I want to flounce off wrapped in all my indignation about being lied to. All the shit about trust and taking care of things was just lies. As soon as someone with big boobs hanging out comes along he's drowning me and telling me to get lost. I want to be pissed that I've been dismissed like a child but clearly, they planned this. I don't have anybody to be upset with but myself for forgetting what my situation is.
I swim over to the ladder and step out. As I'm reaching for a towel Bambi comes up beside me. "Why don't you run along and let the adults play for a little while."
I can't fight the eye roll. By the time she gets in that pool, it is going to smell like a perfume factory exploded and half of her face is going to be left behind. She is definitely a woman who wants to cloak her lover in her scent if the strong smell of perfume is any indication. I grab my towel and my shirt and hit the fucking door running. I don't want to see what kind of adult fun they are going to have and clearly, she's aware all of this is just an act, a lie that Jack has to keep telling to keep me safe.
I wrestle the shirt over my head and wrap the towel around my waist. The gym, or training room as the guys like to call it, is downstairs off the kitchen so I come up to find Evie banging around trying to find something for lunch.
"Want me to help?" She looks over at me and takes in my wet appearance with her eyebrows raised. "Jack and Bambi are busy doing adult things downstairs in the pool so I was asked to get lost."
Her eyebrows draw together in a deep vee, "Jack and Bambi?"
"Yeah. I mean I assume you know...this thing with me and Jack is...,"
She interrupts me, "Hmm, I do. But I thought he hated Bambi?"
"Well, he was the one that told me to get out right before she seconded the idea. So maybe he doesn't hate her so much after all."
I pull down bowls and start searching for ingredients to make cookies. Cooking always made me feel better when I was younger and when Libby took over raising me I would be the one to make meals like breakfast and dinner for her because she worked too much. It was the least I could do for her.
"I don't think you're reading the situation right. Jack's known Bambi for a while and he doesn't have one nice thing to say about her. She's his ex-fiancé's best friend and that relationship did not go down well."
"Ex-fiancé?" I had no idea. Not that I would or have any right to be told about anything in his past. I just thought someone would have said something. Like Libby maybe.
"Mmm, it was bad. He caught her cheating on him. Walked right in on them banging away." That sucks. "She fucked around on him with Don. That's why everyone thought he would kill him when they found out Don was coming here to 'hang out’."
My shoulders slump and I sigh long and hard. Of course, that's why Jack wants to 'protect' me. He's looking for a reason to go off on Don. Everything, even the whole trust part of this act, is a lie. He doesn't care if I get hurt or not, he just wants his chance to mess Don up. It would have been nice to at least be able to say me and Jack were friends at the end of all of this but I don't think Jack wants a friend. I'm pretty sure Jack is getting what Jack wants down in the pool with Bambi right now.
"Chocolate chip sound alright to you?" I mix the batter putting all of my frustrations into stirring things together.
"Uh, yeah!" She looks excited by the idea of freshly baked cookies. At least I'll have one friend after this summer if I just keep baking her cookies. I run upstairs real quick to change and then head back downstairs to check the cookies. I just take them out of the oven when Don comes through the door. Evie was sitting on the counter beside the sink but when he comes in she jumps down like she is going to try to protect me. She's about two inches shorter than me which says a lot since I am not tall - at all.
"Something smells...fresh."
His words make me want to roll my eyes the same way I did downstairs with Bambi but I don't. I don't want to provoke him in any way giving him a reason to come closer to me.
"It's cookies, asshole." Evie doesn't feel the same way.
I have to roll my lips around my teeth to keep from laughing at her spunkiness. I don't look up at him but I also make sure to keep him in my periphria so I can tell where he is and if he gets any closer.
"Jack still downstairs with Bambi?" Oh shit, he knows they are together. I stiffen up before I can think about my response to his words. I don't have a clue what to say to him if he can tell me and Jack aren't a thing.
"No, Jack is right here wondering what the fuck you're doing talking to my woman."
My eyes shoot up to take in Jack standing behind Don on the stairs. I'm not sure how he got there because I wasn't gone for very long throwing clothes on and both me and Evie didn't see him come up.
"Jack, don't be jealous. I can't help it if women find me more attractive than you and want to talk to me. It's no one's fault...except maybe your own."
7
____________
Jack
I really hate this guy. He is just pushing my buttons to see if he can get a reaction out of me and damn do I want to give him one, especially when he looks at Lexi like he is now. I want to kick his ass and spend days taking pieces of him off until there is nothing left. I step around him so I'm closer to Lexi. I don't like the fact she was in the same room with this man even if Evie was with her.
"What's going on here, Jack? Are you still trying to follow that dream of yours?" I bristle at his words but don't do anything else. "How sad. It didn't work out the first time did it, what makes you think this time is going to be any different?"
I didn't really want Lexi to find about Kaliah. I don't have any feelings for her anymore and Don, even though he is a raging douche canoe, is right. I cared more for the idea of what Kaliah could give me than the woman herself. But I don't want Lexi thinking something is there when it isn't. I don't want her to think I was weak enough to want that kind of life with just anyone when it should be with someone special. I realize that now.