Holly took a deep breath. She had been planning this conversation for two days, trying to find the right words, the right way to explain. But now that the moment was here, all her carefully prepared speeches fled her mind.
“About Simon,” Holly blurted out. “I met with him. Yesterday. Charlie was with me. He wanted to meet, and I thought if I could talk to him, I could find out what he really wanted. And I needed him to finally sign the divorce papers?—”
“You’re only telling me this now?” Jack interrupted, his voice rising slightly. “You met him yesterday at lunchtime already.”
Holly felt her stomach drop. The way he said it, the knowledge in his voice. “How do you know I met him yesterday at lunchtime?” she asked, suspicion creeping into her tone. She hadn’t told him a time or a place. She had just been about to explain that Simon had messaged her, and Charlie had set up the meeting, and it had all happened so fast.
“I saw you,” Jack said flatly.
“You saw me?” Holly’s confusion instantly morphed into anger. She heard the accusation in his voice, felt the judgment radiating from him. “You were spying on me?”
“No,” Jack hissed, his own anger flaring to match hers. “I was in town getting supplies for this room when I saw you and Simon coming out of the Corner Café.”
“But you didn’t say anything,” Holly accused, hurt flooding through her. “You saw me and you just... what? Assumed the worst? Decided I was betraying you?”
“I was hoping you’d tell me,” Jack said, his voice tight. “I gave you two days to tell me, Holly. Two days.”
“I’m telling you now,” Holly shot back, her voice rising. “And I tried to talk to you numerous times yesterday and today, but we haven’t had any alone time. Every time I tried, something interrupted us.”
The anger boiling inside her overflowed. How could he stand there staring at her with judgment in his eyes? How could he think so little of her after everything they had shared?
“I’m not your ex,” Holly spat, the words coming out sharper than she intended. “I don’t lie and manipulate people. And if you weren’t so busy dealing with her?—”
“Don’t bring Pamela into this,” Jack cut her off, his voice hard.
They both knew they were just hurt and angry, lashing out because it felt safer than admitting how scared they were of losing what they had barely begun to build. But they were too far into their hurt now, too deep in the mistrust that had been festering for two days.
“You had plenty of time to tell me between then and now,” Jackcontinued, his voice rising. “You could have said, ‘We need to talk, alone.’ You could have made it happen.”
“I tried numerous times,” Holly hit back, tears of frustration burning behind her eyes. “But you had to either go attend to your ex-wife or run off somewhere else.”
She pulled off her work gloves and slapped them on the counter with more force than necessary. The sound echoed in the half-finished room.
“So much for being open and honest,” Holly said, her voice breaking slightly. “You haven’t even told me yet why your ex-wife is hovering around all of a sudden. Why does she keep showing up here demanding to talk to you?”
Holly spun to walk out of the room, needing to escape before she said something she would really regret. But Jack grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
“Holly, I?—”
Their eyes met and held. Holly saw her own hurt and anger reflected in Jack’s face, but underneath it, she saw something else. Fear. Longing. The same desperate need she felt to bridge the gap that had opened between them.
Then, before either of them knew what was happening, Jack’s lips were on hers.
The kiss was not gentle or tentative. It was desperate and hungry, born of two days of tension and misunderstanding, and missing each other despite being in the same building. Holly melted into him, her hands coming up to grip his shirt,pulling him closer. The anger transformed into something else entirely, something that made her heart race and her knees weak.
The world faded around them. The half-finished room, the paint cans, the tension. All of it disappeared until there was nothing but Jack’s lips on hers, his arms around her, the feeling of coming home after being lost.
A door slammed somewhere in the distance, the sound sharp enough to penetrate their bubble. They pulled apart abruptly, both breathing hard, staring at each other in the awkward silence that followed.
“Holly,” Jack said, his voice hoarse. “I’m truly sorry for being such an idiot. I let my insecurities blind me, and for that, I’m truly sorry.”
Holly was still reeling from the kiss, her lips tingling, her heart pounding so hard she could hear it in her ears. She just nodded, not able to trust her voice right now. Not able to form coherent words when all she could think about was how much she wanted him to kiss her again.
Jack stared at her, waiting for what felt like forever. The silence stretched between them, heavy with unspoken words and complicated emotions.
Holly cleared her throat, trying to find her equilibrium again. “I’m sorry too,” she managed to say. “I should have told you right away when Simon messaged me. I should have made time to talk to you privately instead of assuming we’d find a moment.”
Jack ran a hand through his hair, looking as shaken as Holly felt. “Pamela is here because she thinks she might have given Jane a hereditary disease,” he said, the words tumbling out now that they were finally being honest with each other. “Jane got tested yesterday.”
