Whisper of Surrender

by Melanie Shawn

  “I think so, too,” Jess agreed.

  “I didn’t think I was going to like it, but I guess that shows that you can’t be sure of what you want until you try it.” Ali’s statement was about the dress, but Jess had a feeling that it was really about something else.

  Jess didn’t take the bait. She was worried that any conversation about Ethan with her best friend would only lead to her admitting it was a hoax. And she couldn’t do that. She’d told Ethan she wouldn’t. Jess lived by her own set of rules, and one of those rules was always staying true to her word. If she made someone a promise, she kept it. Which was why, all these years later, it still bothered her that Ethan had gone behind her back and told the nurse that she’d passed out.

  Although, she had to admit, it bothered her a lot less after that kiss and the dance lesson. A shiver ran down Jess’s spine at the memory of the look in Ethan’s eyes.

  The sales girl that looked like a cast member on Pretty Little Liars came back to check on Ali. The young woman barely looked old enough to drink but had more poise and class than Jess ever dreamed of having.

  “So, what do you think?”

  Ali’s lips scrunched. “I know it’s the one because I don’t want to take it off.”

  “That is the true test.” The young lady grinned. “Should we take you over to alterations so you can speak to one of our specialists?”

  “I think so.” Ali nodded and followed her out of the room.

  Jess took a moment to let the fact that her best friend, her ride or die, her other half, her person was now going to be a married woman. She was happy for her friend, but part of her was grieving the loss of her plus one.

  Growing up hadn’t been easy for either of the girls. Jess was sick, angry, scared and tended to lash out at her classmates. She’d been an easy target and because of that, shed had no issue fighting back and fighting dirty. One day Jess had been in the bathroom crying after being teased when Ali walked in. Jess screamed at her to get out. But Ali hadn’t listened, and the two were inseparable from that day on.

  Ali might’ve been healthy, but her life hadn’t been a cakewalk. She’d never known her father and had been raised by an alcoholic mother who died when Ali was twelve. Patrick basically raised Ali, and then she’d lost Patrick. Suddenly, without warning, she was raising her twin nephews by herself.

  Between the two of them, Jess thought that she’d had it the easiest. She’d always had her parents.

  Ali yawned as she stepped back into the showroom.

  “Was all the talk of tailoring that boring?” She joked, but then noticed that her friend looked a little pale.

  Ali chuckled. “I think I just need to get some food in me. And caffeine. You want to go get something to eat?”

  “Yes.” They’d barely had time to check into the hotel before Ali’s appointment, and Jess hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. “I’ll order an Uber while you change.”

  Jess pulled out her phone to order the car and saw that she’d missed a text from Ethan. It was a funny meme of the Dirty Dancing lift. The top was a still from the movie and had the word “expectation” above it, and the bottom was a picture of a couple trying to recreate the scene at their wedding, except the bride is falling to the ground. The word “reality” was written over that one.

  I hope I live up to your expectations, his text read.

  He might’ve just been talking about the lift, but Jess felt herself getting emotional anyway. She kept trying to remind herself not to get attached. It was a ruse. She had a feeling that at the end of this, her fate would be similar to the bride from the photo who was about to faceplant onto the floor.

  * * *

  “Oh, by the way, I wanted to thank you.” Kade dribbled the basketball twice before passing it to Ethan.

  Ethan reached out and caught it. “For what?”

  He could tell by the smartass grin on his friend’s face that he was not going to like the answer. “For giving the town something to talk about other than Ali and me.”

  “I aim to please.” Ethan took a shot and missed, again, but managed to recover the ball this time.

  He could give a shit about what the town was saying, but Jess did.

  When he’d talked to her last night, she’d said that she was happy to be getting out of town where no one knew about her and Ethan. Since her parents’ party, she told him that the only thing anyone wanted to talk about in the shop was the two of them.

  He was starting to worry that this entire thing was going to backfire on him. His brilliant plan might not be so brilliant after all. He could feel her falling right back into her comfort zone of pulling away from him since their dance lesson, and he wasn’t sure why. But he knew that if she retreated now, the chances of him turning this relationship into something real was as likely as him sinking a three-pointer today.

  The double doors of the gym opened, and Ethan saw Mrs. Weathersby enter the gym.

  “Lieutenant Steele, can I have a word?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Ethan tossed the ball back to Kade, who gave him a look like he’d just gotten called to the principal’s office.

  He grabbed a white towel from his gym bag and wiped the sweat dripping off his face before making his way across the court.

  When he got within a few feet of her he stopped, but she motioned with her hand and jerked her head to the side in what he assumed she thought was covert but actually looked like she was having a seizure. He took another step closer to her and dipped his chin.

  “I spoke to Miss Penelope, and she said that you and Miss Myers impressed her.”

  “Oh, good.” As long as Jess was happy about the rehearsal, he was happy.

  Plus, he’d never complain about getting to spend two hours touching Jess.

  “She did say that you needed to loosen up your hips a little when you thrust.”

  That sentence was not one he’d ever expected or had ever wanted to hear coming out of his eighty-year-old neighbor’s mouth.

  Her eyes darted from side to side. “The trick is to bend your knees.”

