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“Do they still fight?”
He shakes his head, “I don’t think so, at least not like they used to. Now they run a gentlemen’s club, but they cater to the unsavory crowd of Vegas. Men with power and money. Men that if they want you to disappear, you do. Men like Christopher.”
I shiver at the implications, and my stomach does a somersault at the thought of three boys who turned out so vastly different from the man sitting beside me. One that chose good over evil.
“I’m glad you chose a different path baby, one that has you sitting right here next to me. Maybe we both had to experience all the bad to end up here,together.”
He shrugs his shoulders, “it doesn’t really matter, does it? If it ends here with you, I don’t give a damn about the rest.”
I smile, I want to know everything about this man. What he eats for breakfast, what his favorite color is, what makes him tick.
All of his truths, and all of his hurts.
“Tell me something else.”
“What do you want to know, baby?” he asks curiously. He doesn’t seem put off from talking, which gives me courage to ask my next question.
“You mentioned being hurt before. You know my story, but what woman could ever walk away from you?”
Jack seems to weigh his words carefully, so I sit quietly.
“She didn’t walk away per se. We were young and naïve. We were high school sweethearts. She was a bright spot in the middle of all the chaos with my brothers. We were glued to the hips, so much so that we went off to college together, and we just grew apart. We found out in the end that we really didn’t have much in common. We kept growing further and further apart. I held on with everything I had though. I loved her and thought I’d spend the rest of my life with her, until…”
He goes quiet, seemingly lost in the past. I squeeze his hand, still having ahold of it.
He shakes his head, a sad smile curving his lips. “Then I came home to our apartment one day and caught her with my best friend.”
I gasp at his admission. “Holy shit, that’s terrible! What did she say?”
He shrugs his shoulders. “Not much to say. Kind of hard to argue when you catch the two of them naked in your own bed.” He tries to laugh it off, but I can see how much it hurt him. How much it still affects him.
“Well, fuck her. Her loss is my gain, and I’m so glad I get to have you.” I smile, hoping to break up some of the sadness still in his eyes.
“Damn right. Same goes for you sweetheart. Christopher is one stupid son of a bitch. In more ways than one.”
“What happened after?” I ask.
“I grabbed my things while she ran around the apartment after me, wearing his fucking shirt and begging me to forgive her.” He scoffs at that. “I got my things and got out. I dropped out of college and went straight into the police academy. I had no one at that point. Not my mom, brothers, girlfriend, or my fucking best friend. I never looked back though. I think I needed that clean break from everyone. I needed time and space. She tried for months after to get me to talk to her. She said it was just a mistake, a one-time thing. That it would never happen again. But I realized we were headed that way anyway. There was too much distance between us. She was unhappy, so really, I couldn’t blame her much. She didn’t have to choose my best friend though.”
“Are they still together?” I nibble on my lip, my stomach turning from his story. His ex-girlfriend must be incredibly stupid to do that to a man like Jack.
“Hell no. They carried on for a while. Even while she was trying to get back together with me. Last I heard, she’s on the east coast. She settled down with some banker.” He shakes his head like he doesn’t really care to talk about this anymore. I decide to drop it.
“Want to watch a movie?” I ask, thinking that may be the perfect way to end the night.
“That sounds great, let me clean up the kitchen. Go put your feet up and pick something,” he says as he stands from the table before grabbing our plates and placing a kiss to my forehead.
I stand and go over to help him put the dishes in the dishwasher, but I get shooed away.
“Go, go. I got this. It’ll only take me a few minutes. Go pick a movie.”
Heat and emotions swell in my chest. A girl could really get used to this kind of pampering. How is it so sexy for a man to take over the chores? I don’t know, but itis.
I get to the couch and snuggle in with some blankets thrown on the side arm. I click through the channels before finding an action flick. This should be perfect.
I close my eyes for a second, but I must have dozed off because Jack sitting down next to me jostles me awake.
“We can go to bed if you want, sweetheart,” Jack says as he places his arm around me to pull me into his side.
