Shattered Rose (Winsor Series) - By T L Gray Page 0,58
for me.” She smiled sweetly and bounced out the door. I grabbed my sweater and purse to follow her, hoping we’d get out of the house before her mom saw what she looked like. We weren’t so lucky.
Jake and Diana were sitting in the living room, Diana with a novel and Jake with his laptop open. He looked up first as we hit the bottom of the stairs and his face immediately became rigid. Diana was the next to look up, and her face held a mix of shock and horror at the same time.
Issy didn’t seem to register any reaction and walked over to kiss her mom on the cheek and said good-bye. I watched from the bottom the stairs as Diana simply shook her head and returned to her book, not saying a word. I quietly followed Issy and almost made it out the door, when I felt Jake grab my arm.
“I want to talk to you,” he whispered scowling as he pulled me onto the porch and closed the door.
My frustration hit a boiling point. Between Jake’s earlier advances, Issy’s absolute control over my clothes and now the lecture I knew was coming, I just lost it.
“What do you want?” I yelled at him. “I have no control over her, and why you have this expectation that I do is beyond me. This sick relationship you two have…just leave me out of it!”
Jake’s face looked stunned and then a little amused, making me even angrier than I already was.
“What is so funny?” I blurted, still folding my arms and staring at him in utter defiance.
“Nothing. I just think it’s cute that you thought my reaction was for Issy.”
I stared at him totally dumbfounded.
“Its for you. You look way too hot to be going anywhere without me tonight, even if it is just to dinner.” He winked at me and then closed the space between us again, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me to him. “We never finished our earlier conversation.”
Issy honked the horn from the passenger seat and yelled, “Let’s go! Jake, leave her alone; we’re going to be late.”
I detangled myself from his grasp and walked off the porch, trying my best not to look back over my shoulder at him. My hands were shaking and my thoughts were going a mile a minute. I gripped the steering wheel with both hands, making the leather stretch as I twisted it. Taking a calming breath, I turned to Issy. “Ok, tell me where to go.”
“Wow, you are getting good at this,” she said nodding, shooting Jake a final goodbye wave. “If your face wasn’t a complete give away, I’d almost think you were over him.”
“I am over him,” I lied, hating Issy for being so incredibly perceptive.
“Its ok, Avery. You’re doing better than most girls. I actually think he wants you back. I’ve never really seen him pursue a girl more than once before. This is new territory for me.” Her tone implied that she was impressed, but it didn’t make me feel any better. I had just spent the last four months on a downward spiral with Jake being the center of all of it. Now that I was finally seeing some light in the dark tunnel, he was back, like my kryptonite, making me fall for him all over again.
“Issy, be straight with me. Do you really think Jake will ever be more than the sporadic boyfriend he was before?” It was the first time I’d ever asked Issy for advice on Jake, but I had to know. He was invading my thoughts again and my stomach was still in knots from his scent when he held me on the porch.
“I think Jake is complicated.” She was matter of fact and honest, yet it left the door open. My inner voice was yelling at me, but a smile crept on my face regardless as I thought, You never know.
“Lord, I pray you keep her eyes firmly open so that she can see when others are there to deceive or hurt her.”
12. AFTER PARTY
I was laughing hysterically as Issy belted out another Madonna song at the top of her lungs. It wasn’t that Issy had a bad voice…it was just that it was a loud voice, and not fully in key. Her lightheartedness had improved my mood drastically. I didn’t even try and kill her when she grabbed my phone and texted Parker back for me. They engaged for barely a minute before