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“I will. But Jackson, I want you to know one thing. Abigail is my friend first. I’m sorry if that comes off harsh, but I’ll have her back over anyone else’s. Understand?”
“Loud and clear, Kasey. Just please know she has it all wrong. Whatever’s going on in that gorgeous head of hers, she has to give me a chance to explain.” Or at least figure out what the hell I did last night.
Kasey takes in a deep breath. “Sounds like I have a lot to catch up on with her.”
“Yeah, you can say that again.” I hear my flight being called. “I have to go. We’re starting to board. I’ll be home soon.”
“Okay, Jackson. Safe travels.” Kasey hangs up, and I gather my things, anxious to get the fuck out of Charleston.
The flight is nowhere near as fun as the one we took here. First off, there’s no Abigail to talk to and tease. Second, I was really hoping to be inducted into the mile-high club on the way back on a private jet, but that’s obviously not happening without Abigail. Sex wasn’t the only thing I loved about spending time with her, even though it was off-the-charts, steamy, fucking hot. Talking to her, even when she gave me shit, was the most fun I’ve ever had in the company of another woman, and I’ve spent plenty of time with other women. That’s probably the reason it’s so easy for Abigail to believe the worst about what she saw. I’m still not a hundred-percent sure about what that was, but if the flashes I have of the devastation on her face are any indication, I know it’s not good. I refuse to believe I had sex with another woman, though. I don’t know what happened, but I know it wasn’t that.
When we land, I try Abigail again. I know she’s made it back by now, so hopefully she’s turned her phone back on. It rings, thank fuck, and goes to voice mail. Shit. I call back again like a fucking stalker, and she sends me to voice mail. Well, that answers that question. Abigail refuses to talk to me.
I send her a text asking her to call me back, but she doesn’t respond. I send another one saying I have no idea what’s going on. Nothing. I slam my head back on the seat of the cab, and the temptation to punch the roof is strong, but I don’t want to scare the poor driver by making him think he picked up a crazy person.
When I walk back into my apartment, it hits me once again how cold and lifeless it is. Nothing like the last few days spent in a hotel room with one of the liveliest people I’ve ever known. I collapse onto my couch, and to add insult to injury, I look through some of the pictures I took on our trip. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Abigail look more beautiful than in the picture of us on the bed, just having roused from sleep after a long night of having the best sex of my life. But that was the way with Abigail. Every night topped the one before. She looks sleepy and sated with me kissing her on the cheek. I took it on a whim, thinking if this was all we had, I wanted something to remember it by. It was a passing thought that I quickly forgot about because there was no way I was not going to have this woman in my life and in my bed. It stopped being just a fantasy and was quickly turning into our reality.
The phone rings in my hand and Donovan’s name moves across the screen.
“Hello, brother,” I answer tiredly into the phone.
“Jackson, what the hell is going on? Kasey told me you called her looking for Abigail.”
The last thing I feel like dealing with is a lecture from my brother about how I should have kept my dick in my pants. If he only knew the half of it.
“Yeah. She flew home without me.”
“Care to explain why?” he says sternly into the phone.
“Not really.” The only thing I want to do is crawl into bed and go to sleep. Hopefully then I can wake up and find this whole day was just one long nightmare.
“Too bad. I’m coming over. Be there in twenty.” He hangs up, and I blow out an annoyed breath. He’s known about Abigail and me since our trip to the cabin. As far as I could tell, he didn’t tell Kasey, seeing as I asked him not to, but he did issue me a very stern warning about fucking around with someone his girlfriend views as a sister. Kasey made sure to make that fact clear this morning when I spoke with her before my flight. It didn’t frustrate me coming from her like it does from Donovan. Abigail is lucky to have Kasey in her corner, unlike her own sister, who basically disowned her because of that cheating asshole. Fuck, am I the cheating asshole now?
Donovan gets to my apartment with a tall cup of coffee and a scowl on his face.
“Thanks,” I tell him while reaching for the cup.
“This isn’t for you, asshole. What the fuck did you do to Abigail, because my woman is pissed and worried that she can’t get a hold of her friend.”
I wave him inside and sink back into the couch while Donovan takes a seat in the chair across from me.
Rubbing my hand over my face, I take a deep breath and begin my explanation. “Everything was great. We were getting along and having a great time. I thought when we got back, it would be a chance to start something real, you know? Her family was a trip. Some of the biggest assholes I’ve ever met. Her mom only cared about her standing in her social circles, and her dad was totally checked out from reality. Nice enough guy but completely oblivious.”
Donovan rolls his eyes at my accurate and unflattering description of her parents. My brother abhors social climbing pariahs.
Anger begins heating my face remembering the way her mother dismissed Abigail so flippantly that first day. “And the sister was a spoiled princess. Didn’t give two shits that Abigail came to celebrate with her.” I shake my head at the memory of her reaction to the argument between Abigail, Davis, and me at the bar. “But being with Abigail was nothing like I thought it would be. It was so much better. Maybe it was because she only had me to lean on, or maybe it was being away from our day-to-day lives and playing the happy couple, but we really connected.”
I tell him about waking up in the hotel this morning and what I was able to piece together through my hazy memories. It’s not much, to say the least.
Donovan looks at me skeptically while sipping the coffee he brought for himself. Asshole.
“I know what you’re thinking, but it wasn’t just about the sex, brother. And she felt it too. No matter what we were doing or where we were, there was this magnetic pull toward each other. Almost like my body knew where she was every second, and I needed to touch her or be next to her. And when I’m not around her, my skin doesn’t feel like it fits right. I’ve never felt anything like it before.”
Donovan is looking at me with a small, cocky smile and a knowing glint in his eye.
“What’s that look for?” I ask. His discerning gaze is making my knee bounce with anxious energy as I wait for him to say something. Anything is better than him staring at me like I should have a clue what he’s thinking.
“You really are a stupid asshole sometimes.” He chuckles at his very unfunny comment.
