Page 29 of Make Her Mine

Now, I’m constantly worried, still losing sleep, and upset because I can’t be there if Alex needs me.

God. Jefferson is such a jerk.

Jefferson was the one driving around with me for four hours trying to find Alex two years ago when he was having nightmares and got suicidal. Jefferson was the one sitting up with me for twenty hours straight talking with, pleading with, and holding the grief-stricken kid who was plagued with survivor’s guilt. Jefferson was the one sitting with me beside Alex’s bed when his foster mom found him unresponsive on his bedroom floor. Jefferson was the one sitting in the waiting room of the doctor’s office when Alex finally agreed to more intense counseling but would only go if we took him. Both of us. Together.

Of all people, Jefferson should have known that Alex needed to stay closer to us. Closer to home.

So no, I won’t be forgetting or forgiving Jefferson Riley for always thinking he knows best, for getting people to trust him and listen to him, and for sending people away from Sapphire Falls. Away from home. Away from me.

And now, I’m stuck not just having to get along with him but having to pretend to date him. Pretending to not just like him, but to be falling for him. Or to have fallen, I guess.

My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I pull it out, grateful for the distraction.

But then I see my sister’s name on my screen and I know immediately what this is about.

So much for being distracted from thoughts of Jefferson and my new fake, very serious relationship with him.

“Hey,” I greet.

“What the hell is going on?” Mia asks.

“I assume someone has asked you what is going on with me and Jefferson?”

Mia wasn’t at the house last night. If anyone there is asked about Jefferson and me, I trust that they’ll think on their feet and assume we decided to go with the fake dating story.

Mia wasn’t in on all of that, but she is in a position to run into a lot of people and I should have thought of that. I was too focused on getting to my mom and dad.

Mia’s the town librarian. The library was her favorite place once she moved to Sapphire Falls, and the librarian at the time, Lucy Geller, allowed Mia to come in any time, go off by herself into a cozy little corner, check out any book she wanted, and lose herself in those fictional places and lives that were so much happier than the real one she was dealing with.

Lucy ran the library for a few years, but she fell in love and married famous best-selling mystery author, Michael Kade. Now she travels with him and handles a lot of his PR. But the Kades privately fund our library, including Mia’s salary, now. So, Mia has the perfect job where she gets to spend her days surrounded by books and book lovers.

The library happens to be a popular spot in Sapphire Falls, which says a lot for the intellectual habits of our citizens, I guess, but it also makes it, like every other public place in town, a gossip hub.

“Who asked you about it?” I asked, legitimately curious at this point.

I didn’t do a full roll call of who was in the diner this morning, but I scanned the room. I have a pretty good idea.

“Four different people,” Mia says. “Summer reading program is going on.”

“Right,” I sigh. “I should’ve called you. We just got done telling Mom.”

“So you are dating Jefferson?”

“Fake dating. Zach is back in town. He wants to get back together, so Jefferson and I have teamed up to make Zach miserable.”

Mia is quiet for a moment.

While most the town knows that Zach is my ex, only a very few people know the entire story of what happened.

Mia is one of them.

She knows that Zach was my first, that he took my virginity, and knows about the cheating. She also knows that he slipped something into my drink one night after we broke up when he was trying to convince me to ‘just talk things out’.

Mia had a rough childhood. Until she was ten she lived in a house where people fought constantly and things got physical on a regular basis. She isn’t afraid to throw a punch. Or more. And once she came to live with my family she became very protective of us.

The night after I told her what Zach had done, she was missing for about three hours. I was very afraid for Zach. And for our dad. Because he would have been the one who would have had to arrest her for whatever she did.

“Well shit, “she finally says. “You know you can resist him, right? You’re strong. You know he’s a dirtbag. Don’t let him intimidate you.”

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