Chapter Fifteen
Jasmine
I grip the edge of the bathroom sink and stare at my reflection in the mirror. In one hour, I need to leave for the airport. My case is already in the trunk, and Ty’s fixing lunch downstairs. He hasn’t said a word about cooking me dinner again.
Thank God. That’s one conversation I can do without. Even if what he was offering is what I want most in the world.
You’ve no idea what he was offering. He might’ve just been flirting, and sure, he can flirt like a pro when he wants to, but deep down I know it was more than that.
Yesterday, when he turned up at Mom’s memorial service, it became more than a brief fling, a reunion hookup to heal old wounds.
It was more than that almost from the first night.
So why hasn’t he said any more about it? Did I totally misunderstand what he was saying? Shouldn’t I be relieved that he doesn’t think there’s a chance for us to get back together?
I give a shaky sigh and steel my nerves. One last hour. I’m not going to ruin it by crying now. Plenty of time for that when I’m home again.
He meets me at the kitchen door. “Thought you’d gotten lost.” He briefly cradles my face, and it takes all my willpower not to crumble right then. “Hungry?”
“Starving.” That’s a lie, but I’ll force down whatever he’s prepared even if it chokes me.
“I even made you hot chocolate. No extra sugar.” He grins as he picks up a cup for me and a coffee for him, and my chest aches so bad it’s hard to speak.
“Great. Thanks.”
“Want to eat outside?”
“Sure.” This was a bad idea. I should’ve left first thing this morning instead of dragging out the long goodbye. I pick up the plates of baguettes stuffed with chicken and salad and follow him into the back yard.
“It still needs work.” He puts the drinks down on a wooden table that’s by the back door, and we sit on the bench. The yard isn’t big, and the grass is patchy and covered in weeds, but there’s so much potential. I take a bite of my baguette in the hope that’ll stop my mind working. It doesn’t.
We sit in silence. My lunch is full of flavor, but it tastes like ashes, and I can barely swallow the first mouthful. Ty doesn’t seem to have any problem, judging by the way he finishes his in record time.
“Jas.” He leans his arm along the back of the bench, and his fingers gently caress my shoulder. “We need to talk. You know that, right?”
Here it comes. I should tell him this was nothing but a fleeting affair, but I can’t. Because it isn’t. For a moment, my resolve wavers. Would it be such a bad thing if he knows that? Could there be a way for this to work?
I know there isn’t, but maybe—
His phone rings, shattering the moment. He swears and glowers at the screen before answering. “Hey.”
His expression doesn’t alter during the brief conversation. “Okay.” He cuts the call and lets out a harsh breath. “Stay here. Mom’s out front. She’s dropping some stuff off. I won’t be long.”
He disappears inside the house, and I wrap my hands around the cup of hot chocolate.
Stay here. I don’t know if it’s got anything to do with Ty not wanting his mom to know he’s been seeing me this week, or whether it’s because he knows she never approved of me and doesn’t want to put me in an awkward position.
It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to face Angie.
But maybe I need to.
To prove I’m no longer the broken girl who left L.A.
I bite my lip and glance back at the house. The woman always scared me. And her put-downs scarred my soul. Hey, Jas, how’s it going? I hear your mom was at the clubhouse again last night. But I’m not a kid anymore, and I’ve faced down meaner bitches than her in my career. I take a deep breath and stand. I came back to L.A. to put my past to rest.
And she sure as hell is a part of my past.
I pause at the kitchen door and watch Ty pull open the front door. “Hey, baby.” Angie does her usual flamboyant hug and kiss, but Ty doesn’t move out of her way, so she can’t stroll into the house. “I won’t keep you long. I see you have company.”
“Yeah.” Ty picks up the box at Angie’s feet and dumps it in the hall. “I’ll drop by the house later.”
“Sure. Well, you have a good time.” She smiles up at him, and even though I can’t see his face, I know he’s smiling back. They have such a great relationship. How could I have considered, even for a single second in the back yard, that there was a way for things to work out between Ty and me? Her brother tried to destroy me. I wouldn’t be able to keep that from Ty forever, and I won’t be the one who wrecks his family by telling him the whole truth.
