Straight Up Love (The Boys of Jackson Harbor #2)(52)
“I’m so glad you could make it, Ava,” he says in his best salesman voice.
Jake slings his arm over the back of my chair and scoots toward me.
I smile. “Yes, I wanted to congratulate you in person.”
Jake squeezes my shoulder.
Harrison’s gaze darts between my face and Jake’s, then settles on Jake’s hand on my shoulder. “I see you’re still dragging poor Jake around.” He shakes his head. “I’ve gotta hand it to you, Jake. You’re a better sport about it than I am. I don’t even like going to these things with my wife, let alone just a friend.”
Jake smiles next to me, totally unfazed by Harrison’s attempt at cruelty. “I’d go anywhere with Ava,” he says. “I mean, we can have a good time watching paint dry, so if she wants company at your baby shower, I’m happy to oblige. Besides, I get her to myself all next weekend, so I’m trying not to be too greedy.”
“Is that so?” Harrison shakes his head. “Well, you two have a good time.” He pushes back from our table and walks to the next.
I feel small. Like I’ve been caught playing a game. My ex knows better than anyone that there’s nothing between me and Jake. Harrison and I were together for years. He saw that Jake and I were the perfect example of how a man and a woman could have a truly platonic relationship.
I look down at the napkin I’ve crumpled into a ball in my lap. The happy pink taunts me. They’re having a girl.
“Hey,” Jake says. He takes my chin in his hand and tilts my face up to his. “Don’t let that asshole get you down.”
I swallow hard. “I was foolish to think he’d care.”
“He does care, Ava. Seeing me here with you is making him crazy. I bet he’s watching us right now, isn’t he?”
I take my eyes off Jake’s to look over his shoulder. Harrison’s still at the table beside ours. He’s nodding as if he’s listening to the conversation, but I catch his gaze on us before he yanks it away.
“The only foolish thing,” Jake says, bringing my attention back to him, “is that you still want him to care.”
“I . . .” I wince and shake my head. I wish I didn’t. Harrison’s opinion of me and my life shouldn’t matter at all. “It’s immature, but I want him to feel like he lost something good when he walked away from me.”
“He might never say it, but he knows he did.” The fingers on my chin fan out, sliding over the sensitive skin under my ear before moving back up into my hair. I know what he’s doing and how this looks from Harrison’s perspective, and though it’s small and probably proves I’m petty, I’m grateful. “You wanted more than you got out of that relationship. You gave more than you received.” He strokes a thumb along my jaw. “But I promise you, there are better things coming.”
Affection swells in my chest. Sometimes people say nice things to make you feel good, but you know in your heart you don’t deserve the kindness. But when someone you’ve known this long wishes you well, when someone who knows all your flaws, shortcomings, and neuroses believes in you, it means more. “Thank you.”
He hums, his eyes dropping to my mouth. “I’m gonna kiss you now, Ava.”
I hear my quick inhale. “Now?”
His eyes remain on my lips as if he needs to catalog every millimeter he wants to taste. “Yeah. It’s not going to be the kind of kiss I want, but the kind I want will have to wait for when I have you alone.” He dips his head and sweeps his lips across mine.
Tingles radiate through my limbs. A spiral of warmth coils in my belly, and he does it again, lightly nipping at my bottom lip before pulling away. I take a fistful of his shirt, trying to keep him close. I’m so full of sensations and longing for more that I can’t breathe.
“That should do it,” he says. He slides his mouth to my ear and whispers, “He never deserved you.”
And I’m so caught up in the feeling of Jake’s lips on mine and the hot pull of desire in my belly that it takes me a beat to realize who he’s even talking about.
Jake
I unlock the front door of Jackson Brews and pull it open for Molly. “You’re early.”
She grins as she steps inside. “I wanted a chance to talk to you before Brayden joined us.”
I tense, but I suppose this was unavoidable. If I was enough of an idiot to get drunk and screw Molly five years ago, I have to be willing to talk about it now—and be willing to own up to the mistake to Ava. It feels more important than I want it to, but yesterday she let me kiss her in front of her ex-husband and a couple dozen people who were a part of her married life. I don’t know if it felt significant to her, but the significance of the moment wasn’t lost on me.
“Yeah, I need to talk to you too.” I wave to one of the tables and shut and lock the door behind her. The bar won’t open to the public for two hours, so Brayden and I will have plenty of time to give Molly the rundown on what we’d need in a regional sales rep.
Molly puts her purse down on one chair and pulls out another to sit. “I want to talk about you and Ava,” she says.
“If you’re going to give the ‘hurt my sister and die’ speech, you should know Colton already beat you to it.” I rub my shoulder, still a little sore from where his fist connected when he saw me at the bar last night. That whole conversation would have gone a lot better if I could have been honest with him instead of rolling with the whole “trying to help my best friend get pregnant” story. But the truth? That I want Ava to give us a chance? That I’m going all in for one last shot at making her love me back? I kept that story to myself. I don’t want Ava knowing what this is about for me. Not yet. I can’t risk her freaking out.