“Yep. She looked at you a lot. But then the rocker dude caught her one time and she stopped. Then we left.”
Shit. This was all kinds of f**ked up. I needed to let this go. She had obviously moved on. I had to get back to school Monday, and staying in Sea Breeze to make something happen with Jess was impossible.
“Doesn’t matter. She doesn’t fit into my life,” I said, more to myself than anyone else.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Hensley agreed.
“Dude could sing, though,” Finn said with his eyes almost closed and his body leaned over so far his head was touching the seat.
Maybe I needed to get that drunk. Then I wouldn’t care.
Chapter Seventeen
JESS
Throwing myself back into school and work was the only thing that got me through the next week. Krit realized I was pulling away, and he was letting me. I wasn’t sure why, but he wasn’t holding on so tight after Jason’s showing up at Live Bay. Part of me felt like I should go apologize to him, tell him I was sorry about how I was acting, but I couldn’t. I needed time to deal.
When Friday night came back around, Krit called three times. I didn’t answer. I wasn’t in the mood to face Live Bay tonight. I had brought home some things to alter from the shop. Focused on that, I almost ignored my phone the fourth time it rang. But it could have been Momma. Glancing over at it, I saw Jason’s name flash on my screen, and I dropped the pants I was holding and grabbed my phone.
Standing in my room, I stared at it. Why was he calling? I didn’t think about it too hard. I just answered.
“Hello,” I said, wondering if he had accidentally called me. Maybe he had meant to call a Jessica or a Jocyln.
“Hey, can you talk?” His deep voice came over the line and my insides went all warm, despite my better judgment.
“Uh, I . . .” Could I talk? Could my heart handle it? “Yeah, sure.”
He let out a relieved-sounding sigh. “Good.” There was a smile in his voice. I could visualize the way his lips curled up in amusement. “I’m sorry about last weekend. I shouldn’t have put you on the spot like that. I just . . . I hadn’t been prepared to see you again.”
I wanted to laugh at that. He hadn’t been prepared to see me? Ha. Did he have any idea how he had affected me? “You surprised me,” I replied.
“You surprised me, too.”
“How did I surprise you? Surely you knew I would more than likely be there.”
I sat down on the edge of the bed, trying to calm my shaking hands. Talking to him like this was making me nervous. It was silly and ridiculous and I should have ended this call, but I didn’t.
“I wasn’t expecting . . . him.”
Oh. So he’d thought I was sitting here pining for him. Even if it was for selfish reasons and it made me a terrible person, I was thankful for Krit at the moment. If Jason had expected me to still be alone, I was glad he saw I was desirable to some people. “Why?” I asked, needing to hear him explain it.
“I don’t know.” He let out a hard laugh. “I’m a dick.”
That still didn’t answer my question. “Krit is different. I never imagined anything serious with him when it started, but his feelings ran deeper than I thought possible. So, yeah, he surprised me.”
Jason didn’t respond right away. I wanted to ask him what he was thinking. I wanted to see his face and smell his clean scent, so different from Krit’s.
“How’s school?” he asked finally.
“Uh, good. I guess,” I replied, confused by his change of topic.
“You guess? Sure it doesn’t suck? Mine sucks.”
No, mine didn’t suck. It was the last semester I could go to junior college. Which meant it was the last of my college education. I would be getting my associate’s degree in December.
“Why does yours suck?” I asked, my nerves finally easing as I lay back on my bed and relaxed.
“I’m doing what my parents want me to do. Not what I want to do.”