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Maybe she still did.
An iron hand seemed to have reached into Chris’s body, taken a handful of her guts and was twisting the life out of them. She could hardly breathe for the pain.
She was jealous. Violently jealous. Catfight jealous. She wanted all those things from Zac and she wanted this woman never to have had them.
Which meant her triumph over the success of this relationship, her belief that it was light, easy, under control, that her feelings for Zac would be easily left behind when she moved back to New York—all that was yet another way she was lying to herself.
Eva’s prediction had come true: Chris was falling in love with Zac.
12
“BEFORE I HANG UP, I have to tell you something.”
“Yeah? What’s that?” Zac had just stepped out of the shower at work. Nice perk to working at a big firm—they had a gym and locker room for employees. He’d left his desk early so he’d have time to clean up and shave before picking Chris up at five-thirty. Luke had called to say he and Summer were hanging out at Summer’s house, and Jackie had left Carmia to work her way up the coast before returning to Los Angeles and the world beyond.
Which meant his place would be wide-open for him and Chris.
Yeah, he was heartbroken about that.
“I stopped by Slow Pour on my way out of town for an espresso.”
Zac froze. Had he ever told Chris about Jackie being in town? They’d been in bed most of the day Saturday. During that time, Jackie had not exactly been uppermost in his mind. He’d devoted Sunday to catching up with his friend, taking her around Carmia, and they’d stayed up talking well into the wee hours of Monday morning, until he’d dragged himself to bed, knowing he had to be up early.
And now...it looked as if he’d pulled a classic Dumb Guy move.
“Hang on, Jackie, let me put you on speaker.” He adjusted the settings on his phone. “Okay, I’m here. You stopped at Slow Pour? How was that?”
“You were absolutely right.”
Zac stopped with his hand on his shaving kit. Right about what? That Jackie would like Chris? That Chris would like Jackie? That Chris was preparing to kill him because he hadn’t mentioned he had an old girlfriend sleeping over?
“I was?”
“Yup. Great cup of coffee.”
Zac snorted. “Just what I wanted to hear.”
Jackie laughed her deep, brassy laugh. “I know, that was mean. Yes, I wanted to meet this woman who has you all turned upside down.”
Zac fished out his razor. And? “How did that go?”
“Very interesting. For one thing, she’s beautiful.”
“I know.” He secured the towel around his waist and stepped to the mirror over the row of sinks, understanding Jackie was enjoying her moment but wishing she’d get to the point.
“And she gives off this great contrasting vibe, like if someone cracked her supercontrolled exterior there’d be this boiling mass of energy and insecurity and passion.”
“I know that, too.” He squirted out a puff of shaving cream and started spreading it onto his face. So far it didn’t sound as if Chris had gone banshee on him. But then, as Jackie said, she was a master of self-control.
Except when he had his hands on her...
“But I bet you didn’t know...”
Zac stopped with his razor in midair. “Didn’t know...”
“That she’s on her way to falling in love with you, if she’s not already there.”
Zac put down the razor, his heart thumping. “What makes you say that?”
“If she was in this just as a friend with benefits, she would not have wanted to rip my head off, stick it on a spear and dance around it.”
“Ah.” Zac forced a chuckle, trying to figure out where this was going. “She happened to mention that?”
“I saw it in her eyes.”
Uh-oh.
“Oh, come on.” He picked up the razor again. “You can’t tell all that from someone’s eyes. At least not the spear part. What the hell did you do to get her that pissed off?”
“It was fine at first. She was all warm and welcoming until I told her I was staying with you. Which, my wonderful brainless friend, you forgot to mention to her.”
