Sweetest Obsessions - Anthology

by Anthony, Jane

  Caleb and I have only met once, but he also grew up in L.A., so we hit it off right away. With his blond hair and casual vibe, he still looks a bit like the Hollywood actor he once was.

  Paris immediately gestures to the tear she somehow managed to get in her dress and how Caleb claims no one will notice and that she looks perfect, but she’s sure he’s lying.

  Caleb and I laugh. Paris hasn’t changed at all.

  Yes, she’s beautiful, but just try telling her that and she’ll swat you into silence like you’re telling a thousand lies.

  “You know Caleb thinks your body’s hot,” I tease her. “So stop worrying about the damn dress.”

  “Exactly,” Caleb says as he kisses her.

  I can see how she ripped the fabric. Her body can’t be contained, and she bounces on her heels like she’s being kept in a jail cell.

  “I always love southern California! The weather’s so amazing.”

  I glance over her shoulder and wave as Cali and her husband, London, walk up to the bar.

  I hug both of them and ask how their daughter, Joy, is doing. London’s a proud father as he whips out his phone and shows me a few pictures of their toddler.

  “Can you believe this guy?” Paris teases London, who rolls his dark eyes and grins. “He’s the hottest dad in Boston.”

  Cali puts her arm around London. “Of course he is.”

  London kisses her head. “I’m the one who got lucky, believe me.”

  California is one of those women who always seemed to have it all—with her full figure, she’s gorgeous in a Marilyn Monroe crossed with Jennifer Lopez kind of way; she’s brilliant; and she’s kind and warm. Yet, all through our time at Harvard together, her green eyes had a deep sadness in them.

  But now that she’s working toward her PhD and surrounded by her new family, her eyes are filled with happiness and a sense of peace.

  After chatting for a while, Caleb and London say they’re going to check out the pool and leave us to our “girl-time.” We agree to all meet up for a late lunch.

  Paris and Cali kiss their men goodbye like they won’t see them for a decade. I tease them about it, but truly, I think it’s awesome.

  “Jade, are you okay?” Cali asks me once we’re alone.

  Paris tilts her head and widens her eyes at me. “Oh my God, Jade. Your eyes—”

  I automatically run my index finger underneath my lower lash. “Shit. Is my eyeliner smudged?”

  “No, silly. You always wear your liner thick. It looks awesome with your ridiculously gorgeous blue eyes. I mean you look upset.”

  Cali nods. “You do.”

  “Did something happen?” Paris asks me.

  I don’t want to get into the dirty details of what I’m dealing with.

  “Nothing I want to talk about here,” I say, glancing around at the throngs of people at the bar. “Anyone here could be a friend of the wedding party.”

  “Let’s go outside, then.” Paris takes my arm. “The three of us can chat while the boys go for a swim. I’d love to walk along the beach.”

  The ocean air is cleansing, and as we walk along the shore, I fill them in on my new living situation plus my father’s death.

  “Oh my God.” Paris covers her mouth with her hand as the three of us take seats on the sand. “I’m so sorry about your dad.”

  California winces. “That’s so hard, Jade.”

  I shrug. “You know, we weren’t close. Understatement of the fucking year.” Something about being by the water is nagging at me, but I can’t place why.

  Paris nods. “I understand. But it doesn’t mean it’s easy.”

  “No, it doesn’t,” I say. “I appreciate so much that you’re all here. I’m happy for Melody, but she and I are the opposite of bonded. And I feel terrible that you guys are now roped in.”

  “I remember the first time I met her at the Harvard dorms when she came to visit.” Paris laughs. “She hated me on sight.”

  “She hates most females,” I say in all honesty. “Except for my mom. They’re super close.”

  “I wonder who you’ll have to walk down the aisle with,” Paris says, zeroing in on an issue that’s been privately bugging me.

  A yearning for Devon flashes through my mind, and I slap my own face in my head. He may be hotter than the sun, but he’s off-limits.

