talk to you.”
I clenched my jaw and jerked my head to the side. “No, Harrison. Go back upstairs.”
“It’s not what you think,” he insisted, his voice tight. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him take another tentative step toward me.
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not what I think? Seriously? That is the most overused line ever. You can’t come up with anything better to say than ‘It’s not what you think?’”
“Let me explain,” Harrison pleaded, scrubbing a hand through his hair. I’d never seen his hair so mussed.
I ground my teeth so hard my jaw hurt and glared at him. “Were you or were you not kissing Lacey?”
Harrison made an impatient gesture with his hand. “I realize what it looked like, but—”
I squeezed my arms around myself. I’d put up with a lot from him in the last few weeks, but a deal-breaker was a deal-breaker. And ‘no cheating’ was number seven on my Future Husband Checklist. “I’m not blind, Harrison. I saw what I saw.”
“You’re being unreasonable right now.” His voice was calm and measured. I hated it when he told me I was being unreasonable. Unreasonable, dramatic, or my personal favorite, hyperbolic. Fine. Guilty as charged. I was being unreasonable for being pissed after seeing my boyfriend locking lips with a hot actress.
“Listen to me,” he continued.
Jeremy stepped between Harrison and me. “She said no.” Jeremy’s voice was menacing. Okay, that was slightly hot. “Give her some time,” he added.
Harrison turned away in disgust. “Fine. Meg, we’ll talk in the morning.”
I couldn’t even look at him. I kept my face sharply turned away, biting the inside of my cheek to keep the bloody tears at bay. Harrison stalked away as if he was pissed too. Damn him. As if he had anything to be pissed about. He clearly hadn’t appreciated Jeremy’s interference, but too bad.
“I wanted to punch him,” Jeremy admitted. “Not very Darcy-like, eh?” He put his hand on my elbow.
I gave him a half-smile. “No, but completely human. I appreciate the sentiment.”
“There’s still time,” Jeremy offered. “I can catch up to him.”
I shook my head and pressed my lips together. “No, thanks.”
Jeremy stuck his hands in his pockets. “So, they were kissing? That sucks. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah.” I heaved a sigh. “I kept feeling jealous and kept explaining it away. I’ve been defending his behavior this entire time, and now this. I’m an idiot.”
The moonlight illuminated Jeremy’s handsome features. “No. You’re not. You’re just loyal and you trusted your boyfriend. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
I paced away, still trying to right my ragged breathing. “I know she’s tall and beautiful and perfect and has nails that match her clothing, but—”
Jeremy did a double take. “Wait. What?”
“I can’t compete with Lacey. She looks like Megan frickin’ Fox.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” he replied.
“The point is, she’s a gazelle and I’m a hobbit. I get it, but—”
Jeremy stopped me with a hand on my elbow. “Look, Meg, you’re making excuses for him. It doesn’t matter what she looks like, and by the way, you’re not a hobbit. Not even close.”
“I’m not?” I blinked. That was the nicest thing anyone had said to me in a while.
“No. And the point is, he should not have been kissing her, no matter what she looks like. He’s with you.” He said it so calmly and steadily, it made me realize what a fool I’d been to explain away all of Harrison’s bad behavior.
I pressed two fingers to my eye. “I never thought she’d want him, you know? She hangs out in Hollywood. I mean, Harrison’s cute and all, but he’s no actor, or, say, as hot as you...” I gestured to him.
Jeremy’s brows shot up. He pointed at himself. “You think I’m hot?”
I furrowed my brow, obviously skeptical. “You don’t know you’re hot?”
“What?”
“Nevermind. The point is that Harrison and I...we made sense. Or at least I thought we did. He meets every criterion on the FHC!”
Jeremy narrowed his eyes on me. “The FHC?”
“The Future Husband Checklist,” I admitted, wincing. Oh great, not only was my crazy flag flying, it was flying at full staff.
“Wow. Okay, I’ve got to hear more about that sometime. But even if he does meet every criterion, you deserve someone who is faithful to you.”
I put my hand on Jeremy’s sleeve and tried to ignore the sizzle of electricity I always felt whenever we touched. Down, girl. Geez, what sort of person was I, for being attracted to Jeremy in the middle of my probable