I’ve never felt so safe or so at home as I do in this instant. I tilt my head up to meet his eye again and he moves his mouth to meet mine. I trail my fingers along his jaw, feeling the rough stubble as our lips crush together. He holds me closer than I’ve ever been held, and I feel more connected to him right now than I have to anyone else.
I don’t think I knew the meaning of making love until today. I don’t think I even imagined it was any different from regular sex.
Now I know.
It’s more than different - it’s a completely new experience. Every touch, however gentle, feels electric. Ever look feels like it’s a physical touch, and every noise sends vibrations through my body. It’s less like sex and more like a dance that our bodies instinctively know. Our limbs are intertwined and our lips find each other so that every kiss is more tender than the last.
We make love by the river, in the one place in this town that I’ve always felt safe. We make love with the blue skies overhead and the birds singing in the trees, and the cleansing water rushing past beside us. We make love and nothing in this world matters more than the man in my arms and the beating of my heart in my chest.
When it’s over, we lie in the grassy clearing, staring at the clouds as they change shape and take a deep breath and sigh. Owen squeezes his arm around me and I smile. We don’t speak, because we don’t have to. It’s like our bodies have a language of their own, and every touch tells a million stories.
The clouds puff and shift in the sky and the birds keep singing. The water keeps flowing and the two of us lie there in silence, perfectly content. This must be what happiness feels like.
Chapter 32 - Owen
We walk back, hand in hand. We turn towards her grandmother’s house and my chest tightens. I won’t see her tonight, or the next night, or for countless nights after that until she’s back for Sam’s wedding.
“I might be able to come to New York to see you. Two months seems like a long time,” I say as we walk under the shady trees.
Jess turns to me and smiles. “That would be nice.”
My heart does a backflip and I smile. She wants to see me again! We step out of the forest onto the edge of town and Jess squeezes my hand. I glance at her and hold our interlocked fingers up.
“You’re holding my hand in public,” I say slowly. “Aren’t you worried about someone seeing us?”
“Fuck ‘em,” she says with a grin. We both start laughing and I squeeze her hand a bit tighter.
“Yeah,” I say softly. “Fuck ‘em.”
I don’t understand what’s going on inside me. I know I’m sad that she’s leaving, but it’s way more intense than I’d expect. I only just met her! I wish we’d had more time to get to know each other. She’s just opened up to me, and given me a glimpse of who she really is. We’re only just exploring each other’s bodies and still making each other laugh all the time.
I’m on a high, and she’s leaving.
“You sure you don’t want to stay just a couple days longer?” I ask, glancing over at her. She smiles and looks up at me. There’s something in her eyes that I can’t place.
“Tempting,” she says. I can’t tell if she’s being sarcastic or not so I say nothing. She smiles again, a bit more sadly this time. “I have to go back to work. I wish I could stay. Actually, I wish you could come with me,” she laughs. “That would be the best option.”
I would if I could.
“Can I come visit you?” My voice sounds insecure and thin, even to my ears. I steal a glance at Jess’s face and she squeezes my hand. I can hardly hear her when she speaks.
“I’d like that,” she says. She turns her head and smiles at me again. This time her smile travels all the way up to her eyes. Her cheeks start to flush and her eyes look almost misty. “I’d like that a lot.”
“Done,” I say. She smiles again and turns her head forward. We’re rounding the last corner to her grandmother’s house. Both of us are walking impossibly slowly. I want to savour every single second that we have together, and the inevitable goodbye is looming closer with every step.
Jess holds my hand a bit tighter as we get closer to the house. It feels like there’s a hand gripping my throat, stopping me from swallowing. My vision starts to blur and I quickly blink to clear my eyes.
Finally, we get to those familiar flagstones and walk up to her grandmother’s porch. Jess steps onto the first step and I pause. She turns towards me and puts her hands on my shoulders. With her standing on the step, we’re exactly eye to eye. She smiles at me and runs her fingers along my shoulders and back to the nape of my neck. I feel her interlace her fingers behind me as I slide my hands onto her waist.
“This was a surprisingly pleasant visit,” she says. “I never thought I’d meet someone like you here.”
“And I never thought I’d meet someone like you… anywhere, really. Especially not here.”
Jess laughs and my heart starts to crack. I love the way the laughter makes her shoulders bounce up and down and how she tilts her head back and laughs as if no one is watching. I chuckle with her, I can’t help it.
“You’re so different from other girls,” I say.
Jess shakes her head and smiles at me. “No I’m not,” she replies. “I’m not different or special or anything. You and I just happened to click. We get along, and we found each other in this crazy town. That’s what’s special, not me or you.”
“Are you saying I’m not special,” I answer as the corner of my lip starts to lift upwards.
She grins. “Not even a little bit.”
Before I can answer, her lips are on mine and I get to taste her kiss for the last time today. I pull her waist towards me and crush my lips against hers. She tangles her fingers into my hair and presses her body against me. My cock throbs in my pants and I wish she wasn’t leaving, not yet.
She pulls away from me and laughs. “Well if no one saw us holding hands, they definitely saw that.”
