Nathan nodded several times. “I do have one question.”
I tightened my jaw. “Okay…”
He snickered. “What are you making me for breakfast?”
Chapter 25
* * *
Jace
Six months after Christmas, I’d kept my promise—I’d spent every single night with Farrah. That was the one constant, despite the many other things that changed.
I’d fully transitioned into my role as head of Muldoon Construction, with my father taking a backseat in the company. If I’d encouraged him to sell, he probably would’ve listened to me, but deep down, I wanted this. Continuing my dad’s legacy was something I’d always be proud of, and running the family business helped ground me here—not that I needed a reason to stay in Palm Creek. Farrah would always be that. But now that I knew I was here to stay, it was time to build roots. That meant having a place where Farrah and I could have true privacy, a place all our own. I’d made a decision I hoped she wouldn’t be upset about. As we drove down the street where Farrah grew up, I was about to find out.
“Why are we in my old neighborhood?”
“Brings back memories, doesn’t it?”
A minute later, I parked my truck at a house diagonally across from the home Farrah and Nathan had grown up in.
Farrah scrunched her nose. “Why are we visiting Old Man Dickie?”
Dick Lombardi—“Old Man Dickie”—didn’t live here anymore, but apparently Farrah didn’t know that. Dickie was a curmudgeon who used to yell at Nathan and me for various things when we were younger. Whether we were speeding by too fast on our skateboards or egging his house, we’d given Dickie plenty of reason not to like us. He was mean even when unprovoked, but we definitely deserved some of his wrath.
“This isn’t Dickie’s house anymore,” I announced.
“He passed away?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh no. That’s sad. As mean as he was, I feel bad for his kids.”
“I actually know his son, Major. He’s a client.”
“Does he live here now? Are we visiting him?”
I unlocked the car doors. “Let’s take a look inside.”
Farrah followed me out of the truck, and I used my key to enter.
Dickie’s house had been completely redone. The old carpets had been ripped up to reveal gorgeous hardwood underneath. The kitchen had been gutted, and new cabinets installed over white Corian countertops. Basically, Dickie’s house was just the shell, and everything on the inside was brand spanking new.
Farrah wandered the place in amazement. “This looks nothing like I would’ve imagined.”
“After he passed away, Major redid everything before putting this place on the market.”
“Oh my God. I love it.”
“Good. Because...it’s mine.” I smiled. “Well, hopefully ours someday.”
Her mouth hung open. “You bought this place? How could you afford it? The houses in this neighborhood are not cheap.”
“I saved a lot over the past five years, and Muldoon is doing really well right now. So I gave myself a raise.”
Farrah ran her hand along the beige sectional in the living room. “I can’t believe this is all yours.” She walked over to the window. “I can see my old house from here.”
“I know. That’s part of why I picked this place. Even though we’ve been trying to forget certain things, there’s much more I’d rather remember in this neighborhood.” Standing behind her at the window, I wrapped my arms around her waist and rested my chin on her head. “A long time ago, you told me one of your greatest wishes was to get back the peace you had before your parents died. I want to create that idyllic life with you again, one day at a time.”
She turned around to face me. “Am I supposed to be moving in with you?”
I chuckled. “Well, I hadn’t gotten that far. I didn’t want to throw this on you and put you in a position where you felt you had to say yes. Of course, I want you here with me, but it doesn’t have to be today. For now, this can be our sanctuary, a place where we can finally be alone without anyone breathing down our necks. One of these days, when you’re comfortable, I figure...maybe you just won’t leave.”
Farrah moved her head back and forth. “I can’t believe it.”
Feeling like a giddy kid, I took her hand. “Come on. I haven’t even shown you the best part.”
The one thing Dickie never had was a pool. I wasn’t going to buy a house without one, so over the past couple of months, I’d had one installed.
Farrah’s mouth dropped when she got a load of the inground, screened-in pool.
“This looks just like the one Nathan and I had...”
“I know. That’s why I designed it like this. The pool is completely new. It’s the one thing that didn’t come with the house.”
Beaming, Farrah walked around the perimeter. She suddenly lifted her dress over her head and jumped in, causing a deluge of water to splash me. What the hell? I tore off my shirt and yanked off my pants before jumping in after her. We spent the next several minutes playing in the water like we used to. This was going to be my new happy place.
When we finally emerged from the pool, Farrah squeezed the water from her hair. “I can definitely get used to this.”
I ran inside to grab a couple of towels.
After I returned, I handed her one. “Maybe if Nathan is good, we’ll invite him over for a barbecue. Dad, too. The beauty is, we get to choose who comes here and when—no one intruding on our space anymore.”
Farrah wrapped the towel around her waist. “It’s honestly the first time in my life I’ve ever had privacy.”
“We can fuck as loud as we want. Do anything we want. Make Dickie roll around in his grave.”
“That dirty old man will probably enjoy watching us.” She giggled.
