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“His new job in California says,” Ginger said. “I can’t do the long-distance thing—not that he’s even asked.”
“What if he asked you to move to California with him?” Norah asked. “Would you do that?”
Ginger shrugged, “No,” she said. “We only spent one night together and I’m going to make sure that’s all this amounts to. I won’t sleep with him again. It’s not fair to either of us.” She caught the look that Norah shot Savannah and groaned. “This is why I like to find a private spot on the beach and hideaway.”
“You can hide all you want, but sooner or later, Jude will find you. He’s home from fishing early and he wants to talk to you,” Savannah said. She even seemed to take some satisfaction in telling her that Jude was looking for her.
“What does he want to talk to me about?” Ginger asked, trying for nonchalance.
“Don’t know, but we can only buy you so much time to hide again. I’m pretty sure that the guys know about this spot too,” Norah said.
“You guys can’t just tell him that I’m in town for the day or something?” she begged.
“Well, since you were the one to give Brooks my address, I’m not sure if I should help you or not. I mean, I’m so happy with the way things turned out, but you did nark on me,” Savannah said.
“That is true,” Norah said.
“I really don’t like either of you right now,” Ginger breathed. “Fine, tell him where to find me, but this changes nothing. I won’t succumb to Jude’s charms again. We had a one-night fling, and that’s the end of it.” It would have to be the end of it if she didn’t want anyone to find out about the baby yet. Keeping her secret was going to be hard, but she had to find a way until she could decide what she wanted to do about him or her.
“If you say so,” Savannah said. She sat back in her seat as if enjoying the warm sunshine and it took everything in Ginger to control her temper and not stomp off, leaving both of her friends behind. No, she was done hiding. It was time to face Jude and the feelings that she was trying to deny she had about him because she just couldn’t let herself get hurt again—not by him. It would destroy her.
Jude
Jude Connors had spent half of the morning looking for Ginger. She took off on him early in the morning when he was still sleeping off the post-sex bliss. Ginger had finally opened up to him about wanting a relationship and being committed to someone. He thought for sure that she wanted the same thing as him until he woke up to find her side of the bed empty and no sign of Ginger the whole rest of the day. She was hiding from him, and he hated that, but he’d let her have it—for now.
Brooks walked into the kitchen to find him making a sandwich. “You know cutting our fishing trip short to come back to find Ginger was a great idea.” Brooks looked around the room and back at Jude. “Where is she exactly?” he asked.
“Not here and I have no clue, smart-ass,” Jude grumbled. “She’s hiding right now, but I’ll find her sooner or later. She can’t hide forever.”
Brooks held up his phone wearing his shit-eating grin. “It’s Savannah,” he said.
“Of course it is. You two haven’t seen each other for a whole ten minutes. I’m sure she’s just calling to tell you that she loves you and can’t live without you or some sappy shit like that,” Jude teased.
“Shut the fuck up, man,” Brooks spat. “My girl isn’t calling for me. She’s calling to tell you where you can find Ginger. But if you don’t want to know—” Brooks held up the phone and acted like he was going to end the call and Jude told him to cut it out.
“Hold on, honey,” he said into the phone. “I’d really like to hear you say the words, man. Tell me that you want to know where Ginger is,” Brooks said to him.
“Fine, I want to know where Ginger is. I need to talk to her before she flips out and takes off on me like Savannah did you.”
“I got her back, fucker. You going to be able to say the same or is Ginger just a one-night stand?” Brooks asked.
“That’s none of your fucking business,” Jude spat. “That’s between Ginger and me.”
“Then I think that we need to talk,” Ginger said from the back door. “I hear you’ve been looking for me, Jude,” she said.
“You ass,” Jude said to Brooks, “you were keeping me here knowing that Ginger was heading back here, weren’t you?”
“Maybe,” Brooks admitted. “Hey, it was Savannah’s idea and it worked. I’ll give you two some space.”
“Thanks, Brooks,” Ginger said. “I appreciate the assist.”
“Any time,” Brooks said, bending to kiss her cheek on the way out. Jude knew that they had gotten close when Brooks was going out of his mind trying to find Savannah. Ginger was the one to tell Brooks where he could find Savannah when she went home to take care of her father. “Go easy on him.”
Jude watched as Brooks left through the back door and he knew that his friends were getting their hopes up that if he fell for Ginger, he’d end up sticking around. But he wasn’t giving up his chance of taking his dream job on the West Coast. He wasn’t looking forward to moving clear across the country, but he was looking forward to the job. It was everything he ever wanted.
“Hey,” he said, crossing the room to where Ginger stood. Whenever she looked at him the way that she was, with her dark eyes, he thought for sure that he could see his future with her. They had become close friends over the past two months. He only had eight more weeks before he had to head back to DC, pack up his stuff, and move to California. A few times last night, he wanted to ask her to come with him, but how could he ask her to give up her whole life on the East Coast? He couldn’t. He knew that Ginger wouldn’t just up and move across the country with him, no matter how he was beginning to feel about her.
“You were looking for me?” she asked.
