“That shit stinks,” Jake said, taking the air freshener and six-pack of soda from her and placed them on her bureau, freeing her hands so that she could shut and lock her bedroom door behind her.
“Mom gave it to me,” she said absently as she checked and then double-checked the lock.
“I think she gave me the same bottle a few years ago,” Jake murmured thoughtfully as he looked at the bottle. “I’m pretty sure that I gave it to an ex-girlfriend.”
“Probably,” she absently agreed as she considered stuffing a towel against the bottom of the door.
“Let’s eat,” Jake said, chuckling as he threw his arm around her and-
“What the hell happened to your hand?” she demanded, noticing for the first time that two of the fingers on his right hand were in splints.
“Huh?” Jake asked, glancing down at his fingers as he shrugged it off. “Just decided that I needed a new accountant.”
“I thought the guy you tried setting me up with was your accountant,” she pointed out, allowing him to lead her to the bed.
“Was is the operative word,” he said with a wink as he waited for her to climb on the bed.
“What happened?” she asked, shifting closer to the edge of the bed to make room for the pizza and Jake.
“Nothing that you need to worry your pretty little head about,” he said mockingly as he reached over and patted her on the head, an annoying habit that he’d picked up from Darrin.
Rolling her eyes, she grabbed one of the heavy-duty paper plates off the pizza box and tossed the other one to him. She reached down, opened the box and realized that Darrin might very well kill her on this day.
“The Monster,” she said in a reverent tone as she reached for a thick slice that held every delectable topping known to man.
“I figured this would make up for the other day,” he said, helping her load the impossibly thick slice of pizza on her plate.
“It doesn’t,” she said, taking a bite of pizza and groaning when the buttery crust and toppings competed for attention in her mouth, “but it’s a nice start.”
“What will it take to earn your forgiveness?” he asked, grabbing a slice of pizza for himself before he shut the cover and provided them with a table.
“Well, besides a root beer?” she asked, giving him a pointed look that had him rolling his eyes and getting off his ass.
“Yes, besides a root beer,” he said, grabbing the six-pack and walking back to the bed. As he sat down he handed her a can.
“You could stop trying to set me up with your loser friends,” she suggested, hopefully.
“My friends aren’t losers,” he said around a large bite of pizza, groaning in pleasure.
That was true. His friends and the men that he normally tried to set her up with weren’t losers, but the last one definitely had been. Seriously? What kind of loser was willing to pay for sex?
“And the last guy clearly doesn’t count,” he said firmly.
“Fine,” she said, taking another bite before she added, “Then just stop trying to set me up. I’m fine.”
“Are you going to marry Darrin?” he asked offhandedly as he popped the small piece of crust in his mouth.
“We’re just friends,” she mumbled as she took a big bite out of her pizza, but this time the delicious flavors were lost on her and all she wanted to do was throw the pizza and Jake out of her apartment so that she could avoid this conversation, the same one that they’d been having for the past five years since Jake had caught them-
Well, what he’d caught them doing wasn’t important.
“He loves you,” Jake said, reaching over and taking her hand into his to give it a reassuring squeeze.
“I know,” she said, dropping the rest of her pizza on her plate and placed it on the box.
“You’ve been in love with this man for your whole life, Goose,” he said softly, using the nickname that her grandparent’s tribe had come up with for her after a rather unfortunate incident involving several geese, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and her determination to feed them when she was three years old.
She nodded, because he was right of course. She was in love with Darrin Bradford. For the longest time she’d fought it, tried to deny it, but at the end of the day, she knew that there was no denying that she loved him. He was the love of her life and always would be, which made things worse because she wasn’t good enough for him.
And she never would be.
“Tell him, Goose. It’s not going to change anything for him. He’s still going to want to marry you,” Jake said, placing his plate on the pizza box so that he could reach over and take her hand in his.
“I know it won’t,” she said, sniffling.
“So, tell him.”
“No.”
“Why not?” he asked, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.
“Because I love him too much to do that to him,” she said, accepting the napkin that he was holding out to her and quickly wiped her mouth.
“He has the right to make that decision for himself.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head, “he doesn’t. I don’t want him giving up his dreams for me.”
For several minutes neither one of them said anything as they sat there, thinking things over until finally, Jake said, “Then it’s time that you let him go.”
“I know,” she reluctantly admitted, because what she was doing wasn’t fair to either one of them. She had to let him go.
She just wasn’t ready to do that yet.
Chapter 5
“It’s gotta be a trap,” his twin brother said as they stood there, staring down at the small stack of Black Jack’s pizza boxes that they’d discovered hiding in his normally barren refrigerator twenty minutes ago.
“I know,” Darrin said, staring down at the boxes and damning Marybeth to hell and back for teasing them like this.
“Didn’t you double dare her to go on all those rides?” Reese asked, swallowing nervously as he glanced around the large kitchen.
“Yes,” he admitted hollowly, wondering what kind of sick person could do something this.
“They’ve gotta be empty,” Reese said, shifting his attention back to the boxes.
“No,” he said, shaking his head slowly, “they were heavy.”
“What are you thinking?” Reese asked, poking the box with a butter knife. “A diuretic?”