Aubrey might have been in shock. Her mouth opened to say something but nothing came out.
I nodded to her plopping down in the chair and gave her a moment to digest the situation while I scoped out the little café.
The barista had put a bell on the counter in case someone stopped in for coffee and then disappeared behind the coffee bar’s door midway through our conversation. I’d read her like a book while she did it. I knew she’d just given the illusion of privacy because her eyes had widened as Aubrey and I discussed everything. Really, she was probably listening right behind that door.
The woman cared about Aubrey too much to not listen. I didn’t know how close the two of them were, but there was something unspoken that passed between them when I got here. From that, I was sure the barista wouldn’t sell my location in the next few minutes.
For that very reason, I liked the eclectic little café. It made my life easier and that was what I cared about most. Selfish bastard that I was.
I didn’t even know if this was the right place to launch my app.
Sure, it was a soft launch and wouldn’t matter too much. Isabel pitched it that way and I knew she usually didn’t steer me wrong.
Mostly I was here for her and to finish what I’d started with Frank.
Fuck. I was losing it if I was basing decisions off them.
I prided myself on putting my work first. I’d gone down the road of putting emotions above all else with my music, but I’d hung that hat up.
I studied her while she studied me back quietly. One thing we hadn’t lost after all that time was our silence. Most people would fold under the awkwardness of it, give in to social practices and offer up small talk. With anyone else, Aubrey would have done that. She had etiquette pounded into her from birth.
She would have been a perfect nature-versus-nurture experiment though. Her eyes were wild and rebellious always. The etiquette and formalities locked her up most of the time, but they had to stomp out a shit ton of wildfires, especially with me around.
Sitting with her, watching her wrestle out the formalities only to meet me with silence, felt fucking good.
Like I was playing with fire and for once, I wasn’t winning.
Her gaze woke me up. Made me feel more alive than I had in years. She was meeting me head-on while wrestling with her own thoughts. I saw the wheels turning, saw her starting to plan and make sense of the situation. I just couldn’t see the plan.
“Look, besides me and you figuring out our shit,” I said, trying to ease into the conversation. “Jay’s got a lot going on right now.”
“I know that,” she snapped. “You think I don’t know that?”
“All right.” Different approach. “He’s flying out soon, and I think us being cordial is better than putting more on his plate right now. He doesn’t need to feel guilty about not having enough time—”
“How do you know he feels guilty?”
Good. We were getting somewhere.
“He starts to talk about you and then looks guilty, like he can’t talk about you to me. Then says he should call you, then looks all fucked in the head.”
She sighed and looked down at the table. “He doesn’t need to worry about me.”
“Of course, he doesn’t need to worry about you.”
She held up a finger. “Okay, to be fair, friends worry about friends, but …”
“But he worries an exorbitant amount. If I didn’t know both of you, I’d think he was fucking you.”
“Excuse me?”
“Let’s save that conversation for another day.”
“Let’s save it for never.”
I shook my head, tabling her attitude and getting back to the real matter. “He can’t worry about that this summer. If he can’t concentrate on acting in this new movie …”
“He’ll concentrate on that movie. Jay might play hard—”
I finished for her. “But he also works hard. I know, Whitfield. You don’t have to tell me about my brother. But for his sake, we should make this work.”
She glared at me, brows furrowing. Some part of her wanted to throw it in my face that she knew him better than me and dredge up all the past. She waged a war with herself. I saw her trying not to bring it all up, and I hoped that part of her won. I didn’t want to dive back into that time in my life.
The green in her eyes turned mossy as she sat up straighter. The part of her ready for answers danced with a victory sign in her eyes. “Make what work exactly? Make you being an ass work? You think you can guilt me into making shit work with you for Jay’s sake after all these years?”
I’d trained myself to look unaffected when it came to dealing with people’s emotions face-to-face. It was part of the Stonewood Enterprises business. If someone approached with emotion, you sidelined it with apathy. If someone hit you with more money for a deal, you stayed neutral. Someone could have bled out and begged for their life and I wouldn’t have blinked any type of emotion their way.
