Eversea: Forever, Jack Part 8

There were no ball caps and hoodies tonight. Jack was in a dark grey t-s.h.i.+rt snug across his muscled chest, his hair flopped down over his brow. His green eyes, set into the angular planes of his face, were creased with laughter. Why, oh why, did he have to get s.e.xier every time I saw him?

The room was abuzz around them.

The mom of a family of four, holding a pen, tapped Jack on his shoulder.

He turned toward her, his smile warm and open, and signed her paper with his beautiful long fingered hands. Then he hopped off his stool as she shoved her smartphone at her nonplussed husband and practically climbed into Jack's arms for a picture.

I clenched my jaw.

Jack shook hands with the husband, grinning, clapping him on the shoulder. No hard feelings.

Trying to reconcile the shattered looking Jack from my kitchen in the early hours of this morning with the smiling, carefree, well-rested, made-for-movies looking one in front of me, I stood staring like an idiot. Jack turned to sit back down, and his emerald eyes found mine and locked onto them like he knew I'd been there all along.

My pulse seemed to take one wild beat, and then stop in my throat.

His gaze glided down my dress and back up to my face. Then his lids flickered down half-mast, and he slid his eyes lazily away from me, dragging my heart along for the ride.

"There she is! Keri Ann." Paulie's voice shocked me into action like a defibrillator. "Look who we've got in tonight. These boys have got this place jumpin'."

Paulie slapped his hand on the bar. "Glad you could make it. Finally." He raised his bushy white eyebrows as I headed toward him. "What are you wearing?"

"Sorry, Paulie. I was at an appointment in Savannah that ... ran long." I deliberately didn't answer his embarra.s.sing question.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jack's hand tense imperceptibly around his drink. Good. I hoped he thought I was in Savannah with Colt. And I hoped I was glowing. How dare he come in to the Snapper Grill when I'd asked him to leave me alone? And what was that look he just gave me? That wasn't playing fair.

"No matter, sweetheart, you're here now. Brenda's been doin' a great job, but if it keeps up like this with word gettin' out about these two being here, it'll be a flat out sprint within the hour."

"Sorry, Paulie," Devon shrugged. "We can always pitch in, if you need it. I mix a mean drink."

"Ha!" Paulie hooted loudly. "I may hold you to it, boy! But I've got two more guys coming in to help in the kitchen so we should be good."

"I'll go check in with Brenda and help her with tables tonight, if that's okay, so you can entertain our esteemed guests at the bar," I offered Paulie, willingly giving up bar duty. I then turned to Devon, pointedly ignoring Jack. "Good to see you again, Devon."

He raised two fingers to his brow, saluting me. "You too, Keri Ann. You're looking beautiful this evening. Did you have a date today or something?" he asked in a tone I just knew jabbed Jack on purpose.

My skin flushed warm. "Or something," I managed, but joined his game by c.o.c.king my eyebrow and adding a world of innuendo to my simple answer.

"f.u.c.k you, Devon," I heard Jack hiss at his friend, though his lips barely moved.

Devon smiled and winked at me.

I found Brenda and took over half of her tables. As predicted, the evening was long and busy as word got out about our celebrity guests. It was probably the most exciting thing to happen to Butler Cove residents since they built a new bridge onto the island.

But I found it increasingly confusing.

I thought Jack didn't like people knowing where he was. If he felt like Butler Cove was a place he could escape to, why was he letting the whole world know where he was?

Unless he wasn't planning on staying very long.

My chest felt lined with lead. He'd told Colt he was staying indefinitely, but that was before I told him to leave me alone. I wanted that, right?

I waffled between being upset he'd blatantly ignored my request, and by extension, admitting he didn't mean what he'd told me, and being steeped in disappointment that this clearly meant he was leaving Butler Cove and leaving me alone.

Over the course of the evening, he must have had his picture taken with at least thirty people. Women.

I tried not to pay attention, but the weight of Jack's presence in the room was hard to ignore. The tension needled across my skin and deep into my belly, getting stronger by the second. I was running on adrenaline, counting the seconds until I could escape.

Clearly having heard the buzz, a group of female students from USC Beaufort came in half an hour before closing in a gaggle of long tanned limbs, lip gloss, and short skirts. I recognized one of them as a friend of Jazz's. We exchanged a few pleasantries as I pointed out where they could sit and tried not to roll my eyes at Brenda.

There may have even been glitter. Seriously.

As they pa.s.sed the bar, they invited Jack and Devon to join them in their booth.

Which the guys did.

What the h.e.l.l?

