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“What is he trying to do, then?” he asked without looking at me.
“He just can’t stand the thought of the two of us being together,” I said. “I mean, that had to be a blow to his ego. It always stings to see your ex with someone new, but two exes together?”
Nathan laughed softly and his eyes finally met mine again. “I think his ego needed it, quite frankly.”
Some of the tension shook itself out of my shoulders as the hostility between us faded. “Exactly. So I guess I can see why he’d try to play us against each other like that. God forbid we be happy together while he’s still single and miserable.”
“That sounds like Jake,” he muttered.
I pursed my lips. “He said a few other things, too.”
Nathan cocked his head, a silent go on.
I watched my own wringing hands, wondering if I should even go there. I didn’t believe Jake, did I? So why bother? Why bring it up at all? It was bullshit, I was sure of it. At least, I thought I was sure of it. I was pretty sure. Every other word that came out of Jake’s mouth was a lie, so this must have been too.
Nathan cleared his throat, reminding me of the silence between us that I was expected to fill.
Taking a breath, I looked him in the eye. “He told me you cheated first.”
“He what?” Nathan stared at me in disbelief. “He really said that?”
I nodded.
Nathan threw up his hands. “Jesus fucking Christ, he really is a goddamned piece of work.” He muttered something under his breath, then shook his head. “He’ll come up with anything to play us against each other, won’t he?”
“So, what he said about you cheating,” I said. “It’s all bullshit?”
He laughed. “Oh, fuck yeah, of course it-” He stopped and looked at me, lips forming an unspoken oh. Letting out a long breath, he chewed his lip and nodded. “Point taken.”
“So you believe me?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Well, he did send you pictures.”
Nathan shrugged, then put his arms around me and kissed me lightly. “Yeah, but…” He shook his head. “Fuck, I should have known. He’s always been a manipulative bastard.”
“That he is.” I kissed him again, but the instant our lips met, a slamming door downstairs caught my attention. I quickly stepped back, separating us a second before Dean and Max came into the projector room.
They both halted, eyes darting back and forth between us.
Dean cleared his throat. “Do we, um, should-”
“Let’s go,” I said to Nathan, nodding toward the door. To my employees, I said, “Projector One should be working this time. Break it and-”
“Yeah, yeah,” Max said, waving dismissively. “Break it, and you’ll break us.”
“Exactly.” With that, Nathan and I left, heading down the dark stairs toward the lobby. Just before we reached the door, he stopped me with a hand on my arm.
“I’m sorry I doubted you,” he said, barely whispering.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I would have, too.”
“I still should have known,” he said.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay,” he said, lifting my chin with two fingers. “I won’t. What I will do, though…” His lips were almost close enough to taste. “…is make it up to you when you get home tonight.”
I shivered. “Promise?”
“You’d better believe it.”
Chapter Twenty-six
The next morning, while Nathan was in the shower, I went into the kitchen to put the coffee on. I could barely think or see straight enough to do that simple task, but between yawning and rubbing my eyes, I managed. It didn’t help that my cats were doing figure eights around my feet, voicing their demands to be fed right now.
“If you trip me and break my neck, you’re going to starve,” I muttered as I pulled their food out of the cabinet. They ignored my logic and continued squawking while I spent a few minutes searching for the can opener before I realized that these cans didn’t require one.
Cursing to myself, I opened the cans and fed the relentless little beasts. I couldn’t remember the last time I was this tired.
I was exhausted, but last night was worth it. Well worth it. Nathan and I had settled everything in the projector room, then spent all night in my bed making sure we were on the same page. Sleep wasn’t high on the priority list. I knew I’d be paying for it today, but didn’t care at all.
Something beeped and caught my attention. I looked around, trying to figure out where the sound came from. It sounded distant, muffled even, but familiar.
Another beep. This time it sounded like it came from the living room. I wandered in there, craning my neck as I listened for it again. As I did, I picked up some of the clothing scattered between the front door and the bedroom, smiling to myself as the memories gave me pleasant chills.
A shirt slung haphazardly over the back of the couch made me shiver. I was surprised one of us hadn’t ended up bent over that couch.
The lone button on the carpet didn’t surprise me. I couldn’t say whose shirt it was from, but it probably wasn’t the only one that wound up separated from its stitches.
When I picked up a pair of jeans that had almost made it into the bedroom before being discarded, the beep caught my attention again. I dug into the pocket and pulled out my cell phone. Tossing the clothes on the foot of the bed, I flipped my phone open.
Three missed calls. One voice message.
Who the hell called me that late? I glanced at the alarm clock. It was a little past nine. Or that early?
In the instant I pressed the key to show the missed calls, before the LCD screen changed, I knew. I was halfway through muttering “you son of a bitch” when Jake’s number appeared on the screen. He was long since deleted from my contacts, but the all too familiar sequence of numbers may as well have spelled out his name.
I debated listening to the voice message, but really didn’t care to hear what he had to say. However, he was going to hear what I had to say.
The shower stopped. Nathan would be out shortly, so I took the phone into the kitchen and out of earshot before I hit “send” and made what I swore had better be my last contact with Jake.
The phone rang on the other end. Then again. And again.
“Don’t you dare ignore me,” I said through grinding teeth. “You called me, don’t even-”
“’Ello?” He sounded groggy. Disoriented. I hope I woke you up.
“What the fuck do you want?” I said.
“I-what? What is-oh.”
I could almost see him blinking himself awake, then freezing as he figured out who was calling and why.
“Oh, did I wake you up?” I said, laying the sarcasm on as thick as I could. “Terribly sorry. It won’t happen again.”
“Zach, it’s never too early for you to call.” He sounded so smug, the words almost sing-songed across the line. “Did you get my voice message?”
“I got it,” I said. “I didn’t listen to it, though. In fact, I have no intention of listening to it.”
“But, Zach-”
“No, shut up.”
He fell so silent I thought the line had gone dead, but there was just enough movement and faint breathing on the other end to tell me I still had him on the line.
I took a deep breath to bring my temper back under control. “I don’t know why you called, and I don’t care. All I know is that you tried to play Nathan and me against-”
“Hey, I did no such thing,” he said. “All I-”
“Did I not just say ‘shut up’?” I snapped. “I saw the messages and photos you sent him. I saw the way you tried to make it look like you and I had been up to something in the projector room when you left yesterday. If you weren’t trying to play us against each other, then what were you doing?”
He said nothing. For a moment, I thought he’d been stu