For her though, I caved almost every time.
“That mouth of yours is a lot filthier than I remember.”
Some stupid part of me wanted to bend more and talk about just how much I remembered her mouth.
I knew it shouldn’t matter. I wasn’t a part of her life anymore. She’d wiped me out of it like a weed that had terrorized her garden.
“This isn’t a guilt trip, Peaches. It is simply two people agreeing to get along for the benefit of a person they care about. We can work our shit out for him.”
She chewed on her lip, then closed her eyes as she breathed in deep. When her eyes opened again, I saw the mask that Aubrey had created better than even I could. “Jaydon is and always has been the biggest part of my family. I would never jeopardize that, especially not for you. Friends?” Her tone was cold.
I smiled and shook her hand. The shock jackhammered through me so fast I almost jerked back.
Our chemistry should have faded by now. It should have fallen apart when I shattered that little glass house we’d built for ourselves so many years ago.
Yet, it was stronger than ever.
At least for me.
From where I sat, it looked like she hadn’t felt the effect at all.
I didn’t let go of her hand when she started to pull back. “Just friends?”
“What else could we possibly be, Jax?”
“Well, once upon a time, we weren’t just friends.” I shouldn’t have goaded her.
“Once upon a time is for fairy tales, and that’s not what this is.”
“Peaches.” I emphasized the nickname to reprimand her.
“L.P.” She brought that stupid nickname back in the same tone.
“I wonder, do all your friends know how you sound when you’re coming?” The question was a low blow, meant to shake her from that cold, hardened tone she used with me.
Her pupils dilated as she froze, and a flush surfaced on her skin.
Good.
If I couldn’t forget about being with her, I needed to make sure she thought about it too.
She snatched her hand back. “Fuck you, Jax.”
I crossed my arms, wanting to smile at the fact that she was swearing. “Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten that far lately, Peaches.”
“Thank God for that.” She pushed away from the table, making the chair screech. “For someone who never wants to discuss the past, you sure as hell like to bring up specific parts of it.”
I shrugged. “Some parts of the past are better than others.”
“Yeah and some parts remind us just how painful life can be if you aren’t careful.”
“You avoid those parts, Peaches, and you won’t remember how to live.”
Her eyes narrowed, trying to hear all the words I hadn’t said between the ones I had.
I sat back, pulling the tension back away from her and us. “It was just a bad joke, okay?” I hurried on before she could respond. “What’s with this class Jay needs to help you with? You’re smart enough to get by, aren’t you?”
She sighed and let the moment go. “It’s difficult, okay? I’m pretty sure every student left and checked their schedule to make sure they were in the right one. We all could’ve sworn we didn’t sign up for a foreign language study, yet when we walked out of there, no one understood a word of what the professor had said.”
I smiled. “Let’s see the textbook. I’ll help you.”
My smile died abruptly. What the hell was I doing?
“I … you … I really don’t think …” Aubrey stuttered.
“Speechless? Really?” Normally, she could fill any moment with small talk if she needed to. “Get your damn book out, Whitfield. Jay’s not going to have time to help you when he’s in LA anyway.”
“When was the last time you took a class, Jax?” she said with all the sass she could muster while she reached in her bag to pull out her book, laptop, and phone.
“Doesn’t being part owner of Stonewood Enterprises qualify me as a good tutor?” I grabbed her phone to put in my number.
She shrugged like she used to always do when she knew I was right but didn’t want to admit it. “What are you doing with my phone?”
I flashed her the screen. “Now, you have my number. Let me know what times work best for you to study. And we’ll probably have to find a more secluded place than this café.”
We both looked toward the window and then the back room. I was sure Jackie was still listening.
We spent two hours going over material that I’ll admit was as boring as shit.
But I’d be damned if I didn’t enjoy working through it with her.
