Stuck in the Moment

by Tracie Puckett

  Chapter Two

  I didn’t know what to make of Jasper’s warning.

  Roz wasn’t sure we should take him too seriously. We don’t even know the guy, she reminded us. Maybe he’s a scorned ex-lover, and he’s trying to ruin anything that’ll make her happy.

  Mel seemed to think we should at least consider what he’d asked of us. Guys, we don’t really know Carter as well as her friends back home. Maybe he’s right.

  We locked up The Red Barn and went our separate ways for the night, each of us feeling a little uncertain. We’d gone from excited to discouraged in a matter of minutes, and we couldn’t come to an agreement on what to do next. Continue planning? Call it off? Dig around, see if we can find out more?

  Canceling the party wasn’t any kind of option, as far as I was concerned, so I chose to do the latter.

  Carter and her mom, Nora, rented the house next door to ours, and I took the short walk from the barn over to their rental. It was, like my home, a modest place right at the edge of town.

  I knocked on the back door just as the sun was setting over the front of the house.

  “Ally, sweetheart,” Nora said, opening the door. “Carter’s not home from work yet.”

  “I know, I’m sorry,” I said, shifting my feet. “I’m here to see you. Do you have a minute?”

  “Yeah,” she said, opening the door a little farther. “Come in.”

  I took her invitation, coming through the back door and into the kitchen. She returned to the stove to stir whatever she’d put on for dinner, and then she looked over her shoulder and smiled.

  I missed moments like that. I missed the days of having a family to come home to and a warm dinner at the end of each night. Nora looked at me the way a mother was supposed to look at her daughter—and I wasn’t even her child. I was just the neighbor—the girl next door. Someone who’d befriended her daughter.

  “What’s on your mind, sweetheart?”

  “Well . . . ”

  I took a deep breath, knowing that Roz and Mel would kill me if I told Nora about the party. We’d done our best to keep the secret from even her, hoping to avoid the risk that Carter would find out. We’d simply promised them a nice dinner, some cake, and a night of trick-or-treating to celebrate, which guaranteed that neither of them would make other plans for the night of the party.

  “I wanted to ask about something,” I said. “Or someone, I guess. Something weird happened tonight.”

  “Okay?” She moved from the stove to the cupboards and pulled down three plates. She stopped at a drawer and retrieved three sets of silverware. “What happened?”

  I wanted to ask about the guest list, find out exactly who this Jasper kid was and why he thought it was such a horrible idea to invite Carter’s friends and family from Cedar Lake, but I couldn’t find the right words.

  I was still shaken by how adamant he was when he stormed out of the barn. You have one day to shut this down, or I’ll come in here and shut it down myself.

  I couldn’t understand why he’d care so much.

  “Ally?” Nora looked to me as she continued setting the table, and I counted the place settings again. She’d set three spots—two for her and Carter, I assumed, and the other for . . .

  “Do you have company?”

  The extra dinnerware wasn’t for me; Nora knew as well as I did that I was cutting it extremely close to my nightly curfew, so there was no hope that I could stick around for dinner.

  “We do, actually,” she said. “I got a surprise visit from my nephew today. He’s just washing up, and Carter will be home any minute. Did you want to call your dad and ask to stay? I can set another place.”

  “No, no, it’s fine,” I said, wishing I could. “I have to get home soon. I was just—”

  “Ally Montgomery,” a familiar voice said, and I closed my eyes at the sound of my name. I turned to find Jasper standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the hall. He looked a little bit smugger than he had any right to. “I should’ve figured I hadn’t seen the last of you.”

  “I’m not easily scared away.”

  Jasper glared at me, and I held his stare, determined to make my point—he wasn’t going to push me around. He’d had no right to show up today and make the demands he made, threatening to cancel a party I’d worked so hard to put together.

  Through the awkward silence, Nora looked between the two of us.

  “Did I miss something here?” she asked. “Do you two know each other?”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Jasper said, still holding my gaze. “Ally, can I steal you for a second?”

  “For?”

  “A quick chat?”

  “I’m listening.”

  “In the other room?” he asked, nodding behind him. “Please?”

  I bit my lip.

  Why bother? It’s not like anything I could say would change his mind. And he couldn’t say anything to change mine. He’d made it perfectly clear that he wasn’t okay with what we were planning for Carter, and I wasn’t going to let him bully me into changing the plan.

  I didn’t know this guy. I didn’t care to get to know him. He hadn’t even tried to explain himself; all he’d done was insert his opinion where it didn’t belong. I didn’t owe him anything—not even the quick chat he’d asked for.

  “Please?” he asked again, and I rolled my eyes.

  “Fine.”

  I followed him as he turned down the hall and into the living room at the front of the house.

  “So you’re Carter’s cousin?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Nora is my mother’s sister.”

  “So why couldn’t you say that out there?” I crossed my arms at my chest. “You didn’t exactly introduce yourself. You didn’t even try to explain the situation. You gave me nothing but attitude.”

  I don’t know why I was being so defensive. It was my natural reaction after the way he’d spoken to me down at the barn. It was my instant instinct to hate Jasper, despite the fact that he was attractive—from his styled auburn hair to his blue eyes, and all the way down to his Chuck Taylor shoes. He was beautiful, I’d give him that. But I wouldn’t let that sway me.

  “Well?”

  “I shouldn’t have to explain anything,” he said.