  “So who’s the guy you’re staying with?” Cali asks suddenly.

  I know I must blush, because Paris starts pointing at me. “I’ve never seen you react over a man before! Who is this guy?”

  “I told you, just a guy on the football team.”

  “Oh yeah, just a professional football player who’s no doubt built like a God with tons of money and super famous,” Paris says with a smile. “Seriously, what’s he like? Is he a jerk? Is he a nice guy?”

  I blow out a breath. I can’t do it. I had planned to only tell Marina and Emerson, but I have got to be the world’s worst secret keeper.

  “His name is Devon. I met him a long time ago. Back when I was homeless. We have a…connection. Honestly, I feel like we have a chemical connection because all I ever want to do when I see him is jump into bed with him.”

  “What!!” Paris screams so loudly people walking by us turn to look. “Sorry,” she apologizes as California urges her to keep her voice down. “But your situation completely matches Cali’s tarot reading!”

  I strain to remember the reading. It feels like a year ago when, in reality, it was right before I started my new job.

  “The beginning of something new,” Paris repeats. “That would be your new home, just like Cali suggested it would be.”

  “My new home is temporary,” I say quickly.

  “I also said ocean view, and he lives in Malibu,” California says, obviously recollecting her reading now.

  “Exactly,” Paris says excitedly. “And a powerful physical attraction, perhaps with someone from the past!”

  I stare at them both.

  Good Lord. Maybe they’re right.

  As if in a trance, I allow them to lead me back to the Blue Dolphin where we sit and have lunch at the hotel restaurant with Caleb and London.

  Our server drops off the bill, and Paris grabs it out of my hand before anyone can even try to fight her for it. London and Caleb both grumble, but Paris is insistent.

  “You two billionaires can let someone else pay once in a while,” she says to Caleb and London. “One of the perks of running a growing business with minimal overhead costs? I have all my spending money left over. This is my treat. To you, Jade, for earning your master’s degree.”

  “Thank you,” I tell her as I give her a hug.

  She scans the room for the waitress. Then, she says quietly, “Um, Jade?”

  “Yeah?” I say.

  “A hot guy is staring at you like you’re the only woman in the room. Do you know him somehow?”

  I turn around in my chair and look where she’s staring.

  And for the third time in a week, I find myself locking eyes with Devon Wilkens.

  13

  “What’s he doing here?”

  I don’t realize I’ve said those five words out loud until Paris says, “Who is that, Jade?”

  I glance at her. Something in my expression makes her gasp.

  “Oh my gosh! Is that Devon?”

  He’s already pushing off the hotel bartop and heading toward me. I stand up and meet him halfway.

  “Hey, Jade.” His blue eyes are bright and his expression flirty and relaxed.

  I know him well enough by now to read that look.

  Devon Wilkens is happy to see me.

  And the feeling is mutual.

  I can’t stop the smile from spreading across my face. “Why are you in Orange County?”

  “Why are you here?” he asks in response.

  “My sister’s getting married.”

  “That’s a strange coincidence. I’m attending a wedding this weekend, also.”

  I stare at him
until Devon grins. “I think you and I are going to the same wedding.”

  I’m so mesmerized by his devastating smile that it takes me a second to catch on. “Wait, what?” I ask him.

  He tugs gently at a lock of my hair. “I think my friend is marrying your sister.”

  Holy shit.

  “So, what are you up to now?” he says.

  I turn and gesture to my table where all four of my friends are watching us. Paris gives a big wave, and Devon nods back.

  “We were having lunch.”

  He stuffs his hands into his pockets and goes silent. His eyes never leave mine.

  “Um, would you like to join us?” I ask him.

  He puts his hand on the small of my back, guiding me forward. “Yes. Sounds great.”

  Okay. Devon and I are going to the same wedding.

  But not as a date. Definitely not.

  As friends. Colleagues.

