Page 25 of You Wish
“What did you think when your boss connected me to your project?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. I knew our paths would cross from time to time because of Henry and Jane, but that’s not the same as working together for a week straight. The idea of that brought back a lot of unexpected feelings. Feelings I didn’t want to have to face.”
“Like?”
“Disappointment,” she admitted, as they walked out into the sunshine. The fresh air felt good on her warm body and cleared her head.
“Hmm,” was all he said, but the tone implied he was the disappointed one. Which made no sense. She was the injured party, not him.
“How did you feel when you saw me?” she asked and then kicked herself. She didn’t want him to know she’d thought about his initial reaction nonstop since that day.
She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but his blasé tone rubbed her wrong. Here she’d been dreading their reunion, and he’d reacted as if they’d just been former fuck buddies.
“Caught off guard. It was like a tsunami of emotions slamming me against a palm tree. Good and bad.”
Georgia didn’t want to know which feelings fell into which category. Just like she didn’t want to know the cause behind the hollow throb in her chest.
“Maybe we should go back to ignoring each other,” she said and all but felt Jake tense up. Felt his walls erect faster than an F1 car.
“Whatever you want, darlin’.”
9
The second Jake turned onto the country road it was like stepping into a time machine. Every curve, every dip, every tree-lined bend—he knew them all by muscle memory. Rules of the road were polite suggestions. Sometimes he obeyed the speed limit. Most of the time? Definitely not.
Georgia’s hand tightened around the seatbelt. “You know, they have limits for a reason, right?”
Jake glanced at her, the corners of his mouth twitching. “Limits are for people who don’t know this road like the back of their hand.”
“This is not the back of your hand,” she snapped.
“Ah, but that’s the fun part,” he said, leaning into the curves like it was nothing. “Used to be my favorite.”
She gripped the oh-shit handle like it owed her money. “Favorite? Isn’t this the same road that gave you your first fender bender?”
Jake shrugged unapologetically. “All part of the adventure. You’re welcome.”
She shot him a look, part exasperation, part something else. He felt that familiar tug in his chest—the one that always showedup when she was around—and for a moment, the years between them vanished.
“You know, some people would call this reckless,” she said, voice teasing but sharp.
“Some people are boring,” he countered, eyes on the road but secretly enjoying the way her glare couldn’t hide the flicker of excitement.
She groaned, half laughing, half screaming internally. Jake remembered exactly how that felt—their younger selves on roads like this, hearts racing, laughter spilling over boundaries they weren’t supposed to cross. And now, a decade later, instead of those memories lingering in the rearview mirror, they felt like they were barreling straight at them, challenging them to a game of chicken.
Jake leaned into the next curve, and Georgia sucked in a breath. “Still planning for every possible disaster, huh?”
Her gaze flicked to him, bright, sharp, wary, and alive. “Some things go wrong no matter what. The rest you turn into a logistical problem.”
Jake smirked. She always had a comeback, always had a way of keeping him on edge.
He just laughed, taking a hard left onto a gravel road like it was the easiest thing in the world. And Georgia, despite her protests, was feeling the thrill—the same thrill he’d always felt when they were together, the one that had made heartbreak so deliciously unbearable.
When he’d awoke that morning he’d been looking forward to his time in the car with her. But it seemed his plan had backfired. She’d started to open up, and like an asshole, he’d gone and made that stupid bet, which caused her to crawl back into her safe place. He should have remembered that about her. While she could talk for hours about other people, she never liked to talk about herself.
“It’s beautiful here,” she said, cutting the thick silence and surprising him. “You described it a thousand times, but I guess you have to see it to understand just how magical it is. I mean, there are so many pine trees, it’s like driving through the world’s largest Christmas tree farm.”
“Wait until we get to the actual farm,” he said.
