Page 69 of Forever and Other Lies

She finally said all the things her younger self couldn’t before. “I cared so much for you. I offered you my heart, and you didn’t want it. You walked away. Without a backward glance.”

Roughly, she wiped away the river of tears pouring down her cheeks. Derek stood, but she held up a palm, stopping him. Lance was walking in her direction, concern written all over his face. Standing between the two men, she felt torn.

The expression on Derek’s face looked strained. Why though? Shouldn’t his expression be one of relief now that she’d finally let him off the hook? He was finally free to take up with the stunning Lucy.

Lance moved toward her. Relief should have filled her. Her plan may just have worked. She had Lance’s full attention.

Eyes on the prize, she reminded herself. Lance Roman was the reason for all of this. He was the man she could settle down with. So, why had she gone and fallen for her fake boyfriend? It wasn’t part of the plan. Yet, once again, Derek brought her back to reality.

His feelings for her had not been real. He’d been pretending all along. Now, what did she do?

A good place to start would be by giving her head a firm shake. In front of her stood a man who could offer her a real and stable relationship.

She’d be stupid not to seize this opportunity. It’s exactly what she’d wanted.

Blinking away the remaining tears that pooled in her eyes, she moved toward Lance. “I can’t believe he’s done this to me. Again!”

Lance held out his arm to her. “Why don’t we go somewhere else and talk?”

She sniffled and nodded, taking hold of his extended arm.

“Jayna!”

She heard Derek call after her, but she didn’t turn around. There was no point.

Her plan had worked. This was exactly what she had wanted.

Chapter 34

This was exactly what Derek wanted. The whole fake dating fiasco with Jayna was finally over. So why did it feel like the last thing he wanted? Why did he feel like that chicken-shit teenager all over again?

In high school, he’d quickly learned that good looks and a bad-boy attitude could get him far with the girls. They practically threw themselves at him. Who was he to turn them down? So, when Jayna started chasing him, he relented. Sure, she was his little sister’s friend, which had given him a moment of pause. However, Jayna had seemed so sure of herself. She was the stereotypical beautiful, popular rich girl. Jayna was a girl who had never been told no. He had believed she was spoiled and didn’t see beyond that.

But something happened in the back seat of his jeep. When she told him that he’d be her first, he panicked. Seeing vulnerability in her eyes, he didn’t want to be responsible for adding to it.

Yet he had added to her vulnerability. More than a decade later, she still clung to the pain of his rejection. The break-up scene was too convincing to be anything but genuine. He had seen Jayna when she pretended, and she wasn’t that good of an actress. The tears streaming down her cheeks had reminded him of fifteen-year-old Jayna, and of seventeen-year-old couldn’t-give-a-crap Derek.

Their relationship had started out as fake, but over the course of a few weeks, it had changed. There was something between them. She saw him like no one had seen him before.

That scared the hell out of him.

He didn’t want to be seen.

She might be the first woman who could make him feel.

He didn’t want to feel.

That fear had caused him to revert to that immature teen who had carelessly broken her heart. When Lucy had pulled up the barstool beside him and then Jayna walked in, he’d panicked again. He turned into that guy who had no concept of how to deal with his emotions or those of others. He’d leaned into Lucy, knowing full well that Jayna would react.

But what he hadn’t counted on was how he would feel watching the tears pour down Jayna’s cheeks. Or how deeply it would sting to watch her leave with Lance. He was the world’s biggest jerk. Correction, he was the world’s biggest chicken-shit jerk.

His cell phone rang, and he swiped to answer. “Hey, Grandma Rose, what’s up?”

“Oh, Derek. It’s those two men again,” his grandmother huffed. “I swear your grandfather is going to be the death of me.”

“What have Pops and Earl done now?”

“Oh, they think they’re still young instead of the foolish old men they really are,” she continued her tirade. “Bought one of those silly double bicycles and installed a motor on it. Crashed into a car.”

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