Treat Me (One Night with Sole Regret #8)(67)

Amanda pressed her lips together to stop their trembling. Her throat tightened, choking a sob from her. She tilted her head back and blinked up at the darkening sky to keep the tears in her eyes from streaming down her cheeks.

Jacob was worth any adversity to her life, but to Julie's? Amanda wasn't cruel enough to hurt her Julie Bean in any capacity, but she knew Tina was. Tina wasn't making veiled threats. She would keep Julie out of Amanda's life. She would find a way to keep Jacob from seeing his own daughter. Make his little girl hate him. Tina would do anything in her power to destroy Amanda's fledgling relationship with Jacob, even if she had to use Julie as a pawn.

The fucking bitch.

"If I break up with him tonight, you'll leave Julie out of this."

Amanda could picture her sister's smile of victory, even if she didn't have the stomach to turn around and look at her.

"Of course," Tina said brightly.

Rage boiled in Amanda's gut. She wondered how much time she'd have to serve for murdering the cunt on her front lawn. Surely it would be deemed a crime of passion; that had to carry a lighter sentence than cold-blooded, premeditated murder, didn't it?

Or maybe there was a way to prove Tina was an unfit mother and have her lose custody of Julie. Was using a child's happiness to manipulate your sister into breaking up with your ex-husband grounds for a custody battle? Amanda doubted it. She couldn't see a way out of this. The only door open to her was the one Tina was holding wide.

With Tina watching over her shoulder, Amanda fished her phone out of her purse and dialed Jacob.





Chapter Fifteen


Jacob was searching his fridge for items to round out a chicken dinner when his cellphone rang. He smiled indulgently when he saw who the caller was: Amanda. She missed him already? He knew the feeling.

"Hey," he answered. "Did you get lost?"

"Um, not exactly," she said. "Can you meet me at Jack's Grill? The meat in my fridge is beyond saving."

"I can probably find something here to cook." Would she mind having pancakes for dinner?

"You just don't want to be seen in public with me." Her teasing laugh sounded breathless, but maybe it was just the phone connection.

"Of course I do," he said. "I want the whole world to know you're mine."

"So you'll come?"

"I've already done that with you several times today, but I can probably go for another quickie."

"Jacob," she chastised.

He scowled, puzzling over her lack of reciprocal flirting. One of the traits that he loved most about her was that she always countered his teasing with a comeback.



       
         
       
        

"I'll meet you there in ten minutes," he said. "I still need to put on pants."

She hung up without saying goodbye.

The entire drive to Jack's Grill, Jacob couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Not only was it odd that Amanda wanted to meet for dinner in a public place when she knew he was naked and waiting for her, but he'd sensed a tension in her that he'd never felt from her before.

He spotted her car in the parking lot, but it was empty, so instead of dragging her into the back seat for that quickie he'd mentioned, he entered the noisy establishment and scanned the crowd for signs of her. He smiled when he spotted her, but she was staring into a bright green cocktail with a tight expression on her lovely face. Had her cat died while she'd been at his place or something?

Jacob sat on the stool across from her and reached for her hand. She tugged it away and hid it between her knees.

"I can't see you anymore," she said.

His breath caught in his throat, threatening to choke him. "What?"

"I've given it a lot of thought," she said, her words hurried, almost practiced, as if she were reciting a speech. "The sex is great and all, Shade, but our little fling isn't worth destroying my family over." Her lips pressed together, and she looked down at her lap. "It's best if you just stay away."

"Where is this coming from, Amanda? We both know this is more than a fling. I love you."

She flinched away from him as if he'd slapped her.

"And I know you love me too."

She released a brittle laugh. "Yeah, well, I don't or I would have said so. I always thought you were hot and all, but now that I've had what I was after, I'm moving on. You need to move on too."

She slipped off the stool, but he grabbed her arm.

"What the hell?" he said. "An hour ago we were trying to figure out how to spend more time together and now you're cutting me off entirely? What happened between then and now?"