I let out a long breath and asked Brenda to handle their drink orders. Heading to the kitchen, I smacked the door open with my palm.

The girls were giggly and ridiculous as they fawned all over Jack and Devon for the next interminably long time. Jazz's friend, her name was Ashley, I remembered now, had gorgeous long blonde hair, and she slung her arm around Jack's shoulder as she snuggled up to him.

"Quite a spectacle isn't it?" Brenda said next to me sometime later.

I realized I was staring and quickly looked away. "Yep, unreal."

"Rumor has it you two had a thing," Brenda said curiously. "I didn't even know he'd been to Butler Cove before, but I guess it makes sense with his friend having a place here. Is it true?"

I sighed. What did it hurt to tell anyone now? "Yeah. Had."

"Wow." Brenda looked impressed. "Not that I didn't think you could attract a hottie like that ... but I didn't expect you to be attracted to someone with that kind of career."

I let out a half chuckle with none of the amus.e.m.e.nt one would expect. "Me neither, but ..." I looked over at Jack who moved his mouth over to Ashley's ear. What the h.e.l.l? I couldn't handle this. Watching him was making my insides churn. I knew what she was probably feeling right now-a little s.h.i.+very with hormones racing up and down her body. "I thought for a while he was a different person. Anyway," I tried brightly, "looks like he's moving on though, huh?"

To see him tte-a-tte like that was an eerily familiar sight from the tabloids over the last few months. My skin heated. What was it with him and blondes?

"Honey, if you only knew the way his eyes track you all over this restaurant ..." Brenda sighed. "You may have moved on, but this boy, this famous, gorgeous man who can have anyone, anywhere with a crook of his finger, is all about you."

Swallowing, I involuntarily flicked my eyes back to Jack, whose eyes were indeed on me. Yes, I'd felt them all night long. I wished there was some way to translate what was going on in his head. Why his eyes were saying one thing, and his actions another? It was dizzying, and I hated it. Thank goodness the night was almost done.

Soon, the rest of the restaurant had cleared out, and it was just Jack's table left. Sheriff Graves had stopped by to make sure people weren't loitering outside the entrance, and as it was well past closing, to nudge Paulie to close up.

Blonde Ashley picked up her phone and did a selfie of her and Jack, unaware he wasn't looking at her camera, but at me. Still. I was beginning to feel a little like prey on the forest floor at night.

"Case in point," said Brenda as we pa.s.sed by each other again. "Do you think you could leave some available men around for the rest of us?"

I nodded but was unable to look away from Jack. His eyes looked black from here. If he'd been pretending not to track my every move earlier, he wasn't hiding it anymore.

"Colton Graves is available," I answered Brenda. "We broke up today. If we were even technically dating."

Jack's eyes flicked to my mouth as I spoke. There was no way he could lip read from there. And frankly it felt like he was touching my lips not reading them. I licked them without thinking, and his gaze narrowed.

"Good to know, good to know," murmured Brenda next to me. "I'll ... um ... leave you to molest each other with your eyes then."

Her words registered. Pulling my gaze from Jack's was like trying to break a piece of salt.w.a.ter taffy. I shook my head and headed to the bar. "Paulie, how soon do you think we can get these folks out of here so we can lock up?"

"I don't think the guys are gonna make a clean get away. If they want to ditch these girls, I'll need you to take 'em out the back and give 'em a ride home, okay?"

"What? No, Brenda can do that," I said, panicking.

Brenda pa.s.sed by again, her hands full of plates. "Sorry, hon, I could kick myself, but I walked. No-can-do."

"Paulie," I pleaded, grasping at straws. "If they walked here, they can walk home. Can't they? Or you take them, I'll lock up. And maybe they don't want to ditch those girls."

"I really 'preciate that Keri Ann, and you know I trust you with locking up, but I want to make sure those girls go on home and safely. I don't want none of them hanging around here and causing trouble when they realize them boys've gone. 'Sides, the guys already asked me for help in leavin'. We need to give 'em a quick getaway, not send 'em home on foot so they can be followed."

A loud cackle stood out from the round of laughter at the table.

Paulie lifted a hand and signaled to Devon, who nodded at Jack, and they both excused themselves from the table.

I tensed.

"Aw!" said the girl on Ashley's other side. "You guys gotta go to the restroom in pairs? I thought only us gals did that?"

Devon just laughed. "Nah, Jack's gotta go, I'm just going to see Paulie about us maybe staying here with you ladies a little longer." Clearly, he was a practiced hand at extracting himself from these situations.

