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Jackson knew that all right. In the corner of the room, he watched them work together, arranging the table and chatting away. Rebecca threw her head back and laughed about something Bella said.
She was a beautiful woman. Charming as well.
“Are you in the restaurant business?” Oliver asked.
“Nope. I’m in the business of buying places that I build up, and make it better. My most recent acquisition was a modeling agency.”
“I heard something about that on the news. Your wife wanted to be a model, right?”
“She did. My wife died a long time ago,” he said.
“Sorry, man. My bad.”
He climbed off the ladder. “Are you going to date Rebecca?”
Oliver jerked back. “Whoa, I think we’ve crossed boundaries here. Rebecca’s my boss, and I enjoy working for her. I have a girlfriend.”
It had been a long time since he’d been interested in a woman, and he didn’t know how to tell all other men to back off so that he could have her to himself. “Is there a special man in her life?”
Oliver paused, and stared at him. “I know a great deal about Rebecca. She keeps her private life just that, private. You should ask her, or better yet, why don’t you just tell me to stay away from her?”
Jackson didn’t back down. “She’s mine.”
There. He’d said the words.
Oliver looked past him toward Rebecca. He held his hands up. “Man, I’m just a friend here. You want to start making claims, go and piss over her. Clearly something is going on between the two of you, but in case you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of people who care about Rebecca. She doesn’t surround herself with assholes, unless you count her parents. I think you need to get your facts straight before you start going all caveman.”
“What’s going on?” Rebecca asked, coming to stand beside him. Neither of them answered as she looked up to the ceiling. “They look so beautiful. Thank you so much.” She wrapped her arms around the two of them, and kissed both of their cheeks.
Then, she was off.
After they had been working in the restaurant for over an hour, Alaric came by to pick up Bella, leaving Jackson alone.
Jackson said his goodbyes, and headed toward his car. Rebecca was there, leaning against it, arms folded.
She stared at him with a frown. “Why?”
“I take it Oliver told you.”
“Does it matter? You wanted to keep this private, and I am respecting your wishes. You can’t just go around telling people that I’m yours, especially not my work colleagues. I run a restaurant, Jackson.”
“This is a first for me, okay? I’m working it out as well.”
“Fuck buddies don’t go around telling others that they are taken. You don’t want Bella to know, and I’m fine with that. I didn’t want to tell her either. I know she has a hard time dealing with you dating. I like you, Jackson.”
“I messed up.”
She smiled then. “You got jealous.”
“I did, and it’s a new experience.”
She moved away from the car. “See you later?”
“You will. Your restaurant looks beautiful.”
“Thank you.” She was near the doors and about to go inside.
“Do you like Valentine’s Day?” he asked.
She stopped with a hand on the door. “I love it. I don’t know why. No one needs one specific day to tell someone they’re loved, but I’ve always thought it was just an anniversary to mark something special. See you later, Jackson.”
