Only One (Ward Sisters Book 2) (5 page)

Jenna smirked. “Uh huh.” She turned to Eric and smiled. “I'd love to come see you play.”

“Good,” he said with a grin. There was heat in his gaze and though Jenna wasn't especially experienced at this sort of thing, she knew it meant he was attracted to her.

As the bar closed, Chris and Paul stepped outside for air, which Jenna knew meant they wanted time alone. She'd gone clubbing with Chris enough to know that he wasn't much for PDA. Eric paid the tab and walked Jenna and Catie outside, where Chris and Paul were talking, their heads close together.

“Jenna, babe, I'm going to head to Paul's place. You need us to take you ladies home first?”

Jenna pouted. “You're not staying with me?”

He rolled his eyes at her. “Hon, you know I can't sleep in those awful dorm beds. I'm too damn tall. We'll meet for breakfast before I head back to the city.” He gave her air kisses. “Please?”

She sighed. “Fine. We'll get a cab.”

Eric interjected, “I'll go back with you guys. I live over that way, too. I'll see you next week, Paul.”

Chris air kissed Catie and then he and Paul flagged two cabs. Jenna, Eric and Catie got in one and Chris and Paul left in the other.

“You can drop me off first,” Catie said. “I'm sure you two want to be alone.”

Jenna blushed and looked at Eric. He was trying not to smile. A few minutes later, Jenna hugged Catie, who whispered to be careful and to call her in the morning so she could have breakfast with Chris.

When they got to Jenna's dorm, Eric paid the cabbie and walked with her toward the door of the building. She unlocked the door and he followed her inside. It seemed pretty obvious where this was going. They stepped into the elevator and when the doors closed, Eric pressed her gently against the wall and cupped her face in his hand. Jenna's heart raced and she thought she'd die with anticipation.

But he didn't kiss her.

The elevator door opened on her floor and he took her hand. She led him to her dorm room and though the thing in the elevator seemed weird, she was still glad her roommate was gone for the weekend and that Chris wasn't actually sleeping at her place.

She unlocked the door and stepped inside, but instead of following, Eric let go her hand. “You don't want to come inside?” she said, thoroughly confused.

A slow grin spread across his face. “I
want
to do lots of things, but I can't.”

“Against your religion?” she asked, baffled as to why he wouldn't jump at the chance to sleep with her when he seemed quite interested all night.

He chuckled. “No.” He stepped closer and cupped her face again. He ran his thumb over her lip. His fingers were calloused, probably from playing guitar. This time, he leaned close and kissed her quite thoroughly. His lips were soft and he was an excellent kisser. Oddly, he didn't stick his tongue in her mouth. Eric pulled away and said, “I like to take my time, Jenna. And that's the one thing I just don't have tonight. I have to work first thing tomorrow.”

“Oh,” she breathed. Despite the relative chasteness of the kiss, it left her weak in the knees and wet between her thighs.

He kissed her again, gently. “I'll call you tomorrow. We'll find a time to do this the right way. I'll take you on a date, just the two of us. Then if you still want to sleep with me, I'll make it worth your while. How does that sound?”

She nodded, could hardly speak. “Yes. Good. Sounds great.”

He smiled and kissed her one last time. “Goodnight.” He let his fingers linger on hers and then he wandered down the hallway, back to the elevator. She watched him until he disappeared around the corner, then went back into her room, closed the door and slunk against it. Damn, that was kind of hot. She needed to date more often. Fingers against her lips, she couldn't help but smile.

**********

Boston, Massachusetts, eleven and a half years earlier...

Only a couple days left to go, and they'd be done with college. Well, Catie would. Jenna was headed to Minnesota for grad school. Chris would join her on a flight to L.A. in a few days. He was headed back to Hollywood in hopes of making it as a celebrity stylist. Jenna was visiting her father for a couple months until grad school started.

There was a knock at her door and Jenna thought that was strange, since she had very few friends and didn't expect company until later. When she looked in the peephole, she saw Eric. Huh. They weren't supposed to meet until tonight.

She opened the door and smiled, eyebrows raised. “You're about eight hours early,” she said. “I thought you had to work?”

“Can I come in?” he asked, brows furrowed.

Jenna stepped aside and let him into the apartment, then closed the door behind them. She put her hands in her jeans pockets and shrugged her shoulders. “So,” she said.

Eric was uncharacteristically fidgety and he hadn't yet kissed her. He began to pace. She just waited patiently.

Finally, he said, “There's just no easy way to say this.”

“Spit it out, Eric.”

He sighed. “Look, I love you, Jenna. You know I love you. But I can't see how this will work once you're in Minnesota.”

Jenna inwardly sighed in relief.
Oh, thank God.
Now she was saved from having to be the bad guy. “No, you're right. It's really not practical.” Let him think it was about that.

“Right? I mean, I'll be touring all the time or working at the book store. I can't imagine how easy it will be to get away to see you. And you'll be in grad school, so it's not like you'll have a ton of free time. We'll never see each other. It's been hard enough to see each other the last year when we've been in the same city. Christ, we live a ten-minute walk away and we're lucky to get together twice in a week.”

Jenna nodded. “Absolutely. You're right. It wouldn't be fair, to either of us, to stay together when it would be impossible to make it work.”

He stopped pacing and walked slowly toward her. He held her face in his hands. “You know it's not what I want, right? I wish we could do this. I just can't see how.”

“It's okay, Eric. I understand. Really, I do.”
To be honest, I'm relieved. I was planning to dump you in eight hours anyway, but you've saved me the trouble.

