“So, it is him!” Julia said. “I knew it.”
“Before you get too excited, let me tell you the rest.” Cindy led them outside to the patio and waited until her sisters were seated, needing the minute to get her thoughts together. “He’s become a good friend. He never minds when I take up a seat at his bar and only drink water. He’s super friendly and sweet and nice to everyone.”
“Okay, so what’s the problem?” Katie asked. “Because, if you ask me, he likes you, too. I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”
Cindy’s belly fluttered with butterflies when she heard that. “He answered my ad for a roommate.”
“Oh,” Julia said with a knowing look. “That could be a problem, or it could move things along very nicely.”
“There’s more.” Cindy swallowed hard. “He’s a convicted felon and recovering drug addict.”
Her sisters stared at her, their expressions completely blank.
“You’re not still thinking about letting him live here, are you?” Katie asked. “Tell me you’re not doing that.”
“I might be.”
“Cindy!” Julia’s high-pitched screech startled Pupwell. “He cannot live here. And you cannot date him.”
Suddenly, she was overwhelmed with more sadness than she’d felt in longer than she could recall. She liked Jace—a lot. She wanted to know him better. She was attracted to him in a way she’d never been to any man. When he smiled at her, she felt the impact everywhere. Her nipples tightened, and she often had to cross her legs to contend with the throb of need—and all he’d done was smile at her.
What would happen if he touched her?
“Hang on, Jules,” Katie said, eyeing Cindy. “Give her a chance to tell us how she feels.”
“That’s just it,” Cindy said softly. “I feel something for him that I’ve never felt for anyone else.”
“Not even Tyler?” Katie asked, referring to the boy Cindy had dated in high school and for several years after.
“Not even him. Or Chuck or Tim or Jose or any of the guys I dated in Texas. I went through the motions with them. I didn’t feel this for them.”
“What is it you feel for Jace?” Katie asked.
“When he’s around, I’m excited. I want to hear everything he has to say. I want to know him, and I want him to know me. I’m sad on nights he doesn’t work, because I don’t get to see him.”
“I didn’t realize your Beachcomber habit had become an everyday thing,” Julia said.
“It’s a five-nights-a-week thing. He gets two nights off, and I don’t see him on those nights, even though I’d love to if he asked.”
Julia raised a dark brow. “Why haven’t you asked him?”
“I’ve still got his voice in my head saying women who are forward with men are sluts.”
“Oh, fuck him,” Julia said. “He’s dead to us. Do not let him dictate any decision you make about anything, but Cin… Seriously. You can’t take up with this guy.”
“Why?” Cindy gave her older sister a defiant look. “Because he has stuff in his past? We all do.”
“Some of us have bigger stuff than others,” Katie said in her always-gentle tone.
“I spent an hour reading everything I could find about what happened to him, and from what I was able to piece together, he and his older brother got into drugs when they were kids, and as their addiction grew, so did their need for money to pay for it. His brother pulled a gun on the owner of the store, who shot him to death right in front of Jace. He was arrested, convicted and sent to jail for ten years. He ended up serving six years. While he was in prison, he got clean and was paroled early for being a model prisoner.”
Cindy paused to give her sisters time to digest what she’d told them. “He attends meetings every day and said his sobriety is one of the most important things in his life. And he told his story voluntarily, when he certainly didn’t have to, so I’d have all the info I needed to decide whether I wanted to live with him.”
“We do have to give him points for honesty,” Katie said, earning a scowl from her twin.
“I don’t like this,” Julia said.
“I can see that,” Cindy replied.