Kian(17)

I had to call Snark. He’d tell me what to do now.

But Jake was still here. Jake was familiar. Jake didn’t have a team that wanted to blame me for my foster father’s death.

I let out some air, deflating my lungs, and hoped to calm my nerves before I moved back a step and turned around until I was facing him.

He was frowning at me, and he cocked his head to the side. A small strand of his hair fell over his forehead, and he raised a hand to push it back, his eyes warming as he did that absentminded gesture. The corners of his mouth lifted in another grin, transforming his face from concern to caring.

“Sorry. I’m just…I thought I saw someone I used to know.”#p#分页标题#e#

The truth felt lame as it stumbled from my lips, but I followed one of Snark’s guidelines. “Stick to the truth, but be vague. It’s the best form of lying there is.”

Jake nodded, his grin curving higher. He glanced up and down the street. “I hate when that happens. Used to happen to me all the time after our thing ended.”

I shoved Kian to the back of my mind and made myself shake all the lingering tension away. “Yeah?”

His eyes darkened. “All the time. It was…annoying.”

“I’m sure Tara loved that.”

He smirked, but a smidgen of pain appeared in his depths. “She wasn’t too happy about it. I think she knew. I kept thinking I saw you, and then sometimes, I actually would—you know, if you were walking to class or something. Messed with my head. I kept wanting to talk to you, but…”

His gaze fell to my lips, and he moved closer. I could feel the heat from his body, and he was looking down at me, looming over me.

This was how we’d been before. I would close my eyes and rest my forehead to his chest. I’d rest my hands there or tug on his shirt, pulling him the rest of the way to me, and then we would be touching. Jake would hold back, his hands in his pockets. He’d let me dictate if we would touch, and there was something heady about that feeling. He made me feel powerful.

But the old want to touch him…wasn’t there anymore.

I was cold, dejected somehow, but I moved away to hide it. “What are you doing here, Jake?”

His eyes were fixed on my lips. “What do you mean?”

“You, me, standing outside my job at night. Just the two of us.”

He chuckled, and his hand lifted to graze against my cheek before he moved another step backward, his hand falling away. “Okay. I’m sorry. You got me. I came to find you on purpose. I knew this was when you used to get done with work, and I took a chance, figuring it would be the same tonight.” He held his hands in the air, surrendering, with a half smirk on his face. His hands dropped, and so did the smirk. He grew somber. “We didn’t talk about it at the bar the other night, but I wanted to explain what happened. Tara and I broke up. She and I—we don’t work. We’re toxic, and something had to change. I don’t know if it was because of you, but I can’t stand here and say that I don’t still have feelings for you.”

Nope. I shook my head and held a hand to his chest, pushing him back a step. “Jake.”

He had a twinkle in his eye. “But I promise you, as an oath from Jake Alexander Monroe to you, Jo…slyn…”

“Really?”

“Joslyn Jo.” He winked at me. “Why don’t you ever use your full name?” He put one hand over his chest. “I solemnly swear, that I am here, in the attendance of your company, not as a future fling, one-night stand, or one-year stand”—a second wink—“but as a person with the sole agenda of becoming friends.” His hand lowered, as did his voice, and he moved back to me. “I just want to be your friend again, Jo. For real, I miss that most of all.”

“Just friendship?”

“Really.” He touched his finger to his mouth, and then he made the shape of a cross in the air. “My promise, before God and all.”

I groaned, but I couldn’t hold back the grin that was fighting to be let out. “I have a feeling that your promises aren’t going to hold up.”

“Yeah, well…” He shrugged. “Everyone sins, right? That’s what confession is for.”

I shook my head. “Just friends, right?”#p#分页标题#e#

“I promise.”

It wasn’t going to last.

Jake stepped close, lifting his arms in the air before circling them around my body. He waited before I nodded, then hugged me tight to him. I breathed him in. Pine and vanilla—his old scent. A month ago, my alarms would’ve been going off but not anymore now.