I exhaled a resigned breath and headed to the kitchen before Jack could catch my eye again. I was about to be alone in a confined s.p.a.ce with him, I didn't need to get any more psyched out. I knew I was beaten. The sooner we got this over with, the better.

I grabbed my bag, and saying a quick goodbye to Hector and the other guys in the kitchen, jogged out the backdoor into the cool spring night to get my truck. It roared to life, and I did a quick turn around and brought it to idle with the pa.s.senger side lined up to the door I'd just exited. One row, three people. Someone was going to be extremely close to me.

I rolled down my window and breathed the sea air, tainted with restaurant refuse, deep into my lungs. Then I closed my eyes and counted slowly, trying to bring my pulse back to some sort of resting rate, and waited.

Devon came out the back door of the restaurant first and ducked to take a quick look inside the truck. Making sure it was me, I guess. He winked, like he was in on some huge secret, then opened the door, stepping aside so Jack could enter first. He hesitated for a split-second before climbing in.

I turned my face and looked stoically out the dark winds.h.i.+eld in front of me, as if every cell of my body and senses weren't attuned to Jack settling his tall frame inches away from where my thigh rested on the seat. My knuckles turned paler on the steering wheel. My skin actually felt hotter on that side of my body.

"Thanks, Keri Ann," Devon said as he got in and slammed the door closed, causing a breeze, laced with Jack, to wash over me.

G.o.d.

I threw the truck in gear and pulled out of the parking lot onto the dark street, the headlights sweeping over the palmettos lining the sidewalk.

Closer To The Edge by Thirty Seconds to Mars came on the truck radio.

"No problem," I croaked. I was weak at the moment. I was tired, and emotionally spent, and totally on edge. And worse? I was aroused. I had been all evening. For some reason, my body hadn't gotten the memo that Jack was not to be involved with me in any way. I'd managed to find the strength that morning to push him away, even as my body had been responding. Responding to the memory of how it felt to be with him, which was far more potent now that it was a real memory, than when it had been just a concept so many months ago. G.o.d, I wanted to shut my mind down, but I needed it to keep my wits about me.

s.h.i.+fting in my seat, I turned down the road to Devon's house.

Jack took a deep breath beside me and leaned his head back against the seat. His hands dropped together between his jean-clad thighs, causing them to spread slightly and b.u.mp against my knee.

I jerked and ground my teeth.

"Sorry," Jack murmured and pulled his leg away again.

I flicked my eyes over to his closed ones and didn't miss the small quirk of his dimple.

Devon was looking at me from across Jack, all innocence, with his brows cinched up and arms folded.

"So, how long are you in town, Devon?" I asked, my voice steady and conversational.

He smiled. "For a while, actually. I'm producing a movie in Savannah that Jack will be starring in, so this should be home for a while."

My heart thudded. I glanced at Jack then back at the road. "That's great. Good for you. Both." So he came back for a movie, not for me. Of-freaking-course, Keri Ann. Seriously, I could be a dumba.s.s sometimes.

And why should that bother me, when I didn't want anything to do with Jack? I glanced back at Devon, ignoring Jack's eyes on me. "Gosh, well, if that means scenes like tonight are going to become the norm, you better find some groupies to take your drunk a.s.ses home. Coz I'm not doing it."

Devon snorted with laughter. "Monica would have my hide."

"We're not drunk," was all Jack said quietly.

I pulled into Devon's driveway, s.h.i.+fting the gearstick into park, and turning down the music. No, no, no, no, I will never forget came the lyrics from the radio. Instantly, I was. .h.i.t with a wave of longing. Longing to go back to the beginning with Jack.

Devon thanked me and opened the door. He climbed out, and after a nod at his cohort, closed it behind him.

I whipped my eyes to face Jack. "What the ..." My words trailed off as Jack leaned in toward me, his scent, his Jack scent that I remembered so well ... pine ... soapy ... clean, surrounded me.

My pulse raced.

The truck's headlights reflected off the white house in front of us, slicing across his eyes, making them glow. A deep green forest floor, sucking me in.

"Jack-"

Our air mingled. Mine were quick shallow breaths un-synched with my starving need for oxygen and reality.

"You think I'm only back because of the movie in Savannah, don't you?"

I licked my lips nervously, and nodded.

Jack's eyes followed the movement.

"I begged," he whispered. "I pleaded, and I sold a little more of my soul to make it happen." His mouth tilted up into a grimace.

"I don't understand why you'd do that, Jack."

"Yes, you do." He leaned closer, and his arm came up to brace on the driver's side door. "Seeing me whisper in that girl's ear tonight bothered you, didn't it?"

"No," I managed.

"Liar. Do you want to know what I was telling her?"