  I do a happy dance inside my head. I don’t care what the label is. I get to spend an entire weekend with Devon Wilkens. And I’m going to make the most of it.

  Devon

  “And then my ex wanted his car back, so poor Jade had to invest in a new vehicle.” Paris waves her hand in the air. “My ex was a dick. Still is. He may have gone to Harvard, but that doesn’t make him smart.”

  We’ve finished lunch and are standing outside on the hotel grounds. I’m dying to talk to Jade alone, but I don’t want to take her away from her friends.

  But then California says she’s going to take a nap, and London joins her. Caleb and Paris leave soon after to “sleep off their jetlag” before the rehearsal dinner, and Jade and I are alone.

  “Are you tired?” I ask her, praying she’ll say no.

  “Not at all,” she says. “You and I are the lucky ones, right? We didn’t just fly across the country.”

  “Right.” I know I shouldn’t, but I step closer and brush a wind-blown hair off her face.

  She shivers.

  And I know it’s not because of the breeze.

  Our attraction is clearly mutual, and it’s not one of those things you can ignore. It’s everywhere we are; it’s all around us.

  And we’re not in Los Angeles anymore. We will be again soon enough, but this weekend? We’re just Devon and Jade, two people with insane chemistry who happen to be at the same wedding.

  “Let’s go for a drive.” I take a step backward and wait for her response.

  She shocks the hell out of me when she crowds in so close to me I can smell her raspberry-scented shampoo. “Sounds good.”

  I take us to a low-key beach about fifteen minutes from the hotel. We could have just walked down to the beach fronting the hotel, but then we’d run the risk of bumping into one guest after another who knows one of us. And I want this time to be just us.

  I’ve waited all week to get to know Jade the way I long to, and I don’t want any interruptions. We wander down to the shore and sit down on a blanket I had in the back of my SUV.

  “So you and Paris are college friends?” I confirm.

  “Yes. She, California, and I all went to school together.”

  “Paris said Harvard. So you got there, huh? Good for you.”

  “Thanks.” I sneak a glance over at her, and her cheeks are pink. “I worked so hard to get a scholarship, and I was thrilled to be accepted. I also had to take some financial aid, so I’m still paying those loans off, but it was worth it.”

  “Was Harvard everything you dreamed it would be?”

  “It really was,” she says. “I loved getting out of L.A. for four years, and I made some lifelong friends.”

  But what she said previously is bugging me. “Are you okay financially?” I know it’s none of my business, but I sure as hell know what it’s like to be weighed down by money stress, and I’d like to help her if she’d let me.

  “You know…” She shrugs. “Running my own business has been tough. I love it so much, but honestly, the biggest reason I took the job with the Cougars was for financial reasons.”

  “Really?” I hate hearing the worry in her voice.

  “Yeah. Because I had the scholarship with Harvard, I was doing okay with just the undergrad loans, but when I went for my master’s, it compounded the amount. Obviously.” She chuckles. “I knew it would be hard, and in a few years, I hope to be out from under. It’s tough right now, but I’ll be okay.”

  “Jade, I have a good contract with the Cougars.”

  “No.” She narrows her eyes at me. “Absolutely not. You’ve already done more for me than anyone ever has, Devon.”

  “What about your family?”

  Another chuckle, this one more sarcastic and more tinged with pain. “My mom turns a blind eye to most things to do with me. She had major issues with my dad that carried over to the way she treated me. Melody has a different father.”

  Now it makes more sense. Except for one thing. “I don’t want to pry…”

  “You can ask me, Devon.” She licks her lips, and it’s so distracting, I can’t stop staring at her mouth. “You want to know how I ended up homeless, right?”

  I swallow, realizing how shitty that sounds. “I don’t mean to come off like an asshole.”

  “You could never be an asshole.” Her expression is one of such genuine trust and affection that I feel it in my gut.

  “I guess it’s just…I see you here at a family wedding, and I wonder why no one helped you out.”

