Jason barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes. His father was such a food slut.
“Has it occurred to you that if I don’t fix things with Haley that she’ll never make you that Boston cream pie that she promised you?” Jason asked, knowing the only way to get his father to focus was to threaten his food.
His comment was met with a short pause.
“Okay, this is what you need to do,” his father said, all business now. “You need to back off and stop apologizing.”
Jason frowned. “Stop apologizing?”
That didn’t sound right.
“Mmmhmm, no need to keep reminding her how much of a fucking idiot you are. She already knows, trust me. Right now, you need to work on being there for her. Don’t pressure her. In fact, I would suggest that you work on reminding her just how much you care about her and how good you are for her.”
He nodded slowly. “I could do that.”
His father snorted in disbelief.
“I can,” Jason stressed, promising himself that after Haley took him back that he’d get her to make him a Boston cream pie just so he could rub it in the old man’s face.
“Just try not to fuck this up because if you cost me Haley, I will disown you,” his father said before he hung up.
Jason placed the phone in his pocket and headed back to the cottage, deciding there was no time like the present to get started. He’d remind her how good they were together and why she adored him. It shouldn’t be too hard. In fact, he already knew that one problem in particular was going to guarantee that she couldn’t live without him.
He stepped into the kitchen just as Haley stormed angrily into the room wearing nothing but her “Geek” tee-shirt. She threw him a glare and muttered something about his balls that he decided to ignore as she headed for the refrigerator. She grabbed an ice-cold soda and sipped it as she continued glaring at him.
She looked exhausted, Jason noted as he leaned back against the counter and had to stop himself from grinning. This was going to be so easy.
“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked casually, already knowing the answer. She needed him and she damn well knew it. This was going to be the way he stayed close to her while he did his best to convince her to forgive him for being a fucking moron.
Haley pushed her glasses up her nose, took a sip of Coke, and simply flipped him off as she walked out of the room.
Great. He was already fucking this up, Jason thought, walking after her only to have the bedroom door slammed shut in his face. After counting to ten, twice, he knocked on the door.
“Go. Away.”
Sighing heavily, he opened the door just in time to see the bathroom door slam shut. He walked over to the bed and sat down.
“Haley, I-”
“Look, Jason, I really can’t do this with you right now,” Haley said, not bothering to open the door to face him, making Jason wonder if her pushover tendencies were once again showing up. That wouldn’t be good for either one of them. He needed her to deal with this, not avoid him. “Let me finish getting dressed, then I’ll give you a ride to a hotel.”
“No,” he said firmly because there was no way in hell that he was leaving. They were going to work this out whether she liked it or not.
“Fine,” Haley said, sighing heavily. “Then, I’m leaving.”
Oh, hell no.
If she left now, there’d be no stopping her from leaving his ass for good. There was no doubt in his mind that she didn’t intend on giving him a ride home now, which meant that he probably wouldn’t get home until sometime tomorrow afternoon. By then, she could be anywhere, doing her best to convince herself that she could do better, she could, but that wasn’t the point. He couldn’t let her walk away from him, not now, not ever.
Jason threw a quick glance at the bathroom door before rushing over to the backpack that she liked to call a purse. He tore through it until he found what he needed. No doubt, this was only going to piss her off more, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He pocketed her wallet and quickly checked her discarded pants, stealing the money that she had in the front pocket before grabbing her car keys and rushing out of the room.
It only took him a minute to find the perfect hiding spot, one of the dozen decorative baskets lining the ceiling. There was no way in hell that Haley was going to reach it, never mind find it. After a minute, Jason decided to add her cell phone as well. He shut it off and added it to the pile before he covered his tracks.
Knowing that there was no way that Haley could leave him until they’d worked things out, Jason relaxed for the first time since this whole thing started. He walked into the kitchen, feeling confident that his plan was going to work.
He grabbed a cold soda from the fridge, wishing that it was a beer, and headed for the beach. As long as his little grasshopper wasn’t allowed to drink, then he wouldn’t drink. Not that he really expected her to be pregnant on the first shot, but he wasn’t taking any chances.
Until he knew for sure that she wasn’t pregnant, she wasn’t so much as looking at a drop of alcohol, which was probably going to make it more difficult for her to deal with him. Granted, it might help his case if he got her drunk, but he wasn’t willing to take the risk. Besides, he didn’t want her to throw it in his face later that she hadn’t known what she was doing when she forgave him. He wanted her stone-cold sober for this, especially since she would most likely end up being the one to figure out how to fix this mess because he was pretty sure that he’d only manage to fuck this up more.
