Jasper’s jaw ticked.
“Didn’t think so.” I declined the call and returned it to my pocket. Before I spoke to anyone, I needed to think of what to say. “Oh my God. My parents.”
Mom and Dad were going to kill me.
My hands dove into my hair, pulling hard at the strands.
“Eloise—”
“We were so close to having this behind us.” My voice was practically a shriek. “So freaking close. We just need the annulment and—”
“We’re not going to get it.”
Now he sounded like my attorney. “We might.”
“We won’t. Which means we’re looking at a divorce.”
Divorce. My insides twisted. My lawyer had warned me about this. She’d said it would be easier if we just got divorced, if we didn’t even bother asking for an annulment because they were so tricky to obtain.
But I didn’t want a divorce. I wanted this marriage gone. Erased.
I wanted it to be like it had never happened.
I wanted it to be my secret.
Forever.
That was the real reason I hadn’t told my family. Because I’d let myself hope for the annulment. I’d convinced myself that I could make Jasper agree to keep this secret permanent. Then no one would ever have to know. Not my parents. Not my siblings. No one.
Stupid Eloise.
Another stupid idea.
I should have told them. Now it was too late.
Jasper had done it first.
The lump in my throat began to close, but I managed to croak out a single word. “Why?”
He checked over his shoulder, taking in the sidewalk, making sure no one was close enough to hear. “Lyla has a crush on me.”
I blinked, leaning in closer because I couldn’t have heard him right. “Say that again.”
“Lyla. Your sister.”
“Yes, I’m aware that Lyla is my sister,” I deadpanned.
“Apparently she’s got a thing for me.”
“No, she doesn’t.” Did she?
Lyla hadn’t mentioned it. Though we’d both been busy lately and hadn’t spent a lot of time alone together. In the past month, I’d only seen her at Mom and Dad’s, when we’d all met at the ranch for a family dinner. The house had been noisy and chaotic. Not exactly the best time for sisters to gab about their crushes. But still, she would have hinted, right?
“How do you know? Did she ask you out or something?” My head began to spin. “Do you . . . do you like her too? Wait. Was that why you told Foster and Talia? Because you want to date Lyla? Does she know we got married too?”
I’d run from the coffee shop so fast that I hadn’t even thought about Lyla.
“Oh my God. You want to date my sister. And we’re married.” I swayed on my feet, about to double over and vomit on his boots.
But Jasper’s arms were there, wrapping around me, holding me steady. “Breathe.”
My lungs wouldn’t work. My stomach was doing cartwheels.
This was happening too fast. Nothing was going according to plan. Jasper was . . . mine.
He wasn’t mine but he was mine. Sort of.
How was I ever going to face him if he fell in love with Lyla? How was I going to forget that he’d given me the best orgasms of my life? How was I going to see them together, knowing what it felt like to have him inside my body?
“Breathe, angel.” Jasper’s voice, low and smooth, sounded in my ear.
“I can’t.” My chest heaved. The world tilted sideways. Was this an anxiety attack?
Yep, I was going to puke.
One moment I was swaying on my feet, the next, they were swept out from beneath me.
Jasper cradled my body, holding me against his chest as he walked.
I stiffened, opening my eyes because I wasn’t ready to go back to the coffee shop. To face my sisters.
But Jasper walked toward the street, carrying me to his Yukon.
With a pop, the passenger door opened and he set me on the black leather seat. He closed me inside, then rounded the hood, climbing behind the wheel and starting the engine. With a quick glance in his mirrors, he reversed away from the curb and headed down Main.
He hit a button on the console. My seat warmers. Then he turned up the temperature, glancing over with his eyebrows furrowed.
How did he know I was cold?
Oh, right. I was shaking. Was it the cold? Or was it sheer panic?
I didn’t ask where we were going. I didn’t care. I just closed my eyes, waiting until the warmth seeped into my skin and the trembling in my fingers stopped.
The SUV slowed before Jasper took a corner. Then the whirl of the tires changed to a crunch as we turned off the pavement and onto a gravel road. I cracked my eyes as a street sign flew by.
Alderson Road. He was taking me to the A-frame.
Strange, how I’d only been there once, but the idea of that cabin soothed some of my worries. And this conversation, no matter the outcome, would be best had in private.
“Sorry,” I whispered. “For freaking out.”
“My fault.” Jasper shifted, his wrist draped over the wheel. “Better?”
I nodded. “Getting there.”
The drive down the gravel road settled more of my nerves. The rumble of the wheels, the bounce and jostle you didn’t have on asphalt. It reminded me of the ranch, of the countless hours I’d spent riding shotgun with Dad as he’d checked pasture fences or counted cattle.
My queasy stomach and clammy palms were gone by the time we reached the A-frame. My knees wobbled, just slightly, as I hopped out of the Yukon and followed Jasper inside, where I was greeted by the scent of a wood fire and Jasper’s cologne.
“What happened to your dining room table?” I asked. Instead of the round oak table that had been here the last time I’d visited, there was a black folding card table with four matching chairs.
“I bought this place.” He tossed his keys on the small kitchen island. “I called the owners a few weeks ago to ask if I could extend my rental. They were wanting to sell the place. So I bought it. Most of the furnishings too. But they wanted the table.”
“You bought this?” Did that mean he was staying in Quincy? Even after the annulment?
My head started to spin again, so I walked to the card table, sinking into one of the folding chairs.
“I’m sorry,” Jasper said. “I’m sorry I told them.”
“Who knows?”
“Just Foster and Talia. It happened a minute before you came in.”
I swallowed hard. “And Lyla?”
He blew out a long breath, leaning against the island. “I’m guessing Talia will tell her.”
“But you didn’t?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t know she felt that way.”
My heart began to race. “And do you? Feel that way about her?”
“No.”
Relief crashed through my bones, my muscles sagging. Maybe it was silly, feeling this claim on Jasper. Okay, it was definitely silly. We were former lovers and soon-to-be former spouses. But still, the idea of him with Lyla made me want to scream.
“I’ll have to tell Lyla,” I said. “If Talia didn’t already.”
My phone vibrated in my coat pocket again. I didn’t want to check to see who was calling this time. I was too scared to see Mom or Dad on the screen.