“That line you used,” I say. “Calling me your…”
“Future wife?” Jett finishes my sentence when I hesitate, because the wordwifeis still foreign on my tongue. “That’s what you are, aren’t you? You did say yes, right before all that went down.”
“I know, it’s just…” The heat returns to my face, embarrassment, attraction, whatever it is, I want to run and hide.
“It turned you on, didn’t it?” He asks, a cheeky smirk tugging the corner of his mouth.
“No,” I protest, crossing my arms.
Jett takes a step backward and I notice that he crosses his arms, too.Mirroring.
“You’re blushing.”
Calling attention to it doesn’t help, and warmth creeps back up my neck.
“I’m not.” I deny. “It was a good line. It’ll be good for the press.”
A cocky grin forms on Jett’s lips. “There’s a but in there somewhere.”
“I just think you should be careful, using lines like that,” I say, and it’s like someone has sucked the air from between Jett and I. Like we’re being pulled toward each other as if in a vacuum.
“Oh? And why’s that Pops?” His eyes shimmer in the dim golden light from the vanity.
“You’ll have women falling all over you.”
Even though I’m fairly certain that was all for show, I can’t help but think,women like me.
I don’t have time to try and read the expression on Jett’s face, because we’re pulled from the moment by the sound of his phone chiming in his pocket. He pulls it out and shows me a text from Brooke on the screen.
BROOKE
What the hell is happening there? Get out of that restaurant NOW.
CHAPTER 17
POPPY
I laidin bed for a long while before drifting off to sleep.
I kept replaying the events of the last twenty-four hours in my head on a loop. My conversation with Wren, about how if I let myself entertain the idea of wanting to kiss Jett for real, I’d be opening myself up to get hurt.
Heartbreak waiting to happen,were her exact words.
She has a point. The benefit of marrying Jett is that at the end of all this, we’ll get a clean break. He’ll get what he wants, a shot at the World Cup, and I’ll get to keep the café.
Easy. Done.
Still, I can’t help but think about how at odds that realization is with the way I felt tonight. Watching him defend me, stand up for me, despite the consequences.
Brooke wasnotthrilled about the videos of Jett punching that waiter in the face being blasted all over social media. It took a while for Jett to talk her down, and listening to him on the phone with her, I got the sense that it wasn’t the first time Jett had fought her on something pertaining to me.
Now though, it’s God only knows what time in themiddle of the night, and I’m being awoken by a soft knock on my door.
Jett.
My fiancé.
Jett is knocking on my door, and a pang of anticipation zips through me as I wonder about what he could want at this hour. Another soft knock comes a few seconds later when I don’t answer.
