Speed Dating (Preston's Mill Book 2) Read online

  His voice was so gentle, so full of feeling, that she wanted to hear more of it. She found herself leaning her face into his hand, wanting his touch on her skin.

  “You didn’t love me back,” he continued. “What was I supposed to do?”

  She jerked away from him as she once again realized the reality. “You could have told me! Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “How was I supposed to tell you?” Jace asked, rubbing his face with what looked like frustration. “First, you were with Brock. And then I—”

  She gasped with another surge of pain and betrayal. “Since Brock? You’ve had feelings for me since Brock? So… all this time… our whole friendship… none of it has been real?”

  “Of course it’s been real!” He sounded a little rougher now. Maybe just desperate. “Everything has been real between us.”

  “Except it hasn’t been—not if you’ve been hiding this secret from me. How could you have…” She couldn’t say anything more as sobs started to rip through her throat.

  “Oh, baby. Please don’t.” He reached out toward her.

  She jerked away.

  Jace’s shoulders slumped, as if he were finally realizing how serious, how intense, her response was to learning the truth. “I understand if you’re hurt, but can we at least talk about it?”

  She shook her head through her tears. “Not now. I can’t talk now.”

  “Then when? We can’t just throw everything away because you’re upset about this.”

  Somehow he was making it sound like this was her fault. Like he’d done nothing wrong and she was being irrational.

  It made everything hurt even more.

  She swiped her tears away and glared at him. “Don’t you dare make it sound like I’m in the wrong here. You’re the one who lied! You’re the one who’s been lying all this time!”

  He started to answer and then stopped. Cleared his throat. “You’re right. I did. And I’m sorry it’s hurt you so much. But we still need to talk about it.”

  “We can later. But not right now. I can’t even think right now.” She fumbled until she’d found her keys in her purse.

  She hadn’t yet found them when something caught her attention at the front of the apartment building. It looked like a blue and green streak flying out of the entrance.

  Behind it came running a tiny Yorkie, yapping at the top of her little voice.

  She recognized the dog. Lucy. Chris and Heather’s Yorkie. But what was she chasing?

  She stared in a daze as the brightly colored streak ended up in a big tree on the front lawn, with Lucy barking her head off on the grass beneath.

  “Is that Beau?” Isabella breathed, walking over toward the tree without thinking, her keys still in her hand.

  Jace hadn’t been looking in the same directly, but he turned and followed her over, and they both stood near the yapping dog, staring up at Beau perched on a large branch of the tree.

  “How did he get out?” Isabella asked breathlessly. “Did you leave the door open when you ran after me?”

  “Damn, I must have.” He grimaced, still staring up at the bird. “What if he just flies away? Erin will never forgive me.”

  “Here, Beau!” Isabella called, completely focused now on the crisis. She held out her hand, vaguely praying that the bird would come to her and perch on it. “Here, Beau! Come back to us! This little dog isn’t going to hurt you.”

  Ignoring this slight to her canine dignity, Lucy kept barking in ferocious little yips.

  “Come on back, Beau,” Jace said soothingly, very slowly approaching the tree. “Please don’t fly away. You’re not really a bad fellow, and we’d miss you if you were gone.”

  Lucy kept barking her head off.

  “Oh, be quiet!” Isabella instructed the dog, afraid Beau would never come down as long as the dog was present. “Nobody is afraid of you!”

  “Lucy! Lucy, come!” A new voice broke into the morning, and Chris appeared at the entrance of the building, half-dressed and running down the steps. “You ungrateful scaredy-cat! I was just going to trim your claws!”

  Relieved that one of the dog’s owners was coming to claim the escapee, Isabella cooed up at Beau again, begging him to come down.

  Beau had evidently been sizing up the situation and had come to his own conclusions. Before Jace could reach him, the bird dove down toward Lucy.

  The dog squealed dramatically and staged an immediate retreat, racing back toward the building so fast she almost tripped on her own paws.

  Beau was still chasing the dog when the Lucy reached Chris, leaping up into his arms for protection.

  His vindication accomplished, Beau gave a few loud squawks and circled back to perch on Jace’s shoulder.

  Jace cringed as the claws must have dug in, but Isabella released a long sigh of relief.

  She’d actually grown quite fond of the bird, and she would have hated for him to get lost.

  Plus, Jace and his sister would have been devastated.

  “Sorry,” Chris called out, petting the tiny dog who was trying to burrow into his chest. “She has delusions of grandeur.”

  “It’s fine,” Jace said, keeping his hand on Beau so the bird wouldn’t fly away again. “We got him. No harm done.”

  Chris waved to them as he carried the dog back into the building, warning the dog of punishment coming in the form of trimmed claws.

  Isabella had been smothering a laugh at the sight of Beau chasing the dog away, and she smiled over at Jace.

  He smiled back, and they shared a brief look that was warm, affectionate, completely understanding.

  Then she remembered what had happened, how their friendship had been cracked in two.

  Emotion strangled in her throat as she turned her face away from him.

  Jace gave an audible sigh. “I’m so sorry, Isabella.”

  “I know,” she managed to say.

  “We do need to talk.”

