by Katee Robert
“Well, then.” He lifted his half-full glass. “To Betty.”
“To Betty.”
“I heard that.” Her voice drifted from the back room. “Stop stalling and take your shots. My grandmammy always said men were the weaker sex, and you’re bound and determined to prove her right.”
Jake chuckled, though the sound died as soon as it appeared. He swirled his whiskey, contemplating the amber liquid, and then downed the entire glass in one shot.
“Damn.” Travis whistled softly. “I know that look. You have woman trouble.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” Jake had never been the over-sharer type. He didn’t know what caused men to brag about the women they’d been with or to bitch about those same women being confusing and infuriating. He hadn’t been celibate since he and Jessie broke up, but he understood women.
Or he thought he had.
“I have some time, so talk. That’s why you asked me here, isn’t it?”
“This isn’t something that can be talked through. I fucked up. Now I just need to figure out how to fix it.” If he could fix it. That was the part that scared the shit out of him—he didn’t know if he could make this right. He loved Jessie, and he’d finally come to terms with it…right in time to fuck it up beyond all recognition.
Travis rotated to look at the rest of the room and propped his elbows on the bar. “Word of advice—don’t take the safe way out—flowers and chocolates and that shit. Do something that will have special significance to her. It’ll mean more, and she might stand still long enough for you to get down on your knees and beg for forgiveness.”
He wished it would be that easy. Right now, if he stood in front of Jessie, he couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t gun the engine and run his ass over. There had to be a way to do exactly what Travis had said—make her sit still long enough for him to convince her that it had been real for him, too. He’d given up Jessica Jackson once. He wasn’t about to do it again.
Jake cleared his throat. “You have a lot of experience with that sort of thing—the getting down on your knees and begging bit?”
Travis snorted and raked a hand through his hair. “There’s always a first time.”
The whiskey warmed his stomach, pushing him to move, to not wait any longer. Jake pushed to his feet, and then realized what a dick he was being. He turned, but Travis was already waving him off, the rock star’s attention straying to a woman who’d approached while Jake was distracted. Rae Evans. “Go get your woman.”
Looks like you might have already got yours. He nodded. “Look me up next time you’re in Dallas.”
He grinned. “I always do.”
Jake dug out a twenty and dropped it onto the bar. He hightailed it out of there before Betty could catch him paying for a drink that was supposed to be on the house. It didn’t matter that the woman had inherited a fortune from the same brother who owned the bar before her and didn’t need the money—it was principle.
The Texas heat bore down on him the moment he walked through the door. He slipped his sunglasses into place and looked around. At this point, short of kidnapping Jessie, he wasn’t going to get her to listen to him.
Which meant it was time to bring in the big guns.
***
Jessica rolled out of bed at noon. She’d fallen asleep around dawn after crying herself out. The sobbing jag left her numb and exhausted despite the sleep. She needed to call Cora and let her know when Jessica was arriving the next morning. She’d considered bumping her flight to today, but she needed some time to compose herself before she faced her friends. One look at her blotchy face and red eyes, and they’d know exactly how shitty this weekend was.
Brooklyn would be on the next flight over and she’d be gunning for Jake. Cora might not be as blunt as Brooklyn, but she’d still do something devious like sic the IRS on Diamond Dates or quietly sue them…
No, she couldn’t call either of her friends. And she couldn’t go home today. She’d gotten herself into the mess. She could get herself out of it.
Somehow.
She stopped in the bathroom and splashed some water on her face. It didn’t help. Anyone who looked at her would know that she was upset and had cried recently. Oh well. She needed to eat something and figure out her next step, and that meant she couldn’t keep hiding out in her room.
To be honest, she was so incredibly tired of hiding.
Going to LA hadn’t started out that way, but it’d definitely ended that way. She’d failed, and instead of trying to figure out a new plan, she’d just let the current take her. She loved her friends, but Jessica had buried her head in the sand for five years—longer, if she was going to be honest. She made it to the kitchen without running into either of her parents and started a pot of coffee.
Her mama chose that moment to pounce. “You were home early last night.”
Jessica stared at the coffee maker and put serious thought into crawling out the kitchen window over the sink. Running away was the very thing she was supposed to be working on, so she took a deep breath and turned to face her mother.
“Oh, Jessica. You look positively awful.”
“Gee, thanks, Mama.” She watched her mama rush to the refrigerator. “What are you doing?”
“You need some cucumbers on those bags under your eyes. They’re horrid.”
Enough was enough. “Mama, stop.” She didn’t wait for her to listen, plowing on. “You know, normal mothers would ask me what happened and why I was upset. They wouldn’t instantly jump to worrying about my looks.”
“You won’t find a man to take care of you while you look like that.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jessica swiped her fingers through her hair, half sure her head was about to explode. There was no backing down from this conversation now, and for once she didn’t want to. “Mama, I love you. I do. But your priorities are so off that it would be funny if it wasn’t so damaging. I am beautiful. I would be beautiful at any weight, and with any color hair, and with bags under my eyes that put George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush to shame. Why can’t you see that?”
