“Yes, please? Rock and Trisha will be here. I know you aren’t a big fan of this whole crowd, so if you don’t want to, I understand,” she said.
That was typical Amanda. She was giving me an out in case I didn’t want to do this. She hated making anyone uncomfortable. I knew Marcus Hardy’s wife, Willow, didn’t much care for me, and honestly I didn’t blame her. I’d been an ass to her once. I had been so full of anger back then with my life in general, thanks to Hank. Probably time I apologized to the woman. Then there was Cage York’s wife, Eva. We had only had one run-in, but I had been a bitch then, too. I’d never had my sights set on Cage. He’d been more screwed up than Krit, but then he’d met Eva. Cage was so completely different now.
“I’ll come,” I said. This had always been a crowd I didn’t fit into but watched from the outside.
“You will? Thank you so much!” she replied happily. I listened to her tell me about the details and wondered if this was a major mistake. What if Jason had planned to call tonight and I was at this party and couldn’t talk to him?
After I hung up the phone, I sat there staring at it, wishing Jason would just call.
JASON
I had a test to study for and a paper to write. All week I had focused on my classes and making sure I was caught up and ahead of the game. My goal was to be available to leave for Sea Breeze by next Friday to spend time with Jess. Tonight I intended to call her, but I was going to get done with my course work first. I knew once I heard her voice I would be too distracted to think about anything else.
Only an hour into my studying, my phone rang, interrupting me three times in thirty minutes. I reached over and picked it up to see that Jax was the determined caller.
“What?” I asked irritably. He was wasting my limited time.
“Glad you could answer. I called three times,” he replied.
“I’m busy. What do you need?”
“Studying, I gather. You always act like an ass when I interrupt your study time.”
“Yet you kept calling after I ignored you the first time.”
“Did you get my text?” he asked.
“No. I was ignoring you.”
“I was just passing along some information that I thought you might find interesting, but then again, maybe not. I just figured since you were using my beach house so much lately, there may be someone bringing you there.”
Was he talking about Jess? “You have my attention. What is it you know or think you know?”
“You haven’t talked about it since that night in the limo. You were pretty upset about the alternative-looking guy. But since you were back in Sea Breeze last weekend and I have it on good authority that you took Jess into the house and kept her overnight, that things between you two are back on again.”
Since when did Jax have time to stalk my private life? “Get to the point.”
“Touchy. So you two are back on again,” he replied. I pulled my phone back and checked my text messages. I wasn’t in the mood for this.
Jax had sent me a photo of Jess sitting beside a guy, smiling up at him while he was saying something to her. Jax had texted: Look who’s got a date to Preston Drake’s birthday party.
“What the hell is this?” I asked, standing up and taking several deep breaths while I tried to decide what to do.
“You saw the text? That’s who sat across from Sadie and me during dinner tonight.”
“Where are you?” I demanded, walking to grab my keys and wallet from the dresser beside my bed.
“Sea Breeze. Preston and Amanda’s place. Everyone else is inside still eating, but I thought you should see that. Not sure what your relationship is with her, but you need to know she isn’t sitting around Sea Breeze waiting for you. But then, you had heard the stories about her. Don’t want you to get hurt.”
I opened the door to my apartment and slammed it behind me.
“What are you doing?” Jax asked.
“Going to the airport,” I snarled, unable to mask my anger.
“So you two are seeing each other. Is it exclusive?”
I stopped stalking toward the elevator. Was it exclusive? That one question had been like a slap to the face. What was wrong with me? I had been ready to go get on a plane and demand Jess explain herself. But I couldn’t do that.
“No,” I replied, and leaned up against the wall to let the heaviness settle on my chest. “We aren’t. Exclusive, that is.”
“Then I guess she isn’t doing anything wrong. Didn’t think she would right in front of me, but I still wanted to make sure you weren’t being screwed over.”
She was with a guy. Someone else. Was she going to kiss him? Had she already kissed him? Was she seeing him, too? Fuck.