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But it wasn’t Marlowe.

Jennifer was calling.

He looked at the screen for a moment and guilt pinged through him. He’d just been thinking about kissing Marlowe. And okay, he and Jennifer weren’t together right now, so it wasn’t technically cheating, but he was supposed to be figuring out his relationship with her, not falling for someone else.

He went inside while the phone continued to ring. No one was around. His parents must have gone to bed. The phone rang again. If he didn’t answer now, he’d have to call her back later. He ran his hand through his hair to center his thoughts and answered the call. “Hello?”

“Hey,” Jennifer said, “I’m just checking to see if you’re bored to death yet. LA is always sunny, in case Lark Springs is still too cold for you.”

His mind flashed to Marlowe’s eyes again, to her lips as she leaned forward to kiss him. “Actually, there’s been a surprising amount of heat around here lately.”

“Right. It’s Montana. Aren’t you ready to come back to civilization, to the beach … and me?”

He should feel guilty that he wasn’t tempted to go back. He liked the Montana mountains, the pine trees, and the laid-back rhythm of the small town. His family was here. And Marlowe.

He was reliving that moment again. Marlowe leaning forward... He had to stop that.

He ran his hand through his hair again. “Do you know how long it takes me to get to work from my house? Seven minutes. It’s like someone gives me an extra two hours every day.”

Her voice turned pouty. “And yet, none of those hours are spent with me.”

He should feel worse about that, shouldn’t he? Somehow, he didn’t.

“Speaking of driving,” she went on, “that’s why I called you. One of my father’s friends is selling his Beamer. I told him you might be interested.”

“Why? I’ve got a car.”

“You’ve got a Toyota.” She said the word Toyota in the same tone one might have said a shameful past. “I thought you planned on buying an upgrade someday.”

“Yeah. Someday, after I’m earning an income and I’ve paid back my loan to Carson.”

She huffed in exasperation. “That will take forever. Besides, Carson doesn’t actually expect you to pay him back, does he? What you owe him is only a drop in the bucket next to his salary.”

Jace halted in his tracks. Carson’s words came back to him about how a wife like Jennifer could bankrupt him. Were their views on money really that different? “It doesn’t matter whether Carson expects it or not. I said I was going to pay him back, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

Another huff from Jennifer’s phone. “Your choice,” she said pointedly, and in an airy tone added, “I’ll call back next week and see if you miss the finer things in life more.”

She hung up before he had a chance to respond.

Whatever. His answer wouldn’t change by next week. But it was nice to know that she was at least missing him. He should have felt some satisfaction about that. And the fact that he didn’t care all that much… Well, he could analyze that later.

* * *

Jace got a text from Marlowe on Thursday asking what time she needed to be ready to go to the river with his family. That was a surprise. He’d thought she’d only been being polite when she said she would try to find someone to stay with her grandmother. He’d figured that the last thing she wanted to do was hang out with his family, especially since one of them might ask her about reading auras or some other nonsense he’d told them. She got bonus points for taking her role as his fake girlfriend so seriously.

Maybe he shouldn’t have been surprised. Marlowe had always been supportive of everyone in her life. Sports teams. Friends. The underdogs at high school. Him.

His mind drifted back to their last day as a couple, back to the Safeway where he ran into her buying his favorite protein bars for some sort of SAT gift package. Jennifer had never done anything like that.

For the first time, Jace wondered what else was in the gift bag Marlowe had been about to give him. What had she written in the card?

He would never know. And suddenly that bothered him. She’d likely burned it after he’d broken up with her.

If he could go back in time, he would’ve handled things differently. He would’ve told her that people like her were hard to find in life, and he wanted to hold onto her as long as he could.

He found himself texting her throughout the day, sending her funny memes, and thinking about her way more than he should have. The rest of the fire station crew ribbed him for being distracted. He’d mentioned that he and Marlowe had started dating but insisted it was nothing serious, just two old friends hanging out over his break.

“Right, it’s not serious.” Cameron had eyed him like he thought Jace was lying to him.