Page 82 of Booked on a Feeling

“Some of you look dubious.” Tara playfully narrowed her eyes at the audience, then smiled. “I can’t say I blame you, but Aubrey and I put in many hours of research to present these truly awesome pairings to you.”

“It was grueling work, but somebody had to do it,” Aubrey deadpanned to delighted laughter.

“No one can call themselves a true Weldonian unless they’ve tried Comfort Zone’s pretzel bread pudding,” Tara said, holding up a plate of the famed dessert. “But have you ever tried it with Weldon Brewery’s Smarty-Pants Ale, our coffee blond ale?”

IPA with carrot cake. Lambic beer with cheesecake. Imperial stout with brownies. The delicious pairings soon filled up the presentation table.

“And what would a beer-and-dessert-pairing presentation be without a tasting?” Aubrey said coyly. Everyone in the store burst out in cheers and crowded the table.

Shannon quickly joined the guest speakers on the stage to help set out bite-size pieces of the desserts they’d cut up earlier and pour plastic shot glasses with the award-winning brews. Lizzy took a step forward to lend an extra pair of hands when Jack’s voice stopped her.

“Are you… Will you be staying at the apartment upstairs when you move to Weldon?”

“No, I’m afraid not,” Lizzy said with her heart pounding—ridiculously happy to talk to him about anything. “It’s already booked up for the rest of the summer. I’ll need to find a place to lease.”

“You can stay with my family,” he blurted. When her mouth dropped open, Jack rushed to add, “I’ll… I’ll be gone by the time you come back in two weeks, and I won’t be coming home for a while. I need time to get settled in LA.”

“Jack, I can’t…” She couldn’t stay with his family. She would be reminded of him everywhere she looked.

“You can use Tara’s room. She finallyofficiallymoved out. My parents could use the company,” he said with a pleading look in his eyes. “You’re going to be swamped, wrapping up your old job and taking care of your condo in LA. It’ll be oneless thing to worry about until you have some time to find a place here.”

He was looking out for her like he always had. Hot tears prickled her eyes. Her sweet, kind Jack. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth.

“Please don’t say no,” he said before she could speak. “Just think about it.”

“Okay.” She couldn’t refuse when he looked at her like that. “I’ll think about it.”

“Thank you.” Relief washed across his features.

“I think I’m the one who’s supposed to say that.” She offered him a small smile, then quickly glanced away. She didn’t think she could handle seeing his beautiful smile without falling at his feet and begging him to take her back. “I should go and help.”

She walked off without another word—without looking back—because she was afraid to say goodbye. If she didn’t say it, maybe this wouldn’t really be goodbye.

Jack made chili again. This time to butter his family up before he broke the news that he was moving to Los Angeles. Not only because he didn’t know how to make anything else but because he wanted to avoid granting chili the significance of beingthe breakup meal.He could imagine himself sobbing his heart out every time he sat in front of a bowl of chili, and it wasn’t pretty. But even as he cooked it for his family—telling himself it was just some fucking chili—it felt as though his Adam’s apple had tripled in size, and he struggled to swallow his rising emotions.

Lizzy had looked beautiful but sad the other night at Sparrow. He had felt like Atlas bearing the weight of the heavens on his back as he fought against his instinct to pull her into hisarms. At the time, he’d believed it was for the best. The way they’d left things off… It didn’t seem like there was anything he could’ve done to fix things between them. But now that she’d gone back to Los Angeles, he cursed himself for not taking the opportunity to hold her one last time.

In a couple of weeks, they would switch places—she would come back to Weldon, and he would go to Los Angeles. He huffed a humorless laugh at the irony. He’d thought the job with McBain would bring him closer to Lizzy. Even if they had only been friends, being closer to her would have made him so happy. They would’ve been close enough that they might even have run into each other by chance. The idea had seemed ridiculously romantic at the time.

Now—after all the things they’d ended up saying to each other—he couldn’t even hope for friendship. At least, not for a very long time. Besides, he was the fool who fell in love with her. He didn’t know if he could handle going back to being her friend. Not when he wanted her so much. It would bleed him dry to watch her move on from what they had together and date other men. To watch her fall in love and marry someone else. He couldn’t do that anymore. It was better that he would be out of her life.

The onions he was chopping stung his eyes and made tears drip down his face. But why did his chest burn, too? He scraped the onions into a bowl and rinsed off the cutting board and knife. And since he didn’t have an excuse to weep in the kitchen anymore, he wiped his face on the sleeve of his T-shirt.

“Dude, are you crying?” Alex said, walking into the kitchen.

“Onions,” Jack said.

His twin gave him a worried glance but didn’t push it. “So why have you called this family lunch meeting?”

“Can’t a guy cook for his family without a motive?”

“That would be a fair question if you were a guy who couldcook.” Alex peeked over Jack’s shoulder suspiciously as he poured out some shredded cheese into a bowl. “I can’t help but think you’re climbing this insurmountable mountain because you want to butter us up.”

“Butter us up for what?” Tara joined them in the kitchen.

Jack sighed ponderously. “I have something to tell you, but I want to do it when Mom and Dad are here.”

“We’re here,” his mom said with his dad right behind her.

---