Page 100 of Puck and Prejudice

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I’d been keeping myself together ever since we said goodbye to Cicero, but the conversation with my father gutted me. I’m holding back tears as I rush out of the house and run to the stables. My chest is tight, and I’m having difficulty breathing. When I finally get there, I stand in front of Cicero’s empty stall and lose it. The ugly tears wrack my body, making me shake where I stand. I’m glad no one is around to see me like this. I’m supposed to be the strong one. I can’t let my family see me fall apart.

“Izzie?” a voice I know all too well calls from the stable’s entrance.

I tense, not daring to believe Jackson is here. I’ve been avoiding his messages and calls for three days. I thought he’d get the hint that I don’t want anything to do with him.

I turn, and it’s like he steals the air out of my lungs. I want to cry harder, run into his arms, yell at him, but I don’t do any of those things. Instead, I wipe my wet cheeks hastily and bark, “What?”

He’s already walking over with determined strides, and then he pulls me into a tight hug. “I’m so sorry.”

My heart rejoices at being near him, and I start to melt. But my brain rebels and doesn’t allow me the weakness. I remain tense and don’t return his embrace.

Jackson steps back and studies me with those intense blue eyes. “I’d have come sooner, but I couldn’t risk getting you sick.”

“It’d be in vain if you had come.”

His brows pinch together. “I know I couldn’t have changed what hap?—”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” I grit out, using my anger to dull the pain of his betrayal.

He narrows his eyes. “Enlighten me then.”

“I’m not a toy you can play with a few times, then move on to the next shiny thing.”

“Izzie… you’re not making any sense.”

I wasn’t planning on spelling it out for him, but the image of Caroline wearing his shirt comes to the forefront of my mind. “I went by your house after the parade.”

His eyes turn round. “Shit.”

“Yes, a big, stinky pile of that.” I start to walk around him, but he grabs my arm.

“It’s not what you think. Please let me explain.”

I pull my arm free from his grasp. “It’s never what it seems, is it?”

“I know you’re being sarcastic, but in this case, it truly isn’t. I was already sick when I got home, running a fever. It had been raining the whole day. Caroline came into my house uninvited and decided to change into one of my shirts while I was in the shower.”

The pain in my chest intensifies. He was naked while that bitch was going through his things. I don’t doubt that invasion of privacy would be her MO, but it doesn’t change the fact he went home with her, or that I felt so shitty about it.

I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Itdoesmatter! I didn’t hook up with her. I’d never… Izzie…” He touches my face with the tips of his fingers, and in another moment of weakness, I let him. “I’m crazy about you.”

He’s saying all the right things, and my heart rejoices, but my brain is in protection mode. I flinch, and he notices, lowering his arm.

“I’m sorry, Jackson. I can’t do this. You and me… it’s too much, and it isn’t what I want.”

“I see,” he says. His face is a cold mask now, and it feels like a blow to my stomach. “I won’t bother you again.” He turns around and walks away.

My heart breaks into tiny pieces with each step he takes, but I can’t bring myself to ask him to stay. He already has too much power over me.

ChapterForty

IZZIE

Iknow my expression is betraying me when I head back into the house and see Jane and Chad there. Both stare at me knowingly. I wonder if they saw Jackson leave. It’s very possible.

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