AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Wait, you’re saying you knew about Jake and her past?” she asked.
“I knew she was holding something in, and I made it my mission to figure out what it was because I was falling for her.”
“She told you? She didn’t tell me until after she and Jake had been together for weeks.”
“You weren’t the one demanding answers as to why she was holding back when I knew she felt it too. Look if Jake weren’t in the picture I’d be doing everything in my power to win the rest of her heart but he is and she loves him. I just want her to be happy that’s why I’ve stayed away for the last seven years.”
“You’re saying you and Stacey were what…dating?”
“Sort of, you know very well that Stace doesn’t study,” he said pointedly. “We started out as friends. I caught her in a vulnerable place and wanted to make sure she was okay. No I’m not one of the Brokens because I’m the one who walked away so I wouldn’t hurt her by demanding she let go of Jake.”
“You’re seriously telling us that you two were together?” Emma asked, her eyes wide.
“Not like that,” he said seeing the look in the guys’ eyes. “It’s impossible not to fall for Stace and for me, I knew the whole her and I knew I wasn’t what she wanted. I heard the difference in her voice after your wedding but she wouldn’t tell me why.”
“What?” Emma said confused.
“We talk; she called me back asking if we could help out with this and I said yes immediately because Stace never asked for anything, not from me and I wanted to come do this for her and the cause. I saw the ads for the bachelor auction and knew Jake was in town, and that’s when she told me they were back together. I was under no illusions when I got here.”
“So why didn’t she tell Jake about you?” Miles asked.
“Up until the night of the ball she didn’t know he was staying,” he answered. “She wasn’t going to tell him that she’d fallen for me and the only reason it didn’t work out was because she was still in love with him. It’d leave her open for mountains of pain when he finally left. This isn’t just about what happened between them in the past. You know her mom died right after she graduated high school right?” he asked and they nodded. “Has she ever talked about her father?”
“No,” Emma said thinking about it. “She just said he left them when she was little.”
“A baby, she was two months old, well, she found out right after she moved here that he’d gotten married and had kids.”
“What…how do you know that?” she asked.
“It’s what she was upset about the first day we met. She wanted answers as to why he’d left her, why everyone had thanks to Jake not showing up at the wedding. She found him. He’d met someone and got her pregnant, they married a few weeks after that and had a baby girl, and a son, then another girl, and another, and then another son.”
“Oh my god, you’re saying Stacey has…”
“Three sisters and two brothers, all with the same mother, add in her mom dying, Jake not fighting for her…”
“Her falling for you and she wasn’t about to risk opening herself up again,” Emma stated.
“Now she’s worried that by telling Jake about me—that she did find herself falling for someone else, he’s going to do the one thing everyone else has…leave.”
“There’s no way Jake is going to leave her now,” Miles argued. “He loves her way too much to let something like this end them.”
“Let’s hope so because I’d rather not watch my back for a throwing knife,” Lucca said making Emma laugh. “What?”
“We thought that you and Stacey had been together, and I warned Miles that if you and Jake met up this weekend they’d need to lock the throwing knives up,” Emma said and the rest of the group joined in as they waited for an answer.
∞∞∞
“Jake,” Stacey called seeing him up ahead walking towards the pond on the grounds. “Jake, stop.”
He turned around and looked at her his entire body tight with tension. He shook his head and headed on as his fists tightened in fury. She’d lied to him and now she was going to tell him it was over. He knew it. He hadn’t moved fast enough but he hadn’t knownhewas going to be here this weekend.
“Jake, please stop,” she yelled hurrying towards him. She caught his arm as they hit the walkway around the pond and she held tight when he tried to pull his arm from hers. “Jake please look at me.”
“Why? So you can tell me that it’s over? So you can tell me that he won? I don’t need the words, Cee; I saw you two in that office.”
“What?” she asked as her heart stalled.
“I saw you through the window. You were in his arms, he waskissingyou, and you just let him!”
