Free Deadly Valentine by Jenna Harte Page B

when he thought she'd accepted that he was going to stay, she was challenging him again.
    “To take care of you. Why is that so hard for you accept?”
     “I don't know. It's weird. I haven't seen you in years and now you're holding my head over the toilet while I'm sick and serving me Ginger Ale.”
    “It's your fault we haven't seen each other in years,” he said unable to hide his irritation. He sat next to her on the couch and handed her the plate of crackers. She took one and bit, as he set the plate on the coffee table.
    “I needed a clean break,” she said.
    “You've had your time. Rebuilt your life. I think you can handle spending time with an old friend.” he knew he sounded angry, but didn't care. It was time she knew what it had done to him when she'd left. When she'd ignored him.
    “Sure.” Her eyes were wide and he'd wondered if he'd overdone it. He wanted to be allowed back in her life. Getting mad wasn't going to help his cause.
    “Do you need anything else?” he asked.
    “No. Thank you.”
    “Do you want to watch a movie?”
    “Sure.”
    His eyes narrowed. “Are you patronizing me?”
    “I can't win, can I?” she said tossing the remaining bit of her cracker on the plate. It skidded off the plate on to the coffee table. “If I ask you to leave you get mad. If accept that you're going to stay, you get mad. What do you want?”
    “I want you to want me to stay.” He hadn't wanted to blurt it out like that, but there it was.
    "I don't want to want you to stay."
    "No kidd-" he stopped as he processed her words. "You don't want to want me to stay."
    She turned away.
    "Which means you do want me to stay, you just don't want to want me to stay."
    "You're not making sense." He thought she was about to pout.
    "Why does it bother you to see me?" he said leaning over to pick up the cracker and put it on the plate. “I'm not here to ruin your new life. I can see you've built a good life for yourself. The three years have been good to you. They haven't been so good to me, Tess.”
    "I heard about your mom. I'm sorry ... I'd wanted to call-”
    “So why didn't you?” His voice was harsher than he'd wanted, but he couldn't contain the hurt he felt by her abandonment when he'd needed her most.
    “I...ah...” she shook her head. “I don't know. I don't have a good reason.”
    He considered pressing her, but then decided to let it go.
    “I'm sorry,” she said again. “And I don't mean to be rude, but seeing you brings back memories I'd rather not think about.”
    He saw her wince, as she realized how she sounded. It was laughable, he realized now. He'd had such good memories of his time with her, but apparently hers were different. “Well.”
    “Jack, that didn't come out right.”
    "I think that's exactly what you meant." He thought he should leave. This reunion was disintegrating faster than he could figure out how to keep it together.
    “I have lots of regrets in my life, but not calling you when your mom died is at the top.”
    With her words, the anger and hurt shifted. It surprised him how important it was that she'd cared about what he'd been through. He took her hand, brought it to his lips and kissed it. “Thank you.”
    Her cheeks flushed, her eyes widened in reaction to his gesture. It gave him hope that she wasn't as immune to him as she wanted to be. Taking a chance, he pressed his palm to her cheek, stroked it with the pad of his thumb. Her eyes turned wary, but her cheek settled into his palm. He wanted to take her in his arms, but feared it would ruin what little gain he made. So instead he took her hand again in his and sat with her.
    "Why did you kiss me?" she asked.
    He was surprised by the question and yet pleased that his kiss had stayed with her. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."
    "Do you go around kissing people whenever it seems like a good idea?"
    "Yes. It doesn't happen very often. But seeing you again has put me in a constant state of wanting to kiss."
    She