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“You’ve seen my YouTube channel?” Carly’s mouth opened in surprise, and Jackson couldn’t help but feel like her mirror image. What was she talking about?
“Heck yes, I’ve seen your YouTube channel! I binged all the videos last year when I was up in the middle of the night feeding my youngest.”
“You have a YouTube channel?” Jackson blinked.
Carly nodded, a swath of hair falling free from her braid and tumbling across her cheek. “It’s nothing huge. Not like a show on the Food Network, or anything. Just something a local producer put together.”
“The videos have hundreds of thousands of views,” Bellamy chimed in. “I’ve seen every episode.”
“You have?” Carly froze in place, and Bellamy nodded.
Holy crap. He’d known Carly must be a good chef—after all, those scones had been unbelievable, and she sure seemed to know what she was talking about in terms of food experiences. But hundreds of thousands of YouTube hits?
Autumn dropped her voice a notch and leaned in toward Carly with a conspiratorial whisper. “So, I have to know…are you and Travis really married, or was that just for show?”
Jackson’s eyebrows shot upward just as his jaw thunked open, but his vocal cords were torqued shut. Carly was married? As in, we registered for pots and pans, in sickness and in health,married?
No fucking way.
“Well, yes. Technically,” Carly replied after an eternity, her eyes flickering over Autumn’s before zeroing in on the grass beneath all of their feet. “But we’re separated. Definitely in the process of getting a divorce.”
A faint buzzing sound resonated in Jackson’s ears as his sister fumbled with an apology and Bellamy immediately changed the subject to food. Jackson nodded dumbly and pretended to listen, but all he could hear was the white-noise whoosh of his blood moving through his ears, firmly pushed by his pounding chest.
From the look on Carly’s face, whatever was going on between her and her ex—Trenton? Truman? Anyway, whatever was going on wasn’t a done deal. As in, not only was the ink not dry, but the writing wasn’t even all the way on the wall. Plus, she and her soon-to-be-ex had clearly been involved in business and pleasure, which was bound to be tough to untangle, and all Jackson would ever be able to offer was a fling-and-forget.
God damn it, he should’ve known this was a bad idea to begin with. Scorching-hot kisses or not, it was in both their best interests for him to forget about her. After all, not only had he lost control of himself to the point of drawing blood, albeit accidentally, but legally she was still Mrs. Somebody Else.
Jackson started to form a polite yet definite cut-and-run in his head, but a squeal of female happiness coming from the direction of the side yard blanked his thoughts. Before he could even see what hit him, Jackson’s arms were full of a tall, lush-bodied honey-blonde whose lips were planted firmly over his.
* * *
Carly tried notto stare as a leggy stranger gracefully loped across the yard to lay a kiss on Jackson like they were the only two people at the party—hell, maybe even the universe.
“Loveyducks! Sorry I’m late, but work was just awful! I’ve missed yousomuch,” the woman crooned, kissing Jackson again before releasing his lips to settle against him in a perfect fit. She looked like a photo shoot waiting to happen, from her shampoo-commercial tresses to her adorable kitten-heeled sandals, complete with French pedicure and sparkly rhinestone accents. Carly’s stomach twisted tighter than her fists before dropping toward her own unpolished toes.
Jackson blinked in shock. “Jenna. I, uh…wow, I thought you might be a while longer.” He snaked a reluctant arm around the woman, his smile stiff as over-whipped egg whites, and Carly fought the urge to throw up.
How could she have fallen for this?
“Nope! I went as fast as I could so we could be together.” The woman beamed up at him like he’d invented the wheel. Or kiss-proof lipstick, which she was evidently wearing.
“Wow, it took you long enough. Traffic must’ve been awful.” Bellamy hugged her friend and made a quick round of introductions to both Carly and Jackson’s sister while Jackson stared a hole in the grass beneath his feet.
“Oh, Jenna!” Autumn leaned in to hug the woman, who miraculously managed to keep herself glued to Jackson’s side while hugging his sister back. “I’m so pleased to finally meet you. You must be something special. Jackson’s usually so secretive about his girlfriends.”
Right. Secretive enough to sneak around in the garden, cheating with the first available idiot who happens by.
Carly’s jaw clenched. God, she was such a fool. The last thing she’d pegged Jackson for was a snake in the grass. Of course she’d never suspected Travis of being a cheater, either, and look what that got her. Had she seriously been desperate enough to wrap her legs around Jackson’s waist and dry hump him against a garden shed? Clearly, her ability to judge a person’s character had left the freaking building.
“Oh, I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.” Jenna smiled an ear-to-ear stunner like the pages ofCosmopolitanmagazine had just spit her out. She nuzzled Jackson’s neck, and wrapped her slender arm around him even tighter as she launched into some story about how not even a work emergency and holiday traffic could keep her from her man. Jackson stood stick-straight next to his girlfriend—ugh, the word itself stirred a groan in Carly’s chest—and she couldn’t tell which of them she hated more; him, for pulling the wool over her eyes so seamlessly, or herself, for considering sleeping with him, even casually.
Either way, she needed to get out of here. Now would be good.
Autumn and Jenna were entrenched in getting-to-know-you mode, and Jackson stood between them with a tight smile plastered to his face. Carly felt a tiny stab of sympathy for his girlfriend, who despite the fact that she was ten degrees from humping his leg, actually seemed pretty nice. Still, Carly wasn’t about to air out Jackson’s indiscretions right here in the middle of a family gathering. She’d rather forget that stupid, steamy kiss and get on with things, thank you very much. In fact, she’d rather get a freaking tetanus shot than stand here and be made a fool of.
Wait a second…
“Well, I hate to eat and run, but I think Autumn’s right. My last tetanus shot was ages ago, so I’m going to zip out to that urgent care in Bealetown. Just to be on the safe side.”
