Page 107 of Just Like That

I stepped back with a small laugh, hoping I’d remembered deodorant. “What?”

His eyes were pinned to my chest, his face in a hard mask.

I placed my hand over the necklace I’d chosen to wear. “What is it?”

“Where did you get that?” His voice was as hard and tense as his expression.

I toyed with the small diamond cluster that hung from a silver chain. “This?” I asked. “It was Olive’s.” I was confused and concerned with the sudden shift in his mood. “Why?”

JP straightened and his expression was unreadable. Nerves rippled through me. He sighed and his jaw flexed. “Where did she get it?”

My face twisted as I tried to keep up. “I don’t underst—why are you asking me this?”

JP sighed again. He didn’t look mad or annoyed, but utterly exhausted. Wrung out. “Where did your sister get that necklace, Hazel?”

My throat burned and I took a sip of wine, but it did nothing to ease the ache. “I don’t know. It was mixed in with the items she left when she died. I don’t usually have a reason to wear it but figured Italy might be the time, so I packed it. Why are you being weird about this?”

His face was stern, as though he was performing mental gymnastics to try to figure out what was happening.

I knew exactly how he felt.

Then a thought bloomed. “Did you—didyougive this to her?” It didn’t make sense, but it was clear that he recognized the piece in some way.

His head twitched. “No, of course not.” He sighed and dragged a hand through his perfectly styled hair, mussing it up in the process. “But I do recognize it.”

I waited, breathless.

“It was my mother’s.”

THIRTY-FIVE

JP

Thousands of milesaway and he was still fucking things up for me.

I had planned for the sunset dinner to be special for Hazel. I was prepared to lay my heart on the line and my cards on the table.

I wanted her and Teddy in my life, forever.

When I saw her wearing my mother’s necklace, the blood drained from my face.

What were the chances he’d given two women identical necklaces?

The entire concept irked me, but given the fact we had already discovered he had anentire familywe didn’t know about, I couldn’t put it out of the realm of possibilities.

Even if my fatherhadgiven Olive an identical piece of jewelry ... why?

Hazel’s amber eyes were wide and worried. I took a step back, reeling from being confronted with another painful memory from my past. I was used to stuffing those feelings in a box and leaving it at that, but with Hazel, I was continually bombarded with old wounds. It wasn’t her fault, but the reality was that her sister and my family appeared to be more connected than I’d assumed.

I leaned back against the rail of the deck and exhaled. Hazel was stunning in her slinky black dress. It was as though it had been made to hug her curves and show off her feminine shape. The diamond cluster necklace was the perfect, elegant addition. It was no wonder she’d chosen to wear it.

With champagne still in her hand, Hazel twisted her fingers nervously, and I reached out for her. “Hey, come here.”

She stepped forward, and I placed both of our glasses on the table before wrapping her in a hug.

“Why do things have to be so complicated?” she whispered.

Her pained words were a knife to my heart. I looked down at her, tucking a wisp of hair behind her ear. “Nothing is so complicated that it changes anything between us. It’s just ... odd.”

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