Chapter 14

Juliana

 

 

Two measly eggs were all that I had left in my fridge. Sighing, I vowed that I would go to the grocery store later. Grabbing the eggs, I shut the door on my now-empty fridge. I carried the eggs to the stove and was starting to fry them when I noticed that my phone, still on the countertop where I’d left it the night before, had the notification light flashing.

I grabbed it just as it started buzzing with incoming texts. Blowing up with them was more like it, actually.

None of them were from Scott. Nor were any of the calls I’d missed. He was, however, the only person in town who hadn’t reached out to me. Or that was what it felt like, at least.

Swiping away 18 missed calls from Amber and scrolling past at least twice as many texts from her, I started piecing together why I was on the town’s mind this morning.

Ashley: HOLY SHIT!!!! Scott just got punched the fuck out by that big guy from the other night.

Claudia: Dude! Wish you were at Rennie’s last night. Scott showed up with Dana, then had a showdown with Amber. A guy I don’t know jumped him. One shot and Scott went down. Asshole deserved it. You okay?

Jackie: Scott’s an a-hole. Heard you threw him out, good on you sister!!! Got his own back last night. Wasn’t there, but Josh said a guy he’s seen around probably broke his nose. Maybe jaw. HA HA!

Anna: Slimy, cheating bastard! Leopard doesn’t change its spots and all… pushed Amber around. Dude who did it told M it was for you tho.

There were a lot more along that vein, and there wasn’t a doubt in mind who the guy was who had stepped in. It was confirmed when I found a short video clip sent to me from a guy I went to high school with.

Sure enough, there was Pacey standing over a crumpled Scott lying on the ground, looking sheepish when people started cheering. It seemed the hunky SEAL had been at the right place at the right time again.

I knew that I shouldn’t have, but I smiled a little as I finished cooking my eggs. One of the elements of small town living was that everyone knew everything about each other with lightning speed, as had been demonstrated once again.

For once, I wished that I’d been present to see the latest event that had every tongue in town wagging. I would have paid good money to see Scott get his clock cleaned. And he’d told Anna’s boyfriend Michael that it was for me.

It was sad, but no one had ever stood up for me like that before. I didn’t condone violence, and I didn’t need anyone to take care of me, but it sounded like Scott had it coming anyway, and it was weirdly flattering that Pacey had thought of me despite whatever Scott had pulled with Amber.

It sure seemed that it hadn’t taken him long to get over me, or over Amber, for that matter. It surprised me that after only one night of moping, I was actually okay with Scott being gone. If anything, it was Amber’s betrayal that still stung.

Somewhere around halfway into my eggs, I had realized that I’d never loved Scott. Not really. It’d been fun while it lasted, but that was all it had been. Lately, it hadn’t even been fun. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that relief was the strongest emotion I felt about breaking up with him.

He was headed down a path I didn’t want to follow him on, though I wasn’t sure exactly where it was leading or what he was up to, but whatever it was had to be bad news. I felt sorry that Amber had gotten wrapped up in it now, but it wasn’t like she’d asked for my opinion of the guy.

I also suspected that Amber knew a lot more about what was going on with Scott than she’d shared with me. Those two would have to live with what they’d done and with whatever else was going on.

As for me, once my eggs were finished and a pint of ice cream had gone the same way, I was having a glass of wine, or maybe two, I’d realized that with Scott gone I was free to explore my attraction to Pacey. An exploration that had ended with another vivid dream, one that I’d acted on this time and after everything last night, my attraction to him was at an all-time high. 

It was impossible for it not to be, not after the way he’d kissed me. Before Scott was gone, I felt too guilty to really let myself think about that kiss, but holy hell, now that I could think about it, it was hard to stop.

I’d kissed and been kissed plenty, but never quite like that. In fact, after kissing Pacey, I didn’t know whether any kiss would be able to compare ever again. The man kissed like a damn machine, with his whole body and all of his considerable focus.

The touch of his lips had electrified me, exhilarated me, made my heart race a million miles an hour and had skyrocketed my levels of arousal to something typically reserved for when I was already in bed with someone.

If that was what kissing him was like, sleeping with him would probably have to be preceded by the signing of indemnity forms and a warning label. WARNING! Death by mind-blowing orgasm probable.

Somehow, he didn’t strike me as the kind of guy that let his lips write checks that the rest of him couldn’t cash. And man, the check that he’d written that night had me all hot and bothered again, two days later, and just by letting myself think about it for a minute.

