As for Jax, his appearance was more complicated. He still looked amazing. But his tux? Not so much.
It wasn't just rumpled either. I gave it a closer look and noticed a tear in the jacket and a smattering of reddish-brown spots on his formerly pristine white shirt.
I felt my eyebrows furrow. "What happened to your tux?"
"Nothing you need to worry about."
I couldn't tell if he was being rude or trying to spare me. I zoomed in on his shirt. "That isn't blood, is it?"
He shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe."
I stared at him. "Maybe? What, you don't know?"
"Forget that," he said. "I want you to know something."
I was still looking at the shirt. Absently, I murmured, "What?"
"Tonight…" His voice grew very quiet. "It wasn't supposed to happen that way."
I looked up to study his face. His eyes were dark and troubled as he added, "I'm sorry."
Now, I felt almost guilty. Yes, it was true that he'd abandoned me at a party where I didn't know a soul. And ithadtotally sucked. But I was only here at all because he'd rescued me from a different sucky situation.
I sighed. "Don't be sorry. Probably, I shouldn't have been here in the first place."
But already, he was shaking his head. "You're wrong. It was me. I shouldn't've left."
I just had to ask, "So, where'd you go anyway? Was there a fire or something?"
He grew very still. "What makes you say that?"
"When I ran into you, I thought I smelled smoke." My nose wrinkled. "And I think I still smell it."
He glanced down at his tux. "Yeah, well, it's been one of those nights."
"What happened?"
"Nothing. Just family stuff."
And I thoughtmyfamily stuff was weird. I asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"
He smiled. "Hell no. What Iwantis to make it up to you."
I shook my head. "There's nothing to make up. But you said you left me a message? What was it?"
"It was just letting you know I'd be late." He gave a humorless laugh. "Anda reminder for you not to go anywhere."
I tried to smile. "Not even to the beach?"
His gaze met mine. "That shouldn't have happened."
I didn't know what to say, mostly because I wasn't sure whatshould'vehappened. I'd spent the whole night in limbo – not just because I'd been waiting for Jax, but also, because I had nowhere else to go.
I'd been trying not to obsess over it, but now, in the quiet of the house –hishouse, apparently – I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
What now?
Earlier, he'd offered me a thousand dollars to pretend to be his girlfriend. Maybe I should've jumped at the money. But I wasn'tthatclueless. By now, I was nearly certain that the whole thing had been a ruse for my sake.
