Sandcastle Beach (Matchmaker Bay #3) - Jenny Holiday Page 0,148
the other two sensed that something was afoot, they were never going to let it go.
So she sat, too, and told them everything. About the sexual tension, the postponed booty call. But also about how awesome his confidence in her work made her feel. About his take that her rift with her parents said something about her character. She didn’t spare any detail. The more she talked, the more embarrassed she became that she’d kept all this from them in the first place. It was just that this…thing with Jay wasn’t like any of the relationships she’d had in the past. It felt different. Private.
“Look at you!” Wendy exclaimed when she was done. “New apartment, new company, new boyfriend.”
“Oh no.” Elise hurried to correct her. “He’s not my boyfriend. We’re just going to sleep together.”
Hopefully several times.
“I see,” Jane said. “You guys lie around playing board games and cuddling, but he’s not your boyfriend.”
“Yeah, I would almost buy that, except for the cuddling,” said Wendy. “You don’t cuddle with your fuck buddies.”
Crap. Wendy would know. She was the queen of long-term casual relationships.
“You especially don’t cuddle with your fuck buddy when you’re not actually fucking,” said Gia.
Panic started to seize Elise. “Oh my God, you guys. I can’t have a boyfriend.”
“Why not?” Jane asked.
“I’m in the middle of establishing my business, and, well, this sounds dumb, but I also feel like I’m establishing myself, you know? As an independent person. For the first time in my life.”
“So?” Wendy asked.
“Well, I’ve spent my whole life dependent on my father. Now I’m going to switch to a boyfriend?” If that was even on offer, and there was no evidence it was. So she wasn’t sure why they were even having this conversation.
“Oh my God, Elise, you are so dumb sometimes,” Gia said.
“Not according to Stacey.” Wendy cackled in that way she had.
“Look,” said Gia. “You don’t want a boyfriend? I’m cool with that. I, of all people, am cool with that.” It was true. Gia was unapologetic about her allergy to commitment. “But don’t cast Jay in the same mold as your father. From what you’ve said, Jay…Ugh, I can’t believe I’m going to say this.” She made a gagging gesture. “Jay lifts you up. Helps you.”
Was that…true?
“It’s okay to let someone help you,” Jane added.
Elise didn’t know what to say. They were all silent. Just for a moment, but it must have been too much for Wendy, because she stood, clapped her hands, and said, “Well, this has been a great talk. Let’s see some decor and shit.”
The “great talk” was still rattling around inside Elise’s head when she said goodbye to Gia at the airport. Gia had tried to order Elise to call Jay, insisting that she would take a cab, but Elise wouldn’t hear of it. She always drove Gia to the airport at the end of her visits. Maybe she had some thinking to do about the little bombs her friends had dropped on her earlier. Maybe they had made some points that were worth considering. But she absolutely refused to be the kind of person who ditched her friends for a guy. Even if she was becoming someone else, she refused to be that girl.
As she sat in her car outside the terminal, she told herself that it was too late to text him. He wouldn’t be expecting it anyway. She’d texted him yesterday when she found out Gia was coming to town and outright told him she wouldn’t be able to see him until Monday. And they’d both known what she’d meant by “see.”
But damn, she wanted him. So desperately.
She also missed him, which was a little alarming—it had only been forty-eight hours since he’d left her place. He’d slipped out of her bed Friday night close to midnight, whispered to her not to get up as she half dozed, kissed her on the forehead, and let himself out.
Oh God. Was she falling for him?
And could that be…okay?
The girls had made a pretty convincing argument that it could.
But anyway, she was getting ahead of herself. She had no idea what his thoughts on the matter were. They’d agreed to have sex tomorrow, and she was more than fine with that, even if nothing else happened.
She glanced at her phone. Ten fifteen.
Really, though, what could it hurt to text? If he was asleep, he wouldn’t answer. Right?
She was a fool. She opened her message app. Are you available to receive a rug delivery?