I also didn’t think that I was alone in this insane attraction. The way he looked at me, the way he’d kissed me up on that hill, the fact that he’d clocked Scott for me even when I wasn’t there to see it, all of those things spoke to at least some kind of attraction on his part.

I just wished I had his number so I could thank him personally for defending my honor. As caveman-like as it was, and as much as I generally hated the fighting type, this was different. And from the sounds of things, he hadn’t resorted to solving anything with his fists straight off the bat.

But I didn’t have his number. All I had was his name and—light bulb moment—the name of his business from when he’d come in to deposit his check.

After scarfing down my pathetic excuse of a breakfast, I set up my laptop on the coffee table in the living room and pulled up Google to use it for what it was used for best: stalking. No, not stalking: research.

Typing in the name of his business, Nelson and Johnson Landscaping, I came across a surprisingly well-designed website, and listed under the ‘contact us’ page, two numbers appeared. One for someone called Thomas Johnson, a bear of a man with pitch-black, closely cropped hair and even blacker eyes based on the picture beside it, and then my heart skipped a beat.

Next to that picture was another, and it was of the man who featured in my dreams and kissed like he’d been designed especially for it. Pacey. With a mobile number and an email address listed underneath.

I grabbed my phone and programmed it in, my thumb hovering above the call button for a minute before I took a deep breath and punched down on it. One ring became two, then three, then-.

“Pacey Nelson speaking.” God, that voice. It stole my breath, and my tongue was suddenly tied in a hundred knots. “Hello? Is anyone there?”

Crap, he was going to hang up if I didn’t manage to find my voice.

Time to man up, Juliana!

“Um, hi. Yeah. Pacey?” Finding my voice didn’t necessarily mean finding my brain with it, apparently.

“This is Pacey. Who is this?” He sounded curious now, the hint of annoyance when he’d asked if anyone was there now gone.

“It’s, uh, it’s Juliana. From uh—”

“I know who you are, Juliana.” Amusement colored his tone, but there was warmth there too. “What can I do for you?”

How to lead into it? Deciding a direct approach was best, I continued. “I wanted to thank you for punching Scott.”

Or just blurt it out; smooth move, Jules. Pacey laughed, and just like it had the first time I’d heard it, I had the sudden urge to make him laugh as loudly and as often as I possibly could.

“My pleasure,” he said. “Wish you’d been there to see it?”

“Hell yeah,” I replied, then felt immediately guilty for how bloodthirsty that sounded.

Pacey didn’t seem to think anything about it, though. He laughed again, confident and friendly when he said, “I think I can arrange a repeat performance if you’d be interested in that?”

“How’s tonight for you?” I blurted out again. Why wasn’t my mouth working properly?

Soft chuckles answered my question before he did. “Let’s give Scott’s face time to recover, shall we? How about dinner instead?”

Holy crap! The hottest guy I’d ever seen in real life was asking me to dinner. Me!

My grip on the phone tightened, and my heart did a wild, celebratory flip. I wanted to say yes, to scream it from the rooftops, if I was being honest with myself.

Stone Mountain was a small town though, as I’d been reminded of just that morning. If I went out that night with the guy who punched out my ex the night before, I would be fanning the gossip flames with an industrial strength wind machine.

No doubt we’d be stared at and talked about for weeks and weeks to come, I just didn’t feel up to that.

“Juliana?” he prompted when I took so long to give him an answer.

“Can we take a rain check again? I think it’s better for me lie low until the gossip mill grinds itself out. You know how it goes. I’m really sorry, I—”

Pacey interrupted my apology gently. “You know that there are places we can go that aren’t in the public eye? You have nothing to apologize to me for; I understand that you don’t want to be seen out with the guy who punched out your ex so soon after it happened.”

“Can you read my mind?” Stupid mouth! From the moment I’d met this guy, it was like questions just popped out of it without my permission.

He chuckled again, and I heard a soft sigh. “No, but my deductive reasoning skills are decent. So what do you say? Dinner tonight at my place? Seven?”

“Okay,” I agreed. Like I was ever going to be able to refuse that invitation. “Text me your address?”

“You got it,” he said. “See you tonight, Juliana.”

The way he said it was like a promise, and damn if I didn’t spend the rest of my Sunday prepping and primping to be ready for whatever that promise might’ve entailed.