Her mama paled. “I know you’re beautiful.”
Jessica had never heard her sound so subdued, but she wasn’t about to stop now that she’d gotten started. “And for that matter, stop trying to fix me and Drew. Our priorities are not your priorities. I don’t want a man to ‘take care’ of me. I want to be a strong, independent woman who can take care of herself. Any man I’m with had better respect that.” She didn’t feel much like a strong, independent woman after crying her eyes out over Jake, but that was beside the point.
“You are strong. You’ve always been strong.”
Just like that, her tears were back. “Mama, I don’t know what to do.”
Her mama crossed the kitchen and hugged her. For the first time in her life, instead of offering a shopping trip or to go get their nails done, she said, “Let’s get that coffee poured, and you can tell me about it. It might help. This is about that b—Jake.”
“It is.” Her mama guided her to a chair and poured them each a mug of coffee. Jessica let the warmth soak into her hands and sighed. “He set me up. I thought he really wanted a second chance, but he just wanted a chance to pay me back for leaving him.”
Her mama snorted. “Hardly.”
“Excuse me?” Jessica shot her a dark look. “That is not a helpful thing to say, Mama.”
“For goodness sake, this is as new for me as it is for you.” She tore three packets of Splenda and dumped them into her mug. “I don’t like that boy. I never have. He’s not good enough for you, and even if he’s richer than sin now, he’ll never be good enough for you.” She stirred her coffee. “But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s loved you since he set eyes on you, and still does.”
“But—”
“Trust your mama, Jessica. Did I o
r did I not predict every win you ever had just by watching the judges?”
“Well…sure.” She’d always found her mama’s ability to read pageant judges to be one step short of supernatural. “But I don’t see how that applies.”
“Jake loves you. I doubt he stopped loving you these last ten years. It’s absolutely ridiculous that he let you go and didn’t track you down, but you were both so young, maybe it was for the best.”
It was eerily close to what Jessica had told Jake just yesterday. She shifted in her chair. “He still lied to me.”
“If we start listing the horrible things you’ve done to each other, we’ll be here all day. You played those awful little games with him in high school, and if I remember correctly, he gave as good as he got.”
Yeah, he had. Because the games ended the second they were alone. Then it was just Jessica and Jake and the entire world could burn for all they cared. The games were just silly ways of feeding into her need from drama at the time—anything to help her forget the pressure of living under her parents’ roof. “This is different.”
“No, it’s not. You hurt him terribly when you left him, right decision or no. Can you say what you’re feeling now is anything compared to that?”
She glared, but there was no heat in it. “You’re supposed to be on my side. That’s how this works.”
“I am on your side, which is why I’m telling you that if you leave Jake Davis in your rearview mirror for the second time without giving him a chance to make it up to you, you’ll never forgive yourself.” Her mama reached across the table and covered one of Jessica’s hands with hers. “You love that boy as much as he loves you. What would one conversation hurt to figure out if this thing can really be fixed?”
Jessica managed a faint smile. “You know, Mama, you’re pretty good at this kind of thing when you try.”
Her mama wouldn’t quite meet her gaze. “If I promise to try… Can we talk more often? I miss you terribly when you’re gone.”
Maybe it was time to repair the loose threads she’d left dangling when she blew out of Catfish Creek. “I’d like that.” She turned her hand over and gave her mama’s hand a squeeze. “I’d like that a lot.”
And now it was time to find Jake and tie up this last loose thread once and for all.
Chapter Twelve
Jake looked at the spread in front of him and wondered for the twelfth time in as many minutes if he was doing the right thing. His phone rang, and he frowned at the number for a few moments, but finally answered. “Jake Davis.”
“Where are you?”
He went hot and then cold at the sound of Jessie’s voice in his ear. “I need to apologize again.”
“I think it’d be better if we talked face to face. Where are you?”
There was no turning back now, even if he wanted to. He’d let Jessica Jackson get away once before, and he’d be damned before he sat back and let her walk out of his life a second time. “The old drive-in.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
He didn’t ask how she was getting there. In the end, it didn’t matter. It was still the longest ten minutes of Jake’s life. When he saw Jennifer Jackson’s shiny silver Audi bumping along the road to where he’d parked his truck, he breathed a silent sigh of relief. Now wasn’t the time for relief, though.
It was time to double down.
He met Jessie as she climbed out of the car. Her gaze went over his shoulder to the shit he’d spent the last hour setting up, but he had things to say before they got there. “I’m sorry.”
“You know, we seem to be in an eternal circle of apologizing to each other.” She gave a faint smile.
A smile was better than shoving him into traffic. Jake held out a hand. “I have some things to say if you’re willing to listen.”
“I have some things to say, too.” She hesitantly put her hand in his. “But you can go first.”
