Page 44 of Lovesick
I punched him in the arm. He grimaced.
“Serial killer,” Lizbeth muttered with deep annoyance. “Seriously?”
Mark shrugged.
She shook that off, then tucked a strand of hair behind her ears and pulled her shoulders back. “Got it. Okay. Well, thank you, JJ. I’m sorry if this is inconvenient.”
“Not at all.” I shook my head. “It’s good.”
“Thanks.” She shuffled back a step. “I’m going to finish up some work in my cabin.”
Like a flash, she disappeared out the back door with her laptop clutched to her chest. The heaviness in the air seemed to hover for several long moments before Mark broke it.
“You’re a friggin’ mess, JJ.”
“Shut up.”
“What? Tell me you don’t see it in her eyes when she’s looking at you all day long and tries to pretend she isn’t.”
“I don’t see it in her eyes.”
“Then you’re choosing to be blind.”
I frowned. “I’m practically her employer.”
“Correction:Iam her employer. Adventura is in my name, per your request. You are an investor and employee in the company that’s contracted her to work for a very short amount of time.”
“Mav would kill me.”
“Nah. You’ve earned your way into his good graces with the fact that you’ve saved her life one and a half times.”
“One and a half?”
“I don’t count the fire.” He smirked. “She would have left on her own.”
I rolled my eyes, which only made him laugh. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, Mark.”
He sobered. “What has you so freaked out?”
“Who said I was freaked out?”
“The fact that confident JJ has suddenly gone all weird? The fact that youwon’task her out, which is a dead giveaway. Not every woman is Stacey, you know. That witch was something else. You lucked out, brother.”
A thousand memories whirled through my mind. A beach. Candles. The strange feeling of nausea and anticipation in my stomach. Then Mom crying. Dad’s stoic, pressed-together lips. A dusty day at Adventura when they announced the official demise of their marriage, then bickered like children.
The feeling of being rent in half when the family fell apart.
Of being the only one on the outside.
“Nothing,” I said.
He stood up. “Okay, brother. Tell yourself you don’t like her. Tell yourself you’re not raving jealous. Tell yourself you’re not scared. But it will only work for so long. And if you don’t ask her out yourself, I might. And we both know she’ll fall madly in love with my charms once I fully unleash them and you won’t have a prayer.”
He shuffled out the front door, likely to talk to the real estate agent. I simmered on the couch for a few minutes. My jealousy was new, and that bothered me. My annoyance wasn’t entirely new, but itreallybothered me.
The sudden sense of fear that cropped up at the idea of Lizbeth out with some other guy? Definitely new.
Definitelybothered me.
