Page 87 of Rules, Roses, and Rivals
Disappointment was a living, breathing burn in my stomach. Mathieu brushed his hand against my shoulder, supportive. Present.
Before any of us could say anything further, the door to the study swung open again.
Jake stood there, jaw tight and expression unreadable. Coop hovered right behind him, his gray-green eyes were fixed on me and filled with apology. Bubba stood back, his arms folded and his expression grim. Neither of them wanted to be there with Jake. Not right now.
Probably didn’t want to be painted with the same brush.
Jake swept the room with a glance, pausing only when he got to me. His eyes cooled as he focused on me. He blew out a breath then his gaze dipped to the glass in my hand. “Really?” He sliced at me with one word. “You’re going for hard liquor now?”
“Watch it, Jake.” Rachel surged forward, getting between me and Jake like a lioness. “You already set fire to one bridge tonight. Maybe avoid torching whatever you have left.”
He barely even paused on her, his gaze staying fixed on me. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“I did tell you,” I snapped. God, he made me so mad. “Or correction, I tried to tell you. Then you decided to be a bitch about it and tell everyone else.”
Jake flinched like I’d slapped him.
“But to be clear,” I continued. “It wasmybusiness. Mine and Mathieu’s. Not yours. Not yours to give permission or to pass judgment or to announce to everyone in the damn senior class. You want to flaunt your sexcapades, feel free. I knownoneof you are shy.”
Bubba winced and Coop’s mouth tightened. I couldn’t see Archie from where I faced Jake, but I could imagine his expression.
“So—you just decide to act like none of this affects me?”
I pressed my tongue to the back of my teeth. “How do I say this?” A part of me wanted to make peace, to smooth this over, because that was better than fighting. I hated fighting. But when Jake snorted while glaring at me, I lost that particular battle. “I don’t care.”
Those three words slashed through the air between all of us.
“I don’tcarehow it affects you. Just like you didn’t give a damn about how you sleeping with Maria or Sharon or Laura or Patty or any of those girls affected me.”
“Bullshit—” It was Jake who snapped this time, stalking forward, but I was too damn angry to back off. Not now.
“Why?” I demanded, glaring at him. “Because I’m agirl? Does that make the rules different forme?”
Jake clenched his hands into fists at his side. “You slept with him.” He practically spat out the words.
Mathieu took a slow, measured step forward until he was right at my side. Jake might outweigh him and have more muscle mass, but Mathieu didn’t back down at all. “You justwanted to make me look foolish.” It wasn’t a question. “It never occurred to you that it would hurt Frankie, did it?”
A muscle twitched in Jake’s jaw, but he didn’t answer.
“Guess we can take that a yes,” Rachel said with a sigh.
The pounding of my heart was a dull beat in my throat. It had slowed from anxious racing to just sick little thuds. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to slap Jake, punch him, throw my drink in his face, or just run away and cry.
Honestly, at the moment, it might have been all of the above. He looked at me again, something raw in his eyes now. Not rage. Not jealousy. Just a hollow realization. God, we were so shattered.
All of us.
He opened his mouth, then closed it. One harsh exhale later, he said, “I didn’t mean for it to go that far.”
Silence stripped us all bare.
“But you did,” I said, all the tears I didn’t want to shed clogging my throat. As much as I believed he didn’t mean to do it, didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. “You did.”
I held his gaze for another long moment. He didn’t say anything else and I didn’t want to talk anymore. Twisting, I handed Archie his drink back then stepped past Jake with Mathieu keeping pace with me. He never stopped touching me. Never stopped supporting me. Rachel followed us both as Coop then Bubba stepped aside.
Unspoken apologies lingered in the air already stinking with regret, testosterone, and too many bad damn decisions. Behind me, I heard Coop say, “Goddammit Jake, you need to fix this.”
Then the study door closed behind us. I didn’t stop walking until we were halfway down the hall again. The music from the party filtered through the windows, still thumping, still bright, like nothing had changed.
