Page 83 of His Virgin Romance Series

RACHEL

“Why do you keep checking your phone so much?” I asked.

“No reason,” Brent said, looking towards the television.

I frowned. We had been together for thirty minutes since Brent walked into the living room and parked himself on the couch and he had checked his phone thirty-three times in that window of time. And that was only after I noticed and started keeping count. Was he waiting to hear news about Jared? And if so, why did he think he would get a text or call about it?

It was eight in the morning, and I had been up since five because I kept dreaming about Jared and jail and falling. It was unusual for Brent to be up this early, though, and I wondered if on some level, he was worried about Jared, too.

“Hey, how come you’re up so early?”

“Just wired,” he said, with a shrug. “And, I went to sleep really early last night.”

“Oh, okay,” I said, accepting his answer, even though he still seemed strange to me.

Again, I watched as Brent checked his phone. “Is something wrong?” I asked. “Because something seems to be on your mind?”

“Uh… I suppose I was just worried about Jared, you know,” he replied. “The guy can be a jerk, but he was my friend.”

“You keep checking your phone,” I pointed out again.

“Yeah… I have a cop friend,” he replied. “I told him to keep me posted.”

“Oh,” I said. “I didn’t know that. What’s his name?”

Brent paused for a second, and I assumed the television had just distracted him. “Steven Rodriguez.”

“No news from him, then?”

“No,” he replied. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter whether we get news or not, right? I mean, Jared’s out of our lives now.”

I sighed inwardly, feeling a deep-seated pain in my heart. “Yeah… I suppose he is.”

“And we’re better off, Meg,” Brent said. “I mean, the guy was no good.”

I shook my head. “That’s the thing… How could he have been no good?” I argued. “He was a firefighter; he actively put himself in danger every day he was at work in order to save other people.”

“It was just a paycheck to him, though,” Brent said.

I frowned. “No, it wasn’t,” I said. “It couldn’t have been. He loved his job; he was so passionate about it every time he spoke about being a firefighter.”

“What he loved about it was the fame and recognition,” Brent said, turning off the TV and looked towards me. “Trust me; I know Jared. I’ve known him a lot longer than you have. He liked the attention, and firefighting gave him the attention he craved. But obviously, the money was not enough for him, which is why he turned to drug dealing. And let’s face it, it’s in his blood.”

“That’s not fair,” I said. “Just because his brother dealt drugs doesn’t automatically make it inevitable that Jared will go down that road, too.”

“Maybe not in every case,” he said with a shrug. “But certainly in this case it proved to be true, right?”

I sighed. “I just… I can’t get over it. All this…the drugs, the dealing… None of it fits in with his character.”

“And what makes you think you knew his character?” Brent asked. “It’s not as though he was very honest with you. He’s obviously been playing a part every time he was with you.”

“Some things were real,” I said.

I was thinking of every conversation we’d had. I was thinking of every time I had spent the night. I was thinking of every time I had woken up to find Jared’s arms wrapped around me. I had envisioned our future together, and it was easy and simple and perfect. Now all that was gone, and I couldn’t believe how naïve I had been. I guess it’s true what they said about girls being blind when they fell in love. It wasn’t as though I had much experience, either.

“You know, Meg… I was thinking,” Brent interrupted my train of thought.

“What about?” I asked.

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