Eric rubbed his thumb over her lips. She felt the callous and a very tiny part of her was sad. She'd miss him. He was a great guy and a good lover. But she felt no real spark. Nothing. It had just been easier to keep seeing him than it was to find someone new. And she
did
care about him. Just not enough to do the long-distance thing.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For loving me enough to let me go.”

Jenna fought the urge to tell him that she didn't actually love him. It didn't matter. They were through and it was best to just let him think it had been something more than it was if that made him happy.

Eric leaned close and pressed his lips to hers. Okay, so she'd miss kissing him. He was a good kisser. It started to get a little steamy, with him pulling her close and plunging his tongue into her mouth.
Well, one last roll in the sheets for old time's sake would be good
, she thought. But then he abruptly wrenched away.

“We can't. I want to be with you, but we can't. It will just make ending things that much harder.” He stepped toward her again and kissed her cheek. “I'll miss making love to you.” He gave her a sad smile and then said, “Goodbye, Jenna. And good luck in Minnesota.”

With that, he squeezed her hand and left. When she heard the door click behind him, Jenna rolled her eyes and sighed. She shook her head and chuckled. Well. That was easier than she'd expected it to be.

She clicked on the stereo and set her disc changer to shuffle, then laughed hysterically when the first song to play was
Goodbye to You
by Scandal. Ah, she did love her 80's music. Jenna danced around the living room, thinking that she was glad to be headed to grad school unattached. Maybe she'd finally meet someone perfect for her.

One could hope.

**********

A few days later, there was a frantic pounding at her door. She'd just packed the last of her stuff into the boxes that would be shipped to Minnesota and was writing the contents on the box.

“Just a second!” she shouted. When she strode quickly to the door and flung it open, she saw Catie, disheveled and in tears. “Oh, my God, Catie, what happened?” she asked, ushering her friend into the apartment.

“I'm such an idiot,” she said through the tears.

Jenna led her to the couch and they sat. “Tell me what happened. You look awful. Is it your family? Did something happen to your brother?”

Catie shook her head. “No. He's fine. I'd know if he wasn't. Everyone in my family is okay.”

“Then what is it? You look like someone killed your puppy.”

“Isn't it kicked your puppy?”

“Hon, kicking a puppy is mean. You look like someone murdered yours and made you watch. What the hell happened?”

“I caught him,” she whispered.

“Tony?” Catie nodded. “What do you mean, 'caught him'? Did you see some skank leaving his place again?”

She shook her head. “No. This time I actually caught him,
in flagrante delicto
.”

“You saw him screwing someone else? Who?”

“That slutty waitress who works at the bar.”

“The one he goes to in Cambridge?” Catie nodded. She'd said something to Tony about that girl before, and he'd brushed it off. She'd even asked him to stop going to the bar – it was a Harvard hangout and he wasn't a student anymore – but he'd refused. The waitress was likely the reason.

“That's not even the worst part,” she said quietly, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks.

“It sounds pretty awful. What else happened?”

“I went to Noah. After.”

“Swim Boy?” This was the first time Catie had said his name. They never called him Noah, they called him by Chris' nickname.

“Yeah. I...he...”

Jenna just looked at her expectantly, waiting. Whatever had taken place, it was a doozy.

“We...we made love. For two days straight. It was like some crazy romance novel or chick flick, you know? We just...we couldn't get enough of each other. All those years of fighting it, and we finally gave in to the passion.”

“It couldn't have been bad, since you said it was for two days straight,” Jenna pointed out.

“No. It was...so amazing. I think I might be in love with him.”

“Then why are you crying? You're devastated, Catie. Did he not feel the same way? Did he hurt you? Do I need to get Chris to pay him a visit and scare the crap out of him?”

“No! Don't do that. I think he feels the same. I think he said it. That he loved me. He thought I was sleeping, and he was holding me.” More tears dripped onto Catie's hands as she spoke.

“And?”

“And I ran. I mean, not literally, at least not away from him. But later, when he was asleep, I left. I've been sitting at my apartment for the past day, and he hasn't shown up.”

“You walked out. And you didn't leave a note?”

She shook her head. “No,” she whispered. “And he hasn't come after me.”

“Well, what did you expect? Why don't you call him? You still love him, don't you?”

“Yes. God, yes.”

“Catie, he probably feels used. I assume you told him about catching Tony?” Her friend nodded. “He probably thinks you used him to get back at Tony.”

“I didn't! Never! I went to him the first time, you know, when that girl was at Tony's place. And I wanted Noah then. But I didn't do anything because I didn't want him to think I was using him. I'd never do that to him. Not to Noah...God, he's everything to me.”

“Then call him.”

“I can't! Don't you see? I don't deserve him! I'm not worthy of someone like him!” She tipped her head back. “This is the price I have to pay,” she whispered.

“Price? For what?”

“For sitting by and watching my father,” she pursed her lips before she continued, “watching my father have an affair. I knew and I didn't say anything. And I let Liam take all the blame. Ma thinks it's his fault. She never tells him that, but she does.”

“Why?”

“Because the woman was Liam's art teacher. She wanted Liam to be in a show, so Dad went to meet the teacher and that's when he realized the woman was the girl he should have married.”

“Then why didn't he marry her?”

“Because he got my mom pregnant. He cared for her, but he wasn't in love with her. God! They always said that we should never marry unless we loved someone. Otherwise, we'd be doomed to make their mistakes. But Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I can't imagine how Noah could ever forgive me for what I just did to him. And I don't love Tony. I don't.”

“I'm a little confused.”

“Tony came by earlier. He begged me to take him back, promised he'd never do it again. Asked me...” She began to sob. “He asked me,” she said in a whisper, a look of disbelief on her face, “to marry him.”