  She didn’t move her mouth as she spoke, as if she were afraid someone in the gym was trying to read her lips.

  He rubbed the towel over the back of his neck, and as he did, he took a quick scan of the room. To his surprise, there were a few people paying very close attention to their interaction. Living in this town was like living in a soap opera. People created drama for their own amusement.

  He ignored the onlookers and turned back to Mrs. Weathersby.

  “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind,” he assured her. “You have a good day.”

  He started to turn, but she stopped him. Her fingers wrapped around his forearm and she began gyrating her hips. “It’s all in the knees.”

  She still wasn’t moving her lips as she spoke and now she was looking up at him with crazy eyes, grasping his arm, wearing a strange smile, and rolling her hips around in a circle. Forget him and Jess, this was what was going to have the town talking.

  “Thanks.” He gently tugged his arm back. “I better get back to my game.”

  “You let me know if you need any more tips!” She called out when he was halfway across the gym.

  Ethan raised his arm in acknowledgment but didn’t turn around.

  When he reached Kade, he held up his hands for him to pass the ball.

  Instead, his friend tilted his head to the side as his mouth curved up in a half-grin. “What was she giving you tips on?”

  “Nothing.” Jess had made him promise not to tell anyone about their dance. Between that and their faux romance, he felt like he was living a double life. He didn’t like that feeling.

  “It didn’t look like nothing,” Kade chuckled before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone.

  He tossed Ethan the ball before answering it. Ethan checked his own phone to see if Jess had messaged him back yet. She hadn’t responded, but she’d “loved” his picture. That was progress, at least.

&n
bsp; “I gotta go.” Kade grabbed his bag.

  “Everything okay?”

  “Ali’s sick. I’m going to go get her.”

  “I’ll drive,” Ethan offered as he grabbed his bag and followed his friend out of the gym.

  “What?” Kade looked confused.

  “That way you can drive Ali’s truck back and I’ll take Jess home on Sunday.”

  “You sure?”

  An excuse to spend two days in the city with Jess? Yeah, he was sure.

  CHAPTER 13

  “Evening,” the doorman greeted Jess as she walked back into the hotel.

  She smiled at him and then rushed toward the elevator. Her trip to the store had taken so much longer than she’d expected. What would’ve been a twenty-minute errand in Whisper Lake had turned into a two-hour excursion in Chicago.

  She and Ali had never made it to dinner. When they left the bridal shop, Ali started feeling dizzy. Jess insisted that they go back to the hotel and she was glad they did. When they got up to the room, she realized that Ali was really not feeling well. They’d watched a couple movies to see if she’d rally, but when Jess noticed that she had a fever she’d headed out to get supplies.

  A mile in downtown traffic was no joke. She probably would’ve been better off walking. She’d bought every single medication for cold and flu symptoms that she could get her hands on. And she’d also stocked up on saltine crackers, 7UP, and Gatorade.

  As she rode the elevator up to the tenth floor, she realized how badly it sucked to be the one on this side of illness. All of her life she’d been the one that had to be taken care of. She’d thought she had it bad, but now she was second-guessing that perspective. It sucked feeling both helpless and responsible. And she was taking care of a friend, an adult with probably nothing more than a cold. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like if Ali were a child with a serious illness, with her life hanging in the balance.

  Her parents truly were saints.

  The doors slid open, and she jogged down the hall. When she was at the drugstore, she’d started to call Ali and ask her what flavor of Gatorade she liked and noticed that her phone had died. She hoped that her friend hadn’t been trying to call her.

  She was fumbling to get the card out of her purse when the door opened. She looked up, expecting to see her friend, “I’m sorry it took so…”

  It wasn’t Ali.

  It was Ethan. And he looked…dangerous. She knew that was an odd descriptor, but seeing him standing in the doorway, wearing a black shirt, dark jeans and at least a few days’ worth of facial hair growth he had a bad boy vibe that was really working for her. So much so that she forgot where she was or what she was doing. It took her a moment to remember she was in the city.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I came up—,” Ethan started to answer.

  “Wait. Is Ali okay?” Jess pushed past him when she remembered why she’d gone out. When she did, she saw that her friend wasn’t in the bed where she’d left her. She spun back. “Where’s Ali?”

  “With Kade. They’re on the way back to Whisper Lake.”

  “Kade’s here?”

  “He was. I drove him up here so he could drive Ali back. She didn’t want to get you sick or for you to feel responsible for her while you were at your conference tomorrow.”

  “Convention,” Jess corrected as she looked around the room. Ali’s bags were gone.

  “She tried to call you. I did, too, but your phone was dead. I was about to go out and look for you.”

  “In Chicago? You were going to look for me in Chicago?” Jess couldn’t help but smile.

  Ethan ignored her question and walked toward her. Her body responded before she could tell it not to, and she started to heat up.

  He stopped a foot away, hooked a finger in her bag, and looked inside. “Wow. You really went all ou-”

  “I know.” Jess cut him off defensively, but then she softened her tone as she explained, “I didn’t know what she might need.”

  Jess felt out of sorts. She’d been so worried about her friend and now Ali was in good hands, Kade’s hands, on her way back home.

