“All right, this is a pact, meaning it’s unbreakable. We all will pursue our dreams. No matter how long it takes.” Gia looked into her brother’s eyes, who nodded solemnly, before turning her attention to Jake. Her hand squeezed his tightly before pulling away.
That summer had been one of his favorites. Though things had changed since then, one thing had not—he always kept his promises. The promise he’d made to Thao rang loudly, like an incessant reminder of his failure.
He wouldn’t fail Thao again. Wouldn’t fail Gia again.
In the years since, no woman had ever compared to Gia. She occupied space in both his mind and his heart, whether or not he wanted her to. Now, he had a chance to fulfill his promises and get the woman of his dreams.
He needed to figure out a game plan.
Seven
GIA
“Who does he think he is?” Gia fumed. She plucked at the weeds strangling the rosebushes lining her family home. She’d stormed home from the restaurant, angry at how her brief time at home had turned into an epic disaster already, like almost every other aspect of her life.
The short walk did nothing to calm her. If anything, her ire ratcheted higher the longer she dwelled on it. Wearing Jake’s shirt home, smelling his masculine scent on her, a blend of sandalwood and sin, messed with her head.
It reminded her of that night nearly a decade ago. The night that changedeverything.
She shouldn’t have kept it on, but it was his shirt or her bra. And she’d be lying if a part of her had been reluctant to take it off, which only irritated her more. There was no way she was still in love with Jake.
No way in hell!
As soon as she walked in the front door, which was always unlocked, she’d run upstairs and ripped Jake’s shirt off before hopping into the shower. It was hardly a relaxing experience as she scrubbed at her skin roughly to erase Jake’s scent. His touch still left a mark on her skin.
The way he’d rushed to wrap his brawny arms around her and lifted her up out of danger effortlessly. She could still feel the ghost of his hands where he’d held her tightly against his chest and raced to safety in the bathroom, taking her far away from the shattered dishes and the soup that didn’t feel as warm as his touch.
Gia let out a frustrated scream as she lathered up the shampoo gel. She’d borrowed Minh’s products to wash her hair. The only body wash available was in a pink bottle with Barbie smiling up at her. In her rush, she’d forgotten her best toiletries in her suitcase. She needed to wash away the past hour. To forget the way Jake made her feel—like the lovesick teenager who couldn’t contain herself near him.
A ghost of a girl she’d barely remembered until being confronted with Jake.
It didn’t help her ego that she couldn’t even serve food without screwing it up, too. Not to mention she left wearing another man’s shirt as if she were some damsel in distress needing to be rescued. She was furious something could so easily shatter her hard-earned independence like porcelain.
Deep down, Gia knew she was being irrational. Her anger wasn’t only about the spilled soup. It had more to do with how her traitorous body still responded to Jake. After all the years and the miles she’d put between them, all it took was the sound of his voice and his penetrating blue eyes to peel back all of her layers. It was like he could stare deep into her soft and gooey center and find her lacking.
“Who did this to you?”
Gia groaned at how she’d reacted when his whispered growl had made the small bathroom stall vibrate with tension.
God, why does he have to say things like that?
If her knees got weak, it wasn’t her fault. Neither was the way her core tightened as the deep timbre of his voice rolled over her body like a sensuous wave. The veiled threat in his question of who had hurt her made all of her feminine bits light up like a beacon or a feral cat in heat.
The last thing she needed was for her libido to enter the picture. She needed to lie low and stay out of trouble. And Jake had trouble written all over him—on every single hard inch of him. It wasn’t her imagination; Jake had grown into himself.
How did he get all those muscles?
He must work out every day to get these bulging biceps. She probably would have found him intriguing if he had been someone else. Fortunately for her, she’d already had a taste of Jake.
Been there, done that. Barely survived the first time. Definitely wouldn’t walk away unscathed again.
Despite her hot shower, Gia remained fired up and stomped downstairs in leggings and an oversized shirt to search for the garden gloves and hat her mother kept in the mudroom. She rooted around for a few minutes before finding it stashed behind laundry detergent above the washing machine.
“Aha! There you are!” With her prize in one hand, Gia looked around for the bucket of garden tools. Finding them by the door, she carried her loot out the back door and stomped onto the weathered porch.
If she couldn’t commit murder, the least she could do was take out her anger on the weeds infesting the yard.
She spent the rest of her day kneeling in the dirt, pulling and plucking at the weeds in her backyard for nearly an hour. From the state of the yard, it looked like nobody had been maintaining it. Good thing she was here. She’d always had a green thumb—a trait she got from her mother. Gia wondered briefly why her mom wasn’t tending the garden like she used to. It seemed unlike her to leave it growing so wildly. Her fondest memories with her mother involved pulling weeds and growing the vegetable garden in the corner, where she planted the onions herself when she was ten years old.
