“You’re okay with that? Jack, you know what that place is like.”
“My sister is tiny but mighty. No one’s messing with her. That’s why I was never afraid she’d get kidnapped. They’d bring her back ten minutes later after she gave them a fucking headache.” Again, I stayed silent as he laughed.
“Still, Jack. You know the element that was there back when we went. I bet it’s a hundred times worse now.”
“She’s going with a big group. Riley, and I think a couple of guys they know. There’s live music, and she loves to dance. She’s my baby sister, but I can’t be everywhere—especially now. So, what’s going on with you? Jeannine still trying to slither back?”
“Not for a while.” I peeked at my watch. Eight o’clock. If memory served me right, the action started there around ten. Was I actually thinking of going? To what? Stew in the shadows as I watched PJ and her friends? See her dance and laugh, and God forbid, be with another guy. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle it if someone touched her. Although I’d kept it hidden, my obsession with her ran deep—so deep, it was driving me to madness.
My stepfather had given me a loan to start my own construction company, and I’d thrown myself into work over the past two years to pay him back as soon as possible, even though he’d told me to consider it an investment rather than loan. My friends teased me for being a workaholic, but that wasn’t why women were never a priority to me. I’d dated, but never cared enough about anyone to view them as any more than a temporary distraction.
As much as I’d fought against it, my attention was on the freckled beauty across the street.
Like a stalker from my window, I’d watch PJ get into her car and drive to school or laugh on her front stoop with her friends. She was so damn beautiful, sometimes I’d have to rub away the pinch in my chest. When she confessed her feelings for me, I stepped way back. I had no choice. The already overwhelming temptation doubled knowing she felt the same, although it had been obvious before she’d ever said anything. The heat in her dark eyes when I’d call her “Patricia” always thinned the air between us to the point I gasped for breath.
When she’d laugh at a dumb joke I’d made, I’d want her even more. Even her laugh was sexy—squeaky, but throaty. Now, the glances I’d steal were all I had of her, and no matter how much I hated it, that’s all I would take, all Icouldtake. Wanting my best friend’s sister was all kinds of wrong, but, fuck me, I couldn’t stop. Whenever PJ was in my line of sight, I had to shove my hands in my pocket because my fingertips tingled with the need to touch her. I yearned, fuckingyearned, to sift my fingers through her auburn hair, trace the delicate curve of her jaw, cup the back of her neck and kiss her, tasting those full red lips that drove me to total distraction. I’d bet she tasted as sweet as sugar, and my mouth watered to feast on every part of her. I’d run my hands all over her petite, curvy body until she cried out and came apart in my arms.
But, that couldn’t happen. As I recited the reasons why in my head, a nagging little voice kept asking, “Why not?”
I’d almost let myself consider it for a beat before it would all barrel over me. The canyon of years between us was a huge factor. Maybe, in time, it wouldn’t matter, but for right now, PJ and I were from totally different worlds. She deserved to have the carefree college life I’d had, and saddling herself with a twenty-six-year-old construction company manager wasn’t exactly living it up. And even if I could force myself past that, Nick, her dad, would skin me alive. He’d always treated me like family, but PJ was his baby.
To add to all of that, our mothers were best friends. The both of us and our mothers were a family before Nick even came into the picture. Before PJ was born. Thinking of my best friend, and a man I’d looked up to as a second father, hating my guts always had halted any ridiculous thoughts of PJ and me being anything more than distant friends.
“I’ll let you get some rest. Maybe I’ll come up over the weekend? Only if you’re up to it.”
“I’ll be up to it. Be good to see your ugly mug.”
I muttered a quick goodbye and hung up, right before grabbing my keys and heading out of my apartment and into my truck.
It was a bad idea, and I was taking the risk I’d fought like hell to avoid.
But there was no way I could stop.
5
PJ
“You’re gonna miss me… admit it,” Riley sang over the pulsing base before she nudged my side.
My eyes rolled before they met her sarcastic, but sad, gaze. I looped my arm around her neck. “Nope, I won’t miss you at all, because I’m not leaving,” I whispered into her ear. Riley jerked back so hard she nearly fell off the seat next to me.
“What do you mean you’re not leaving? That’s all you’ve talked about for months. Moving across the country, getting away from he who will not be mentioned.” Her brows shot up as she gaped at me.
I let out a long sigh and shook my head, more at myself than my best friend. “Is that really getting away from him? He’ll still live across the street from my parents and be Jack’s best friend. I haven’t told anyone but … I’ve been sick about this for weeks. I never even sent in the forms.”
“PJ, why didn’t you say anything. You couldn’t even tell me?”
I lifted a shoulder. “Saying it out loud was admitting it to myself. And I was too stubborn to do that.”
“Shocker,” she gasped, clutching her chest in mock horror. “You stubborn?”
I huffed and nudged her ankle with my heel. “If I run from him now, I’ll be running forever. One day, I’ll look across the street, and I’ll feel nothing. That day won’t be for a long time, but I’ll hang in there until it does.” I exhaled a long, cleansing breath, feeling for the very first time I was making the right choice. “San Diego is nice, but I always wanted to go to school in Manhattan. So, sorry Riles, but I’m staying put.”
Riley leaped from her seat at our table and tackled me with a hug. “I’m so fucking happy. You have no idea!”
“Um, Riley, I can’t breathe,” I tapped her shoulder until she loosened her grip around my neck.
“I’ll even go with you to those museums you love so much sometimes. Even the creepy one.”
