Read Online Alone With You by Shannon Stacey - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Shannon Stacey
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Day with me. Then I expected to take a trip south to see you. I expected we’d figure it out as we went along. And I expected to be more of a priority than watering your fucking flowers.”
“Jake.”
“It’s been a pleasure working with you. Thanks for the help.”
CHAPTER SIX
A ND , JUST LIKE THAT , they were done. Darcy watched him walk away, her heart breaking and her mind spinning, scrambling to come up with anything to say that might bring him back.
There was nothing. Maybe because she couldn’t quite figure out how it went so horribly wrong so fast.
Afraid she was going to come undone in front of the kitchen staff, she grabbed her coat off the hook and went up to the apartment, replaying the conversation over and over in her mind.
Maybe she hadn’t expressed herself well. Maybe he’d overreacted. Maybe it was a little of both, but there was no maybe about the fact that they were over. He’d been so cold at the end, his body language totally unforgiving.
She cried for an hour, drenching her pillow in her effort to be quiet in case Jake came upstairs. She never heard him, so either he was very quiet or he stayed downstairs until after she’d cried herself to sleep.
He was gone before she woke up, and she spent the morning packing her car. When the cooks and Karen showed up to start prepping and there was still no sign of Jake’s truck, she said her goodbyes, wished them all luck and hit the road.
It felt as if she were leaving her heart behind. The drive seemed endless as she fought to keep her emotions under control. She’d been right all along. The pain was too much to bear and she should have walked away the day she got there.
She gave herself twenty-four hours to wallow in heartbreak and then she showered, dressed and drove to Jasper’s Bar & Grille.
“Darcy!” Paulie was so glad to see her she gave everybody a round on the house.
The other woman had barely gotten her arms around Darcy for a welcome-home hug before she started sobbing on her shoulder.
“Shit. Office. Let’s go.”
She let Paulie lead her there like a little kid and push her into a chair. Once the door was closed, Paulie got comfortable in Kevin’s chair. “Okay, spill.”
So she spilled. The entire story, from meeting at trivia night to finding out Jake and J.P. were one and the same to the horrible end of the story the night Jasper’s Pub opened. By the time she was finished, she was pretty much cried out, which was good because she’d decimated the box of tissues Kevin kept on his desk.
“You know I love you,” Paulie said. “You also know I’m not good at the whole girl-talk thing, so I’m going to be straight with you. You’re both idiots.”
That surprised a laugh out of Darcy, and she knew she’d come to the right shoulder to cry on. “How did we screw it up so badly?”
“He’s a man and you’re a woman. Trust me, that comes naturally.” Paulie grabbed a bottle of water out of the mini fridge and handed it to her. “Obviously Valentine’s Day’s a big deal for him.”
“It’s a big deal for the pub, yes.”
“And he wanted you to be there with him and you told him you’d see if you could fit it in?”
“He wanted me to be there for the pub. That’s work.”
“Are you sure? It’s the most romantic holiday of the year, and you guys are supposed to be doing the falling-in-love thing, so what do you think it says to him that you don’t really care one way or the other if you spend it with him?”
Darcy picked at the label on the water bottle. “He kept saying I’d worked too hard to miss being there. Why didn’t he tell me he loves me and he wants me to be there with him?”
“I don’t know. Because he’s a guy?”
“Then tell me, Dr. Paulie, why wasn’t it more important to me to spend the most romantic night of the year with him?”
“I don’t know. The female mind is a screwed-up thing. Men are easier.”
“Great.” She drank some of the water just because Paulie
“Jake.”
“It’s been a pleasure working with you. Thanks for the help.”
CHAPTER SIX
A ND , JUST LIKE THAT , they were done. Darcy watched him walk away, her heart breaking and her mind spinning, scrambling to come up with anything to say that might bring him back.
There was nothing. Maybe because she couldn’t quite figure out how it went so horribly wrong so fast.
Afraid she was going to come undone in front of the kitchen staff, she grabbed her coat off the hook and went up to the apartment, replaying the conversation over and over in her mind.
Maybe she hadn’t expressed herself well. Maybe he’d overreacted. Maybe it was a little of both, but there was no maybe about the fact that they were over. He’d been so cold at the end, his body language totally unforgiving.
She cried for an hour, drenching her pillow in her effort to be quiet in case Jake came upstairs. She never heard him, so either he was very quiet or he stayed downstairs until after she’d cried herself to sleep.
He was gone before she woke up, and she spent the morning packing her car. When the cooks and Karen showed up to start prepping and there was still no sign of Jake’s truck, she said her goodbyes, wished them all luck and hit the road.
It felt as if she were leaving her heart behind. The drive seemed endless as she fought to keep her emotions under control. She’d been right all along. The pain was too much to bear and she should have walked away the day she got there.
She gave herself twenty-four hours to wallow in heartbreak and then she showered, dressed and drove to Jasper’s Bar & Grille.
“Darcy!” Paulie was so glad to see her she gave everybody a round on the house.
The other woman had barely gotten her arms around Darcy for a welcome-home hug before she started sobbing on her shoulder.
“Shit. Office. Let’s go.”
She let Paulie lead her there like a little kid and push her into a chair. Once the door was closed, Paulie got comfortable in Kevin’s chair. “Okay, spill.”
So she spilled. The entire story, from meeting at trivia night to finding out Jake and J.P. were one and the same to the horrible end of the story the night Jasper’s Pub opened. By the time she was finished, she was pretty much cried out, which was good because she’d decimated the box of tissues Kevin kept on his desk.
“You know I love you,” Paulie said. “You also know I’m not good at the whole girl-talk thing, so I’m going to be straight with you. You’re both idiots.”
That surprised a laugh out of Darcy, and she knew she’d come to the right shoulder to cry on. “How did we screw it up so badly?”
“He’s a man and you’re a woman. Trust me, that comes naturally.” Paulie grabbed a bottle of water out of the mini fridge and handed it to her. “Obviously Valentine’s Day’s a big deal for him.”
“It’s a big deal for the pub, yes.”
“And he wanted you to be there with him and you told him you’d see if you could fit it in?”
“He wanted me to be there for the pub. That’s work.”
“Are you sure? It’s the most romantic holiday of the year, and you guys are supposed to be doing the falling-in-love thing, so what do you think it says to him that you don’t really care one way or the other if you spend it with him?”
Darcy picked at the label on the water bottle. “He kept saying I’d worked too hard to miss being there. Why didn’t he tell me he loves me and he wants me to be there with him?”
“I don’t know. Because he’s a guy?”
“Then tell me, Dr. Paulie, why wasn’t it more important to me to spend the most romantic night of the year with him?”
“I don’t know. The female mind is a screwed-up thing. Men are easier.”
“Great.” She drank some of the water just because Paulie
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