Page 40 of On the Edge

“Oh, shit,” Jeff mumbles as he freezes in place, eyeing Jackson lying back on the countertop and me leaning over her, and clearly drawing conclusions about what’s happening here. Or what was about to happen here.

“This is not what it looks like,” I tell him.

Jackson closes her eyes for a second while swallowing her mouthful of dessert.

“I stole his ice cream.” She laughs, but it sounds forced, as she waves the spoon in the air. She sits up and looks over her shoulder. “And apparently he’s very protective of it.”

“Was it that vegan shit with the note on it in the freezer?” Jeff asks, taking a tentative step into the kitchen.

“It’s disgusting,” Jackson says, “don’t ever try it.” She looks over at me and gives me a little wink and it’s ridiculous how good it feels to be her co-conspirator, even over something so trivial. She turns back to Jeff. “I think I’m going to go throw up now.”

Good, now I’ll never have to worry about Jeff stealing my ice cream—just Jackson.

She hops off the counter and walks out of the kitchen without saying anything to either one of us.

“Ice cream, huh?” Jeff says as he takes his water bottle to the refrigerator to fill it.

If he hadn’t already thought he was interrupting something when he walked into the training room two days ago, he might have believed that I was leaning over her on that counter with my face inches from hers because I was trying to get my ice cream back. But two close encounters in a row ... there’s no way he doesn’t think something’s going on.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to find decent vegan ice cream?”

“Mmm hmm. Sure, Romeo,” he says as he stands there letting the filtered water flow into his bottle.

“Don’t be a dick. She’s my physical therapist.”

“Dude, you used to bang that chick on the regular—”

I step toward him so quick he stumbles back and water goes everywhere.

“You willnottalk about her like that.”

Jeff gives me a half smile. “And now I know for sure you still have feelings for her. Congrats, you’re exactly as predictable as I thought you were.”

“I hate you right now,” I mumble as I reach for the spoon Jackson left sitting on the counter.

“Nah, you’re secretly hoping that, now that I know the truth, you’ve got a friend you can divulge your master plan to.”

“Master plan?”

“You do have a plan, right?” Jeff is barely masking a horrified reaction, like I’d told him I regularly eat my own vomit.

“What the hell is happening right now?” I ask as I scoop out a spoonful of ice cream and shove it into my mouth. It’s delicious in an overly sweet, send you into a sugar coma kind of way.

“Uh, I’m being the cool ‘you can talk to me, bro’ friend, and you’re being weird about it,” he tells me as he walks over to grab a dish towel off the counter and wipe up the mess of water down the front of the fridge. “It’s not like it isn’t obvious that you still have feelings for her. And it’s not like we don’t all hate her boyfriend. So, what’s the plan?”

I stop chewing and look at him. “You’re being serious right now?”

“Totally.”

I put the lid back on the ice cream. “This isn’t really something I’m prepared to talk about.”

“You sound like a fucking lawyer. Is your planclassified?” He sounds like a twelve-year-old giving his friend crap.

“Right now it is,” I tell him, swinging open the door to the freezer and dropping my ice cream on the shelf. “I’ll see you in the morning. We’ve got a long flight. I’m headed to bed.”

Jeff coughs out “pussy” under his breath as I walk past him out of the kitchen. I don’t bother responding. I’ve been surrounded by people who work for me—whether making my ski videos or building my real estate business—for the last few years. It’s refreshing to have this banter with someone who’s not on my payroll.

CHAPTER12

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