“Jazz. It’s me. Again. Call me back dammit. This is truly an emergency.” I hit the “end” button and flung my cell on the bed behind me.
Jazz was frolicking on the beach down in Florida with “Brandon of the chocolate brown eyes” whom she’d finally decided to go out with since Joey couldn’t get his head out of his ass. Now they were a lovey-dovey gooey mess of public affection, which they’d thankfully relocated for their spring break. I was happy for her, really. I just seriously needed her right now.
My phone beeped and I lunged for it, my chest deflating when I saw it was Joey. “Hi.”
“Great to speak to you, too. Colt just called and told me Mr. Jack Ass-ersea is back.”
I bit out a humorless laugh as my chest seized and flopped back on my covers, my feet dangling off the bed. “I’m not sure if he’s ‘back.’ He just happens to be here in the Lowcountry. We were driving home from Hilton Head, he could have been heading to Savannah for all I know.” Wow, I sounded so calm. Of course I’d obsessed about this detail of why he was here and where he was headed incessantly for the last three hours. Ever since I’d left him and Colt standing on the side of the road. But I wouldn’t admit that to Joey.
Where the heck was Jazz when I needed her? I took a breath and held it.
“Well, he is. He told Colt he was back.” Joey let out a sigh. “Indefinitely.”
My belly flipped over, and I brought my free hand up and covered my eyes. This was a nightmare. I thought I’d be over him. But if this and the way I had gone into total shock on the side of the road earlier was any indication, I was not over him. Not entirely. Damn it. Not at all. How was it possible to completely delude oneself for months?
Indefinitely. What did that mean? And more importantly, he was here, in Butler Cove, right now. I blew out that breath I’d taken upon Joey’s news before I passed out.
“Keri Ann?”
“Yep,” I croaked, trying and failing, for a jovial inflection.
“You have a lot going on. You’ve accomplished so much. You start SCAD this fall. Please don’t let yourself get involved with him again. Please. For me.”
“Sure thing, boss man Joey. I can promise you, I have no intention of doing that.”
There was a long pause on the end of the line. “I guess that’s about as good as I could hope for.” He sighed. “Do you promise?”
“Joey. I can solemnly swear I have no intention of getting involved with, or even having a conversation with him. Does that ease your mind?”
“Nope.”
“Yeah, me neither.”
“Great,” Joey responded with a tone that said anything but. “I’ll be home in time for the event. Stay out of trouble until then?”
“I’ll try. Love you, big brother.”
“Love you too, kiddo.”
I hung up and stared at my phone then glanced toward my window and the darkness beyond. Jack Eversea was out there. I assumed at Devon’s beach house. So … less than a mile away. I fought the urge to go and bang down his door and scream obscenities in his face.
He was back.
And he had to know he hurt me.
Hurt? I snorted.
I thought of that smile I’d seen in the rear-view mirror. What did that mean? He wouldn’t have been smiling like that maliciously, right? I mean who did that? He was either back to rub salt in my wound, or he was back thinking I’d be a convenient layover again. How nice he had a break in his filming schedule to come and wreak a little more havoc. I knew my strengths, and I’d have a better chance of coping if he was just here to be a prick than if he actually tried for a repeat performance of his last visit.
I remembered telling him, back before we’d even kissed, that I was out of my depth, that I was not cut out for him. Not cut out for him to go back to his Hollywood life when he was done with me. I wished I fought harder and protected myself better. I couldn’t be sure why he was back, but if it was because of me, then I would fight harder. There was no way I would make the same mistake twice.
And what became of Audrey and Jack, or the baby she’d claimed she was carrying? I was guessing that was a fabrication, since there was no news of a pregnancy. And I would know. To my shame I’d trawled the Internet one particularly frigid and rainy day in winter for seven hours straight, not pausing to even pee or eat. Jazz finally staged an intervention by ripping the cord to the wireless router out of the wall, and I kid you not, cutting the plug off the end.