Before You (Before You #1)(18)
“How did you end up in Jax’s room?” Cam asked.
For a lingering moment, she didn’t answer. It was almost as if she couldn’t process Cam’s question. Guilt surged through her, and she placed her hands on his chest to get some space between their bodies. Her breath quickened when she came to terms with the fact that she had made an unforgivable mistake. “I was looking for the bathroom, and I ended up here by mistake.”
“What were you two doing?”
“Drinking, talking, nothing too exciting.” The minute she said it, she wished she could take it back. She didn’t want him to ask any questions.
“Really? Just the two of you? That doesn’t sound like something you would do.” Cam brushed her hair away from her face and she feared her cheeks were burning with guilt.
“I barged in on him, and he offered me a drink to be nice. I was only in here for a few minutes.”
“So you do want to check out our room?” Cam said, raising his eyebrows suggestively.
She smacked Cam lightly on the arm. “No, I’m not hooking up in the middle of some party like two desperate teenagers.”
“Mmm,” Cam said, nuzzling her neck again. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with acting like two desperate teenagers. In fact, I think it’s an excellent idea.”
She grabbed his face with both of her hands so he was looking at her, and then she brushed the blond hair that she loved so much since she was a kid from his forehead. Forcing a smile, she said, “Let’s hang out until people start to leave and then we’ll have all night together.”
Cam played with the tie at the top of her strapless dress, silently studying her face. “All right,” he finally said. “Are you sure you feel okay? Ever since that fight, it feels as if there’s a wall between us—”
“Cam,” she interrupted. “Let’s not revisit it tonight.”
“I know it probably isn’t the right time, but I’ve been walking on eggshells, afraid to say anything for days, and I want us to be happy again, like we used to be. You remember how it was always just the two of us against the world, as if nothing else mattered? I miss that.”
She stepped away from him and headed for the door. She couldn’t stay in the room for one more minute. Everything about it felt heavy and suffocating. When the warm breeze from the outside air surrounded her, she turned around. “Cam, things will get better. We’ve been apart for a long time. We need to find our rhythm again. Let’s not spend the weekend analyzing it. Let’s have a good time, and I think the rest will work itself out.”
“I know it will.” Cam wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her toward him. “You’re my forever girl, Bre. Don’t ever forget it.”
Five minutes ago she didn’t think anything could make her feel guiltier than she already did, but she was wrong.
Chapter Seven
Sitting by the pool listening to Katie chatter on and on about her plans for his Labor Day party next year, Jax briefly considered retreating to his room again, but the possibility of Cam and Bre still occupying the space made him dismiss the idea.
Ignoring her, his mind drifted to the almost disastrous kiss, and he contemplated when he had become such an idiot. He couldn’t say exactly why he kissed her, but when she looked at him with those soft melting eyes, he couldn’t think about anything else, and if he were truthful, he hadn’t thought about much else since he met her. If Cam and Katie had given him five more minutes alone with Bre, he would have had her spread out beneath him on the floor. Now that would have definitely caused a scene.
“Jax, are you listening to me?” Katie’s persistent voice interrupted his thoughts.
“What?” he snapped before he could moderate his voice.
“I just said that we should invite both of our families next year. Don’t you think that would be nice?”
He knew he needed to do something about Katie. Allowing her to make any future plans involving them being together was a really bad idea. He promised himself that he wouldn’t fall back into a pattern of hooking up with Katie just because it was convenient, but here he was letting Katie worm her way into his life.
When Chasing Ruin started booking a lot of shows nine months ago and building a sizeable fan base, all the of guys, including himself, took advantage of the women flinging themselves at them. Just when he couldn’t stomach one more anonymous hookup, Katie showed up at one of his performances, and when she started talking about mutual acquaintances he hadn’t seen in years, being with her felt a little less empty than the alternative.
Growing up in the same circle of friends, Jax and Katie had dated briefly in high school, and their families were close friends, but nothing ever came out of it despite his dad’s not so subtle attempts to push them together. Sure, Katie was beautiful in the typical Southern California way, but nothing about her was real—not her body and certainly not her personality. For some unknown reason, he ignored all the glaring warning signs and kept Katie around for the last couple months. Now, in spite all his not so subtle attempts to convince her that he wasn’t interested; she refused to leave him alone.
His eyes flew to the side of the house as if he could sense Bre’s reappearance. Relief flooded through him now that he knew Bre and Cam hadn’t wandered off to their room, or worse, made use of his room, but then he saw Cam’s arm wrapped around Bre as he whispered in her ear, and the relief morphed into a slow, burning resentment. Part of him wanted to yell at her for pretending as though nothing happened in the room, and part of him wanted to punch Cam for having her. He couldn’t do either.