by Ward, Alice
It was damn time I started acting like it.
I went for the outfit he’d given me, the high-low dress without the leather jacket. I styled my hair into loose waves, put on my knee-high boots, applied just enough make-up to look like I actually gave a shit about myself and then plowed my way out the door.
Only, as I climbed into the back of the cab, as we drove down his street, I started to second guess myself. Maybe this wasn’t the way to go about things. I had classes in an hour. I had a life to get back to. What was I going to do if it turned out that he really had moved on? I didn’t have time to be a wreck, not after falling apart after Sean, not after spending more than a week back home dealing with all the family stuff. I needed to focus on the last two months of college before I ended up having to repeat an entire semester.
If Jace had moved on, if he’d made me the other woman, I couldn’t deal with that. I figured it was better just not knowing, avoiding the problem. Whatever his excuses, whatever his reasons, the truth was staring at me in the face; it was over. So, just before the cabbie stopped at his house, I had him turn around, had him drive me back to campus.
“Change your mind, missy?” the man asked, flipping a U-turn at the end of the street.
It didn’t sound like there was any judgment in his voice, but I still couldn’t help the guilt flooding through me. Apparently, I was even more of a lovesick puppy than I’d thought because I just wasn’t brave enough to try and face the truth.
That would be the theme of the day.
I avoided the coffee shop. Turned off my cell phone. When someone started knocking at my door—probably him--I ignored it completely and pretended like I wasn’t home. And when Becca finally showed up, I declined her offer of heading out to see the band. Jace hadn’t shown up to see me. What made him think I was going to show up to see him?
“Okay, Andy. Last chance,” Becca said, standing in the doorway, ready to leave. “You know that man is going to show up here and drag you out of that bed.”
“No, Becca, he’s not,” I said, turning away from my studies to glare at her. “And I don’t want him knowing I’m here.”
Her brows creased in concern and confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“A woman answered his phone last night, Becca. A woman.”
Her head shot back in shock and disbelief. “Are you sure?”
“Am I sure it was a woman? Of course I’m fucking sure! I’m not an idiot, Becca. I can tell the difference between a man’s voice and a woman’s voice. Besides, he hasn’t shown up to see me, so why the hell should I go?”
“But, Andy, there has to be a good reason. He wouldn’t just not show up for no reason.” Becca started playing with her lip ring. I could tell that something was off, that she didn’t know any more about Jace’s strange behavior than I did.
“Do you know what that good reason might be?” I asked, calling her out.
Becca’s eyes fell to the floor as she released a heavy sigh. “No,” she admitted. “Honestly, I’ve been a little confused myself. Before you left, while you were gone, he was all about spending every minute with you. You’ve been back for more than twenty-four hours and he hasn’t even bothered to show up. He called me and I told him to come see you, but I didn’t ask why he hadn’t already. I figured you two had talked about it. When you didn’t answer the door, he called me to ask why. I hadn’t seen you other than last night, so I didn’t have an answer.”
“Well, now you do,” I said, going back to the studies that I had been trying to catch up on before all the arguing had started. “And I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell him anything. Let him worry. Let him figure it out for himself. He—he promised me more than Sean had to offer. And I thought that he had it. I thought—“ My voice cracked. I shook my head to dispel the depressing train of thought. “It doesn’t matter what I thought. It’s over and I’m done. I have a life and I’m ready to fucking live it.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, quietly shutting the door behind her and leaving me in peace.
But what I had wasn’t peace at all.
It was anger, overwhelming sadness and pain, and a broken heart. But life had to go on. There had to be life after the sexy rocker god, even if it felt empty without him in it, even if my heart told me that nothing would ever feel the same.
***
For two days, I’d managed to avoid Jace completely. I hadn’t answered any of his calls. I’d pretended I wasn’t there every time he showed up at the dorms. I skirted to and from classes like a stealth ninja. And I hadn’t had anything but stale cafeteria coffee because I refused to go to the coffee shop.
But day three was when it all came crashing down around me.
I was on my way back to the dorms, trying to make it there as quickly as possible. But, as I crossed the commons to try and make my way to the dorms, I spotted him in the courtyard, just outside the coffee shop, in all his tattooed, ratty jeans, sexy haired glory. And he was laughing. With his arm around the waist of a woman. A little girl, no more than maybe four-years-old, hanging on his leg.
