Page 68 of Loathe at First Sight

“Good girl,” I tell her. “Keep going until you have nothing left.”

And she does just that. She punches and yells until finally, she collapses to her knees.

Joining her on the ground, I put my hands on her shoulders. “You okay?”

She nods.

“Do you feel any better?”

She thinks for a minute and smiles. “Yeah, actually I kind of do.”

“Good. You just need to find a way to channel that anger. That’s the main reason I work out. It makes me turn all the bad thoughts into something productive.”

“Thank you,” she says with another warm smile. “I know you didn’t want to help me.”

I’m not quite sure how to respond to that, so instead, I stand up and hold out my hand to help her to her feet.

“Hey, Jack.”

“Yeah?”

She steps closer to me. “Did you mean it when you said that you didn’t feel anything when we kissed?”

With her standing in front of me, it takes everything within me not to press my lips to hers again. But it was a mistake. Plain and simple. Just because this woman occasionally shows a redeeming quality doesn’t mean that I should get close to her. I don’t think that would turn out well for either one of us.

It’s getting increasingly harder to stay away from her, though. If we keep getting this close, I don’t know that I would be able to stop myself.

“Nothing,” I tell her, trying to sound as convincing as possible.

I see her face fall a little, but she tries to play it off.

“Right. Me either. I should probably get going.” Before she walks up the stairs, she turns toward me. “Will I see you in the morning?”

Fearing I’m going to regret what I’m about to say, I know it’s for the best. “Uh, no actually. My schedule has changed, so I won’t be able to do mornings anymore.”

“Oh,” she says, obviously disappointed. “Guess I’ll see you around.”

I feel even more guilty than I did with Misty.

But that’s probably because with Misty, I was doing it for her own good. With Liz, I’m doing it solely for my own self-preservation.

And with Liz, somehow, it feels harder to walk away.

twenty-four

You've Got a lot of Nerve

Liz

After another uneventful day of working at the inn, I decided to take a walk around town. A lot of people are at the local high school, watching the football game. No one around means that I can enjoy some peace and quiet and avoid all the stares that I usually get.

I have to say that I feel better after my little workout session with Jack last night. I don’t feel any better about him, though. I still don’t understand him even a little. One minute, he’s Mr. Nice Guy, and the next, he’s freezing me out so hard I could get hypothermia.

I’ve decided that I don’t have to understand him, though. It’s not like we are in a relationship…or anything even remotely close to one. And I guess he doesn’t want to go running with me anymore, so now he’s just the guy who will fix my car.

It’s probably for the best.

We drive each other crazy.

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