  “That’s where you’re wrong. Look at this from where I’m standing. I don’t know who you are, what you want, or why you’re being such a jerk. But I can promise you that I’m not going to let you come in here and—”

  “Listen, I’m only—”

  “What?” I said. “Trying to take something good from Carter? My friends and I have worked really hard to put this party together for her, and we haven’t done a single thing wrong.”

  “I can’t agree with that.”

  “All we want is to throw a party she’ll never forget.”

  “And you’re well on your way to doing that,” he mumbled, but then something stopped him from finishing his thought.

  There was torture in his eyes again—restraint, something that kept him from saying exactly what he wanted to say to me. I could see the torment he tried to hide in his expression, and his eyes wandered as he searched his mind.

  “Carter hates surprises,” he said.

  “It’s a good surprise.”

  “You think that makes a difference?” He took a step forward. “Throwing this party will only set her up for heartbreak.”

  “That’s a little dramatic, don’t you think?”

  “Hear me out,” he said, and I swallowed hard as Jasper stepped closer.

  He made me nervous. My stomach was in knots—not from anger or uncertainty, but from something else entirely. There was this fluttering physical response to his closeness that made me suddenly aware of my heart. The fast beats. The loud thumps. I could feel it in my throat and in my stomach. It was nauseating.

  But then I focused on the warmth in his blue eyes, this silent sincerity that promised good intentions.

  My brain told me to hate him
—he was trying to ruin the party, the only good thing I had going on in my life! But my heart told me to trust him. He’d given me no reason to trust his intentions, and yet he’d put my mind and heart at war with a single glance—a plea to hear him out.

  “Fine,” I said, stammering over that one word. “What kind of heartbreak?”

  The front door opened before he had a chance to answer, and Carter turned into the room. Shutting the door behind her, she draped her jacket on a nearby coatrack before spinning around to find Jasper and me in the dark living room.

  “Ally?” Her eyes immediately shot to her cousin. “Jasper?”

  “Hey, you,” he said, opening his arms as she rushed past me to hug him.

  “Oh my god, what are you doing here?”

  Jasper looked over her shoulder and met my eyes, and I could sense him on the verge of answering her question—spoiling the secret I’d tried so hard to keep from my friend. I couldn’t ask him not to. I couldn’t say anything, not without raising suspicion. All I could do was meet his stare.

  “Please,” I mouthed, shaking my head.

  He watched me for another beat, and then he pulled away from her hug.

  “I hadn’t seen you guys in a while,” he lied. “Just wanted to swing by and check in.”

  “Swing by?” she asked, studying him closer. “You live two hours away.”

  “Quick drive,” he said. “It was nothing.”

  “So then how long are you here? Are you staying?”

  “For a few days, yeah.”

  “What about the bakery?”

  “It’s in good hands,” he said. “And I had some vacation time. I thought I’d drive out and spend a few days with my two favorite gals.”

  A smile tugged at her lips, but then a wave of disappointment crossed her face.

  “I wish you would’ve called,” she said. “I have school, and I’m working most every night this week; I could’ve asked for time off.”

  “It was a last minute thing,” he said. “A surprise, I guess.”

  “I hate surprises,” she said, and Jasper cut a look to me, one that could’ve only meant that he’d successfully proven his point. “But I’m still glad you’re here. And you’ve met Ally!”

  “Yeah,” he nodded, and they both turned to look at me.

  I should’ve noticed the family resemblance the first time I saw him in the barn.

  Maybe I had noticed it. That unidentifiable something that seemed so familiar was familiar, after all. He and Carter looked a lot alike—reddish-brown hair, soft facial features, and dimpled smiles. And those eyes! There was no denying their shared DNA. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t put it together on the spot. If Jasper hadn’t stood a foot taller than her, I would’ve sworn they were twins.

  “I was just on my way out,” I said, nodding to the front door.

  “Out?” Carter asked. “I just got here.”

  “I know, but . . . ”

  I didn’t want to risk being trapped alone with the two of them any longer. She could ask questions—starting with why Jasper and I were alone together in the dark living room, especially since we’d never met.

  “I forgot you were working tonight, so I stopped by,” I lied. “But now I’m late. Dad was expecting me ten minutes ago.”

  That part wasn’t a lie, and Dad would make sure I accounted for each and every one of those minutes that’d kept me away from my seven o’clock curfew. And that meant I had to come up with another lie, because I certainly couldn’t tell him about Jasper.

  “Your mom’s finishing up dinner,” he said, cutting a look to Carter. “We were just waiting for you.”

  “Oh, okay,” she said. “I’ll let her know I’m home.”

  Carter disappeared to the back of the house, and once I was certain she was in the kitchen and out of earshot, I looked back to Jasper.

  “Thank you,” I said, and I didn’t have to say for what. He could’ve ruined everything right then and there, and for whatever reason, he’d chosen not to.

  “I’m begging you to call this off,” he pled again, ignoring my thanks, but I only shrugged.

  “I can’t do that,” I said. “I won’t.”

  “So that’s it?” he asked. “It falls on my shoulders to undo this mess you’ve made?”

  “You won’t undo anything.”

  “You’ve left me no other choice.”

  “So then what do you plan to do, Jasper?”

  “Everything I have to,” he said. “Anything I have to do to make sure that party doesn’t happen. I can’t let you go through with this. You’re going to ruin everything.”