Been There Done That (Leffersbee #1) - Hope Ellis Page 0,133
you weren’t so pissed at him, you’d be impressed. Hell, I’m impressed.”
“Alright, Jackson.”
“No, seriously. I am sitting here across from you, someone who was perfectly willing to pulverize the guy a month ago, and telling you I think that guy is completely badass. What he did was epic.”
“And deceitful.”
He acknowledged that with a shrug. “Yeah. But he did it for your own good.”
“That sounds so condescending—”
“Life isn’t fair, Zora. Nick would know that more than most people, especially given how far he’s gotten from where he started. Good guys finish last, and girls don’t like them until they’re weightlifting in college. In real life, the nerdy girl doesn’t just take off her glasses, put in contacts, and become popular.”
“Why do I even talk to you? And what movies have you been watching?”
“Because you know I’ll tell you the truth, even when you’re going all Lisa Simpson on me.” He caught my gaze, pointed at me. “And because that man loves the hell out of you.”
“You don’t even like him.”
He waggled his head from side to side. “Eh. Well, for one thing, we weren’t really in a position to like each other. I was standing in the way of what he wanted. And he was always such a smug, sly little—”
“What’s the second thing?”
He put down his burger. “I talked to my dad.”
“Huh?”
“My dad. He was there the night Mrs. Rossi overdosed and Nick got into it with the Iron Wraiths. Said he drove up on Nick getting his ass kicked by a mob of them.” His gaze stayed on the surface of the table, fingers drumming. “Hearing how things went down that night, the state of mind Nick was in? I can’t help but sympathize with what that guy’s been through. Even if he was the smartest, cockiest kid in high school. I mean, so what? Yeah, he was taking college classes. Didn’t make him that special.”
“What did he tell you, your dad?”
Jackson hesitated. “Some of it you should let Nick tell you. But the one thing I feel comfortable telling you is something my dad said he was floored by. He said that even as worn out, scared, and shocked as Nick was, his first thoughts were about protecting you. Said he didn’t think an eighteen-year-old could be capable of such selflessness, especially under the circumstances.”
I sat back, mind racing.
“Can you blame him?”
“What?”
“Can you blame him if he did the exact same thing again, all these years later? I see how it’s controlling, I see how you might call it manipulation. But I also see how the guy might act that way, seeing as he was backed in a corner all those years and figured out how to make it on top. Just so he could protect you again.”
We sat in silence. Jackson stuffed his face with more burger, chased it with a beer.
“Besides,” he said, “you gave up all this,” he gestured to himself with a flourish, “to explore a relationship with this guy. You had to be in love to let a prize like me go. Admit it.”
“Did you even chew any of that?”
“Admit it.”
“I was trying to avoid a venereal disease, that’s why I threw you back in.”
“He’s still in town, you know.”
I’d wondered about that.
“How do you know?”
“Because I gave him a ticket this morning,” he said, joy all over his face.
“Couldn’t help yourself, huh?”
“Of course I couldn’t. Broken heart’s hard for a man, but it doesn’t give you license to drive five miles over the speed limit.”
“God, Jackson.”
He reached across the table and clasped my hand. “I love you, Zora. I do. And I wouldn’t be talking this way if I didn’t think the guy had your best interests at heart. Or that he really loved you. I guess the only question is, what are you willing to do about it?”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Nick
“No more conference calls for you. Not until you get this business with Zora resolved.”
Eddie leaned over me and wrestled the headset of out my hand.
I took a calming breath. “You do realize, don’t you, that conference calls work between remote callers? As in, there’s no reason for you to be sitting next to me?”
He shrugged at me from the other side of the breakfast table I’d re-purposed into a desk. “Turns out I like it here. Clean, fresh air. Slower pace. A certain brunette across town. I’m following your example. There’s no reason why I need to be sitting at my desk in New York or San Francisco. Not when I can