Page 29 of Between the Stars

Jace snorts. “How can I forget? I almost died.”

It’s true. He almost did. We’d been hiking and if anyone was going to find trouble, it’s Jace. Three of us walked by the damn thing, yet it was Jace a diamond back rattle snake decided to strike at. Lucky enough, Rhett, Barron and I were with him and called the poison control and they had antivenin for him.

“So this is your friend’s place?”

“Yep. His dad’s actually.” He nods and takes the keys from the ignition. I smile that he owns a car that still requires a key. I’m sure you’re not surprised to know Griff has a Tesla.

Jace helps me from his Jeep. “Careful. It’s icy.”

We enter the cabin through a screened in porch. To the left, there’s a porch swing made out of pallets. String lights line the frame and a flannel throw draped over it. Jace reaches beside me and flips a switch. Golden bulbs burst to light and reflect off the snow slowly falling in the distance.

“It’s cold out here,” Jace notes, nudging me forward with his hand on the small of my back.

I step forward and the boards squeak. “How often do you come here?”

“Not often,” he mumbles, leaning over to retrieve two logs from a pile of stacked wood lining the wall. He nods to the door, steadying the wood with calloused hands. “There’s a key inside that lock box. The code is 8977.”

I take the lock box in my frozen hand, my fingertips numb as I press in the code. The handle beeps, lighting green. “How long has this Justice guy had it?” The fact that he has friends I don’t know about hits me harder than I want it to. Jace has a life without me when it was only years ago that I knew everything about him, and his friends consisted of me, Barron, Morgan, and Rhett.

Now I’m sure he has girls he knows, some he fucks, and maybe even one he’s considered settling on. I say “settling” because that’s all there will be for us. I don’t say it trying to sound superficial, but any man who looks at you like Jace does me, you know they’re settling. Or really good at putting on a front.

Inside the cabin, it’s an open-floor plan with the living room flowing into the kitchen and a small booth-style table tucked against a galley kitchen. There’s a seating area with an overstuffed brown leather couch and a flat-screen television situated above a river-rock fireplace. On the other side of the room, there’s a door I assume leads into a bedroom as I can faintly make out a log bedframe.

It hits me then. I’m in a cabin with a man who’s not my fiancé. Before, at the concert, it didn’t seem as significant as it does now. It was back when Griff and I were still dating, before the proposal. Now… I don’t know.

Jace takes the logs he brought in and nods to the back of the cabin where there’s french doors leading out to a patio. “Can you open that door for me?”

I make my way through the cabin and to the doors. Unlocking them, I swing them open, and I’m met with a breathtaking sight. Snow covering the canyon and hundreds of tiny golden bulbs bursting to light. “Wow, this is beautiful.”

Jace winks as he passes by me, the scent of pine carrying with him. “I know something that rivals it.”

My lips quirk in a smile. He’s never said I’m beautiful. He says it in other ways, and crazy enough, they hold more meaning that way.

Jace sets the logs down next to a firepit lined in bricks and snow. He sweeps away the powdery remnants of the winter storms and places what looks to be a fire starter from a box on the mantel, places it on the metal grates, and then piles on the logs.

As he’s making a fire, I look around the covered patio. It’s clear this Justice guy keeps this place to get laid. I’m sure of it. The views, the lights, there’s a freaking bed out here. An antique wrought iron bed.

“Why is there a bed out here?”

Jace smirks. “Why do you think?”

Ah, yes. Exactly what I thought. Sitting on it, it’s damp and there’s no way I’ll be lying on it. Not a chance. Probably because the very second I sit on it, my ass is wet and there’s a damn golf-ball-size spider crawling toward me. I yelp, jump up and trip over the Adirondack chairs, falling onto my ass on the stone patio. “Oh my God,” I groan, holding my ass cheek. “I think I broke my ass bones.”

Jace turns his head, gruff laughter on his lips. “What are you doing?”

I pick myself up, steadying my hands on the chair that tripped me and wipe the snow from my legs. “I saw a spider.”

“Since when are you afraid of spiders?” His voice is low and throaty, hard to resist. It sends shivers down my spine.

“I’m afraid of them when I make eye contact.”

He stares at me in confusion. “What?”

I see it scurrying toward the firepit at the same time Jace does. “Me and that spider. We made eye contact.”

He laughs, shakes his head, picks the spider up and tosses it in the fire. “I made eye contact with you. Who’s to say I’m not going to eat you?”

I rub my hands together, trying to stay warm. “Because like it or not, you’re still Jace, and you’re not going to touch me until I give you permission.”

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