From This Day Forward (The Wedding Belles 0.5)(20)

This time he did shake his sister off, as he circled, feeling like a caged animal. “I don’t know.”

“I think you do.”

“Damn it, Kathleen!”

“Damn it, Jason!” she shot back.

He opened his mouth to roar at her, but instead he let his hands drop to his sides. He lifted his palms helplessly, only to let them drop once more. “Because she mattered, okay? She mattered a hell of a lot, and I wanted her to just . . . believe. To trust.”

To love.

Kathleen came to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, trapping his arms against his side. “I know, big brother. I know. I want her to have trusted you, too. But to play devil’s advocate, did you ever give her any reason to believe that there wouldn’t be a woman fresh out of your bed on a Sunday morning?”

“What do you mean?”

Kathleen pulled back. “I mean, did you ever tell her that you cared enough to stop your whole playboy act? Did you ever tell her you loved her?”

“I didn’t say I—”

His sister held up a hand. “Please. Don’t insult either one of us by denying how you feel about this woman. You have creepy pictures all over your computer screen, and come to think of it, you’ve barely gone out with a single woman since that whole fiasco last year.”

Jason shook his head, indicating the topic was closed. He hadn’t had time to think about how he felt about what happened between him and Leah in the Hamptons. Hadn’t had time to register the pain of realizing that she’d walked out on him again.

And that he’d let her go without explaining. Again.

He shoved that last thought aside. Just because Kathleen was determined to shove pesky thoughts into his head didn’t mean he had to pay attention.

“I need to work, kid,” he said, putting a hand on Kathleen’s head and ruffling her hair. “We’ll discuss this later.”

“Yeah. Sure we will,” she said with a snort. “Okay, fine. Work. I’ll make us sandwiches, and then I’m going home for a much-overdue nap.”

Jason settled back at his computer, trying to lose himself in his work, and succeeding, mostly, save for the jolt he got every time Leah’s red hair appeared on his screen.

Did you ever tell her you loved her?

He didn’t love her. Hell, they’d only dated for two months.

And yet it had only taken one weekend for everything to come rushing back. One f*cking weekend, one night, really, for him to realize . . .

Shit.

For him to realize that she was the only one he wanted.

Jason made a fist and rammed it against the arm of his chair. His sister was right. He was a moron.

Sure, Leah had jumped to conclusions, but it was the exact same conclusion every other woman would have made, because he would have wanted them to. He’d spent his entire life making sure that women knew that he wasn’t a one-woman kind of guy.

It had been different with Leah, but how would she have known that?

He sure as f*ck hadn’t told her.

Jason slumped back against his chair and swore softly as he tried to sort everything out. He dimly heard noises from the kitchen as his sister made what was apparently the most complex sandwich on the planet.

Heard a knock at the door, and his sister’s chipper “I’ve got it!”

He barely registered any of this until he heard Kathleen holler for him. “Damn it, Jason. Get your ass out here now!”

He was so deep in troubleshooting mode that it took him a second to register the urgency in his sister’s voice, and he was out of his chair in a heartbeat.

Only he moved too fast. His bad knee that was okay most of the time twisted, sending a shooting pain radiating down his leg. “Fuck,” he muttered, as he half ran, half limped out into the hallway. “What is it? You okay?”

Kathleen was staring at him wide-eyed. She pointed to the open doorway. “Go. Now.”

He frowned. “What?”

“Go!” she said, jumping a little in her urgency. “Don’t let her get away again!”

Her? Who was her?

It hit him then. A sickening sense of déjà vu.

Her was Leah.

Leah had come by. She’d wanted to see him.

The surge of joy was snuffed out almost immediately by the realization of what Leah would have seen. Not only was it another woman opening the door all over again. It was the same woman. Only this time, she was clearly pregnant.

“Christ, Kathleen,” he said as he lurched for the open doorway.

“Sure, sure, blame me again,” his sister said happily. “I won’t even care so long as you catch her this time!”

Jason was already out the door as his sister said all of this, but even as he took his first steps, he knew it was hopeless. He hadn’t been able to catch her last time, and that was without his knee hurting like hell.

And he sure as hell wasn’t holding out hope that Leah would pause for even a moment and give him a damn chance.





Ohmigod.

Ohmigod. Ohmigod. Ohmigod.

How stupid could one woman be in the span of one calendar year?

Really stupid, apparently. Stupid enough to think that that night with Jason had meant as much to him as it had to her. Stupid enough to think that whatever unbreakable feelings she had for him might be mutual.