If I Loved You (Harper Falls Book 1) (32 page)

"I am burning all your rom-coms," Tyler
proclaimed. "But I promise you can let your hair be as messy as you
like while we're working out."

"Thanks a lot," Rose mumbled. Fine, she
would go and sweat her ass off. But there was no way Tyler was
going anywhere near her rom-coms.

"I WON'T GET any volunteers for you to beat
up this time."

Jack didn't bother to look up. He was
working and he didn't want to be interrupted. And he
definitely
didn't want Drew making
any attempts to knock him out of his funk. Around four o'clock that
morning, he had burrowed deep enough into his dark mood that he was
starting to enjoy its company. He was getting a perverse
satisfaction out of brooding and he planned to keep it up for some
time to come.

"If you aren't in here to tell me the
building is on fire then get out."

"Maybe I want to talk business."

"Text me. Email me. Hell, stand outside the
door and tap out your message in Morse code. I don't care as long
as it doesn't involve human interaction."

Ignoring him, Drew sat and put his feet up
on Jack's desk. Not a move his friend appreciated when he was in
the best of moods.

"This must have to do with Rose." Drew took
Jack's growl as a yes. "So what did you do this time?"

"Me?" Jack shot out of his chair. "Why
assume I'm to blame? You're my friend; you're supposed to tell me
I'm better off without her, that I can do better. That all I have
to do is snap my fingers and I can have a hundred women lined up to
replace her."

"Well, as much as I admire your oversized
ego let me tell you a few hard truths. First I am your friend—your
best
friend. So you can trust me
when I say you
aren't
better off
without her, you
can't
do better and
as for those hundred women? You could screw them all, but none of
them would ever replace Rose."

"Fuck you."

"I don't think either of us would enjoy
that. But even if we tried I couldn't replace her either."

Jack sat back down with a thud. Drew was
right, about everything. But how did him being right change
anything? Rose didn't want to be with him, and he was angry—out of
his head angry.

"I can't fix this, Drew. And
you
definitely can't fix it." Drew had spent ten
years pining for the same woman. He needed to figure out his own
love life before he started giving Jack advice.

Fine." Drew didn't think his and Jack's
problems had anything in common. But Jack wasn't going to listen,
not now. If things didn't work themselves out in the next week or
so, then would be the time to put his two cents back into the
pot.

"I assume you're still going to Karen Poe's
movie premier?"

"Nothing's changed there. I'll fly to Los
Angeles in the morning."

Drew nodded. "It will do you some good to
get away for a bit. In fact, why don't you stay down there for a
few days? You can hook up with old friends, clear your head.
There's nothing pressing here so now's a good time to take some
personal time."

"Clear my head. That's what that producer
said to Rose." Jack had looked Sam Laughton up. Not that he would
ever admit that to anyone. The guy had an impressive résumé and a
string of female conquests that most men would have envied. Rose
had once told him that Sam wasn't her type but until that night
back in May
Jack
hadn't been her
type. The thought of his Rose, in Paris, with a guy who had
probably been hitting on her for years hadn't done much to help his
mood.

"I know I'm missing something but never
mind. Take my advice, get out of town for a few days. But tonight
we're going to Tom Tom's, we'll have a couple of beers, shoot some
pool and just hang out. We can talk sport, politics, religion or
why men should never be allowed to wear unisex cologne. Hello, dude
smells like a lady. But we will not be talking about women. Not
women we know, or might know or may never know."

"I get it, no women."

After Drew had left, Jack swiveled his chair
around and looked out at the town below. He liked it here. In a
short time, Harper Falls had become home. The people were friendly
and not too nosy. Last winter had been a skier's paradise with
Canada to the north and Mt. Spokane to the south. His house was
finally exactly how he wanted it, and Edgar had more trees to pee
on than he could ask for. But would he be able to walk through town
knowing Rose could be just around the corner? How would it feel to
walk into the diner for lunch and see her sitting with another man?
Even though it sounded like something out of an old movie maybe it
was true. Maybe Harper Falls wasn’t big enough for both of
them.

"I'M ALL FOR equality between the sexes but
I'd be more than happy to sign away my right to sweat like a
man."