  She sighs. “When I was a teenager, my mom sent me to live with my dad up in L.A. He was a wild guy. He spent most of his time on his motorcycle, just driving up and down the road along the ocean. I think if he could have been a dolphin in the ocean, he would have.”

  “Did he take good care of you?”

  “At first. And then, he felt stifled by the responsibility. I was very independent, and I was nearly an adult. But I didn’t have my license when I first moved in with him, so he had to take me everywhere on his bike. He wasn’t used to worrying about anyone other than himself. And he didn’t worry about that too much either, honestly. I didn’t know he’d fallen behind on the rent. He never mentioned it until one day we received an eviction notice. Turned out he hadn’t paid the landlord for ninety days, and he’d ignored every warning letter. I had an after-school job, but it wasn’t close to enough to pay the bills. And once we got evicted, I had to quit. Luckily, I was just a few weeks from graduating, so I got my diploma.”

  “But you were homeless.”

  “Exactly. But we were still together, and my dad promised it would just be temporary. He begged me not to leave and go back to my mom because he didn’t want her to know how low he’d sunk. And my mom didn’t want to hear from me at that time anyway, so I figured I needed to just stay where I was. So he sold off his furniture, and we lived off that bit of money, just scraping by.”

  “How long were you on the streets?”

  “He and I were there together for a month before he bailed one night. Left me in a homeless shelter.”

  Rage moves through me, the kind I’m only used to feeling for my own neglectful foster parents.

  “He left you?”

  She nods. “It was devastating and terrifying, of course, but I get why he did it. He wanted out of the prison he felt like he was in, and the only way he could envision feeling free was to take off on his bike. Without any burdens, including his daughter.”

  “Jade…” I start to argue with her, but she cuts me off.

  “I don’t condone what he did, and I would never do it to anyone, let alone a child. That goes without saying, of course. But, he was desperate. And sometimes, desperate people do stupid things.”

  “You’re a hell of a lot more forgiving of a person than I am.”

  “I didn’t feel this way at the time. I’ve had a lot of years to work on forgiving him. Holding a grudge wasn’t getting me anywhere.”

  I put my arm around her. “How long were you on your own out there?”

  “A few months. The day I me
t you? That was the last day I lived on the streets. With the cash you gave me, I moved into a hostel. And once I started working, again because of you, I never stopped getting a paycheck again.”

  I kiss her temple. “You’re fucking amazing, you know that?”

  “Thank you.” She puts her hand on my leg. “You were like this guardian angel showing up to pull me out of the hole I’d fallen into. I dreamed about meeting you again someday. When you didn’t recognize me, I thought maybe you’d forgotten me.”

  “Never,” I say fiercely. “You looked different. The same, but different. I just couldn’t make the connection in that moment. But once I did, it all clicked. I meant every word I said—I never forgot you either.”

  We lapse into a silence broken only by the waves crashing to shore.

  I mess around with the sand, digging at it with an errant stick. “So I don’t see you for nine years, and now it’s like the universe keeps finding ways for us to run into each other.”

  “Things come in threes, right?” she says. “The restaurant was one; the Cougars was two; and now this wedding is three.”

  And I’ve wanted to touch you every single time.

  “And you’re the best man, huh?”

  “I got lucky,” I say. “I get to walk down the aisle with the sexiest maid of honor.”

  Jade elbows me in the side. “Always a flirt.”

  “I’m dead serious,” I say.

  Now she blushes. And, very pointedly, shifts the subject.

  “How many siblings do you have?” she asks me.

  Family.

  The topic I always steer people away from.

  I don’t like being cryptic with Jade, but I’m not prepared to pour out my backstory right now.

  “Technically, none,” I say. “But Neil and I lived together for a time.”

  She seems to accept that version of the truth, but then she asks me an even harder question. A question I don’t think I’ve been asked since I was drafted, or maybe ever.