Page 92 of This Thing Between Us

When I scooted back my chair, Jack’s attention turned to me. “Are you leaving?” he asked as I slung my purse over my shoulder.

I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll meet you back at home?” I asked then looked pointedly at Katie.

A confused expression crossed his face as he looked at the woman behind him. “I’ll go too, I’m exhausted.”

Katie clocked me with a murderous stare before schooling her face. “You’re living with Jack?”

Again, I nodded. “Just temporarily, until I either get the keys to my house or Savannah’s house suddenly becomes habitable again.”

Now it was her turn to look confused. She’d known I needed to close on my house ASAP, but I hadn’t divulged all the reasons why. She didn’t need to know that information.

A look of annoyance crossed her face briefly, but then she assumed her regular realtor mask, as I liked to think of it as.

“Well, we should talk more about the house tomorrow. We can run through the next steps and figure out how to get the paperwork done so you can get your keys.” Her voice was tight. Frankly, the idea of spending more time with Katie seemed worse than getting my teeth pulled out without anesthesia.

“Great,” I said in a clipped tone. “Coffee Creek at nine?”

She nodded but her gaze swept between me and Jack. I felt the weight of her unasked questions.

As Jack got out of his chair, so did Katie. “And speaking of keys…” She looked at Jack through the bottom of her hooded lashes, pulling out her key ring and starting to slip one off. “I meant to give this back to you but kept forgetting.” She handed over a large key.

Ahousekey.

Jack cleared his throat. “Thanks.” He tucked the loose key in his pocket. Then he held out his hand for me.

I stood stock still, my eyes burning a hole in the damned pocket.

“What was that?” I pointed.

Triumphant, Katie answered first. “Oh, that’s Jack’s house key. I meant to give it back to him after the engagement, but never managed to get around to doing so.” She placed a hand on her hip, jutting it out like she was modeling for some sort of fashion designer.

I felt like a bucket of ice had been poured over my head. Suddenly, I was seventeen again standing at the bottom of a staircase watching as Jack carried Katie Kooney up the stairs into an empty bedroom with her lips on his neck.

What the actual fuck? They had been engaged?

“Whitney, I can explain.” A panicked Jack took my hand, coming to stand in front of me. Away from Katie.

I vaguely heard her say goodnight, but I was too stunned to respond.

Jack had been engaged to Katie Kooney? He waswithher?

He failed to mention it after I divulged my truth about leaving Haver’s Creek in the first place.

He lied to me.

And though nothing happened between him and Katie in high school, something had definitely happened between them since.

I wanted to throw up.

Scratch that. Iwasgoing to throw up.

I pushed past Jack, running towards the bathroom as quickly as I could. I barely made it to an open stall before the little amount of food I had consumed for dinner came back up, the coffee burning my throat as it did.

“Whitney dear, are you okay?” I heard Barb from the other side of the bathroom stall.

When I finished puking, I slowly stood up, flushed the toilet, and opened the door, rushing into her arms. “He was engaged to Katie Kooney?”

Barbara squeezed me tight. “Oh, honey.”

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