  The brief distraction had totally dissipated now, and Isabella was on the verge of tears again. “Later,” she managed to say. “I just… can’t now.”

  Jace stood watching her, perfectly still, perfectly silent. It was like a coil of deep emotion was trapped inside him somewhere, but he’d clamped down on it so powerfully it couldn’t escape. “Okay,” he said at last. “We can talk later. When do you think—”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know. You have to give me some time.”

  “Okay.” She could hardly recognize his hoarse voice. “Okay.”

  Isabella stared at her best friend for a long moment, Beau on his shoulder, wondering if she’d ever really known him at all.

  “Okay,” Jace said one more time. “Drive safe.”

  She nodded, finally feeling free to return to her car and drive away.

  As she was turning onto the street, she saw Daisy come back out of the building. The other woman paused, evidently seeing how upset Isabella was. Daisy gave her a little wave and a deeply sympathetic smile, a silent acknowledgement of understanding and empathy.

  It made Isabella cry again—that a stranger could be so sweet when her best friend hadn’t ever been open or truthful with her.

  She pulled out onto the street and drive toward her own apartment, aware the whole time that Jace was standing in the parking lot like a statue, watching her drive away.

  Fourteen

  A week.

  He’d given her a week.

  She hadn’t returned any of his calls, and whenever he’d shown up at the shop, she had hid in the back. Yeah, he knew she was hiding, but he didn’t want to cause a scene.

  Now he did.

  Now that was all he wanted to do. He was going to make her face him—once and for all—and hear him out. It was a Saturday, so he knew she’d be at work and that it would be so busy that she couldn’t possibly go and hide. All he had to do now was figure out what he was going to say to make her listen.

  Actually, he’d been working on it all week, but now that he was primed and
ready to go, it seemed… lame. Not enough. Jace first thought of doing the overly romantic gestures—going to her with flowers and candy and jewelry—but he knew that those weren’t the things that would matter to Isabella. Then he thought about going to her and reading romantic lines of poetry. That thought was instantly squashed when he tried doing it and realized that he didn’t understand what most of them meant and that using someone else’s words wouldn’t impress her anyway.

  So his next thought was to simply speak from the heart.

  But there weren’t enough words for him to convey all that she was to him, and he ended up stammering and stumbling to get the words out.

  Inspiration had hit while flipping through the channels late one night and seeing the movie Love Actually. The scene where the guy stood outside the girl’s door and used those giant cards to say how he felt? It was perfect.

  Except he remembered Isabella making him watch that movie years ago and commenting on while that scene was sweet, it was also a cowardly way to tell someone how you feel.

  And he was back to the drawing board.

  Dammit.

  What was he supposed to do?

  With a loud sigh, he went about his morning routine—had a cup of coffee and let Beau out to fly around. His eyes rolled as he thought about the bird and made a mental note to strangle his sister for leaving him here for so damn long! Granted, she had a good reason—vacation and… wait a minute, why was the damn bird still here?

  Jace reached for the phone and pulled up his sister’s number.

  “Hey, there!” Erin said cheerily when she answered.

  “Why is this bird still here?” he snapped, willing to forgo a friendly greeting and get right to the point.

  “We’ve been away, Jace.”

  “Yeah, I know, but now you’re back,” he reminded her. “You need to come and get him. Like today. Now, preferably.”

  Erin chuckled. “Oh, stop. You know he hasn’t been that bad.”

  “He also hasn’t been that great. I’m just… I’m done. Can you please come and get him today?”

  Erin was silent for a minute. “What’s going on? You’re all snappish and pissy. Something wrong?”

  Where did he even begin? Nowhere, actually. There was no way he was going to talk to his sister about what was going on with Isabella. Although there was a possibility that she could lead him in the right direction on how to win her back—or just win her. At all.

  “Okay, can I ask you something?”

  “Of course!” she said happily, clearly thrilled that he was going to confide in her.

  “If you and Dale had a fight or a misunderstanding, and it was mostly his fault, what would you want him to do to prove to you that he was sorry?”

  She went silent again.

  “You know what? Never mind. It’s not a big deal. I was just curious and—”

  “I didn’t even know you were dating anyone,” Erin cut in.

  “What? I mean, why would you think that?”

  “Oh, please. Don’t be a dufus. You don’t ask a question like that when you’re referring to a disagreement with a friend,” she said with a chuckle. “So who is she? Anyone I know?”

  Shit. “Never mind. I’ll figure it out on my own.”

  “Is it Isabella?” she asked hopefully.

  “Uh, what?” he croaked. “Bella? Why would I need relationship advice about Bella?”

  “Oh, Jace. Are you really still in denial? Would you please just admit that you’re in love with that girl and put us all out of our misery?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Please, everyone knows that you’re crazy for her! Honestly, I think the whole town has been waiting patiently for you to get up off your ass and do something. I thought for sure when she started this whole dating thing that you’d finally man up.”

  “So everyone in town knows I’m in love with Bella?”

  “Ah-ha! I knew it! I knew you loved her!”

