“Um…” I honestly hadn’t thought about that part of it. “Definitely not run. Maybe we could jog a little and walk whenever I can’t handle that anymore?” I wasn’t too proud to admit that jogging wasn’t going to go well for me. I never claimed to be athletic, and I didn’t expect today to be the day I suddenly was.
“Sounds like a great plan. No matter what, we want to make sure we slow down when it’s time to get blasted with color. That way, we make sure we get as colorful as possible.”
I studied Jax’s naturally confident stance and the way the sunlight seemed to reflect off of her body as if the sun knew it couldn’t possibly shine brighter than her smile. Even dressed in all white, Jax was the most colorful person out here. Of course I didn’t say any of that out loud. Instead, I just nodded in agreement.
I was proud of myself when we got to the first kilometer marker and I hadn’t stopped to walk yet. Jax held her arm out to stop me when we came to the spot where the colored powder was being thrown. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do, so I watched Jax to see what she did. Of course, she held her armsout wide and twirled around in circles as the colors rained down on her. When she caught me watching her, she reached out her hand to me and twirled me around with her. Watching Jax laugh with me as we spun in a circle with colors all around us was like living out a dream. It was one of those perfect moments that I knew I would look back on over and over again. The perfect moments continued at every single color station. Jax found new ways to make me laugh as we danced around together and became more and more saturated in colors. By the end of the run, my heart seemed to be just as colored as my body. Jax took my hand and held both of ours up as we ran across the finish line together and had more colors added on to our already covered bodies.
I was starting to think this might be one of the best days of my life until I turned around and caught sight of something that made my stomach drop and a knot form in my throat that was so big, it made it hard to breathe.
Less than one-hundred feet away from us, making her way toward the finish line was my ex, Marcie—the girl I once truly believed I would spend the rest of my life with. The girl who ripped my heart out and left me wondering what I had done wrong. Except, I knew exactly what I had done wrong, I wasn’t fun enough for her. I wasn’t exciting enough.I feel like I wasted so many years.Even after all this time, I could still hear those words with such clarity it was as if they had just been said yesterday.
“What’s wrong?” Jax asked.
I had been so caught up in staring at Marcie, I didn’t realize that the whole time, Jax had been staring at me. “My ex is here. Marcie. She’s right over there. I haven’t seen her in years.” I struggled to catch my breath. “I know it probably sounds ridiculous, but I’m kind of freaking out right now. So many of my issues stem back to the fact that I wasn’t good enough forher, and seeing her right now is only making it worse.” My eyes drifted back to her, but this time, it was her eyes that they met. “Shit. I think she saw me. She can’t see me. She’ll realize I’m just as pathetic now as I was back then.”
“Carter.” Jax took my hands and forced me to look at her. “We’re going to address how untrue that is, but first, I want to do something. Do you trust me?”
With the way she was looking at me as though she could see right through my eyes and into my soul, I was pretty sure I trusted her more than anyone else in the whole world. “With my life.”
“Then let’s show that ex of yours exactly what she gave up.” Jax pushed a piece of hair behind my ear, then placed her hand on my cheek.
My breath caught in my throat when I realized what she was doing. She was going to kiss me. Jax Michaels was about to kiss me.
I honestly wasn’t sure who leaned in first, but our mouths slowly came closer and closer together until our lips met and fireworks erupted throughout my body. Kissing Jax was like feeling the hot sun on your skin for the first time after a long winter. It was so easy and natural, but also all-consuming and heavy. Without thinking about it, I opened my mouth to hers and moaned when her tongue touched mine. I could have stayed lost in that kiss for the rest of my life, but all too soon, Jax pulled away from me.
I touched my lips as I stared into Jax’s eyes. For the first time ever, I didn’t want to look away. I wanted to be swept away by Jax’s steady gaze. “Wow… I…”
Jax nodded as if she felt it all too. Her eyes darted to the side before latching on to mine once again. Her lips twitched into a smirk, and she leaned in close until those lips were by my ear. “I think it worked.”
Wait. What?I had been so caught up in what had just happened that I let myself forgetwhyit happened. Jax wasn’t kissing me just to kiss me. She had done it to help me make Marcie jealous.
I looked in the direction of where Jax’s eyes had gone and found Marcie staring right at us, an expression on her face that I couldn’t read, but almost looked like jealousy. When our eyes met, she looked away for a few seconds before looking back at me and giving me a tiny wave. Soon, her legs started to move, and she was getting closer to me.
“Shit. I think she’s coming over here. What should I do?”
Jax grabbed my hand and squeezed it, and I forced myself to ignore how good it felt. “Just follow my lead, okay?”
When Marcie was standing right in front of me, she gave me another, very awkward, wave. “Hey, Carter. It’s been forever. How are you?”
I nodded a bunch of times like a complete idiot before answering. “It has. I’m good.” I cleared my throat. “Great, actually.”
Marcie’s eyes moved from my eyes to my and Jax’s interlocked fingers, then over to Jax. Marcie tilted her head at Jax and studied her face. “Have we met? I feel like I know you.”
Jax held her hand that wasn’t holding mine out toward Marcie. “Jax Michaels. You probably remember me as Olivia’s best friend and roommate, but now I’m also Carter’s girlfriend.”
Girlfriend.I obviously knew it was all a lie, but hearing Jax call herself my girlfriend felt way too good.
Marcie accepted Jax’s handshake but quickly dropped her hand. “Oh… Yeah… Jax. It’s great to see you again.” The words she was saying didn’t match the tone of her voice. If I wasn’t so overwhelmed by that kiss, I would have been happy since it seemed to have worked. I wasn’t sure if Marcie was jealous, but she was at least rattled. She pointed her thumbbehind her to nothing in particular. “I should probably get back to my friends, but it was great to see you, Carter. You look good. Really good. Happy.”
“It was great to see you too, Marcie.” The problem was the great part of seeing Marcie was finding that I’m clearly over her, but that was because I had feelings for someone else.
Shit.I had feelings for Jax. Real feelings. An actual crush. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t deny that to myself at this point. All I could do was try to get rid of it since she clearly didn’t feel the same.
Jax put her arm around me and leaned her head against mine. “That was great. She wassojealous. And after how many years? Five? Six? You must have made quite the impact on her.”
When Jax noticed I wasn’t laughing with her, she turned toward me and moved her hands to rest on my arms. Her face was serious as she stared into my eyes. “Hey, about all of those things you said… it’s not true. Youaregood enough for Marcie. You were back then, and you still are now. The breakup wasn’t your fault. She’s the idiot who lost the best thing that ever could have happened to her. Andyouarenotpathetic. You’re a human with very real feelings that were hurt immensely when you lost the one person you thought you never would.”
Her words made me want to either cry or kiss her, but I knew I couldn’t do either. I leaned in and placed a kiss on her cheek because it seemed like the safe (and friendly) thing to do. “Thank you.”
