Page 117 of Jaked

Feeling slightly ridiculous, I started heading toward the guest room with Jake beside me. When I opened the door to the guest room and walked inside, he followed after me and shut the door behind him.

I forced out a laugh. "You're not planning to hide out in here, are you?" I lowered my voice to a mock whisper. "Because I'm pretty sure she'll find you."

Jake gave a slow shake of his head. "There's something I've gotta say."

"What?" I asked.

He reached for my hand. "I'm sorry. The thing with Bianca, it's complicated."

"Really?" I said. "I had no idea."

"I'm gonna take care of it," he said. "So don't worry."

"I'm not worried," I said in a voice that was hardly convincing.

He pulled me close, gathering my in his arms. Into my hair, he said, "This'll just take a few minutes. And then we'll go. Alright?"

I nodded against him, soaking up the feel of him, the scent of him. I wanted to melt into him and forget everything. Especially, I wanted to forget that another girl was waiting for him to discuss who-knows-what.

But a moment later, he was gone. And then, the yelling started. Or at least, Bianca was yelling. As for Jake, he wasn't saying a whole lot, at least not from what I could hear. What was he doing, anyway? Letting Bianca rage at him, so she'd get it out of her system?

If so, Bianca was definitely rising to the challenge. I heard phrases like arrogant jackass, reckless hothead, callous heartbreaker, and too many more to mention.

Desperate for a dose of sanity, I grabbed my cell phone and called my sister. When she answered right away, I breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Hey, it's me."

"About time you called back," she said. "I was almost ready to hop in my car and track you down."

I tried to laugh. "Well, you wouldn't be the first one today."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Didn't Bishop tell you?" I said.

"Tell me what?"

"He stopped by this morning."

"What?" she said. "Where?"

"Here," I said.  "At Jake's."

"Oh shut up," she said. "He did not."

"Wanna bet?"

"Damn it." She gave an irritated sigh. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"Yeah. Didn't he mention it?"

"Well, not really," she said. "But hedidshow up with waffles. It was really weird, now that I think of it."

So he'd actually gone and done it? He had stopped to pick up waffles for my sister? For some reason, it almost made me smile. "Weird bad?" I said. "Or weird good?"

"Well, the waffles were great," she said. "Get this. He even remembered the extra butter. Isn't that sweet?"

"Yeah. That's Bishop," I said. "Sweet."

"Oh come on," she said. "You just don't know him like I do." I heard fumbling on the phone. "Hang on. I think he's out of the shower."