Page 86 of Gimme Some Sugar

“You sure you’ve got breakdown covered?” Even now, exhausted and reeling, Carly was tempted to retreat to the comfort of the kitchen she’d created.

“Go,gnocchella. I love you, but I’m not asking. You feel me?”

Carly dug into her back pocket for her keys. The stuff in her bag would have to wait in her locker until morning. If she went back to get it, she’d never leave to clear her head. “Okay, you win. I’ll see you for breakfast. We’ll talk.”

She waited until Adrian had disappeared into the rectangle of light leading to the momentarily exposed kitchen before releasing the shaky breath she’d been holding. Carly knew she had to really think, to sort through the details and figure out what to do next, but she didn’t want to do any of that.

She wanted to curl up with Jackson, just like she had at her mother’s house, and let the rest of the world fall away while he comforted her.

“Oh, God,” she whispered, eyes filling with tears.

And as she stood there, alone in the dark with the best career opportunity she’d ever have laid out in front of her for the taking, Carly knew she wasn’t going to leave Pine Mountain.

* * *

Jackson stoodin the parking lot at La Dolce Vita with his heart in his throat. He’d come here knowing it was late enough that Carly would be breaking down the kitchen with the rest of her crew. Then she’d walk out to the parking lot, bag slung over one shoulder, rumpled chef’s whites and tired smile showing all the signs of a typical double shift. He knew he needed to leave her now, tonight, before he couldn’t leave her at all. He’d been walking through the parking lot, hands jammed in the front pocket of his hoodie, when he’d heard a quiet, yet perfectly distinct voice forming his name on the breeze.

“No, this doesn’t have anything to do with Jackson…”

Instinctively, he’d jerked toward the sound of Carly’s voice, even though he was clearly eavesdropping on a private conversation. Something about her tone, so caught up in a mix of emotions he couldn’t quite place, had kept him from doing anything other than listening. The sound of Adrian’s gravelly voice had answered Carly’s, and as the conversation between them had unfolded, Jackson had had to fight to stay quiet.

“Of course I want to leave!” Carly’s words, spoken so adamantly, had speared through him. Jackson had heard fragments of the rest, Carly saying she needed to think, Adrian sending her home, but all Jackson could feel was the ragged hole in the center of his chest. He’d come to let her go, to keep her safe from getting too close, but he’d never once thought she’d beat him to it.

Better for her to do the leaving, he thought now. Numbness spread through him like frostbite, painfully cold for just a flash before leaving a tingling sensation that barely hinted there had once been feeling. Crickets hummed their nighttime symphony, and somewhere in the distance a car engine started.

But Jackson simply felt nothing.

27

Jackson forced his feet around the corner of the brick wall sheltering the loading dock from the rest of the parking lot, and Carly whipped toward the sound of his footsteps.

“Who’s there?” She stood, silhouetted by the moonlight, a few steps from the restaurant’s back door.

“It’s me, Carly.” Jackson approached her carefully, and she wrapped her arms around herself with a shiver as she exhaled over a soft laugh.

“You scared me! What’re you doing out here in the parking lot?” She paused, shaking her head. “You know what, it doesn’t matter. I’m really glad to see you.”

He got close enough to catch her grimace as she shivered again, and he moved to guard her from the chill in the air so automatically that he’d unzipped his hoodie and was halfway out of it before he could stop himself.

“Here. You’re freezing.” Rather than wrap his hoodie around her petite frame, though, he simply held it out at arm’s length. If he got too close to her, letting go would be that much harder, and he didn’t have the luxury of not letting go.

“Mmm, thanks.” Carly slipped into the sweatshirt, which looked more like a blanket around her slim shoulders. She lifted her fleece-draped arms to pull him in, getting close enough to touch before Jackson stopped her cold.

“I heard you talking to Adrian.”

She jammed to a halt against his chest, her arms an incomplete circle around his body. “You…you heard everything?”

Jackson inhaled, letting the cold night air seep through his lungs. “I guess congratulations are in order. You must be excited to be going back home.”

Carly stepped back. “I, um. I think we need to talk.”

Gossamer-thin hope filled Jackson for a split second before he snuffed it out. Fate had given Carly the chance to leave Pine Mountain, to go back to the comfort of her family and her blooming career, and she’d taken it, just as she’d said she would.

It was the perfect out. One she deserved. All he needed to do was hammer it into place and send her on her way.

Jackson forced himself to shrug. “There isn’t really anything to say, is there? You’ve never made any bones about the fact that you weren’t in Pine Mountain for the long haul. I never thought you’d stay.”

“You didn’t,” she replied, her voice shaking across the space growing between them. “But I thought…I mean, last night, I said—”

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