Before I can talk myself out of it, I emerge from the kitchen and walk toward them. Angie stares at me like I’m an apparition, and for some reason that boosts my confidence.
“Hi, Angie.” My voice is cool. “It’s been a long time.”
For the first time since I’ve ever known her, she appears at a loss for words. Ty sighs heavily and comes to stand by my side, and my heart squeezes with bittersweet pain. He always stood by my side. But in the end, it’s not enough.
“Jas.” She recovers quickly and steps inside the hall. “I was sorry to hear about your mom.”
We both know she doesn’t mean a word. She despised my mom and never tried to hide her feelings from me. But now, I can play her game, too.
“Thank you.” At least my lie sounds more sincere.
“How long are you here for?” She has the gall to smile at me. It’s all for show, so Ty thinks she’s okay with me being here. She loves having the men’s approval, and they all think she’s so perfect.
I’ll never forget the time when I was twelve years old and she broke a stripper’s nose for stepping out of line. That’s the real Angie, but Ty will never see it.
“I’m flying home today.”
“Have a safe trip.”
Ty takes my hand, and Angie doesn’t miss a thing, although I doubt he noticed the way her lips thinned for a second before she recovered herself.
“Jas is an attorney now,” Ty says, apropos to nothing, but there’s a challenging undertone in his voice. Maybe he did notice his mom’s disapproval after all.
“An attorney?” There’s no mistaking Angie’s surprise at that disclosure. “Well, you sure did well for yourself after you left here, didn’t you?”
Nausea rolls through my stomach, and I instinctively tighten my grip on Ty’s fingers. She makes it sounds as though it was a carefully considered decision to go live with my dad, instead of the knee jerk reaction of a traumatized girl. If it wasn’t for you and your brother, I never would’ve left here.
I was wrong. I should’ve stayed in the yard and never confronted Angie Jenson. It won’t change anything.
She sweeps her gaze over me, the faintest hint of a smirk on her lips, and it’s obvious all she sees is the same shy girl from ten years ago. It shouldn’t matter. I don’t care what she thinks anymore, but instead of backing off, a cold, black anger grinds through me, smothering the nervous churn of my stomach, and I take a step toward her.
“Yes, I did very well after I left.” I hold her gaze, something I never managed to do in the past, and it’s clear I’ve unnerved her. “I guess that’s not what you expected from me.” For a second I almost leave it at that. But it’s not enough. Not yet. I give her a glacial smile. “You, or your brother.”
The anger drains, like a lanced abscess, and I take a deep breath. Viper. And finally, I let go of the last fragments of power he’s held over me for the past decade.
“You’d better go.” Ty’s voice is low, but there’s no mistaking the intent behind it. Angie slings me a glare of pure venom before turning her charm back on for her son.
“See you later, baby.” She kisses his cheek and stalks out of the house without a backward glance.
Ty tugs me close. “Give her time. She’ll come around.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, my cheek pressed against his shoulder as he cradles the back of my head. “It doesn’t matter.” My voice is hoarse, and it doesn’t help when he rubs his jaw over the top of my head. “I’ll never see her again.”
His sigh ripples through me, and God, it hurts. Please don’t go there…
…
Ty
Talk about fucked up timing. I’m not sure what just went down between the two of them, but one thing hasn’t changed. Angie still doesn’t give my girl the respect she deserves.
I swallow my anger and focus on Jas. She’s all that matters, after all.
“She’s out of line. I’ll talk to her.”
She sucks in a ragged breath and pulls back. “It’s okay.” There’s a resigned note in her voice that I hate. “I finally stood up to her. I can live with that.”
What the fuck is she talking about? But since I don’t want to discuss my mother’s shortcomings with her, I shove it to the back of my mind.
“I know you’ve got to fly back today. But this isn’t the end, Jas. You do what you need to do, and then you come right back here where you belong.”
“I don’t belong here anymore. I haven’t for a long time.”
“You’re not walking out on me again.” It doesn’t sound great like that, but I don’t know how else to say it.
