Page 59 of Give In To Love
“I like it. But what about you? I know you’re teaching at Drea’s studio. Does that mean you’re back for good?”
I looked for a sign of hopeful expectation on his face but couldn’t find anything more than polite interest. I used to be able to read Jimmy like a book, but tonight, I found it difficult. It hurt more than I would have thought. “I think so. I’m still figuring out what’s next. But for now, I’m home.”
His brows shot up. “Really? You’re giving up your dreams?”
“I lived my dream for five years, and it was amazing. But I’m not convinced we only get to pursue one dream in this life.”
He looked puzzled, as if it were a completely foreign concept. “But you’re so talented. What about?—”
“Babe. My headreallyhurts.” Steven came up behind Jimmy and laid his head dramatically on his shoulder.
“Literallyjusttook the ibuprofen. Hasn’t had a chance to kick in yet,” Drea muttered, coming up behind me.
Steven glared at her, then came to stand in front of Jimmy, effectively putting himself between Jimmy and us. “Babe, can we please go home?” he whined.
“Oh yeah. Um, we can go.” Jimmy stepped around Steven to address us. “Sorry, guys. I guess we need to go.” He stepped forward and kissed Drea on the cheek.
“You’ll call me later?” she asked, shooting him a meaningful look. He nodded, and then, with a lingering glance in my direction, he turned, and they made their way across the sand toward the lot.
“God, I hate that guy,” Drea said, the venom in her tone making it clear just how much.
“How long have they been dating?”
“Off and on for about a year.”
“Every couple of months, Jimmy comes to his senses and kicks him to the curb, but then Steven manages to convince Jimmy to take him back. None of us can figure out why. Hi, I’m Rafi, by the way.” The name seemed familiar, like maybe I’d heard Jimmy talk about him before.
“Oh sorry! I should introduce you.” A few more folks joined our circle and Drea made the introductions.
“Wait, so you were Jimmy’s roommate in college,” Mandy said, connecting the dots. She turned toward Drea, giving her a pointed stare. “When did you figure out the guy you hired was actually the infamous TJ?”
My brows shot up. “Infamous?”
“Do you know how close we came to driving in from Lincoln and forcing our way into your dorm room just to meet you? We wanted to meet the guy who’d finally won Jimmy’s heart.”
“I wanted to meet you guys too. He talked about you all the time.”
“Hold up,” Rafi interjected. “You knew Jimmy before tonight?”
“We were roommates. I was in love with him.”
29
JIMMY
Steven was uncharacteristicallyquiet on the drive back into Omaha. Typically, he would take the opportunity to complain about my friends after an encounter with them, but tonight, he seemed intent on staring out the window with his arms crossed and his knee violently bouncing. Someone who didn’t know better might have thought the headache was the reason for his lack of chatter, but I did know better. If I had to guess, there was no headache, and we were thirty seconds to two minutes away from a meltdown. I kind of hoped he’d just do it now so we could get it over with.
“So.”Here we go. “Who was that Thomas guy? Or is itTJ?” I didn’t have to look at him to see the sneer on his face when he said “TJ.”
I debated my response. I’d never told Steven about TJ. My boyfriend had a tendency to get incredibly jealous, and I’d known Steven wouldn’t be able to keep himself from making snarky comments, despite the fact that I hadn’t dated or seen TJ in years. Steven preferred to live in his own delulu world where he was at the center and no one else existed.
“He’s just an old friend from college.”
“Friend. Right.”
“What?” I glanced at him, catching his massive eye roll before returning my attention to the road.
“He sure wasn’t looking at you like you were just afriend. On the other hand, the way he looked atme… If looks could kill…”
