Grant smirked. “Look at you two. Like a pack of dogs ready to tear me apart. I’m not that big of an asshole. She needed a place to stay while the media attention died down and while she searched for a new apartment. I gave her a cabin to use in exchange for taking some commercial photos for the winery.”
Jace’s mouth had gone so dry he was surprised he was able to speak. “She’s living at the fucking Ranch?”
The unattached doms would be hunting her like lions stalking a gazelle.
“She handles herself just fine,” Grant assured. “Colby’s been looking out for her.”
“Oh, I just bet he has,” Jace seethed. “I bet he’s been looking quite a lot.”
Reid coughed over what sounded suspiciously like a laugh, drawing Jace’s attention. Brynn seemed to be fighting a smile.
“What are you two grinning about?” Jace snapped.
Reid shrugged. “Someone I know once busted my ass to stop whining about not having the girl I wanted and to go get her already. What are you two idiots doing sitting around for? You’re both obviously gone on the girl.”
“Doesn’t matter if she’s not gone on us,” Andre said, setting his untouched beer on the coffee table. “We left the door open.”
Grant groaned and stood, pulling something from his back pocket. “Damn, you two are a pitiful bunch.” He handed Jace a small square envelope. “Happy birthday. She told me not to give you this until we finished your party, but despite reports otherwise, my sadism only goes so far.”
Jace’s pulse raced. She’d sent them something?
Andre was across the room and at Jace’s side so quick, Jace was sure he’d teleported. “Open it, man.”
Not caring that everyone was there to witness whatever was inside, Jace tore the thing open.
The simple note card inside was filled with her neat script.
Where true Love burns Desire is Love’s pure flame;
It is the reflex of our earthly frame,
That takes its meaning from the nobler part,
And translates the language of the heart.
Andre read it aloud, mostly to himself, but everyone could clearly hear it.
Warmth tracked from Jace’s chest, radiating outward and enveloping him. The corners of his mouth lifted into a broad smile.
“Isn’t that a Coleridge poem?” Brynn asked.
“And it’s the quote on the door to Jace’s store. But what the hell’s it supposed to mean?” Andre asked, plucking the card from Jace’s fingers and staring at it. “Now isn’t the time to be all cryptic. Why would she send us this?”
Jace looked up at Andre. “It’s not the exact quote, Dre.”
“What do you mean?”
He tapped the card, the little blank space in the last line. “It’s missing the ‘but.’”
THIRTY-THREE
Evan turned up the volume on her car radio and rolled down the windows, enjoying the bite in the late-autumn air. The drive out to The Ranch after working all day in her studio was a bit of a jaunt, but she was starting to enjoy the empty stretch of road and the decompression it provided at the end of the day.Author: Roni Loren
Soon she’d be back to fighting city traffic daily when she chose between the two apartments she’d found this week. Both options would meet her needs, but she was having trouble deciding, not truly excited about either of them. Probably because each was just empty walls and empty rooms—exciting but terrifying reminders of this new path she’d chosen.
Secretly, she’d hoped that her note to Jace and Andre would open up the door with them again, at least to talk. But Grant had told her he’d given them the card three days ago and neither of them had reached out to her.
She’d been too chicken to go there in person and risk getting shut down. Over the last few months she’d worked hard on getting her shit together. Had gotten herself fully off the antidepressants. She now knew she could survive fine on her own—even if not having Jace and Andre in her life had left this yawning gap inside her like a bad toothache, a dull pain that was never far from her consciousness. But losing them hadn’t sent her into a spiral of depression.