“The ghost of Dickie…”
She sighed and looked out at the pool. “This is going to seem like an odd comment after all of this talk about our new fuck den, but I feel like my parents are with us right now. And your mom, too. They’re blessing this house.”
I hoped that was true, but still wondered if I’d have Farrah’s parents’ approval. But it didn’t matter. Despite my lingering self-doubt, I no longer let guilt rule my life.
Farrah’s mentioning our parents reminded me there was another thing she hadn’t seen yet.
“Get dressed. I haven’t shown you the bedrooms.”
On the way inside, I stopped in the hallway to show her a photo I’d had framed on the wall.
It was the one picture I knew of that had Farrah, Nathan, and both of our parents all together. It was taken the day Nathan and I graduated high school.
“Wow,” she whispered as she traced her finger along the frame. “That was, like, the saddest day of my life, because I knew you were leaving for college soon.”
“Hanging this up wasn’t easy for me. It’s part of my therapy. The more I stop to look at it, the more I just see the happiness of that day, rather than the sadness of two years later.”
“I’ve never seen that photo before.” Farrah continued staring at it. “I love it. Thank you for framing it.”
Wrapping my arm around her, I squeezed her side. “Let me show you the bedrooms...”
“Is there an ulterior motive to that?”
Kissing the top of her head, I said, “Only if you want there to be.”
I showed her the master first, which had an attached bathroom. The other two rooms were smaller. I’d made one into a guest suite, and the other into something I hoped she’d love.
Her eyes widened when she got a look inside the final room.
Two yoga mats lay in the middle of the floor. I’d strategically placed plants and candles around the space, along with some wall mirrors and hanging bohemian decorations.
“This is your private oasis, yoga room—anything you want it to be.”
She covered her mouth. “This is amazing. How did you put all this togeth
er?”
“Literally ripped a page out of a magazine on how to design a yoga space and copied it to a tee.”
“I’m gonna use the shit out of this room!” She reached up and planted a long kiss on my lips. “Seriously, this is the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me.”
I lifted her into the air. “Maybe we can try that spine yoga again together—the kind you had me do that one time. What was it called?”
“Kundalini.” She laughed.
“No. I don’t think that was it. I think it was…cunnilingus, wasn’t it?”
She covered her face. “I was so mortified that day.”
“I loved it. And I loved you in your hot yoga pants, too—a little too much. Wasn’t supposed to be feeling that way then. That was why I had to escape to the bathroom, if you know what I mean.”
She cackled. “No way! I remember that. I thought you actually had to go.”
“Nope. Couldn’t contain my excitement.” I pulled her close. “Anyway…I prefer cunnilingus yoga.”
“You built a special place to go down on me, didn’t you?” She winked.
“I can’t think of a better use for this room than pleasuring my beautiful, vibrating vagina.”
Farrah buried her face in my chest. “I can’t believe you remembered that.”
“How could I forget?”
Farrah looked up at me. “It doesn’t vibrate anymore, by the way.”
“Give me five minutes to change that.”
She lowered her hand, cupped my package, and laughed over my lips. “Things are definitely looking up.”
Epilogue
* * *
Farrah
Jace and I were headed home after dinner out one night when he surprised me by pulling into the parking lot of The Iguana.
Well, this is a blast from the past. “What are we doing here?”
He put the truck in park. “You haven’t come here in years, right?”
“Yeah. It’s been forever.”
“Well, I called and checked, and tonight is Pour Your Heart Out. Can’t believe they still do it. Thought maybe we should check it out.”
Smiling, I took off my seatbelt and followed him out of the truck.
It was spring of my junior year in college. This week had been stressful, working on law-school applications. I couldn’t wait to kick back and have a couple of drinks in my old haunt.
A wave of nostalgia hit me the moment we entered The Iguana. Even the smell was familiar—alcohol mixed with a blend of various perfumes and sweat.
We found a table, and Jace headed to the bar to get a mojito for me and a beer for him.
When he returned, we sat facing the stage. As the confessions started, it brought back all my feelings from the time I’d put my fears aside and gotten up on the stage myself. Tonight’s confessions were chock-full of emotion—from a girl who hadn’t told her family she was pregnant yet to a man who admitted to stealing his roommate’s panties. As much as I loved listening, some of them served as a reminder of how lucky I was to be in a stable and healthy relationship.
About six months after Jace had first showed me his new house, I moved in with him. We’d been living together for over a year now. At first, I’d been hesitant to leave Nathan, but it turned out to be the best decision, not only for me but for him. Living alone really pushed my brother to put himself out there and start dating again. Who knew what Nathan needed all along was to live apart from me?
I saw Jace nod to a man in the corner.
“Who’s that?”
“No one.”
Jace had been bouncing his legs up and down and fidgeting a lot tonight. He seemed tense.
He suddenly stood.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m the last one up.” He winked.
