Silence.
I glanced over my shoulder at Jack. “Go on, Jack. Tell him. Admit how much these past few weeks have meant to you because they sure as hell meant a ton to me.”
“Elle, please,” Jack whispered in a hiss.
The reluctance to express his feelings for me made my head spin. I wanted to hear him voice his devotion to me. Ineededto find out whether Jack loved me too.
“Come on, Jack. Admit how much I mean to you.” I ambled toward him. “Because I can’t be the only one feeling like this.”
I held out my hands and held my breath. Jack peered down at the loving gesture for a whole sixty seconds while I counted each number off and he finally met my gaze again. I couldn’t read him. There was no sign of whether his thoughts were reeling through his head at full fucking speed like mine were.
Jack reached for my hand and opened his mouth.
“If you tell my daughter you love her, we are done,” Gabriel cautioned, his tone loud and full of rage. “Jesus Christ, Jack! I trusted you to take care of Noelle. Not fucking take her into your bed.”
Jack dropped his hands to his sides. He snapped his mouth shut and pressed his lips together in a straight line.His jaw was tense as he took a step away from me, and tears bit at my eyes.
I spun around and made direct eye contact with the camera. “But, Daddy, I love him!”
“No, you don’t, Noelle. This relationship is off-limits—Jack is my best friend, and this never should’ve happened. Tell her it’s over, Jack, now,” my father snapped.
“But I do, Daddy! I love Jack so damn much,” I wept, tears streaming down my face, and I turned back to Jack. “Don’t let him do this to us. We can make this work. We can be a family. Me, you, and Faith. Chip too. I know you love me too. Tell my father the truth, Jack. Please.”
I fell to my knees, my arms wrapped around Jack’s legs, and I didn’t give a damn anymore how ridiculous this all seemed. I never wanted him to leave. The grumpy man had stolen my heart, locking my love for him away with his hidden kindness, and he threw away the key. I was stuck with him for the rest of eternity.
“Evergreen?” Jack said.
I peered up at Jack. “Yes?”
“We can never be.” Jack pulled my arms off his legs. “Let go of me.”
“No, Jack, please. You don’t mean that,” I pleaded.
“I do, Elle. I never should’ve touched you.” Jack took a step back.
My hands fell to the floor. I sobbed with my forehead against the cool tile, and my head throbbed. My father talked to Jack, but I couldn’t hear them. The constant ringing of heartbreak in my ears wouldn’t stop.
This can’t be real. Jack loves me. He does, and I’ll prove it.
I popped my head up, stood tall, and pointed directly at Jack. I was determined to find out the truth as I walked toward him, and we faced off.
“Look me straight in the eye and tell me you don’t love me,” I insisted as I made eye contact and shoved at his chest. “Go on. Say you don’t love me.”
“I don’t fucking care for you,” Jack whispered in a low, unsteady tone.
I shoved Jack harder. He hit the countertop, and a glass cup shattered on the floor. I pressed my body against his, and the tension sizzled between us. The grumpy man before me wouldn’t touch me, but I trailed my hands up his chest.
“No, that’s not what I asked.” I clenched his shirt in my hands and pulled him in closer. “Enlighten me, Jack.”
Jack breathed heavily against my face, and his upper lip twitched. His brown depths swirled with anger, but a touch of warmth fought through the chaos in glimpses while he searched my face. All Jack had to do was let me in, and I’d willingly accept.
Screw what Dad thought. He’d come around in time. Age was nothing but a number, and we’d let our love shine. His devotion to me was true, and he’d declare his feelings for me too.
“I love you...” A burst of light shone through his intense stare but vanished in the blink of an eye. “Like a family friend.”
“Bullshit,” I whispered against his lips.
Jack pulled back.
