by Alexis Anne
Jennie cocked an eyebrow and rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” Then she pulled me onto the porch where the grill was hot and ready for the steak we’d prepared for dinner. I plopped onto the lounge chair closest to the grill while Jennie busied herself with arranging the tongs and food. “Talk.”
“Nope.” I was sticking with single word answers. They were concise and effective.
“Yes.” Jennie countered. “Now.”
I stuck my tongue out at her and shrugged my shoulders. “Miserable.”
“I would be, too.” She let me be for a minute while she arranged the first round of steaks on the grill, then shut the lid and sat down beside me. “Has Jake lost his mind?”
I snort-laughed, it was very unlike me. “I’m wondering that myself.”
“When you called to invite us over, I thought you were joking.”
I took a deep breath and tried to focus through the mojito fog. “He’s determined and I think that in his mind, tonight is proving some kind of point.”
“That he’s insane?” Jennie asked slowly.
“That he’s not his past.”
Jennie’s eyes softened. “Oh. Crap.”
“I know. I just couldn’t get mad over it. He’s clearly fighting Ashley and his past whether he realizes it or not. And he doesn’t want to talk about it… or maybe I didn’t want to talk about it. We just got home… things are supposed to be perfect for a while, aren’t they?”
Jennie rubbed my arm and stood back up to check the steaks. “It’s just dinner. If Jake needs this, then we’ll all get through this together, for Jake.”
“I don’t trust her.” I confessed.
“I don’t blame you. I don’t either.”
Her camaraderie made me feel a little better. “My instincts tell me there is more to her than meets the eye. I trust Jake. I know he loves me and he’d never hurt me like that. But her… that is another story. I can’t explain it. I just have a bad vibe.”
Jennie glanced down at me. “Slow down on the alcohol. We don’t want a scene.”
***
We seriously have the best friends. They kept Ashley distracted for most of the dinner. Unfortunately the more I learned about her, the more human she became to me. I think Greg was catching on to that fact because he suddenly turned into Greg the Storyteller. He commanded the rest of the dinner with one hilarious story after another.
“And then Jake starts yelling at the bartender in German, which just totally confused the moron since we were in England, and instead of throwing us out, he poured us each a pint of Guinness and told us we needed to chill the fuck out.”
Jake hung his head while he laughed quietly. His cheeks were a little red with embarrassment and it was kind of adorable. “Ok, ok… stop now before you tell them my real secrets!”
Greg grinned and his eyes were positively mischievous. “Oh, trust me, I’m saving those. It’s always good to have ammunition.”
Jake shook his head and grinned back. Oh, there was so much between those two I still had to learn. “Can I say something serious?” Jake asked looking around the table. “Good. First I want to thank all of you for coming over tonight. I really want to celebrate the selling of The Nugget and wish my friend Ashley well with her new opportunities at Steele Industries. I know she’s going to set them on fire.”
Ashley blushed and basked under Jake’s praise.
I wanted to vomit.
“Thank you Jake.” She had one of those soft, feminine voices that made my skin crawl.
Greg rolled his eyes while Jennie and Andrew both smiled politely.
“I’m sure,” she continued with the oddest smile on her face, “That you’ll do just fine here as well.”
I thought it was a really strange statement and I was glad to see an equally confused look on Greg’s face, but Jake seemed to simply brush it aside. He smiled and raised his glass before finishing off his whiskey.
I studied her as we all finished off our dinners. She was dressed in a simple blue dress that complimented her eyes and skin. Her red hair was smoothly styled over one shoulder and her makeup was perfect. She was flawless.
It was her lack of imperfections that really struck me. No one was that perfect.
Her smiles were so practiced and her laugh never quite seemed genuine. Everything about her looked perfect and sweet, but just beneath the surface there was a hint of something else. I just wasn’t sure what.
I pushed back my chair and started gathering plates. Jake hopped up and grabbed the garbage can, helping me clear the table. He moved closer and closer until he was right behind me. I could feel his warmth a moment before he pressed into me.
All the tension I’d been fighting melted away and I took a deep breath. It was amazing how Jake could relax me just by touching me. Maybe I could forgive him for inviting her over to dinner.
Maybe.
It was really unlike him to ask something like this from me, so whatever was driving his need to have her over for dinner was obviously deep-seated. And that kind of scared me.
Jake knew I couldn’t stand her.
He placed his hand lightly on my hip and nibbled at my earlobe before whispering in my ear, “I can’t wait to kick all these people out of our house so I can have my way with you.”
I turned my head so that I could look at him and whispered back, “That makes two of us.”
Jake’s eyes sparkled and he squeezed my hip before winking and moving around me to finish clearing the garbage.
I was dumbfounded. This Jake was a complete mystery to me.
“Can I get that for you?” Greg asked, holding out his hands for the last of the dishes.
“Sure,” I replied.
He followed me into the kitchen, setting the stack on the sink. “So… tonight sucks.”
I laughed. “Yep. Sure does.”
“You doing ok?” He was genuinely concerned. His blue eyes were full of empathy.
“I am,” I replied. “I’m just confused.”