Tyler's hour or two of working out had
leaned heavily towards two and Rose was a dripping mess. She wiped
her face with the towel she had draped around her neck then
collapsed onto a nearby mat. Her only consolation was that Tyler
and Dani looked like she felt—wrung out.

"Who decided an hour in the weight room
should be followed by hot yoga?" One of them had made the brilliant
suggestion, but her brain was too exhausted to remember which of
them it had been.

"It was Dani." Tyler crawled next to Rose
before sprawling in a sweaty heap. "Water, I need water."

Dani had used up the last of her energy to
grab three bottles so she couldn't do more than roll a couple of
them in the general direction of her friends. She gulped down half
of her bottle then slumped backward.

"Someone told me it was a great class."

"They must hate you." Tyler sigh as the cool
liquid slid down her throat. "And where did they find that
instructor? I do yoga to relax. If I'm tempted to punch the guy
who's yelling at me that my downward facing dog isn't up to his
standards then what's the point?"

"He was a bit Sergeant Foley, wasn't
he?"

"But Lou Gossett Jr. turned out to be one of
the good guys. Yoga master Ted just wanted to kill us." Tyler
grimaced as she rolled over, her sweaty shirt sticking to the
mat.

Dani chuckled. "The way he was looking at
your butt I'd say he was more interested in screwing you."

"Ugh, no thanks. He looks like he's on
steroids, and you know what those things can do to a man's dick.
Healthy jumbo dog to wizened cocktail weenie in ten easy
injections. A really, really veiny cocktail weenie."

Both Rose and Dani shuddered.

"Can we change the subject? I'd like erase
that image out of my brain as quickly as possible."

But after Tyler dropped her off and she
slowly climbed the stairs to her bedroom, Rose had to admit she was
feeling better. She was a sweaty, limp noodle who could barely drag
off her clothes and climbed into a steaming hot shower, but her
tension was a thing of the past. Her thoughts were still a mess,
but she at least she was able make a decision. She was going to
talk to Jack, apologize and to see if they were really over.

Rose looked at the clock by her bed and was
surprised to see how late it was. Nine o'clock wasn't too late to
call Jack but what she had to say needed to be said in person. She
would give them both until tomorrow to calm down.

Rose couldn't remember the last time she'd
eaten, but the thought of food almost made her gag. Eating could
wait until tomorrow, too. Right now, all she wanted was an
uninterrupted night of sleep. She crawled between the covers and
pulled them up to her chin and proceeded to stare at the clock,
blinking whenever another minute went by. In order for her sleep to
be uninterrupted she was going to have to
get
to sleep. After the next minute had passed,
Rose sighed and gave up. Maybe she'd have better luck curled up on
the couch with the TV on. At least the noise would be a
distraction.

The sound of demented laughter jarred Rose
from a fitful sleep. It took a moment for her eyesight to clear
enough to see that she wasn't being attacked by a group of rabid
clowns but that the crazy laugh was coming from the still on TV. If
the reaction of the morning show's host was any indication,
whatever story the annoyingly upbeat weatherman was telling must
have been hilarious.

Rose raised her arms in a tentative stretch.
No sore muscles. Well, that was good news. Switching off the set,
she rolled off the couch and headed for the bathroom. Ten minutes
later, dressed and finally feeling hungry, she opened her
refrigerator and grabbed a container of yogurt. Mm, blueberry. She
rooted around hoping to find some bread but wasn't surprised when
she couldn't find any. Deciding that no matter how much she liked
yogurt, this morning she needed something more substantial.

Rose picked up her phone on the way to the
garage. Jack would have been up for a couple of hours already. She
wanted to call him and ask if they could meet. Maybe he would let
her buy him breakfast. She rubbed her sweaty palms on her jeans
before hitting dial. Great, voice mail. He probably saw it who it
was and didn't want to talk. She contemplated her options before
deciding to wait a few hours and then try again. If she had to, she
would drive up to see him. There was no guarantee he would see her,
but she least she had to try.

