“And why should I?” I set my mug of coffee down but didn’t sit. “We had an awesome time last night, and then poof, you turned into an asshole. Then, you invited me here, only to tell me you regret last night?”
“Emery, please,” he said. His body was still, perfectly in control. He didn’t even glance around at the people who were looking at me funny. “Let me explain.”
I sank back into my seat. “Explain what?”
“I thought you were getting your PhD. I thought you said you were still at school in Austin, studying history and European mistresses. That’s what you told me. That’s what I thought. But you’re not doing that,” he accused.
My blood ran cold. “What do you mean?”
“You’re staying in town, aren’t you?” he asked. The idea seemed to distress him.
“How could you possibly know that? I’ve told only a handful of people, and even my mom doesn’t believe me,” I told him.
“Because you told Landon,” he said with raised eyebrows.
“You talked to Landon?” I gasped. “About me?”
“Not…exactly.”
“You didn’t tell him what happened, did you?” I asked with wild, wide eyes.
“Look, I didn’t talk to him. Morgan did. His wife is still pissed that you’re here. Morgan didn’t know about what happened with us. So, no, he doesn’t know. And I’d like to keep it that way.”
“You said…didn’t know. Morgan didn’t know, but she does now?”
Jensen shifted uncomfortably. “It was kind of an accident.”
“Oh, for the love of…” I cried, trailing off. “You don’t want Landon to find out about your big mistake, but you told Morgan? Are you out of your mind?”
“Starting to feel like it,” he grumbled.
“Great. You brought me all the way here to tell me what a big mistake I was and that Landon is probably going to find out.” I grabbed my snickerdoodle cookie and took a giant bite out of it. Then, I gave him a thumbs-up and mockingly nodded my head.
“It’s not like that. It’s more a matter of principle, Emery. I had a great time, but I don’t date girls in town. And, if I had known you were staying, I never would have asked you out.”
I swallowed back the choked words that wanted to come out at that statement. I was wrong. Jensen Wright was not different. He was just like every other guy on the planet. He’d used me for sex, and then he’d ditched me. And, even worse, he was making it a point to cement that knowledge with me in person.
“I guessed that when you dropped me off this morning. You didn’t need to come here to tell me that to my face,” I told him with venom in my voice. I pushed the plate of macarons toward him. “Have a macaron. They’re my sister’s favorite. She owns this bakery. She’d want you to have one.”
I stood and walked away from Jensen.
“Emery,” he called.
And then I heard him curse loudly. He jogged to keep up with me as I walked to my Forester waiting on the street.
He grabbed my elbow and tried to pull me to a stop. “Emery. Hey, stop.”
“Why?” I asked. “We had one night together. What am I to you?”
“I don’t know!” he said, frazzled. “I don’t know, all right? It’s like some goddamn self-preservation kicked in, and I had to stop this before it got out of hand.”
“How could it possibly get out of hand?” I demanded.
“Because being with you breaks all the rules!”
“Rules are meant to be broken.”
“Not these rules.”
I shrugged. “I have rules, too. I swore, I’d never look at another person from the Wright family. I decided Wright isn’t right,” I said, mocking the Wright Construction motto. “Yet here we are.”
Then, suddenly, Jensen’s fingers pushed up into my loose ponytail. His palms cupped my cheeks. His dark eyes gazed down into mine, and I didn’t move a muscle to stop him. The energy felt charged, heating the air between us and dragging me into his downward spiral. I could see our breaths mingling in the frigid air. His lips met mine, soft and tender, searching to make sure this was allowed. I was frozen for a second before I met his touch. He pulled me against him, crushing our mouths together. And it didn’t seem to matter in this moment that we were in broad daylight on one of the busiest streets in Lubbock.
I couldn’t get enough of his mouth, his body. The feel of him through the layers of clothing. The taste of him. He was everywhere.
Slowly, my brain came back to my body, and I shoved him away from me.
“How dare you!” I spat. “You cannot send me mixed signals like this, Jensen. Either you want more or you don’t. I won’t play games with you. I’m tired of being jerked around by men who think that they can do whatever they want.”
“Emery, that’s not—”
“Save it,” I said, raising my hand to silence him. “I’ve heard enough.”
Fifteen
Emery
I leaned back against the giant glasses sculpture outside of the Buddy Holly Center. They were iconic to the legend who had been born here and gone on to such fame. I’d worked here on and off throughout most of high school, and being back felt just as surreal as everything else that had been happening in my life. I felt like I was reliving high school, only with a different Wright brother.
Betty hit the curb in her old red Buick LaCrosse and then parked in front of the center. She waved at me from the driver’s side. I could only laugh. She had always been out there.
“Hi, Emery, dear. How are you?” Betty said. She hurried over to where I was standing and then gestured for me to follow her.
“Doing all right. How about yourself?” I asked.
Betty jingled the keys and then hit the door with her hip to let us inside. “I’m just fine. This way. Oh, you know the way.”
I did, but I didn’t say anything.
“I’m dreadfully sorry that we’re closed today. We had to do some maintenance and decided to shut down during the holidays.”
“Maintenance?” I asked.
“Replace the floors, new roof—that sort of thing. Wright Construction offered to do the whole thing at a discount since we’re a historic museum. Isn’t that wonderful?” Better asked. She finally reached her office and let me inside.
“Just wonderful,” I agreed, unable to escape the Wrights for even one day.
“That Jensen Wright came over to tell me himself.”