  Dammit. He’d fallen for the oldest trick in the book on that one. “I didn’t… I mean, I was just repeating—”

  “Just stop it,” she said, and he knew she was smiling. “Look, clearly it’s Isabella that we’re talking about, and you somehow screwed something up. Am I right?”

  He sighed. “Yes.”

  “Does she know how you feel?”

  “Yup.”

  “And she doesn’t feel the same way?”

  “That’s just it, I don’t know how she feels—other than being pissed at me.”

  “Why is she pissed? How could you have screwed this up? The two of you are closer than any two people I know!”

  “She’s upset because I… I’ve felt this way for so long and never said anything about it. She feels like I’ve lied to her.”

  “Well, you really have.”

  “Not helping, Erin!” he snapped.

  “Oh, sweetie. I don’t even know what to say.”

  He was about to say something when suddenly inspiration struck. “You know what, you’re brilliant!”

  “What? I am? Why? What did I say? I don’t remember saying anything!”

  “Trust me. You said it all. I have to go. Come and get this bird! You have the spare key. Bye.” He hung up and jumped up from the couch, spilling coffee on himself. “Damn!” But it didn’t matter. He knew exactly what he was going to do to make things right with Isabella.

  And after showering and getting dressed, he left his apartment and felt more hopeful than he could ever remember feeling.

  ***

  As predicted, the salon was mobbed. Every seat in the waiting area was full, and every chair at every station had a customer in it, and there were even a few people standing around and waiting.

  Isabella’s station was in the middle of the salon along the far wall, and as he approached the door, her back was to him. He pulled the door open, and the bell over it jingled, but the noise level was so high that he doubted anyone heard it. Stepping inside, he looked around and took a minute to just breathe.

  His arms were empty—there weren’t any flowers, candy, jewelry, or balloons—but his heart was full.

  Jace couldn’t say who spotted him first. All he knew was that all of a sudden, conversations started to die down, and the salon slowly quieted—with the exception of the radio playing in the background and the sound of Isabella talking to her client. She evidently noticed it and stopped cutting hair and looked around.

  The moment her eyes met his, Jace sprang into action.

  With a confidence he didn’t fully feel, he straightened his posture and began to slowly walk toward her. “Isabella Warren,” he began, loud enough that everyone in the salon could hear him, “you are my best friend. I can’t remember a time when you weren’t. You make me laugh, smile, think, and feel. You make my world a better place. I love spending time with you and talking with you and sharing our hopes and dreams with one another.”

  Isabella’s arms dropped to her side, and her eyes went wide as he got closer. She looked around nervously at first, but then it was as if she couldn’t look away from him.

  “But I screwed up. For all the things I shared with you, I didn’t share the most important one—that I’m in love with you.” There was a collective gasp throughout the salon, and he paused as murmurs followed. “I’ve been in love with you since the moment I met you, but you belonged to someone else. I was fine with us just being friends—as a matter of fact, I loved it. I loved that I got to see a side of you that most people don’t see. I loved how you let your guard down and that we could just hang out together—because you wanted to and not because you had to.”

  “Jace,” she began, but it was more of a “please stop doing this” rather than a “that’s so sweet” sort of a thing.

  But he wasn’t deterred.

  “I love that you enjoy eating an everything pizza with me and neither of us worry about garlic breath. I love that you laugh until you cry at even the lamest of jokes. I love that we can play board g
ames at two in the morning just because we want to. I love hearing about your day and how when you ask about mine it’s because you genuinely want to know.”

  By now he was standing less than a foot away from her. All around the room he heard comments like “I knew it!” and “How sweet!” and “It’s about time!” But he hadn’t heard anything from Isabella.

  “Hearing your voice makes my day,” he said, his voice a little softer now. “Seeing your face makes my heart beat faster. And kissing your lips—those sweet, sweet lips—is better than anything I’ve ever tasted in my life.”

  A small flush covered her cheeks, and Jace itched to reach out and touch them, but he knew he couldn’t. Not yet.

  “I should have told you,” he said, his voice cracking a little. “I should have told you years ago how I felt. But you mean so much to me that I was afraid of losing you. You never gave me any indication that you thought of me as anything other than a friend.” When Isabella went to correct him, he stopped her. “I’m not blaming you—the fault is completely mine. I wasn’t brave enough. I wasn’t confident enough. You see, I was willing to put my feelings aside in order to keep you in my life. I thought if you knew how I felt and you didn’t feel the same way, that you’d walk away.” He gave her a sad smile. “I can’t imagine living my life without you in it, Bella.”

  Around them, you could have heard a pin drop.

  When she continued to look at him but didn’t respond, panic began its ugly path through him.

  “Please don’t make me live my life without you,” he said, his voice gruff and raw.

  Tears welled in her eyes, and it broke his heart. She couldn’t turn him away, could she? She would forgive him. After all, he was done hiding and he was making it right—telling her exactly how he felt.

  “I love you,” he said, just in case he hadn’t been clear. “I love you so much, and I don’t think there will come a time when I’ll ever stop loving you.” He paused. “Tell me I’m not too late. Please.”

  Her head dropped forward, and her shoulders trembled as she took a shuddery breath. When she looked up at him, her tears fell.