  Ethan was here. In Chicago. They were alone. In her hotel room.

  She looked up at Ethan hoping to get a clue as to what he was feeling, but his expression was completely unreadable. The last time she’d seen him was at their dance lesson. They’d said goodbye in the parking lot and she’d wondered if he was going to kiss her again. He hadn’t. She was wondering the same thing now.

  Was he going to kiss her again?

  Was he ever going to kiss her again?

  Did he even want to kiss her again?

  He had a question of his own, but it wasn’t kiss-related.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked.

  As if on cue, her stomach growled.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.” His mouth lifted in a crooked grin.

  “Don’t you need to get back to Whisper Lake?”

  The traffic was only going to get worse the later he waited.

  His face was still unreadable as he said, “I’m not going back.”

  “What?”

  “I’m your ride.”

  “My ride?”

  “I told you, I drove Kade here so he could drive Ali back. And I’m driving you back.”

  “I’m not leaving until Sunday.”

  “I know.”

  “It’s Friday.”

  “I know.”

  It seemed as if Jess’s heart started playing Double Dutch at that moment. “Where are you staying?”

  Ethan glanced at the queen bed that Ali had been lying in when Jess left.

  “You’re staying here?”

  Ethan shrugged. “I tried to get a room, but everything is booked because of the conference.”

  “Convention,” she corrected again. Her voice shook, but she hoped that he didn’t hear it. “There are other hotels.”

  “Are you scared to have a sleepover with me?”

  Damn. Why did that question have to sound so freaking sexy coming from Ethan’s perfect lips? The lips she’d been fantasizing about kissing again ever since she’d felt their magic. And that’s what those lips held. Magic. His kiss had some kind of voodoo power over her. They were like Pringles, and now that she popped she couldn’t stop. She craved them.

  And she didn’t trust herself to be alone in a hotel room with him. She might resort to begging for him to put her out of her misery. But she couldn’t say that.

  So, she lied. “No. But if you snore, I’m going to smother you with a pillow. I need my sleep.”

  “I don’t snore,” he spoke with a calm authority that had her insides doing somersaults.

  “We’ll see.” She shrugged and set the bag down on the table as her stomach growled again.

  “How does Winston’s sound?”

  Jess’s mouth watered at the mention of the name. It was the best steakhouse in the city. Kingston had told her it was near impossible to get a reservation. Which meant there was no way that they were going to get a table.

  “Amazing. But it’s Friday night, and we don’t have a reservation.”

  Ethan didn’t blink. “It’s not a problem.”

  Jess couldn’t help but smile. “How is it ‘not a problem’?” she asked, mimicking his voice.

  The corners of his mouth twitched. “Do you have to know everything?”

  “Yes.”

  He sighed. “Carter’s aunt and uncle own it.”

  Jess had met Ethan’s partner, Carter, a few times. He was funny and laid back, the exact opposite of Ethan.

  “Seriously? You think you can get us in?”

  “I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”

  Jess hesitated and had no idea why she did. She was starving. It would get them out of the room. It was one the most popular steakhouses in the city. These were all positive things.

  Then, like a lightning bolt of sanity, it hit her.

  Going to Winston’s, with Et
han, without an audience would feel like a real date, not a fake one. Would her brain be able to differentiate between the two? Her hormones and emotions certainly had not been up to the task so far. They were in full teenage-crush mode. They were listening to love songs on repeat and writing his name on notebooks and circling it with hearts.

  But what was the alternative? Stay alone in the hotel room with Ethan and order room service?

  “Give me twenty minutes.”

  * * *

  Ethan remained quiet as Jess threw open her suitcase and grabbed some clothes and a toiletry bag before heading into the shower.

  He hadn’t been sure what her reaction to finding him in her hotel room was going to be. On the drive over he’d known that whatever her eyes said in the split second she saw him would determine whether or not he’d be staying.

  In his years in law enforcement, he’d learned that people had a tremendous capacity to lie, even to themselves. Once their critical thinking kicked in, they could fabricate stories so convincing that they themselves believed them. But there was a brief moment, a one or two second window, when a person was faced with an unexpected situation and the windows of their soul didn’t have the shades drawn. In that short, fleeting moment, no one can hide what they really feel.

  That’s what he’d been looking for. If Jess had looked irritated or upset, even worse utterly indifferent to his showing up, he would’ve let her know what was going on with Ali and been on his way back to Whisper Lake with the promise of picking her up on Sunday. But, thank god, that hadn’t been the case.

  When she’d seen him, her eyes widened, her breath hitched, and her lips had parted and curled up in a half moon. She’d been happy to see him. Surprised, but happy.

  As expected, she’d immediately pulled the shades and gone on the defensive. But just like he knew that the moment they’d shared during their kiss had been real, and the moment they’d shared when Miss Penelope had asked them to connect had been real, he knew that the moment she’d seen him had been real.

  The swooshing sound of water rushing in the shower filled the empty hotel room and Ethan did his best not to think about the fact that Jess was naked, water streaming down her body, less than ten feet away from him. He stared at the door and wished that he had x-ray vision.