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“We’ve talked about my past relationships, but never yours.”
Jackson frowned. “Uh…I don’t know? I never want to talk about them.”
“But your last girlfriend hurt you really badly, and you never talk about it.”
He sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. “What did Ever say?”
“That you were heartbroken over her for a while.”
“Iwas, but I got over it and moved on.”
“With me,” Ollie frowned, adjusting the ice against her head. “Am I your rebound?”
“Jesus, Oleander, you are anything but a rebound.” He shook his head. “That relationship had been over for six months when I met you. Sure, I was still a little bummed about how she ended things, but I wasn’t hung up on her and I wasn’t using you as a way to get over her.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want her tocontaminatewhat we had. I was happy for the first time in a long time and I didn’t want her to have power over that.”
“She’s not a witch, Jackson. She has no control if you say her name.”
“I got into this habit of not saying her name, for fear of what would happen,” he explained, sounding frustrated. “And when we met, I decided I didn’t want her to fill up the spaces.”
“Do you still love her?”
“Fuck, no.” Jackson looked like he was hurt she would even ask him that. “I want nothing to do with her—she left me for someone else.”
He looked so upset talking about his ex, but he looked even more upset that she would question him. Ollie wouldn’t beOllieif she didn’t ask a million questions. She wanted to know everything about Jackson and this woman, she wanted to understand how he felt about her and whether it was something Ollie needed to worry about.
Granted, she hadn’t told himeverythingabout Pierce, but he had to have guessed by now. Their first night together, she told him about her trouble with being under someone and he hadn’t questioned it. She vaguely talked about Pierce and how he made her feel, but he’d never once said anything about the woman that hurt him. That hurtherand Ollie wished she wasn’t so worried about her place in Jackson’s life.
Ollie opened her mouth to respond to Jackson when Frankie stepped into the kitchen, hands on her hips and glared at the two of them.
“You better not be letting the dessert melt, Anders.”
Ollie rolled her eyes. “Relax, your tiramisu is fine.”
“You lovebirds doing okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll bring this out in a minute.” Ollie nodded and her friend got the hint.
Ollie turned back to Jackson, who was staring at her. “I believe you. But I want us to talk about this later.”
“Okay. She’s a part of my past. Right now, it’s just you. I only wantyou.”
Once they carriedthe dessert out, Jackson helped her serve the tiramisu and hand the plates out to the waiting masses and they returned to their assigned seats. Ollie knew she was jumping to conclusions and Everleigh meant no harm in bringing it up. But given Nina’s lies and the way Pierce reacted to her history, being afraid and worried was expected. Jackson would never truly understand how scarred she was after Pierce, but he hadn’t flinched at the first mention of Nina. Heacceptedher—bisexuality, curves, insecurities and all.
When everyone was done with dessert, Frankie stood up and smirked at the table. “Top up your drinks, young ones, because we’re about to play an old fashioned college game to get to know each other.”
Ollie snorted. “We’renotgetting drunk.”
Milo frowned and looked around the table, “Wait, what are we playing?”
“Oh, you beautiful boy, we’re going to play Never Have I Ever. And we’re going to get reallydeep,” Frankie smirked. “Back to the living room!”
Ollie pushed her chair back and started piling up the plates and without even her asking, Jackson stepped up to help. He rinsed every plate and Ollie loaded it into the dishwasher. He helped her put all the food away and once she was done stuffing the fridge with leftovers, she closed the door and turned, only to find Jacksonright there. Ollie sucked in a sharp breath and leaned back against the cool door as she stared up at him.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Ursula. I don’t like thinking about her or how she hurt me, but I see not talking about it made it worse.”