“Fuck ‘em,” I say with a smile. “Isn’t that what you said?”
“I did say that,” she concedes. “And I stand by it.”
She leans forward and lays one last soft kiss on my lips before pulling away. Her hands drag off my shoulders and fall to her sides as she turns slowly and walks up the steps. She opens the door and glances at me one last time. She smiles softly.
“See you soon,” she says.
I nod. “See you soon.”
Chapter 33 - Jess
“So are you going to keep seeing him?” Harper asks as she leans across the table. We’re at our favourite brunch spot and I’m staring at my plate full of Belgian waffles, piled high with fresh fruit and whipped cream. Call it comfort eating after a difficult goodbye.
“Yeah, he said he’d come to New York in a couple weeks,” I answer as I cut a sliver of the waffle and poke my fork into it.
“No fucking way,” Rosie says, shaking her head and smirking. “You, the queen of the single life, are smitten.”
I lean back. “Smitten! What!”
Rosie raises an eyebrow and laughs. “I know that look. It’s the same look I had on my face when I met Lucas. It’s the look that says, ‘I’m completely fucked. I’m not getting out of this one in one piece’”
I laugh. “Maybe I am smitten. I have no hope.”
“Not a chance,” Rosie answers with a laugh. “You’re going to end up heartbroken or married. There’s no in between.”
I groan. “Neither of those sound particularly appealing. Can’t we just settle for dating?”
“There’s no in between,” Harper says. She shakes her head and I go back to my waffle. The two of them laugh and I roll my eyes before grinning at them.
“So come on,” Rosie says. “Show us a picture.”
“If you insist,” I laugh as I lunge for my phone. “Let me find a good one.”
Rosie and Harper make the appropriate oohs and ahhs when I flick through his social media pro
file, and both lean back with an approving nod.
Harper takes a bite of her food and chews thoughtfully. “Owen McAllister. Why does that name ring a bell?”
I shrug. “No idea. He used to live in New York, maybe you met him?”
Harper shakes her head and shrugs. “Maybe. It just sounds familiar.”
“Show us another picture, maybe we’ll be able to figure it out,” Rosie says as she wiggles her eyebrows.
We all laugh and I pick up my phone. “If you insist. I don’t mind looking at photos of him all day long.”
“Like I said: smitten.” Rosie looks at me with a smirk on her face and I laugh.
When we leave the restaurant, Rosie gives me a big hug.
“Make sure you introduce him to us when he comes to town,” she says. “I’m happy for you. You deserve to be happy.”
I can’t help but smile. “Thanks Rosie. I will. And even if you don’t meet him I’ll tell you everything so it’ll feel like you’ve already met him.”
“I’m sure you will,” she laughs.
We part ways and I make my way back to my apartment. When the door closes behind me, my phone buzzes. It’s Harper.
I googled him - I knew I recognised the name!
Attached to the text is an article. I read the headline and frown.
Billionaire’s Son Accused of Fraud, Avoids Jail Time
I click the link as my heart drops. I scan the article but I already know what it says. I remember this story from months ago. The city’s biggest real estate investment mogul, Richard McAllister, was accused of fraud. His whole company was investigated and he’s still going through the trial. They’d been turning run-down apartment blocks and businesses for profit, but siphoning money and grossly mis-reporting costs. They used shoddy building techniques to make a quick buck, leaving the new owners to pick up the pieces. They were scammers.
His entire company was investigated, including his second-in-command and eldest son: Owen McAllister.
My hands are shaking. It can’t be him! I read the article again and again and click a related link at the bottom. Within a fraction of a second, Owen’s face appears in front of the courthouse. He’s lifting his hand to cover his face from the cameras but I can still see it. It’s him.
The man that I’ve opened up to, the man that I trusted with my story and my secrets, the man that I just spent the happiest week I’ve ever had is a scumbag.
I sit down on the couch as my phone buzzes again and again. It’s Harper. She’s texting and calling but I don’t have the heart or the energy to pick up right now. I just keep looking at the photo of Owen in front of the courthouse.
He’s a criminal. He’s a fraud.
And now, he’s in my hometown doing the same. fucking. thing. He’s scamming the people I grew up with. He scammed me! No wonder I’m smitten, he’s nothing more than a con man.
The heat starts flowing through my veins as my anger starts to boil. My hands are shaking and I throw my phone across the room. I grab a pillow beside me on the sofa and press it to my face, screaming as loud as I possibly can. The pillow muffles the sound and I take it away from my face, panting.
I take a deep breath and bring the pillow back up, screaming into it with all my lungs before throwing it away. It lands on the coffee table and knocks off a couple magazines. They fall in a heap on the floor and all I can do is sit there and stare at them. My chest is heaving up and down and all I can do is feel the anger as it boils through me.
My emotion is tinged with something else - embarrassment, maybe? Embarrassed that I fell for it, that I fell for his charm and his smiles and his words. Embarrassed that I didn’t question why he’d chosen that small town, that hotel. Embarrassed that I didn’t press him to know why he left.
