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She sighed. “Jace, is it what you’d like to do?”
“Uh, yeah. Let’s sit.”
“What did you want to tell me?”
“It’s about Tucker, but it’s also about me.”
“Jace, I already told you—”
“It isn’t about Blythe, so please, Bree, just let me talk.” He could almost see the steam coming out of her ears.
She sat down on the couch in the living room, and he sat next to her.
“When Tucker and I were in high school—no it was before that, a long time before that.”
She folded her arms.
“When we were in elementary school, we met a little girl named Rosa.” He scrubbed his hand over his face, wincing when he touched his nose.
The story he continued was similar to the one Tucker told Blythe, although Jace had no way of knowing that.
“When we got into high school, Rosa and I started talking to each other more. Sometimes she’d call me after she’d been out with Tucker. At first we were just friends, but the more we talked, the more she confided in me.”
Bree turned so her back was up against the arm of the couch and brought her knees up.
“Tucker wasn’t exactly pressuring her into having sex with him, and the truth was, it bothered her. She thought he wasn’t interested in her that way. I was quick to reassure her that he was.” Jace laughed nervously.
“Go on.” Bree’s face was getting tighter and tighter the longer he talked. She looked as though she was giving herself a headache.
“We spent a lot of time talking about sex, which was strange at first, but then it seemed like no big deal. She had a lot of questions, and I certainly had the answers.
“In the beginning, it seemed like she wanted to be ready when Tucker was. After a while, I stopped thinking about her with Tucker—not that I ever thought about it, ya know—but I started thinking about her with me.”
Jace took a deep breath. “One night, she suggested we meet. I don’t have any idea where Tucker was, maybe hangin’ with his buddies. Anyway, she asked if, instead of talking on the phone, we could talk in person. I knew it wasn’t a good idea, but I did it anyway.”
She asked him to pick her up at a friend’s house so no one would see him or his car at her house, especially not her parents.
“She was pretty aggressive. I mean, we didn’t have sex that night, but we came pretty close.”
They started to make arrangements to see each other more often, and each time they did, they went a little further. When they weren’t together, they talked on the phone. Rosa told him she felt as though she could talk to him in a way she’d never felt comfortable talking to Tucker.
“My ego got the best of me, that’s for sure. Tuck and I competed over everything. We were always trying to outdo each other. Skiing, riding—everything. She said all the right stuff, that I excited her more than he did, that I was easier to talk to, that I understood her better than he did. I ate it up, every word.
“When we started our senior year of high school, I started pressuring her to break up with Tucker. I didn’t think he was that serious about her, especially since she told me their relationship wasn’t physical.”
Bree got up to get another glass of wine. Jace followed and pulled another beer out for himself.
“Want something stronger?” she asked.
He wasn’t sure if she was serious or being bitchy. “No thanks. Beer’s good.”
When she went back into the living room, he followed. He thought she might sit in one of the chairs, but she didn’t. She sat back on the couch where she’d been before. This time, she covered herself with the throw that was draped over the back.
“Are you cold? Do you want me to light a fire?”
“A fire would be nice. Thanks.”
“So where was I?” he asked after the fire was lit.