“Much obliged.” He led her to where he’d laid out something of a picnic in the bed of his truck. It was late enough in the evening that the heat had finally broken, but he still questioned the intelligence of choosing this location. “Sit here.”
She let him set her on the tailgate and eyed the food. “What’s all this?”
“We have a lot of history, love. Good, and bad, and even a bit ugly at times. Hard to know a person for most of your life and not have bad to salt the good.” He took her hand again, because standing so close to her without touching felt downright wrong. “I’ve loved you since I was ten years old and decided right here at this theater that one day I’d marry you.”
She laughed. “I remember. You twisted a ring out of the long grass and then tackled me when I wouldn’t wear it. My mama was all kinds of mad about the grass stains on my dress.”
“We were at this very theater for our first date. I let you pick the movie even though my friends gave me a boatload of shit.” He held up his free hand when she opened her mouth. “And we were here when we fogged up the windows while we made love the first time.”
“Where are you going with this, Jake?”
He took a deep breath. “My point is that we have a whole lot more history that that single moment where you left—and the other moment when I lied. Catfish Creek is our past, but that doesn’t mean that we have to be in the past. I love you, Jessica Jackson. I love you so much, it makes me crazy, and I say and do the stupidest shit sometimes, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’ve been living half a life for the last ten years. I missed out being with you for a full fucking decade. That was just as much my fault as yours. If you give me a chance, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
Jessie looked away. “Jake.”
“A chance, Jessie. That’s all I’m asking for.”
“Oh, hush. You know very well that I love the holy hell out of you. I’ve admitted as much several times in the last forty-eight hours, though maybe not in as many words. I…” She took a big breath. “I overreacted. I was embarrassed and off-center after that confrontation with Leah, and neither of those things are an excuse, but I need you to know where I was coming from. I let my temper and hurt speak for me, and I said some terrible things.”
“I think it’s safe to say we both said terrible things.” He held perfectly still, determined not to interrupt her again.
“As a wise woman recently pointed out to me, our relationship has been nothing but ups and downs, and that’s part of what makes it ours. And if you’re willing to forgive what I did when we were eighteen, I’d have to be some kind of special self-righteous asshole not to forgive you now.”
He couldn’t draw a full breath. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying yes, Jake. Yes, to trying, to figuring this out, to us. I love you like crazy, and I think that after all we’ve been through, a little thing like a couple of states’ distance between us is a minor hurdle.”
He kissed her. She framed his face with her hands and kissed him back, keeping the contact light and sweet before she leaned over to look at the food. “Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Popcorn and Milk Duds. Takeout from The Hamburger Shack.” Her eyes went wide. “You recreated the food from our firsts here? Oh, my God, have I mentioned lately that I love you?”
“It might have come up. We’ve had so many firsts here. I couldn’t think of a better place to take the first step into the future with you.” He stepped between her knees and wrapped his arms around her. “The rest of our lives starts now, love. And I wouldn’t want to spend it with anyone but you.
The End
A Bad Boy Homecoming
Thank you so much for reading Prom Queen! Jake and Jessica’s story is part of the fun and sexy Bad Boy Homecoming series. Each book is a complete stand-alone but we hope you’ll go through each of the romances to see your favorite characters make special appearances and see just how the reunion went down. Ea
ch book carries at least one of our favorite tropes as well as a few high school flashbacks that make us smile and shake our heads. If you enjoyed the book, we’d love if you would please leave a review to show us how much. Reviews help authors every day and we totally appreciate it.
Thank you for coming to the Bad Boy Homecoming reunion and we hope you’ll not only find a romance you love, but a few authors as well.
Happy Reading!
The Books of Bad Boy Homecoming
Dropout by Carrie Ann Ryan
Trouble by Avery Flynn
Prom Queen by Katee Robert
Honor by Kennedy Layne
Rock Star Stacey Kennedy
About Katee Robert and Her Books
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katee Robert learned to tell her stories at her grandpa’s knee. Her 2015 title, The Marriage Contract, was a RITA finalist, and RT Book Reviews named it “a compulsively readable book with just the right amount of suspense and tension.” When not writing sexy contemporary and romantic suspense, she spends her time playing imaginary games with her children, driving her husband batty with what-if questions, and planning for the inevitable zombie apocalypse.
www.kateerobert.com
The Hidden Sins Series
Book 1: The Devil’s Daughter
Book 2: The Hunting Grounds
The O’Malley Series
Book 1: The Marriage Contract
Book 2: The Wedding Pact
Book 3: An Indecent Proposal
Book 4: Forbidden Promises
Book 5: Undercover Attraction
The Foolproof Love Series
Book 1: A Foolproof Love
Book 2: Fool Me Once
Book 3: A Fool for You
Out of Uniform Series
Book 1: In Bed with Mr. Wrong
Book 1.5: His to Keep
Book 2: Falling for His Best Friend
Book 3: His Lover to Protect
