Page 116 of Trick Shot

“I don’t know what to do with this,” I murmur.

“This?” He reaches over and gently nudges one of my rocks into place. It balances.

“No.” I shake my head. “You.”

He looks at me, serious now. The waves crash behind us, soft and steady, and I realize the knot in my chest I’ve been feeling for days isn’t there anymore.

“I used to do this when I was little. Used the decorative rocks from the garden,” I say, trying to stack another rock. “Then my mother would come out and tell me to stop wasting time on childish things.”

“Your mom sounds like a good time,” Jace scoffs. “Dom’s told me a lot about her.”

“She tried to schedule my first kiss.”

“What?” He looks at me, disgust and shock written all over his face.

“She had a date picked out with the son of some congressman. Said it would make for good press when we got engaged later.”

“That’s…” He blinks, processing. “Impressively psychotic.”

“I try not to take after her,” I huff out a laugh.

He smiles, then turns serious again.

“So that’s why you ran here?”

I nod. “Dom said I could live with him until I figure it out and not be anyone’s political pawn. And I liked the idea of opening my own flower shop and living my own life, finally getting away from them.”

“So did Dom.” Jace nods along. “Fought tooth and nail to claw his way out of there.”

“He really did,” I agree.

Jace watches me for a second, then turns back to the rock in his hand.

“I’m glad he paved the way for you to leave.” He rolls it between his fingers. “He went crazy when he first got here.”

“Yes, I’ve read a thing or two,” I laugh.

“I was there with him, so I got to see it firsthand. Joined him most times—” He stops himself.

“The articles I read about you are worse than Dom’s. I know why Dom was doing the things he was, but… why were you? Was it the newly found fame?” I ask, genuinely curious and a little hesitant.

I don’t want visuals of him with other girls, but I want to see it from his point of view. Judging by everything I’ve read andseen about him, he has a reputation. I just want to see if there’s reasoning behind it besides ‘it was easy.’

“No.” He glances away, his voice lower. “I’m not proud of it. I just… it was safe.”

“Safe?”

“I’ve always been scared of people leaving,” he says, like it’s something he’s never admitted out loud. “So I never looked for a reason to stay. Never wanted anything real.”

“Why?”

“My mother,” he says simply. “My parents always looked madly in love. They were my example of a perfect couple until I got home from school early one day and caught my mom in bed with another man. She left us for him when I was thirteen.” Jace looks over at me again. “Then I had some experiences of my own. And I promised I’d never let anyone make me feel that way again.” He pauses, turning a small rock over in his hand.

I stay silent, never taking my eyes off his. He looks like he hasn’t talked about this often, and I want to give him the space for it, at his own pace.

“So I shut it down after that. All of it. I stopped believing in ‘love,’ and I started… protecting myself.”

His voice trails off. He doesn’t say what that protection looked like, but I know exactly what he’s saying without him having to spell it out.Women.