“And I’m telling you, if you don’t dump that loser, he’s going to break your heart and ruin your future.”
“Fuck you,” I bit out before I could stop myself.
There was silence on the other end of the line. All I could hear was the sound of my blood rushing in my ears.
Finally… “No, Charley, f**k you,” she whispered back, the hurt evident in her voice. “And don’t bother calling me until he’s out of your life and you’re you again.”
She hung up.
I stared at the wall in front of me, trembling.
I’d just burned my Andie bridge… for Jake.
But she was wrong. Right? My family was wrong.
They just were.
Right?
I jerked in fright as two strong arms wrapped around my waist, but I relaxed as Jake held me against his chest. His lips burned on my cheek. “You okay?”
No, I wasn’t okay. My sister was no longer talking to me. We’d had the biggest fight of our lives and I wished I had some guarantee that Jake was worth it. Was any guy worth losing Andie over? I was afraid if I dug deep enough, the answer would put Jake and I in an even more precarious position. Yet, Andie’s attitude… she’d never made me feel like a bad person before and I didn’t think that was fair. I hadn’t done anything wrong. Exhausted, I said, “I don’t know.”
“They’ll come around,” he promised, his voice soothing. “They’re Redfords. They don’t know how to be anything but cool.”
I slid my arms over his. “I hope that’s true.” I turned around, dipping my head back to look into Jake’s soulful eyes. “I’m fighting between being hurt that they can’t trust me about this and really grateful they care enough to be mad at me.”
Without me having to say so, Jake knew I was thinking about Claudia and her parents’ neglect. “Yeah, I get it. Maybe, though, you should tell them you’re hurt rather than blowing up at them.”
Wrinkling my nose, I looked away sheepishly. “You caught that?”
“Yup. You do that last night too?”
“Maybe…”
“It’s that fire in your blood,” he grinned wickedly. “I do love it but sometimes it gets you into trouble—and not the good kind.” Jake grabbed my hand and led me back toward our table.
“There’s a good kind of trouble?”
He lifted my bag and held it out to me, a sexy glint in his eyes. “Why don’t we go back to my place and find out?”
And just like that, Jake lifted me out of the bleakness, if only for a moment. Yeah, I had high hopes he was worth it, all right. I giggled, sliding my arm around his waist as he wrapped his around my shoulders. “I walked into that one.”
The sight before us brought me to an abrupt halt. Jake stumbled into my back, catching my elbows to steady me.
I grinned at the sight of Claudia and Lowe sitting at the guys’ kitchen table. So. My friend had decided to take my advice after all. “Hey.”
Claudia caught my look and made a face. “I was supposed to be meeting Beck,” she explained. “But I’m guessing he tripped and fell inside another groupie because he isn’t here.”
Lowe laughed, a deep, sexy sound. His eyes glittered in amusement and I felt a rush of anticipation at the thought of something happening between these two. So Claudia was too hung up on Beck to notice Lowe. That could change once they started hanging out more. I’d just have to make sure they had reason to spend time together. Alone.
As if Jake read my mind, he pulled me against him and murmured in my ear, “No.”
Spoilsport.
“You seem in a better mood.” I raised an eyebrow at Claud, ignoring Jake’s warning.
She shook her head, giving me a little smile that said she wasn’t mad at my attempts at matchmaking. “I got that email I was waiting on.”