“Did I never come out and tell you?” Jaz scratched her head, looking ridiculously thoughtful. “I guess you and I did have a bunch of other things to talk about.” She paused, staring at me for a few moments before saying, “You know I hang out with Vaughn and Dante all the time.”
“I know you’re close to them, yeah,” I muttered, not too thrilled about it, but what could I do?
“I see Jacob a lot, too. I saw him a lot before Ollie hired him to be on my case and follow me around everywhere.” Jaz bit the inside of her cheek. “I’ve told them that I need them all.” Her language could not have been less clear.
Blinking, I repeated, “You need them all?” Was I just supposed to guess what that meant?
“Yeah, you know, why choose? They want me, and I want them, so…” She shrugged. “I have more than one boyfriend, I guess.” There was the blunt Jaz I knew was hiding somewhere, the one not afraid to say what was on her mind, regardless of how her words would fall upon the room.
Luckily, it was just me in the room, and I was…well, I didn’t know how I was right now. Shocked? Not really. Concerned was more like it. Concerned for her well-being, surrounded by the two psychos of Midpark High and an ex-policeman who’d, from what I read, been let go under some very dubious circumstances.
Jaz went on, “They know I care for you, Archer. They know you and I are starting over, but you need to know the opposite. Just because I want to start over with you doesn’t mean I’m going to push the others away.”
“What does that mean?” What it meant should’ve been obvious to me, and yet I wanted to hear her say it, just to make sure the hammer actually hit the nail in my head.
“It means I want to see you while still seeing them,” she put it in plainer terms, terms I could not sit and be confused about.
She actually wanted to see all of us? As in date all of us at the same time? How would that even work? Did we have time one on one with her, rotating schedules or something, or did we go out on the occasional group date? I’d never once imagined myself caught in a polyandrous lifestyle, but when it came to Jaz, I would do anything to keep her by my side—even if it meant constantly fighting the inner green beast back with a stick.
“And if you’re not okay with that,” Jaz spoke when I remained silent, “then, I guess—” She guessed what? She guessed that she wouldn’t see me anymore? That I would never feel the touch of her lips against mine again?
A better question was: how could I go on in life without her? Without feeling those lips on mine every single day, without craving her so hard I felt insane? She was stupid if she thought I could freely walk away from her right now; we’d passed that point so long ago I couldn’t even see it in the rearview mirror.
Before Jaz could say it aloud—and probably jinx us—I leaned down, grabbed her face and turned her toward me. My mouth met hers, and I hoped the hungry passion behind it was an answer enough.
When the kiss was done, Jaz could do nothing but blink at me for a while. Her mouth hung open a bit, her tanned cheeks flushed with heat. “Was that,” she paused, catching her breath, of which I’d stolen right out of her lungs with the sudden kiss, “your answer?”
“To be fair, I don’t think you asked me a question.”
“Are you okay with it?” Jaz asked quietly, her amber eyes warm on me as she studied me, peering straight into my soul with a superpower no other girl ever had before. “I’m not saying it’ll be easy. Hell, I don’t think it would be easy, even if we didn’t have a history, but I think the best things in life are worth fighting for.”
Oh, I didn’t doubt the fact that it would be hard. Hard to see her with the others, hard to know that when she was with the others, she might be loving them the same way I wanted her to love me. Hard because everyone in this town would throw a fit when it came out that we were together.