You Know I Need You (You Are Mine #4) - Willow Winters Page 0,6
do with this one yet.”
“Want to tell me about it?”
“Well, it’s about me. Sort of.” He leans back and spreads his legs wider, my eyes drawn to his broad chest as he glances out the picture window at the front of the shop. “My ex, really.” He runs his hand through his hair.
I nod my head and reply, “So, it’s an emotional book for you. Maybe one to feed your soul, more than your family.”
“I have no family to feed, so that’d be an easy one,” he jokes. “But yeah. It’s more just for me, I think.”
“What’s the plot about, if you don’t mind me asking?” I pry gently as I pick up a sugar packet from the table. I have no intention of adding it to my drink, but I think best when I have something to fidget with. Again, I cling to the chance to talk about work. I’m more than grateful for this distraction. I’d rather talk books all day long than anything else.
“We were high school sweethearts who beat the odds, but we just didn’t get that happily ever after, you know?”
I feel a sharp pain in my heart, one that knocks the wind out of me. Another romance story gone south. “Why didn’t it work out?”
“She’d been cheating on me for a while. I found out when she got pregnant and the dates didn’t add up.”
“That’ll do it,” I say as my mind wanders back to Evan. To his infidelity before we were married but still together. And to my little secret.
“Turns out it was my best friend.”
“Oh no.” A pout pulls down my smile and I feel gutted for him. “Double betrayal.”
“That’d make a good title,” he replies and then chews on his lower lip.
A feeling of shame settles on my shoulders. Evan and I are over, and I shouldn’t feel like this is wrong. But for the first time in years, I feel something for someone else.
There’s no way I can justify this feeling right now. Not when I haven’t had time to get over Evan. Not when the thought of getting over him cripples me. What’s Sue always telling Maddie, though? The best way to get over one man is to get under another. Sitting here right now, I understand the sentiment.
“You think I could sell it?” Jacob asks and holds my gaze as he lifts his cup.
“I’d have to read it first,” I answer honestly, even though I know a happily ever after sells better. That doesn’t mean there can’t be another romance thread added in somewhere. It’s not like his story is over. His eyes catch mine and it’s as if he knows exactly what I was just thinking … about another romance thread.
“I’m still in the process of writing it. I think the story is going well, though,” he says and every inch of my skin catches on fire. It’s the way he looks at me. How his stare holds me captive and the tone of his lowered voice makes my blood race. The air crackles between us and with that, I need to get out of here. Quickly, before this conversation turns into something else.
“Send me the first few chapters?” I ask him and then reach for my purse. “Sorry, but I have to get going. I didn’t think our meeting would last this long.”
He half smiles at me as he says, “Okay then.” He says it like he knows I’m lying, but more than that, like it amuses him.
I take out my wallet, but Jacob stops me. “Don’t even think about paying.”
“Are you sure?”
“You can get the next one if you really want to, but this one is on me.”
I give him a tight smile, although I’m grateful. Truly I am. Even if his intentions are less than pure.
I can only nod then make my way out. It’s all too much. Separation, pregnancy. Now Evan’s in jail. I can’t take how quickly my life is unraveling.
“Hey, Kat,” Jake says from behind me as I push the door open and the bells ring. I turn to look back at him.
“It’s going to be okay,” he reassures me and I say thanks, although it’s so softly spoken I don’t think he could have possibly heard it.
I have to leave. That’s the only thing on my mind because I’m so broken that the words it’s going to be okay are my undoing.
Chapter 4
Evan
The worst sound in the world to me is the muffled sobs of my wife crying.