Embarrassed that I didn’t google his fucking name even once.
Obviously the gossip had some truth to it. He was running away from something. It wasn’t a grizzly murder or a divorce, but it was still a crime.
Chapter 34 - Owen
I’m whistling as I pat the dark earth around the new plants that line the front of the Lexington Hotel. I didn’t even know I was able to whistle, but it just started coming out of me. I stand up and lean against my shovel to admire my handiwork.
I’m proud of this place. It used to be a run-down hotel and now it’s the town’s crown jewel. It feels good to do something like this, to do something real. It might not have the profit margin that my father expected when I worked for him, but at least it’s good, honest hard work.
“Looking good,” comes an overly sweet drawl from behind me. Mary’s standing with her hip cocked to one side, looking me up and down. “The flowers, I mean,” she adds with a smirk.
“Thanks. How’s your husband?” I ask. She looks taken aback but recovers quickly.
“Fiancé,” she corrects. “He’s good.” She sashays past me and goes up the steps. Instead of heading inside, she leans against the railing on the balcony, pressing her chest towards me. I try not to roll my eyes. I’m glad I’m not her fiancé.
“So,” she starts. “You and Jessica Lee, huh?”
“What do you mean,” I ask, sticking the shovel into the ground and turning over the earth I’d just patted down.
“You two are an item now, I guess, aren’t you?”
“What business is that of yours?” I ask, finally glancing up at her again. That smirk is still playing on her lips and she shrugs innocently.
“Oh, it isn’t any of my business. I just thought with you being new in town you might not have the full story.”
I try to ignore her but I can’t help myself. The curiosity needles at me until I have to ask. “What’s the full story?”
Mary waves a hand and turns around to lean against the railing. She swings a leg over so she’s straddling it, looking down at me as her hair swings down on one side of her face. She licks her lips slowly and grins.
“Jessica Lee got into all sorts of trouble. She’s not the kind of girl that a respectable business owner such as yourself should be hanging around with.”
“Everyone has their past,” I answer, driving the shovel back into the ground with a little too much force.
“Well, everyone has a past, but not everyone screws their way into a full scholarship at a top college.”
I can’t help it. My jaw drops open and I look up at Mary. She looks almost triumphant as she nods at me.
“Honest to goodness truth. I don’t blame you for falling for her charms. She’s gotten lots of practice. Even tried it with my fiancé. Before he was my fiancé, obviously.”
I shake my head and pick up the shovel. “I don’t want to hear this. Isn’t your shift already started?”
Mary shrugs and I feel her eyes on me as I walk around the corner towards the back of the hotel. I’m panting. My chest is heaving up and down as I make the short walk to the back. As soon as I’m in the shed, I put the shovel down and lean against the wall. I rub my face in my hands and sigh.
Surely she was lying? She couldn’t be telling the truth? Jess told me that people here like to talk, that they tortured her after she got pregnant. She said they treated her like an outsider until she lost the baby. That’s who Mary is.
It just doesn't sound like something Jess would do. It doesn’t fit with the story she told me by the river. But then again… how did she get into a top college after all that? It sounds almost plausible, if I didn’t know Jess.
I don’t know Jess. I don’t know her at all! I met her two weeks ago! Who am I to tell which story is the truth! She could be playing me, or just using me for sex while she’s here. She’s only called me once since she got back to New York, which was three days ago already!
My breath is heaving now, and my mind is reeling. I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what the truth is. I don’t know who Jess is, or why the thought of her sleeping around with anyone to get what she wants bothers me as much as it does. I don’t
even know if it’s true!
I take a deep breath and shake my head. I need to find out the truth. If I’m going to go all the way to New York to visit her, I want to know that she’s the type of girl that’s worth trusting.
Chapter 35 - Jess
“Jess, you’re like, the social media stalker queen. How did you not realise who he was??” Rosie is shaking her head in disbelief. “His face was all over the news for months!”
“I’m the social media stalker queen, I don’t watch the news!! Two different things,” I protest. “Plus, I showed you pictures and you didn’t recognise him either.”
“True,” she concedes. She purses her lips and keeps bouncing her little boy on her knee.
“Here, hold him, I need to go pee.”
Before I know what’s happening, Rosie thrusts her baby into my arms and stands up, brushing off her thighs.
“Wait, aah,” I say, juggling the little human in my hands. Jack flops back and forth, arms flailing around and giggles as I sit him upright. My heart is thumping and I stare at Rosie, wide-eyed.
“Relax. Just don’t drop him,” Rosie says with a laugh.
“Oh, yeah, ok, sure. Just don’t drop him,” I shoot back at her as she laughs and walks away. The door to the bathroom closes and I can almost hear Rosie sighing with relief. This baby has been tied to her hip ever since he was born, I can only imagine the relief of being alone for even a couple minutes.
I turn Jack to look at me, holding his chubby little body between my hands. He looks at me curiously, chewing on his fingers. His bright blue eyes are staring at me intently.
“What are you looking at,” I say under my breath. “Don’t tell me you’re judging me as well. I swear I didn’t know who he was!”
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