me. I'm man enough to treat a woman right.”

  Everything seemed to shift into slow motion. The next thing I knew, Nick’s fist was flying into the guy’s face and blood was spurting from the guy’s nose. There was yelling and chaos as the employees ran over to intercede. Nick put both of his hands up and started walking away. No one paid him any attention, they were all focused on the other guy who was now bleeding all over the floor.

  I was standing there with my mouth open trying to wrap my mind around what had just happened when I felt someone grab my arm. “Jenna! Holy shit! Are you okay?” I slowly turned my head and saw Cassie holding on to my arm. “Nick flew up from the table and booked it over here. I thought he was going to come over and talk to you, but then I saw the crowd start to gather and - oh fuck! Did Nick punch that guy in the face?” Cassie was going about a million miles an hour as she took in the scene in front of her.