He huffed. “That makes two of us.”
“Well crap. If you don’t know what’s going on with him and I don’t know what’s going on with him…”
Greg shook his head and leaned back against the counter with his arms crossed over his broad chest. “He never knew how to handle her and this is his way of proving a point.”
“A point?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he pulled me into a brotherly bear hug. “I think our boy is trying to send Ashley off into the sunset with the visual of him happy here. He thinks it will get through her head.”
“You don’t?” I didn’t like the way Greg had said “thinks”.
He sighed. “I honestly don’t know. It just worries me.”
“What are we going to do with my sweet, blind husband?”
Greg chuckled and gave me a squeeze before letting me go. “Let him work through this on his own and get his back like we always do.”
“Thanks for being his friend.” I didn’t have the proper words in that moment to adequately tell Greg how much I loved having him as part of our family.
Greg stopped moving and simply nodded. He opened his mouth to reply but stopped when Jennie pranced in. “Let’s get these dishes clean so we can have some fun!”
Jake had disappeared with Andrew to show him his latest cigar purchase while Jennie and Greg tackled the dishwasher, so I wandered into my library to escape all the weirdness I was feeling. The moment I was through the door I felt more at peace. This was my sanctuary. It was a place where all I had to do was pull a book—any book—off the shelf and I could escape into another world for a few minutes. I ran my hands along the book spines not really looking at the titles. I wasn’t looking for something to read, just a momentary connection to that feeling of escape.
That was when she walked in. It was taking everything I had to not yell at her. Because I really just wanted to scream, “Get out!” but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t go over so well on Miss Sweet and Delicate.
She stepped inside with confidence, but seemed to suddenly second guess her decision and shrink back, but it was too late to leave. Her blue eyes narrowed and she forced a smile onto her porcelain face.
For just a moment I daydreamed about using her face for pitching practice.
“Can I help you?” I tried to say it nicely, but it didn’t quite come across that way. I really wanted her out of my house, out of my life, and out of my marriage.
To her credit, she didn’t flinch or waver in any way. “Everyone seems to have disappeared.” I wasn’t buying her sweet and delicate routine for a minute.
“Jake and Andrew are upstairs, Greg is probably smoking on the porch, and who knows where the hell Jennie went.”
“Jennie used to live here with you?”
Her question irritated me. “Yes, off and on since college. Sometimes she forgets this isn’t her house anymore and disappears. She’s probably freaking out because we redid the house after the wedding.”
Ashley nodded as if that was an acceptable answer. “This room is beautiful.” She walked over to the brown leather couch and ran her hands over the top cushion, which only irritated me more.
“Jake has his office, I have a library.”
“You’ve read all these books?”
I shook my head, “No, I collect them. I like knowing there is always something new to find.”
Then she wandered over to the window that looked out over the backyard. “It is very peaceful here.”
For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why we were having a conversation. “Can we stop with the pleasantries and talk honestly for a minute?”
She spun to face me, her face a complete blank. I wished I could read her, maybe then I’d be able to understand the things I was feeling about her. I desperately wanted to know if it was my own fears coming through, or something I really needed to worry about.
Jake’s bizarre behavior was throwing off my usual radar and I was really confused by all the extreme things I was feeling.
“I think that would be good for both of us. Eve, I’m honestly here for business and nothing else.”
There were a thousand unspoken meanings to her words and I heard them all. It was in the cadence of her words and the rise and fall of her voice. I had no doubt in my mind she came here hoping to rekindle her relationship with Jake. Her disappointment was palpable and her conviction was thin at best—she was saying she had no interest in Jake to convince herself as much as me.
This was no time to doubt my instincts. If I had a bad feeling about her, then I needed to trust myself.
“I honestly find that hard to believe.”
She blinked a couple of times, but didn’t move. “You have always infatuated him, he came back for you, he married you. I’m fairly certain I lost this war before it even started, Eve.”
I tried not to smile. It took everything I had. “And yet, I get the feeling that doesn’t stop you.”
“I think you and I are a lot alike in that department. We both go after what we want and we don’t take no for an answer.”
What was it about her that Jake found appealing?
He claimed it was nothing more than a friendship with obvious benefits, but it had to be more than that. Ashley was awful. I couldn’t imagine Jake putting up with her for five years.
Sure she was freakishly beautiful, but this was Jake we were talking about. Even he wasn’t that superficial.
“Are you still in love with him?”
I’d never seen someone with such a freakish ability to act, but Ashley was amazing. If I hadn’t been looking her in the eyes when I asked my question I would have missed the two second flicker of passion she quickly extinguished.
“I loved him and we were good together.”
Hearing another woman say she loved Jake—that they had something unique—probably hurt as much as Jake leaving me in the first place.
No, that was a lie. This hurt a helluva lot more.
“Greg seems to think you were the exact opposite of good for Jake.” I whispered. I really, really wished she wasn’t affecting me so much.
“I think that is a matter of perspective. Greg is a self-righteous ass. He had no idea what was really happening in Jake’s life.”
“But you know? You know better than any of the rest of us, am I right?”
