Rockstar Romeo - Abbie Zanders Page 0,44

would be like, given the life he led. And though the sex was admittedly fantastic, we had fun doing other things together too.

But love?

“Here. Maybe this will help to convince you.” He reached into his back pocket and extracted a small, embossed envelope, holding it out to me.

“What’s this?”

“An invitation to my sister’s wedding. I meant to give it to you earlier, but I got distracted.”

I felt the rush of heat flare between us as we both recalled the details of said distraction.

“Why would I get an invitation to your sister’s wedding?”

Jace shifted his weight from one leg to the other, just like my boys did when they felt shy about admitting something. “I might have mentioned that I was involved with someone.”

Involved? I blinked. “You told your sister about me?”

A half-grin lifted one side of his mouth. Honestly, it wasn’t fair that the man could go from hot and sexy to adorably boyish in a heartbeat. It attacked my defenses on every level possible.

“Well, yeah. Kind of.”

Kind of? “Why?”

“Why?” He ran his hand through his hair as a shadow of unease crossed his features. “Because—that’s why.”

I stared at him in disbelief. “Oh, that’s real mature.”

He grinned, and my traitorous heart skipped another beat. “Jackie and I are close. I talk to her about everything important in my life. And you, Eva, are important to me.”

I felt a flood of emotions wash over me, threatening to pull me under, but among the waves of hope and joy were strong undercurrents of fear. Ian had had plenty of pretty words and promises. Words that became caustic when I told him I was pregnant, leaving me alone and scared.

Of course, some logical part of my brain reasoned that I wasn’t that naive teen anymore. I had my own house and a lucrative career.

And Jace wasn’t Ian. Jace seemed to care more about my pleasure than his own, which had never been the case with Ian. Jace worried about whether or not I was eating enough or getting enough sleep. He ran hot baths for me and gave me heavenly massages and held me all night, keeping the nightmares at bay.

“So, will you?” Jace’s voice cut through the internal debate raging between my logical mind, my passionate heart, and my acquired cynical nature.

“Will I what?”

“Come with me to my sister’s wedding.”

“Oh, Jace, I don’t know ...”

He closed the space between us, and then inclined his head and brushed his lips over mine.

“Please, Eva?”

I didn’t answer right away. I let him spend the next several hours trying to convince me why I should. He was quite persuasive, but I wasn’t sure I was ready for that. Here, I could spend time with Jace and maintain a proper perspective. But spending time with his family? That seemed perilously close to pretending things were more than they were.

Chapter 13

Dear Ida,

The guy I’ve been seeing wants me to meet his family. I really like him, but this is a big step. I’m already too attached and this will make it even harder if things don’t work out. Do I make him happy and go? Or protect my damaged heart? – Undecided & Afraid

* * *

Dear Undecided & Afraid,

Love doesn’t come without risk or sacrifice, and it sounds like you’re already pretty invested in this guy. Be brave, trust your heart, and go for it. If things work out, you won’t be sorry. And if they don’t, it won’t be because you didn’t care enough to try. Either way, you will survive.

~ * ~

Jace

I had about six weeks to convince Eva to come to New York with me for my sister’s wedding. Normally, that would be plenty of time, but Eva wasn’t like anyone I’d ever met. I wasn’t sure six weeks was going to be enough.

First and foremost, I had to get her out of the house. It was too easy for her to believe that this was only a temporary thing if all we did was stay in, just the two of us, pretending the outside world didn’t exist.

Don’t get me wrong; I loved spending time with Eva at her place. There were no distractions. I could devote one hundred percent of my time and attention to her. With no one else around, we could do what we wanted, when we wanted. We talked, we shared meals, we watched movies, and we had lots of sex. There was definitely something to be said for that, but I needed to convince Eva that she was more to