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“You don’t have to do that,” she said, even though she knew the words would be wasted. Aunt Berta was tireless and having too much fun and not about to stop until she was done.
“I’ve already made a list,” she insisted.
“Fine.” Jess reached into her purse and pulled out her wallet, handing Aunt Berta all the cash she had on hand, hoping it would be enough to cover the bill. “Here. Don’t spend more than this. I can go back to the store later this week to get the rest.”
Aunt Berta took the cash, albeit reluctantly, and Jess suspected that list would be completely checked off regardless of how much it cost.
“I’ll be back soon,” she promised, borrowing Aunt Berta’s car for the trip.
The drive back to Tony and Rhys’s was just long enough to ensure her stomach was twisted in knots by the time she arrived.
Neither man was there, so Jess went to her room—the guest room, she supposed it would be again—and packed up her and Jasper’s things. Then she walked around the apartment, seeking out little items that were scattered here and there—a pair of her shoes in the living room, Jasper’s coloring books on the kitchen table.
She’d killed nearly an hour and still neither man had returned. She felt guilty leaving Penny and Aunt Berta for so long, so she sat down to write them a note.
It took her several minutes to figure out what she could say to them, because honestly, words would never be enough to tell them exactly how much they’d given her.
Once she finished, she reread it, sort of glad they weren’t home. There was no way she would have been able to speak the words she’d written without falling apart completely, and crying in front of them was something she simply couldn’t do. After all, it wasn’t their fault she’d lost her heart.
Well, actually, itwastheir fault. Because they’d been wonderful, attentive, generous roommates…as well as gorgeous, sexy as fuck, and amazing lovers.
She’d let things go too far. She should have known better, should have protected not just her heart but Jasper’s as well.
Jasper had instructed her to hang his picture up “somewhere special,” so Jess hung it from the refrigerator with a magnet—front and center. She waited a few minutes more, then she placed the note, her key, and the last of the rent she still owed them in an envelope by the door, and left.
As she returned to the car with her bags, she felt equal parts relieved and disappointed that neither man had returned home while she’d been there.
She would still need to see them, talk to them.
Hopefully, when that time came, this piercing pain would have lessened, her agony less raw, her heart…
God, it didn’t matter how much time passed.
She was a fool.
And her heart was irrevocably broken.
Tony walked into the diner a little after seven and spotted Rhys sitting in a booth by the front window, sipping his coffee. Rhys waved and he walked over, claiming the seat across from him.
The two of them hadn’t managed to meet for lunch as planned, both of them dealing with unexpected emergencies at work.
The warehouse was robbed, so Tony had been knee-deep in police reports and insurance claims all damn day, trying to replace what was lost so they wouldn’t fall behind on their schedule.
When Tony called an hour ago to set up this coffee meeting, Rhys confided that his day hadn’t been much better. He’d been inundated by patients all suffering from a nasty stomach virus that was spreading like wildfire. Apparently, he’d spent the last three hours at the hospital, making rounds there.
Tony had heard the exhaustion in Rhys’s tone and for a moment had been tempted to suggest they have this talk tomorrow. He couldn’t make the offer, however, too ready, too desperate to move things to the next part.
“Can I get you something to drink, Tony?”
Tony looked up, recognizing their waitress as Debbie, the friend who’d taken Jess in after she was evicted. He scowled when he spotted the black eye on her face, recalling how afraid Jasper had been of Debbie’s brother-in-law, the bad man.
Tony lifted his chin, his temper rising. If there was one thing he wouldn’t stand for, it was assholes who hit women. He still had moments of regret for not pummeling the fucker who’d attacked Jess more than he had. “Do I need to take care of somebody for that, or has it been handled?”
Debbie shook her head, clearly shocked by the offer. Apparently she and Jess had spent too much of their lives around people who didn’t give a shit. “My husband took care of it. Kicked my brother-in-law out.”
“Just kicked him out?”
“Mario has a drinking problem. Makes him a mean drunk.”