“I’m not walking out on you.” Her voice is soft, and her eyes are so fucking sad I want to smash something. “We had our week, like we agreed. And we’re parting as friends, aren’t we?”
Friends? I don’t want to be her fucking friend.
“Are you going to stand there and tell me there’s nothing more between us? Because I won’t believe you.”
She takes my hands, and for some reason I don’t like it. “No. There’s so much between us. But it doesn’t make any difference. Your life is here, and mine’s in Florida.”
The unformed rage pumping through my blood eases, and I squeeze her fingers. “So that’s the only reason? Because of your career?” Hell, that’s not an obstacle. She’s smart. She won’t have any problem passing whatever exams she needs to in order to practice law here.
“No. It’s nothing to do with my work.”
Her dad, then. “Florida’s not the other side of the world. You’ll still see your dad. It won’t be like when you were a kid.”
She closes her eyes for a moment. She must see I’m right. “It is about family.” The emphasis doesn’t sit right with me, but I can’t figure out why. “I don’t want to lose what I found. I wouldn’t want anyone to. I used to think he let me down when he left Mom, but he had to do it. It was the only way he could breathe freely.”
There’s a hard knot right in the middle of my chest. The words choke me, but somehow, I push them out. “Are you saying you can’t breathe when you’re with me?”
“Of course not.” We’re still holding hands, but it’s like she’s moving farther away from me with every word. What the hell’s going on inside her head? “It’s not you, Ty. It’s me. I need to be away from here. And I don’t want to come back for good. Ever.”
It’s not you, it’s me. Could she throw any more of a fucking cliché at me?
“Right.” I have the crazy urge to drag her into my arms and never let her go. How can she want to leave after the week we shared? But my pride is all I have left, and I untangle my fingers from hers and fold my arms. Don’t say it. I can’t stop myself. “We’ve had our reunion fuck and now it’s time to move on.”
“It was more than that, and you know it.”
“Do I?” I rake my gaze over her, trying to see her as just some random chick who doesn’t mean anything, but I can’t do it. “So, tell me what it meant to you.”
She folds her arms, a mirror image, but instead of looking tough, she presses all my protective buttons.
Damn it.
“Where do I start?” She gives me a brittle smile. “We needed this week. We needed to sort out our issues like a couple of adults. And I think we did. There’s no need to spoil it by acting like a—” She hesitates for a second, then tilts her chin at me as though she’s angling for a fight. “A Viking Bastard.”
I didn’t expect that, and have no idea what she even means by it. “Yeah? I am a Viking Bastard. Always have been, always will. What’s your point?”
“That is my point. The Bastards are as much your family as your mom and dad and sister. Yes, I always knew it. I used to think it didn’t matter that I’d never be first in your life, but guess what? It does matter. I won’t be second to an MC or, let’s be honest, third, after your blood family.”
Where the fuck has this come from? She was never third. Hell, I never categorized her at all. She was always just Jas. My girl.
Sure, the club comes first. Officially. But it’s not something you talk about with your chick.
“So, the only way this works for you is if I give up my MC and family? You want my fucking balls on the table while you’re at it?”
“No, that isn’t the way it works for me.” She throws my words back in my face. “I’m not asking you to give up anything. Don’t you get it yet? I know they’re your family. Just like Dad and Marina are my family. No one should have to sacrifice the people they love just to be with someone else.”
“Jesus Christ, Jas. We’re not in a fucking courtroom. Stop with the melodrama.”
She presses her lips together, and the silence is even worse than her crazy accusations. Not that I’m sure what she’s accusing me of, but she’s sure got something on her mind.
She picks up her purse but still doesn’t say anything. Then she looks at me. “I don’t want us to end like this, Ty. Not again.” Her voice trails away, and I grind my teeth. What does she want from me?
“It doesn’t have to end at all.”
“We could keep in contact. I’d like that.”
Keep in contact? I glare at her, my answer plain, and she takes a deep breath and turns away. She opens the door, and my chest hurts like a bitch, but I push the words out anyway.
“Don’t go.”
She hesitates. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, and I think she’s come to her senses, that we can work this whole crazy mess out. But then she walks away.
And the whole fucking world crashes around me.