The Summer of Jake by Rachel Bailey

Author:Rachel Bailey
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781633750180
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2014-08-03T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

ANNALISE

“I think we should talk,” I rushed to say. “About Scarlett.” My stomach dropped into freefall. Why had I chosen that particular topic of all possible topics?

Though I knew why. It was the elephant in the room I’d been trying to ignore. And it was time our cards were on the table. “Tell me what your intentions are. Were you serious about seeing her as a challenge, or is this the real thing for you? Can you see yourself married to her with mini-Jakes?”

He stared into his glass, swirling the pale wine. “I don’t do long term.”

I frowned, not quite believing he’d just spouted such a cliché. “What do you mean, you don’t do long term?”

I might’ve been a spectacular failure at relationships, but I still believed that one day the stars would align and I’d make it work—possibly with the headless man from my collage. But Jake… He seemed to not even want to try, which didn’t make sense.

As he looked up, I glimpsed a searing pain transform his face. Regardless, he made a valiant effort at a casual smile. “It doesn’t work for me. I have it on good authority.”

“Someone told you that?” I asked, incredulous. The unmasked anguish in his eyes tore at my heart.

“A girl. Someone I asked to marry me when I was twenty.”

“What happened?”

He took another mouthful of wine. “Her name was Donna, and I was crazy about her. I thought she felt the same. But when I proposed, she told me she couldn’t marry me because, and I quote, ‘You’re fun to be with, Jake, but let’s face it, you’re not the guy a woman takes seriously’.” He winced ever so slightly as he spoke.

I bit down on my lip, feeling bad about all the things I’d thought about his woman-hopping in the past. “She said that?”

He nodded. “She did. And more. Apparently, I don’t have any depth, and I’m not capable of committing long term to anyone or anything. Then she went overseas and married some guy she’d known two weeks.”

I touched his arm, not knowing what else to do, and he looked up, seeming surprised that I was there. “And you believed her?”

He shrugged. “She knew me pretty well, why wouldn’t I believe her?”

“Because she was wrong.” I might think Jake was a flirt but no way was he as shallow as Donna claimed. And which he seemed to accept as true.

He gave a humorless laugh. “That’s kind of you, but I think I’ve proven her right over the years. Do you see an adoring wife anywhere around here? My relationships never last very long.” He grimaced and looked up at the ceiling. “I even thought I’d found someone to be serious about a year after Donna left. That one lasted about five weeks. So, yeah, I believe her.”

Needing to comfort him, I grasped for an explanation. “Maybe it’s become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” He shrugged, and I continued. “You’ve proven her wrong professionally—she said you wouldn’t amount to anything, but you’re successful.

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