Rush(125)
Reluctantly Jace rose from the couch and started for the door. He paused and turned back around. “I’m coming by tomorrow. We’ll have dinner. Ash and I will plan something for Thanksgiving and let you know.”
Mia nodded wearily, just wanting them gone so she could be alone with Caroline to drown her sorrows.
As soon as they walked out, Caroline sat next to Mia on the couch and pulled her into her arms.
Damn if Mia didn’t get all weepy again.
“What happened?” Caroline asked as she rocked Mia back and forth in her arms. “Should I call the girls over?”
Mia sniffed and wiped at her nose as she pulled away. Hell, she was still naked under the robe—Gabe’s robe—and suddenly she wanted nothing more than to get it off.
“Let me go get a shower,” she said. “Then I’ll tell you all about it. I need to get some clothes on, preferably ones that aren’t Gabe’s.”
“I’ll fix us some hot chocolate,” Caroline said, her face creased with pity and concern.
“That sounds great,” Mia said, a wan smile on her face. “Thanks, Caro. You’re the best.”
Mia trudged to the bathroom and peeled off the robe. After a moment’s hesitation, she stuffed it into her closet instead of trashing it. She’d probably do something pathetic like wear it around the apartment since it belonged to Gabe. She couldn’t bring herself to throw it away. Not yet at least.
After a hot shower in which she boiled herself, she put on a pair of pajamas and wrapped a towel atop her hair, not caring if it got tangled.
Caroline was waiting in the living room with two cups of hot chocolate, and Mia flopped onto the couch next to her. Caroline handed her one of the mugs and Mia gratefully embraced it, wrapping her cold hands around the hot cup.
“How are things with you and Brandon?” Mia asked.
She felt terribly guilty because over the last while, she’d spent all her time with Gabe. Every minute. Every hour. She hadn’t even talked to Caroline in a week.
Caroline smiled. “Good. We’re still seeing each other. It’s hard because of our schedules, but we’re trying to make it work.”
“I’m glad,” Mia said.
“What happened, Mia?” Caroline asked softly. “It’s obvious he hurt you a lot. How on earth did Jace and Ash get involved and why the hell did you come home in just a robe?”
Mia blew out her breath. “It’s a long story. I wasn’t completely honest with you about my relationship with Gabe. It’s more complicated than that.”
Caroline’s eyebrows bunched together. “I’m listening.”
Mia poured out the entire story, leaving nothing out. By the time she got to tonight’s debacle, Caroline’s eyes were wide and then they narrowed in disgust.
“Can’t believe he hung you out to dry like that. You were already planning to tell Jace everything.”
Mia slowly nodded. “He stood there and lied to me, Caro. I know he has feelings for me. And he stood there and gave me this bullshit about how I was getting too emotionally invested, blah-blah. I wanted to choke him.”
“Chickenshit,” Caroline said rudely. “You deserve better than that, Mia. You deserve someone who stands up for you and who’ll risk everything just as you have.”
“I agree,” Mia said. “I told him if he ever wakes up and realizes what a mistake he made that he’ll have to crawl to get me back.”
Caroline laughed. “Atta girl. And he should have to grovel.”
Mia raised her mug in a toast. “Damn right.”
Caroline’s expression sobered. “So what do you think is going to happen between Jace and Gabe? They’re business partners as well as best friends. Jace seems pretty pissed.”
“I don’t know,” Mia said honestly. “This is why I never wanted Jace to find out. Maybe I was being too naïve, or maybe I didn’t expect Gabe and I to be so hot and heavy into things. I thought it would be simple to keep it from Jace. I guess I thought Gabe would want me a couple of times a week and the rest of the time I’d carry on as usual. It’s also why we wanted to tell Jace about us, so we wouldn’t have to hide it any longer.”
Fresh anger surged into her blood until she was flushed with it.
“Damn it. Can you believe the timing? All we needed was one more day. If Jace had just called Gabe to let him know he was back in town, we would have told him together and everything would have been fine. Gabe was falling for me, Caro. He was falling and it scared the shit out of him. And then Jace bursting in and saying all those horrible things. I could see the guilt on Gabe’s face. Especially after what happened in Paris.”