Page 23 of The Comeback Road (Leaving #2)

Jace

“What are you doing here?” I looked at Jess, standing in front of me, and I didn’t feel it. The flicker I had thought I felt before was nothing— nothing compared to how I felt just being in Lexie’s presence. Nothing.

“Can we talk?” she asked

I couldn’t help but frown at Jess’ words, begrudgingly opening my door to let her in.

It was my fault that we were even in that position in the first place.

I couldn’t help but feel an internal rage at myself.

How could I have been so blind to the truth?

I felt my hands tremble, having nowhere to direct my anger but at myself.

“You’re in love with her, the girl from this afternoon, yeah?

” Her voice was soft. At one point, it would have been my undoing, but I just felt mildly irritated at myself.

I had been so blind, and I would have given anything for it to be Lexie in front of me.

It was like my mind had finally caught up to what my body had been telling me for months.

I had found myself constantly gravitating toward Lexie.

Like a magnetic force pulled me into her orbit.

I couldn’t help but pester her day in and day out because irritating Lexie was the best part of my day.

She was the best part of my day.

What the hell did I do? What the hell was I thinking? She is it.

“Jace?”

Shit. I had forgotten about Jess, and she was literally standing right in front of me. I couldn’t help but wince at the sound of her voice because it wasn’t the one I wanted to hear. I am such a fool .

“The girl, from today. You’re in love with her?” She posed it as a question, but we both knew the truth. I nodded. “Yeah, I’m just a dumbass who realized it too late.” She shot me a half smile, and I couldn’t help but return it.

“Why are you here, Jess? And I don’t just mean at my house. I mean in Rockland.”

She wrung her hands together, looking around nervously. “Can we sit?” Jess asked.

I shrugged and gestured toward the sofa positioned in the middle of the living room. Jess made her way over to it, shooting me a look and sitting on the furthest end from where I was standing. I couldn’t help but relax a little bit, feeling marginally better about her being there, in my space.

As soon as she sat down, I realized that Lexie was the last person on my sofa. I was about to ask Jess to sit on the ground, but stopped myself. Instead, I asked, “What are you doing here, Jess?” My voice sounded resigned.

“I take responsibility for showing up at a crappy time, but never once did you tell me you were seeing someone when I was going on and on about us trying again. Never once. ” I felt my face heat.

I wanted to argue, but she was right. I didn’t .

I saw her, still felt a mild attraction, and mistook that for love.

I felt my face pale, and the bile rose again.

“Uh, Jace?” She scooted close to me and put her hand to my forehead. I couldn’t help but jerk away while the room spun, and I ran to the bathroom and lost the rest of the contents of my stomach. It wasn’t much, so I just dry heaved until my body was too exhausted to do more.

I felt myself slump down. My body caught the wall while my forearms still hung halfway around the toilet. “Why are you here, Jess?” I could feel her lingering by the door, even though she wasn’t saying anything.

“I, uh…Well, I didn’t—I don’t—” she sputtered.

“Jess.”

“I’ve been kind of floating from place to place, just kind of being. And, well, things haven’t been great, and I, uh…Well, I didn’t have any place else to go that I felt safe. And when I got the papers, I realized the last time I felt safe was here, with you, so I decided to come back.”

“So it isn’t about me, then. Not really.”

She at least had the decency to look guilty. “I wouldn’t have even tried if I knew you were in love with someone else. You know that.”

Somewhere deep down, I did. Jess might have been flakey, a little crazy, head in the clouds, but she was never mean. A gypsy soul , she used to say.

“You could have found me before,” she whispered.

“I had no reason to until her, and I royally fucked that up.”

“I might be of help with that,” Jess said, and handed me the signed papers.