Jersey Six - Jewel E Ann Page 0,61
her. At the top of the stairs, Jersey spotted Chris sleeping on a bed in the room to her right. Before Ian reached the top step, Jersey slipped into the bedroom, closed the door, and locked it.
Swallowing back a jagged lump of emotion, she slid down the door, hugged her knees, and wiped one single tear.
One. She told herself that was all she got. One weak moment. One tear that no one else saw.
Did slaying monsters make her one too? Could monsters have the heart of a child? Were they born of this earth or born from circumstance? Did monsters forgive? Were they worthy of forgiveness?
The worst thing in Jersey’s life didn’t happen to her. It happened to two other people. It wasn’t a touch. It was two words.
They’re dead.
It didn’t leave a mark. It left a void.
“Come here.”
Jersey lifted her head. Chris hadn’t moved, but it was his voice. She climbed to her feet and slipped off her shoes. He opened his eyes and his arms. She settled onto the bed next to him, her back to his chest. Closing her eyes, she let time pause while he enveloped her in the arms she trusted to comfort her unspoken fears.
“Want to talk about it?”
Several hours later, Jersey woke to Chris’s voice in her ear. She pushed herself to sitting, letting her legs dangle from the bed for a few moments. “No,” she whispered, sliding to her feet.
Leaving Chris behind, she tiptoed down the stairs, drifting toward the rattle of paper and cabinet doors tapping in the kitchen. As she leaned her shoulder against the threshold, Ian glanced up from the grocery bags cluttering the island.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” She offered a flicker of a smile, hoping he saw her regret in it.
Ian continued to unload and put away the groceries as Lola and Foxy scarfed down their food next to the patio doors.
“You went shopping?”
He shook his head, dumping apples into a basket next to the fridge. “I had them delivered.”
“Why? You can’t shop without your fans following you?”
“Something like that.”
She waited for him to look her way again, but he didn’t. So Jersey opened the backdoor and stepped into the late afternoon sunshine by the pool. The blue water invited her to sit on the edge. She rolled up her jeans and dipped her legs into the cool water.
Leaning back on her hands, she closed her eyes, relishing the warmth, the light, the soft breeze on her face.
“Tell me more about Chris?”
Jersey peeked open one eye as Ian sat next to her, plopping his legs into the pool without rolling up his jeans. She laughed.
He smiled, leaning back on his hands too, his arm lightly brushing hers.
“There’s not much to tell. He came into Marley’s looking for a warm place to stay for the night. I busted his nose. He got up and kept nipping at my ankles like one of your little dogs.” She released a slow breath as they stared at their bare feet stroking the water. “I had nothing … he had less. And we lived happily ever after.”
“He’s your friend?”
She nodded.
“Is he more than your friend?”
Jersey shot him a sideways glance, squinting against the sun. “Jealous, Coop?”
He twisted his lips, keeping his gaze on the pool, stealing a few seconds of silence before answering. “Nope. Just curious. When I use the wrong word and you stomp off to the bedroom with him and stay there for three hours … it just makes me wonder what you’re doing in there with him.”
“Well, I’m not being made fun of for my lack of intelligence.”
“Jesus! I wasn’t making fun of you.”
“Chill out, Coop.”
“Oh, I’m chill, Jersey. You’re the one who needs to chill the fuck out.” He shoved her into the pool.
The average person in her situation might have felt pissed off, planning their revenge as they swam to the surface. Jersey found the surface, but only briefly because she couldn’t swim.
Her throat burned as her heart raced, limbs flailing. Seconds—that felt like minutes—later, an arm hooked around her body, just under her arms. Ian pulled her to the surface. Jersey tried to take a breath, but it caught, and she coughed. That caught too, making it painful, almost impossible to breathe in or breathe out. He propped her on the top step in the shallow end of the pool.
“Lean forward. Cough it out.” He pushed her hair away from her face and gently rubbed her back as she coughed, spitting up some water. When she could breathe without coughing,