Rose took a deep breath. She could hear the
siren call of the couch trying to entice her back to its
nonjudgmental comfort. She could wrap herself in a blanket and
wallow the day away. And hate herself for it. Pulling her car keys
from her purse she headed out the door determined to get some food
and some fresh air. Jack would have to talk to her eventually.
Right?

JACK WASN'T ANSWERING his phone.

Rose had tried three more times before
getting in her car and driving to his office. Now she just had to
make herself get out of the car. She'd been sitting in the parking
lot for the last ten minutes, he had to know she was there. She
could have rolled down her window and waved at the security
camera—or flipped it off. But instead she sat like an unmoving lump
of indecision. She needed to either start the car and drive away or
march up to the front door and hope that someone let her in.

Her hand was just reaching for the door when
a knock on the window made her jump a foot. She looked over to see
Drew tap again.

"Sorry," he said, raising his voice so she
could hear him through the glass. "I didn't mean to startle
you."

Rose hit the button and waited the window to
roll down. Drew bent over until they were at eye level. Had Jack
sent Drew out to tell her to get lost?

"He's not here." Rose looked miserable. He
would have loved to have given her a hug. He wanted to tell her
that everything was going to be alright. But even though she wasn't
quite as antagonistic towards him as she used to be, he still
wasn't her favorite person. And he didn't
know
if everything was going to be alright. It was
an all-around screwed up situation.

"Would you even tell me if he were in there
and just didn't want to see me?

"Probably." Drew gave her a crooked smile.
"But I promise you he isn't here. He's not even in the state. He
left this morning for Los Angeles."

"Los Angeles? Was it some last minute
business?" Or did he just want to get away from her?

"Old business. He's accompanying Karen Poe
to her movie premiere tonight. I don't know if ever mentioned
Karen, but he still does the bodyguard thing for her. She seems to
think he's her good luck charm."

"Right, he did mention that but I didn't
realize it was tonight." She leaned back in her seat and sighed.
Now, what? If she went home, it would mean another night on the
couch and that was just miserable. She didn’t want to call Tyler
and Dani. They didn't need to hear any more of her whining and to
be honest; she was pretty sick of it herself. But, God, she didn't
feel like being alone.

"Do you think Jack would mind if I went to
his place and fed Edgar?"

"Edgar is here. Jack plans on being gone for
a few days and so he decided to drop the dog off before he
left."

Great, now she didn't even have Edgar's
nonjudgmental shoulder to cry on.

"You have a key to Jack's place, right? And
his security codes?"

"If he hasn't changed them."

"Rose I don't know what happened between you
and Jack, but I guarantee that he his feelings are the same today
as they were two days ago. Nothing has changed, including the
security codes."

In spite of what Drew had told her Rose
couldn't help holding her breath as she punched in the numbers on
the keypad by Jack's front door. She then entered the retinal scan
override code that Jack had created just for her. To her relief the
alarm disengaged and Rose let herself and Edgar into the house. As
usual the place was immaculate. No dirty dishes in the sink or
clothes thrown over a chair. The hardwood floors gleamed and the
furniture dusted. She knew that once a week Jack had a woman from
the town come in and clean but in-between those visits he kept his
house in order. Not that he was fussy, but Jack liked things
organized and everything in its place.

"Are you ready for your dinner, Edgar?"

Rose patted the dog. No hard feelings from
you, eh, boy? She looked into his big, brown adoring eyes and felt
a little lighter. She fixed his bowl of kibble and dried kale with
her usual grimace. Jack swore it was as good for Edgar as it was
for humans. Maybe, Rose thought, but she was not a fan. But Edgar
ate his food with gusto, so she figured different strokes.

After taking care of Edgars needs, Rose
decided she was feeling a little hungry. Unlike at her place,
Jack's refrigerator was always well stocked. She knew from
experience that it wouldn't be difficult to find something that
appealed to her. She opened the door and looked over the selection.
Like the rest of his house, Jack's fridge was ruthlessly well
organized. Everything in its assigned place, bottles and cartons in
neat rows. She didn't feel like cooking, nothing new there, so she
skipped over anything that required heat. Plenty of fresh
vegetables—maybe a salad? Milk, eggs, yogurt. Wait, yogurt? She
knew Jack was not a big fan. It was
her
favorite.