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CHAPTER21
JAYCE
Now
What was all that about?
I watch her storm from the store, trapped between being pissed off that she’s just blown me off and wanting to run after her. I know something now—she has feelings for me. But figuring out why they were so bitter was something she was keeping to herself.
“Screw it.” I march after her. “Zee, wait. Stop.” But she keeps going, out of the door and down the street. “Stop!” But she ignores me again and heads right to the beach.
“Stop fighting me.”
“I’m not fighting.” She turns and grits out.
“Funny. This feels like fighting.” I signal between us, but she shakes her head and carries on down the sand. “Wait up. You can’t just come in, fuck me, tell me you hate me, and storm off.”
“Why not?” she calls back. I don’t have a sensible answer for her other than it’s not what rational people do.
“What will it take for you to leave?” She comes to an abrupt halt.
“Leave you alone? Sorry, not happening. You’ve tried, but I’m not-”
“No. Leave Tregethworth.” The wind whips around us, sweeping her hair, but there’s no mistaking what she said or the sincerity in her words.
I take a step back and look out at the waves. “You can’t get me to leave, Zee. This is my home. And you don’t get to claim it when you’ve not been back here for years.” I keep my voice level and my sight trained on the ocean. She had the ability to push all my buttons, and I was getting fed up with Zennor and her drama.
“Keeping tracks on me?” Her comment isn’t what I was expecting, and I look back at her. I’d have kept tracks on her, visited, hell, there’d have been no question of that had she given me a way.
“I came back here. I told you this, and as for setting down roots here, I told you that, too. You throwing your tantrums won’t scare me off. Meeting you here wasn’t part of my plan, and I’m not sure I’m seeing it as a benefit now.”
“I forgot, you’re an adrenalin junky, not frightened of anything if those photos in the shop are anything to go by.”
“I wouldn’t say that.” Visions of the waves at Nazaré spring to mind. The mountain of white-water racing to pound you into the depths and keep you there until you surrender and drown is a memory I will never forget.
“So, I ask again. Leave. You can do what you want at any other beach on the coast.” The bite to her words has lessened, but she needs to know she can’t push me out.
“And I chose here. So get over it and move on. Or not, it’s up to you, but we either need to figure this out, or you’re going to concede.”
“Never. This is my home, regardless of how often I’ve visited. I shouldn’t have to leave.”
“I didn’t do anything!” I scream, exasperated at her single-mindedness. She thinks she’s got a claim on this place, well, tough shit. “For Christ’s sake, Zennor. You’re delusional if you think I’d just pick up so you can build a new life for yourself here. In fact,” I turn around and point at her, “I’m the one that has the right to be pissed off. I reached out. I wrote and left you with my email, and nothing. So, what was it? Couldn’t be bothered? Happy with a summer fling?” She’s wound me up, and I know I’m baiting her, but I am through with all this bullshit.
She doesn’t answer, just stands on the beach looking at me with a hollow look on her face.
“How about you quit being the drama queen. Stop whatever this is, and we work at being friends, here and now. Forget the past and have a fresh start.”
“I can’t be friends.” She shakes her head and trudges off down the beach again.
“Why not? You have no trouble fucking me. And we do that pretty well,” I yell, my frustration at this woman hitting new heights.
She stops, and I’m thankful the wind has chased everyone off the beach. It tears around and flicks up sand, matching the hostility of our argument, but I won’t let this go.
Not this time.
“You’ve been gone for years. Why did you have to come back now? Why now?” Her question sounds as if she’s pleading with me to give her some insight into my decision, but I’m not going there.
“I told you. But you don’t deserve the story of my past. Not when you’re keeping secrets of your own. Like why youhateme so much.”
