Page 22 of Always. Forever.

“Now.”

I raise my eyebrow at him, realizing he is every bit serious when he says now.

“Your dad is in the next room.” I’m now whispering.

“Sooo.” Jace smirks, grabbing me by my waist and pulling me in toward him. He kisses up my neck, which gives me goose bumps all over and makes me ache between my legs. A throat clears, and I jump back from Jace. We look toward the door, and Cash is standing there with his hands in his pocket, gazing out the window.

He throws his thumb over his shoulder.

“I’m going to head home,” he says with what sounds like annoyance.

“Okay, yeah, thanks for your help today, Dad, I really appreciate it,” he says, walking over to his dad.

“No problem.” He claps Jace on his back and looks at me.

“Bye, Rylee,” he says, his jaw clenched.What is this guy’s deal?

I’m not rude so I reply, “Bye, Cash. Thanks again for all this”—I wave around at the closet—“I really do appreciate it.”

He does his signature nod and walks down the hallway with Jace in tow.

I walk out and Cash is grabbing his coat and heading toward the door. He stops at the door and spins around to Jace.

“Remember what I told you,” he says, pointing at Jace. “Make sure you have words.”

Jace scratches the back of his head, sliding his eyes to me quickly and then back to his dad, like he has been caught doing something.

I struggle to hold myself back. “Have words with who?”

Cash and Jace look at me, and Cash’s shoulders tense and his hands turn white from the grip on the door.

“Could you have not got a taxi?” Cash blurts.

“Dad,” Jace hisses, eyes wide.

“Excuse me?” I look at Jace as if to say,What is he talking about?

“James” is all Cash says, and he looks straight ahead at nothing.

“Again, excuse me?” I place my hand on my hip, the rage flooding through me. I’m gathering he is talking about James giving me a lift home, but how dare Cash make me feel bad for taking the lift when Jace has never told me what happened between them? In so many words, he basically said they drifted apart.

“Just forget about it, okay,” Jace adds. Cash opens the apartment door, but I have to have one last word.

“As I am gathering, you are talking about James giving me a lift home,” I blurt out. “I was waiting for an Uber.”Who uses taxis anymore?“Then he came out with his date and insisted on giving me a lift home. Why wouldn’t I say yes? When someone gives me a reason, then we can discuss this.”

Cash stares at Jace like he is waiting for him to say something. “Sorry, that was rude of me, Rylee. I’m going.” Cash leaves without even a backward glance and doesn’t say bye to Jace.

Jace turns to me.

“I’m sorry about that, Ry.” Jace seems worn out. I know work is wearing him out and then he did the closet for me today, he doesn’t need shit like this going on, so I won’t carry anything on.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. But I do want to talk about this at some point, okay?” I smile at him.

Jace takes a deep breath and nods.

“How about you go get a shower, you stink,” I tease, trying to lighten the mood, which seems to work, as Jace’s shoulders drop.

“I will put dinner on and then we sit in front of the TV for the evening and do nothing, how does that sound?” I grin.

---