Page 57 of The Love Wager

Jack:He’s not the one, you know. You’re not going to win the vacation with that guy.

Hallie:Have you ever thought that you might be wrong? What if he IS the one?

She waited for his response, feeling a little breathless with anticipation. Conversation bubbles started and stopped, started and stopped, and then, after an entire five minutes had passed, he texted:I guess time will tell.

She didn’t know why, but she was disappointed with his response. She’d wanted him to care that she might be close to winning the bet. She’d wanted him to argue with her that the notion of Alex being the one was asinine.

But he hadn’t.

And what was up with Kayla? He never really mentioned her, but she knew he was still talking to her. So what did that mean?

Was he falling in love with the beautiful grad student?

Hallie tossed and turned all night, kept awake by the uncomfortable realization that things with Jack could be changing. And as much as she wanted both of them to find their happy endings with their true loves, the thought of change, especially with Jack, made her stomach hurt.

Chapter

FIFTEEN

Jack

Jack pocketed his keys and headed for the door to Hal’s building, a tiny little pouch of catnip in his jacket pocket. He’d landed a few hours before, and he’d had to force himself not to come running over to her place the instant he’d touched down.

Because he was dying to see her.

He didn’t know exactly what he was going to do or say, but something had changed in Minneapolis.Hehad changed in Minneapolis. He’d realized that as scared as he was of screwing up what they already had, he wanted to move forward.

God, was he out of his mind?

He went into the lobby and pressed the up button on the elevator, wondering when the best time was to confess his terrifying feelings.

The elevator doors opened, and a blond guy stepped out. He took a step forward but paused when he saw Jack.

“Hey, you’re Hal’s friend. Jack, right?”

Jack looked at the man’s face and realized who it was. Also, did he really have to call her “Hal,” like it was that hard to say her full name?

“Hey, Alex. How’s it going?”

“Good, good. Are you going up to see Hal right now?”

Jack gave him a nod and didn’t think he could take it if the douchebag saidHalone more time. Also, where the hell else would he be going?

“Would you mind taking something up with you?” Alex put his hands in the pockets of his bomber jacket and said, “I bought a few toys for Tigger but left them in my car.”

“Sure.”

Jack followed the guy to his car, hating the fact that Alex was spending time with Hallie every day. Hating that he was buying toys for her damn cat, even as Jack’s own pocket burned with the catnip he had taken care to bring. Alex popped open his trunk—a goddamn Camaro, of course—and Jack stood there, feeling lower than ever as Alex dug around, rambling about his life like they were buddies.

“Hal is such a sweetheart. I have no idea how I got lucky enough to land her as a girlfriend.”

Jack squinted, forcing himself not to say that it was way too early for Alex to call Hallie his girlfriend,even though it absolutely was. “It’s, uh, yeah—she’s great.”

The fact that she’d invited Alex to her sister’s wedding was still mind-boggling to him, but he refused to think about it.

Alex kept digging—how much shit could one person have in their trunk—and said, “But I’m blown away that someone like her was even on the app, y’know?”

Jack felt like his jaw was going to break from clenching it so hard. “Yeah.”

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