Page 11 of Protecting Jess

The sad thing was, Finn had known Jess hadn’t been truthful with him. The smile he’d flashed had held a hint of sadness, but also a hint of knowing.

He’d always been able to tell when she was lying. No matter how hard she’d tried not to give herself away. With him, she’d been an open book.

Which was why his rejection had stung so much.

Stop it. Time to move on.

This time, she did listen to her inner voice. It was time to move on. Jess should look at tonight as a closure for her little-girl infatuation with Finn.

She was a grown ass woman, about to hit a quarter of a century of being on the Earth. She’d survived a stalker’s knife attack. She’d danced with one of the best dance companies in the country.

Jess had friends, and her life was fulfilling. So what if she wouldn’t mind someone to hold her at night? Someone she could call and who would whisper sweet nothings to her.

Maybe tonight, she’d find that person. Maybe tonight was the night when the man of her dreams would walk up to her and ask her to dance.

There was only one way for that to happen and that was to open herself up to it.

Jess tugged on Kaley’s arm. “Let’s dance the night away!” Her friend laughed and they headed over to the small group of their fellow dancers.

The first guy that came up to her to ask her if she wanted a drink or a dance, Jess was going to say yes.

Finn clocked Jess the second she walked into the bar. The hair on the back of his neck had stood to attention, and he’d immediately gone on alert. That sensation only happened when shit was about to hit the fan, and he’d scanned the bar to see if danger was lurking.

Then he’d seen her. At the bar, standing next to the woman she was with when she’d come to see who was waiting for her backstage.

“Hey, isn’t that the chick from the show?” Oak asked, his voice rising with interest. “She’s even hotter with her hair down.”

A burst of jealousy shot through Finn, and he breathed in deeply, trying to not let it consume him. This was his friend and teammate. Nothing good could come of him knocking him out.

“Don’t you have a girlfriend?” he asked, although since he’d arrived at the bar, he hadn’t seen Sylvia at all.

“Nah, she dumped me before we walked into the bar.”

Finn did a double take. “What the fuck? When you guys left me at the theatre, everything looked good with you two. And why the hell didn’t you say something to me when I got here?”

More to the point, why didn’t Oak look heartbroken that his girlfriend had broken it off with him?

“You looked like you had a lot on your mind when you sat down. Besides, it wasn’t anything I hadn’t been expecting. She was never my forever girl.”

Finn had questions, and being in a loud bar was making conversation impossible, but he was still going to ask them, even if everything in him wanted to march over to where Jess was and haul her close to his side.

It didn’t matter that not thirty minutes ago, he’d walked away from her, prepared to only see her at the odd family get-together.

“You need to backtrack a lot. Was she seeing someone else? I mean, you guys looked pretty close tonight when we arrived at the theatre,” Finn said.

Oak shrugged and brought his beer bottle to his lips.

He waited him out while his buddy seemed to take forever to take a drink.

“If she hadn’t broken up with me, I would’ve done it when I dropped her home. It was a bit of fun, and for a little while, I thought she could be the one, but after the third date, I knew she wasn’t. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was someone else. Sylvia isn’t the type to stay single for long.”

“You went out with her tonight, knowing you were going to end it with her in a few hours?” Finn arched an eyebrow. He had a hard time wrapping his head around exactly what Oak was saying.

Finn’s dad had taught him that women and their feelings were to be respected. He’d told him if he couldn’t see a future with a woman after being with her for a while, he shouldn’t lead her on.

He’d had a couple of longish relationships, where he’d thought there was a chance of a future. Believed there could be. But in the end, he hadn’t seen them making the long haul to the ’til death do you part portion of the wedding vows, so he’d broken up with them.

“It’s not easy to explain. And maybe if I hadn’t—” Oak looked toward the area where Jess and her friends were standing, then flicked his gaze back to Finn’s. “Well, anyway, it doesn’t matter. Sylvia said she was sorry, but she’d spent the whole show thinking about how her friend had gotten back with her ex. She knew we weren’t a love match and so she wanted to end it.”

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