Page 39 of Unraveling the Truth About Love
Chapter Seventeen
THE NEXT MORNING, Riley jumped up at the vibration of her cell phone. She wasn’t surprised to see that Josh was gone, but she was surprised at how natural it seemed for him to have spent the night again and for her to know he’d be back shortly after his run.
“I’m sorry. I should have called you last night,” she said to Jade.
“Darn right you should have,” Jade said with a smilein her tone. “I hope you have a good reason not to have called.”
“Too good.” Riley got out of bed and threw on a T-shirt. She went to the kitchen, and when there was no note on the counter and Josh’s gym bag was gone from the couch, she felt a stroke of panic shoot through her. “We’re still not telling anyone about us,” she said, distracted as she headed for the bathroom.
“What are you doing?You’re breathing really hard,” Jade asked.
“Walking into the bathroom.” She flicked the bathroom light on and nearly dropped the phone when she saw,Back soon. Don’t shower without me. Xo, J, written in lipstick on the mirror, surrounded by a big red heart.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
“Hello?” Jade said.
“Sorry. I just woke up.”
“I hear you’re having company tonight. I wish I was gonnabe there. It’s like we’re back in college again, in different states, catching up via phone all the time,” Jade said.
Riley missed seeing her best friend, but she wouldn’t trade a minute of her time with Josh for anything. Not even Jade.Josh.What was she going to do about him? He’d get sick of hiding out, and wouldn’t she, too? Didn’t she want a real relationship where they could be seen inpublic without wearing disguises?
“Hello?” Jade repeated.
“I’m sorry. I’m just distracted. I don’t know how you did this sneaking around stuff. I am always so worried. Even when I’m not thinking about it, I’m thinking about it.”
“I told you what to do. Just come clean and let Cruella deal with it,” Jade said.
“That’s easier said than done. She came on to Josh last night.”
“No!”
“Yes. Heset her straight, but she’ll have a bigger reason to hate me when she finds out, and let’s be honest, it’s only been two days.Two days.”
“Who are you kidding? It’s been fifteen years and you know it. You dug him in school; you know you did,” Jade teased. “Don’t you believe for a second that while I was crushing on Rex I didn’t notice you lusting after his brother. I’ve said it before and I’llsay it again. We both loved them from afar, and it was really hard.”
Riley had liked Josh back then, but she’d pushed him out of her mind through college, and even in the years that followed—until that night at the concert, when she’d felt the door to her heart crack open. Over the last two days, the power with which those bottled-up feelings she’d tried so desperately to ignore returned madeher feel like a love-starved kid.
“Okay, fine, you’re right, but you know me, Jade. I’ve never fallen for a guy so hard that I want to be with him every second of the day, and certainly not after two days. Do you think it’s just the whole new city, hot guy thing?”
“Do you?”
Only Jade would push her to the wall. “Honestly? No. But doesn’t that make me one of those stupid girls who throws cautionto the wind and gets swept away on the fallacy of love?”
“Hey, I take great offense to that,” Jade said.
“You know what I mean. You and Rex lusted after each other forever. I had a crush, and apparently Josh had a crush, but not like you two did. The way you two looked at each other for all those years? I swear you two burned a scorching path between you that everyone else could feel, even ifyou couldn’t act on it. You guys were on fire. What if his desire for me fades? How do you know when love is enough?”
“So the sex isn’t hot?”
“No, the sex is steamin’ hot. And it keeps getting hotter. But I don’t want to end up like my parents. I want heat forever. I wanna be chased around the living room when I’m fifty, swatting at my horny husband.” Riley thought about the way Josh was aneager, pleasing lover and about how she came alive when she was with him in ways that she never had before. The fear of becoming like her parents must be clouding her thoughts.We’re just as hot as Rex and Jade.
“You can’t know, Ri. You’re asking for assurances that no one can give you. I know what you’re worried about. You don’t want to be like your parents. You’re afraid you guys will get toocomfortable with each other. Even those couples that start out hotter than me and Rex sometimes end up with no spark at all, and then the ones who started out warm end up kinky and hot. You have to go with your gut. And we do control those things, you know.”
Riley was brushing her teeth, listening to Jade. She rinsed her mouth. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that when things cool off, we turn upthe heat. Jeez, Ri, you’re the one who told me to go for it. Why are you worried? Maybe you don’t like him as much as you thought you did.”