“Exactly,” she said quickly. “And I understand. Can you honestly say you will ever be able to understand how he feels or what he went through?” She waved her hands around my library. “You’ve had your whole life handed to you. You and Jake may as well have come from different planets.”
The insult cut deep. “I think you have the wrong idea about me Ashley. I work very hard and very passionately for the life I want. If you think I’m a silly girl who just wants a pretty man to do my bidding then you’ve got another thing coming. I love Jake and I always have.”
Ashley studied me for a long moment. “Jake only lets people see what he wants them to see. If you think you can understand him and be there for him in the way he really needs, well then you’ve got another thing coming.” She took a step towards me. “And it will destroy you both.”
Neither of us said a thing after that. The silence between us was cold and nearly tangible it was so thick with meaning.
“I’m going to say this once and only once,” I was so angry I had to speak through my teeth. This other woman had come into my home and had the balls to tell me she still loved Jake and knew things about him no one else knew.
“Stay away from my husband. You have one opportunity.” I held up my finger for emphasis. “One. I do not give second chances. One slip up and I will have you tossed out of here so fast your head will spin. Trust me on that.”
She took a defensive stance across from me. Miss Sweet and Delicate most definitely had a harder side. Her voice dropped, “I care about him, you know. I want him to be happy. He thinks he’s safe with you, but I don’t agree. I think he’s in danger.”
“In danger of what?” I was shocked, angry, and losing all my control.
“He has a fantasy in his head and when he realizes it’s just a fantasy, he will be lost. Do you know what people like us look like when we’re lost?”
“I do,” I replied quietly. Her eyes sharpened for a moment—she didn’t believe me. I imagined in her world, where I was a silly girl in love with the fantasy of Jake, I didn’t have time to really get to know him, but she was wrong. I was there for him even when he tried to push me away. I saw first-hand what Jake looked like when he was lost and confused by the dueling thoughts in his head. “Let’s get one thing clear, Ashley.” Oh, how I hated saying her name, “There is one thing I care about more than anything else, and that’s Jake. I can handle him, and anything else that comes our way, just fine. I’m his wife. I do not play games with the things I care about and I will do anything and everything to protect that.”
Jake was the one thing in my life I would never compromise on.
“Make sure of it,” she said. Then she turned toward the door to leave.
“Ashley, I mean it. One toe out of line and you’ll wish you’d never set foot back in the States.”
She glanced back at me over her shoulder, her eyes locking onto mine for just a moment. Then she nodded and left.
Chapter 26
-Jake-
If I plugged one more variable into one more formula I was going to lose my shit. I could not, for some reason, find the perfect balance between cost and safety that I wanted.
So I pushed back from the computer and decided what I needed was some time with my hands. In the corner of my office workshop was my pet project: a new robotic motor.
Working problems through with my hands was always the best way to relax my mind.
Well that, or working Eve over with my hands.
A shit-eatin’ grin crept across my face as a dozen ideas for what to do when I got home flashed through my brain.
Yes, I liked working with my hands…
“
Stop daydreamin’ buttercup.” Greg burst in through my main office door and threw himself on the couch by the door.
“I’m not daydreaming. I’m thinking.”
“Tit, tat. Shit, shat. Whatever.”
I set down the motor and turned toward Greg. “You have a gift for words, you know that, right?”
He grumbled and loosened his tie. “Look, I’ve just spent two hours in a meeting with Pita.”
“Pita” was Greg-slang for Ashley. He called her the giant “Pain In the Ass”. “What is with you two? I have never heard so many nicknames for one person.”
Greg grinned, “The Annihilator and me, you mean? What does she call Pita?”
I rolled my eyes because the last thing I wanted to do was encourage either one of them. “Mostly she refuses to refer to Ashley by name. She calls her, her. But her other nickname is Miss Sweet and Delicate.”
Greg snorted. “I like it. The sarcasm is perfect.”
“You two should really cool it. Ash doesn’t deserve it.”
Greg raised his eyebrows and huffed. “You are an idiot, my friend. A blind, stupid idiot.”
Greg had never liked Ashley. Not ever. I usually just chalked it up to their extremely different personalities. Sometimes women and men just don’t get along.
Ashley was definitely the kind of woman who liked to be treated like a woman. She wanted manners and preferential treatment at all times. She always acted the part of the Sweet and Delicate flower. Greg, on the other hand, despised being required to treat women so carefully. It was his belief there was a time and place for that kind of behavior. And it was not at work.
“Why am I a blind, stupid idiot?” I sighed.
He just shook his head like I was some poor sap. “She isn’t who you think she is. She’s had you wrapped around her pretty little finger since day one. You liked it back then. Fuck, maybe it was even what you needed. Hell if I know. All I know is she is as fake as they come. She is one giant act. Your wife deserves an Academy Award for living through last night.”
“What now?”
“Oh, come on,” Greg threw his hands in the air. “She hates Ashley, and yet she smiled all night long. Sure, she was half drunk at dinner, but really, I couldn’t blame her for that. You sir, are an asshole.”