I must have choked on my own heart because I was pretty sure I’d died right then and there. But I couldn’t die. I had to get out of sight. I needed to know who this girl was. I had to know how I could have been fooled for so long, how he could fuck me behind speakers and run away to Seattle with me for a week, tell me he loved me in the shower when he had this beautiful, dark-haired beauty and a child.
So, instead of falling to the ground and letting the ambulance take me away after declaring me dead on arrival, I took my dead body and forced it to slink across the courtyard. I forced myself to edge up to the side of the coffee shop, just out of sight, but close enough to hear. As painful as it was, I strained to listen to their conversation, forced my ears to hone in on his heart-fluttering laughter that was now making me sick to my stomach. Made myself listen to her perfect fairy laugh of the woman on his arm and the laughter of the child tugging at him, begging for another ride.
“Maybe in a little while,” he told the girl, leaning down to ruffle her hair. “I need to talk to mommy for a minute. Why don’t you go hide and I’ll come find you in a bit. Just don’t go too far.”
“Can I hide over there?” the dark-haired child asked, pointing over in my direction.
My heart reminded me that I was, in fact, still breathing because it skipped a few beats as I shoved myself against the wall. Had he seen me? Did he know I was there?
“No, that’s a little too far,” he said. “How about over there, by the trees.”
I waited a few minutes to see if he would come around the building. I needed to be sure he hadn’t seen me before I started eavesdropping again. When he didn’t, I went back to peering around the building.
The little girl wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding; I could see her over by the tree, her legs poking out from around the trunk. But she wasn’t the object of my attention; I was more concerned with the woman Jace was talking to. Tall, slender, perfectly shiny dark hair, clothes that screamed money.
I needed a picture. Becca would never believe me if I just told her. This was... not even I would have seen this coming, him flaunting his indiscretions, right out in the open like that. I slid back into hiding to unearth my cell phone from my purse and then opened up the camera application. When I popped back out, phone poised and ready, I saw exactly what I already knew... I had been the standby, the other woman.
His lips were on her cheek. Those lips that had kissed me with such passion, such fire, so much emotion. Those lips that had professed love for me were telling this woman, a woman that I’d never met and had known nothing about, the exact same thing.
“I’ll see you back at the apartment,” he told her, his smile unmistakably made just for her. “I love you.”
I never took the picture. I just fell against the wall, slid down it onto the concrete beneath my feet. Sobbed quietly to myself, arms wrapped around my legs, head resting on my knees, as I waited for the
m to leave.
I never wanted to see Jace Richardson again.
Not only had I been lied to, not only had he broken my heart, he’d made me the other woman. He was just like his dad, only I was the vixen that he’d abandoned his family for, that he’d gotten his kicks from, only to be tossed aside. And she—she was oblivious. She had to be. Because a woman that looked like that wouldn’t have ever put up with that kind of behavior.
Part of me wanted to chase after them, tell her the truth, expose Jace for the lying, cheating bastard that he was. But I just didn’t have the energy in me. I couldn’t force my broken heart to care enough about her. She was the one he was with, and she’d find out eventually.
I hoped.
Because no one deserved this. Not me, and not any other woman that he might run to down the road. Women that were nothing more than mere playthings. Women that were disposable. Women that he could woo and sweep off their feet, only to leave them reduced to nothing more than an empty, sobbing mess. He really was the misogynistic bastard that I’d thought he was in the beginning. I’d been right all along, right from the beginning.
If only I’d listened to my instincts. If only I’d told him no when he asked for six weeks of my life.
If only...
I could have built my life around if only.
But that’s the thing about hindsight, isn’t it? It’s always crystal clear.
End of Part 4
To Be Continued in Part 5…
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THE RECKLESS SERIES – RELEASE SCHEDULE
Part 1: October 10
Part 2: October 24
Part 3: November 7
Part 4: November 21
Part 5: December 5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alice Ward is the author of the New Adult series, RECKLESS.
Reading and Writing romance is her passion and she writes with her true heart.
Living in Miami, the beach is her favorite place to relax with her laptop and write her next spicy romance.
However, when she is not reading or writing romance, she also enjoys being with her beautiful family.
COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER
This book was a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 Alice Ward
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of the trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
