Page 64 of Promise Not To Fall

Blowing out a pent-up sigh, Jake hesitates for a moment, as if maybe he thinks I’m not serious. “Yeah, okay, Kendall. Whatever. You’re clearly just looking for any angle you can here to make me out to be the bad guy.”

When Jake says that, a wave of nausea rushes through me. Those are the last words my mother said to me when I told her I didn’t need her help any longer and that I had life figured out.

My voice cracks as I hold back tears. Everywhere I go, I piss people off. I can’t even go to the fucking Bahamas without doing so.

Jake turns and begins to walk away, but then he stops and looks over his shoulder at me. Tears well up in my eyes. “To you, and every other city girl, I’m that guy. I’m the one they can forget their lives with and not have to think about how I might feel when you leave. I’m not even sure you think of me as a person. I’m just… Island Boy, right?” he asks, so matter-of-fact. I can see him now, and there’s a sadness lurking in his face. It breaks my heart that he feels so alone here.

“It’s probably best for you, then, right?”

What the fuck am I saying? That doesn’t make any sense.

When I don’t say anything more, his anger closes in on him. The bottle of beer in his hand shatters in the sand when he throws it to the ground. And you have to throw something really hard to break it in sand. Despite the situation, I note to myself how impressive that is. “What’s best for me?” Jake snaps back. “Me?” He points his finger at his heaving chest. “Why don’t you go ahead and let me decide what’s fucking best for me.” I close my eyes, thinking he’s done. Nope. Far from that. “Goddamn it, Kendall! I was fine. I was perfectly fucking fine with this life and now you… why? Why him? Of all the fucking guys to leave with. Why did you have to go and… FUCK!”

“Jake, I didn’t—”

His glare silences me. His lips curve at the corners, but his smile definitely isn’t one of amusement. But then his gaze returns to me. “Is it him or me?”

“I, uh… what?” I’m not understanding what he’s saying. I thought he was breaking it off with me. Now he’s telling me to choose?

“Make a fucking decision.” His eyes shift my way briefly and then away toward the ocean. “For being so controlling all the time, you wouldn’t think you would hesitate right now.”

“Don’t do that, Jake. What are you even asking?” Tears slip over my heated cheeks and I brush them away with the sleeve of my robe. “You know this isn’t anything that will last.”

Stepping forward, he invades my space, the heat of his body warming mine. He lowers his mouth to my ear. “You make me crazy. You annoy me, and I can’t fucking stand it.” He draws back and looks at me, waiting. “I can see why he left. I see it now.”

I’ve never thought Jake acted like his age. Until now. My head snaps up, horrified by his words as my heart sinks. I gasp, feeling the blood rush to my heart with each word. I can’t deny his words sting deep inside of me because there’s certainly some truth to them. To me, it’s hurtful, and it’s meant to be. He’s doing this on purpose, and while I understand he has pride, it’s unnecessary and mean.

For a moment, his words hang there, burning me. And then I manage to seethe out, “Fuck you, Jake.”

His hand lifts and runs over his jaw, his eyes narrowing at the ocean over my shoulder, but he doesn’t say anything in the form of words.

I don’t let people walk all over me. I never have, and I’m not about to start now. “Thanks for the drinks,” I snap, forcing a smile to my face, and started to walk away. It seems there’s no depth he won’t sink to.

Jake’s quiet, and part of me wonders what he’ll do next, with me finally walking away. “It’s how it’s supposed to go, City Girl,” he yells, and I turn around to face him. He winks. “You know?” And then he gives me a more condescending smirk. “The way you wanted it from the beginning. A quick one-night fuck. It just lasted a little longer than necessary.” Shrugging, he turns away from me.

He’s wrong. He knows he’s wrong. I can see it, the way he glared to cover it up. He has pride, and he’s protecting it. Jake Pierce doesn’t burn bridges. He blows the motherfuckers up.

I think there’s always a time in your life, a moment maybe, a day, a year, whatever, you sit there and think to yourself, you fucking know, your life is changed forever. This week is one of them. Jake has changed my life. Never have I been able to open up and expose myself the way I did with him. Yeah, I was drunk most of the time, but it allowed me to get out of my own way and feel something other than what I tell myself I should feel for someone. I should be thankful for what Jake allowed me to become, but how am I supposed to even contemplate that when my heart is crashing like the waves on the Bahamian shore?

When I get back to the hotel, Rylee is sitting outside my door, crying. I’m not sure what to make of it until her crying turns to heaving and then shaking uncontrollably.

It’s the perfect place, paradise, right? And everything’s turning into a big heaping pile of smelly shit.

I pull out my key card from my robe. It’s a miracle I remembered it in my rush to follow Jake out. “What happened to you?”

It takes her a minute to find her words, and then I wish she wouldn’t have. “Wesley slept with someone else. He’s been sleeping with her since that first night we got here!” She cries into her hands. “Some fucking island girl.”

Dropping down next to her, I wrap my arms around her. Oh, God. That dirty little frat boy. I knew he would do something like this someday. I just knew it. Imma kill him.

“He said it meant nothing.” She throws her hands up. “What a crock of shit. I hate that excuse!”

“I’m going to kill that little bastard!” I get up, intending to do so, but Rylee grabs my wrist and makes me sit down with her.

“That’s not the worst part,” she cries, giving me that same cute scrunched nose look I adore so much on her adorable face. “I, uh… went looking for you last night at that bar.”

She didn’t. No…. Please tell me she didn’t sleep with Jake. No. This can’t be happening. And I don’t even know why my mind immediately goes there, but it does. I’m already preparing myself for the fall. If she went there, she didn’t know who Jake was. He had been pissed when I left—that would be payback for him.

Part of me knows Jake isn’t vindictive, though. He wouldn’t do that.

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