Starstruck by Rachel Schurig

Author:Rachel Schurig [Schurig, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Published: 2015-04-21T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

I wandered the neighborhood for twenty minutes before he showed up. By then, I was freezing, shaking the way I’d been in the garage. I’d asked him to meet me at the park, half a mile from home, and he found me there, sitting on a bench in the dark.

“Sofie!” He was out of the car before I could stand, his arm around me, pulling me to my feet. “What’s going on?”

“I just had a bad night.” I couldn’t help but lean into him. He felt so good, so warm and solid. Nothing about him was scary or unknown.

“Are you okay? Is Beth okay?”

“We’re fine.” I was starting to feel a little silly for my dramatics. “I just… I needed to get out of there.”

He watched me in the light from his headlights for a long moment. “Come on,” he finally said. “Let’s get you warmed up.”

He held open the door for me, and I sank into the passenger seat, the familiar smell of leather comforting. As soon as he was in the car, he turned the heat up, fiddling with the vents until they were blowing directly on me. “I’m fine, Jackson. Seriously.”

He didn’t appear convinced, but he also didn’t ask me any more questions. Instead, he merely drove in silence. After a few moments, he reached over and took my hand.

“Can we go to your place?” I asked. I just wanted to go somewhere that felt far from home. Somewhere that didn’t remind me of my family in any way.

“Of course.”

He did a quick U-turn so he could reach the freeway. “Do you want music?” he asked.

“No. This is nice. Just sitting for a minute.”

So he held my hand and drove, and he never once asked anything from me.

Up at his condo, he started a fire and poured us each a glass of red wine. “I was just about to drink this before you called,” he said. He gave me a sheepish smile. “Exciting Sunday night.”

“You’re telling me.”

I followed him to the living room with my wine glass and curled up in a corner of his massive sectional. I said a brief prayer that I wouldn’t spill any of the wine on the cream cushions. I was surprised by how neat and orderly Jackson kept his things. His meticulous home didn’t quite fit the image of the hard-partying celebrity the gossip magazines wrote about.

“You want to talk about it?” he asked.

I blew out a deep breath, watching the fire. “My parents invited Jim over for dinner.”

Jackson went still on the other side of the couch. “They did?”

I nodded. “It was awful.”

“I’m sorry.”

I managed a weak smile in his direction. “Are you? You hate that guy.”

“Yes.” His face was very serious. “I do. But I’m sorry you had an awful night.”

I closed my eyes, suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to cry. I hated crying, especially in front of other people. “I don’t know how to get them to stop butting in.”

“You’ve told them how you feel about him?”

I nodded.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.