What?
What is he doing?
Once on stage, Jace adjusted the microphone to his height. A couple of women heckled.
Seriously?
He tapped the mic a few times. “Hi, I’m Jace.”
“Hi, Jace,” the audience said all together.
I covered my mouth.
“I’m here on this stage confessing tonight…because I had the audacity to seduce my best friend’s little sister.”
A mix of claps, cheers, and whistles rang out. My face felt hot.
“Sounds like a simple affair, right?” He looked at me. “But the story is far from simple.”
I got chills as I continued to watch him.
“Farrah was six years younger than her brother, Nathan, and me. When everyone is young, that’s a huge age difference. But she was one of those kids with an old soul. You’d look into her eyes and see compassion and understanding well beyond her years. I knew about her little preteen crush on me. I thought it was…cute.” He chuckled. “When I went away to college, she was still a kid. That was the end of it.”
He paused as the audience waited with bated breath.
“Then let’s just say something really painful happened, and it kept me away from home for several years. During that time, Farrah lost her parents, and I was just…lost. By the time I came home to Palm Creek again seven years later, that sweet little girl had grown up. At twenty-one, Farrah was more beautiful than ever. I ended up moving in with her and her brother to help them pay rent.” He paused. “I bet you can see where this is going?”
I looked around as the audience laughed.
“Sexual attraction is a bitch, isn’t it? It has a way of grabbing you by the balls and not letting go until you give in. Resisting the pull toward someone you’re not only attracted to, but who makes you feel good on the inside, someone you can relate to…well, it ain’t easy. And I failed miserably. I gave in to the temptation and went behind my friend’s back. It was the hottest sex of my life, by the way, and worth every second of the risk we took.”
My face felt flush as the crowd reacted with great enthusiasm.
“At first, she and I told ourselves we wouldn’t get attached. How well do you think that went?”
Everyone cracked up.
“Yep. That’s about right,” he continued. “We couldn’t stop seeing each other because we were addicted.” He exhaled into the mic. “I’m gonna make a very long and complicated story short. Nathan caught us and freaked out. Shit went down. And I somehow convinced myself she would be better off without me. So I left town and didn’t see her for another three years.”
When some of the people gasped, I realized how crazy our story sounded. But I also realized we’d been through so much together.
Jace’s eyes met mine. “Not a day went by that I wasn’t thinking about her. You can run someone out of town, but you can’t tell them who to love. I threw myself into a meaningless relationship with someone else to help me forget. When I was forced to come home at the end of that three years, so much had changed. Farrah could barely look at me. I couldn’t blame her. She’d lost the spark I remembered. I knew I was the one who’d taken it from her. Nathan had forgiven me by this time, which was unexpected. I never thought the person who had hurt me the most would be the one who’d teach me about forgiveness. But the hardest person to forgive is always yourself. It took me a while. Once you can do that, so much becomes possible.”
Jace paused. “So what’s the moral of all this? It’s that sometimes sordid stories...become love stories. You can have everything working against you, and in the end, it still works out because it was meant to be. Love is not a choice. Don’t let anyone tell you you’re not supposed to love someone. Sometimes, the negative voice you have to ignore is your own.”
A few people clapped, and I thought that was it until he said one more thing.
“I’ve actually never gotten up in front of an audience in my life. This bar was always one of Farrah’s favorite places. She hasn’t been back here in years, but she’s sitting right out there in the audience watching me tonight.” He pointed as all eyes seemed to turn in my direction at once. “She’s probably going to kill me
, because she had no idea I was going to do this. Thank you for listening and God bless…”
Jace received a huge round of applause. As he walked back toward the table, I smiled wide.
I rubbed his shoulder. “You did great. Thank you for that. I’ll never forget it.”
He leaned in and kissed my lips. “I figured you’d be surprised.”
“You were amazing.”
As we stayed and finished the last of our drinks, Jace kept checking his phone. I’d assumed his nerves from earlier had to do with the fact that he’d planned to go up and speak, but why was he still anxious?
He looked down at his watch. “We’d better get going.”
I downed the last of my mojito before we got up and headed toward the door.
The last thing I expected to see was Nathan walking into the bar just as we were leaving.
“Shit,” my brother said.
What the hell is going on?
Jace kept shaking his head as if to tell Nathan to stop talking. Nathan was practically panting.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “And why do you seem so out of breath?”
“No reason…uh…Jace told me to meet you guys here.”
I looked between them. “You both are acting very strange.”
“Fuck,” Jace muttered.
“I’m sorry, Jace,” Nathan said. “I tried.”
My eyes narrowed. “Tried what?”
“Excuse us for a second,” Jace said as he took Nathan aside.
They walked several feet ahead of me so I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Then my brother left without even saying goodbye.
“What’s going on?” I asked when Jace returned. “Where’s Nathan?”
“He had to go.”
The Crush Page 25
