Page 3 of Off-Limits Mate

“I’m just stating the facts.”

“Literally no one needs to be reminded of those facts.”

“Come on. We’ve got to brush up on the story for when Jasper gets into town tomorrow.”

Ah. Fuck.

The air wooshes out of my lungs like I’ve been punched. It’s not that I forgot that he was coming to visit. How could I? However, the realization that I’m mere hours away from seeing Jasper Rayburn again seems real right now in a way that it didn’t before.

I do my best to get my breathing under control. Nolan, oblivious, messes with the stove, which has to be lit by hand. It’s one of the multitude of Earthship problems, which normally suck, but I’m grateful at this moment because if Nolan saw my face, he’d definitely ask me what was going on. And I do not, under any circumstances, want to tell him.

I’ve hidden it for this long. The fact that I obsessed over Jasper as a teenager. The fact that despite the throngs of women he had hanging around him at all times, I thought that someday, somehow, because he and I had a connection, I had a… chance.

It took me years to realize that I never had a chance with Jasper.

“This fucking thing is so annoying,” Nolan grumbles.

“You could get a regular oven like a regular person.”

“That, sister, has a carbon footprint that I am entirely unhappy with.”

I roll my eyes. “Whatever, eco-warrior. Is Jasper going to think you’re a total weirdo?”

“Luckily, Jasper is familiar with all my weirdness, and he probably will think this place is as cool as I do,” he retorts. The excitement in his voice is palpable.

I shut my eyes. He can’t hear the anxiety in mine.

Honestly, I need help. Calista recommended a therapist to help me get over my last breakup, and I don’t have the heart to tell her it’s not the breakup that’s bothering me. It’s the fact that the reason I broke up with him, and every other guy, is because none of them are Jasper.

“What time is he supposed to get here?” I ask, hoping my question sounds super innocent.

“Not sure. He’ll text when he’s around, I bet.”

Fucking men. Never making a solid plan in their lives. “Okay, well… I might have to…”

I pause. I have nothing to do. I have a small independent graphic design firm that is my only source of income. I work from home. There’s absolutely no reason that I wouldn’t be here to see Jasper when he arrives.

Shit. Why couldn’t the stupid plumber just be done with my house? Then I could at least control when I saw him…

Get a grip, Amara.

I breathe. I haven’t seen Jasper since I was eighteen, six years ago. I went to college. He moved to New York to follow his dreams, taking a corporate job for a music label. When I moved back to Oakwood at twenty-two, he wasn’t here.

We haven’t spoken. We don’t see each other. Nolan has gone to visit him a few times, but I haven’t. Why would I? I’m nothing to Jasper. Next to nothing. I’m his best friend’s annoying little sister. No matter how much time has passed, no matter how much distance between us, that’s the truth.

“Amara?”

I look up, realizing that Nolan has been trying to say something. “Sorry. What?”

“I said, if I’m not home tomorrow, would you be able to greet Jasper and get him settled?”

Ugh. No. No, no, no.

That’s what I want to say, anyway. But I’m a goddamn adult. And years have passed since I saw Jasper. He can’t be that attractive. He can’t be that cool. It all has to be some kind of hormone-fed, lonely teenage girl’s fantasy.

So instead of saying what I want to say, I nod and smile at my brother.

“Of course.”

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