The Love Wager

“I’m going to the restroom, and I’ll meet you at baggage claim.”

“Deal,” Jack said, grabbing her carry-on from her shoulder and putting it over his.

“Don’t ditch me,” she said, laughing, and then he stepped onto the escalator and headed downstairs. She walked toward the closest bank of public restrooms, but she felt more like skipping, she was so happy.

“Hallie?”

Hallie stopped and turned. It was Alex.

“Oh. Hey. What are you doing here?” She stood there as he ran to catch up with her, but she was surprised at how unaffected she felt. Not even her bruised ego cared anymore about this blond man, smiling and approaching cautiously like he was afraid she’d slug him.

“Last-minute work trip—talk about a small world. Do you have a quick second, since we both ended up in the same place?”

She looked behind him, then back at his face. “Well, I mean, I kind of have to go—”

“Just one second. Please? Obviously the universe wanted us to meet up.”

She shrugged and stepped out of the foot traffic, settling beside the airport bookstore. She knew she looked rough with no makeup and a messy bun, but she really didn’t care.

“I just want to apologize,” he said, looking incredibly serious. “I am so sorry, Hallie.”

What was with all the men from her past apologizing to her all of a sudden?

She waved a hand and said, “It’s okay.”

“I regret it so much, and I don’t know if you’d ever consider it, but I’d love to take you out to dinner.”

She gave a tiny shake of her head. “That’s very nice, but I don’t think so.” She paused, and because she was genuinely curious, she said, “Can I ask, though, what’s changed since you thought we weren’t meant to be together last week?”

He swallowed and said, “I was an idiot. Remember how we talked about dating apps and organic chemistry, and how—”

“How you thought fate was more important than anything else? Yeah.” Hallie was starting to get impatient because she knew Jack was waiting for her. Also, she still needed to use the restroom. “I remember.”

“Well, when your friend told me about the bet, I got mad, to be honest, because things were going so well that I wanted to believe it was fate. When I found out it wasn’t—”

“What?” Alarm bells started ringing in her head at his mention of the bet. “What are you talking about?”

“Jack. I ran into him when I was leaving your place, the day he brought you the cat toys I had in my car . . . ?”

“Oh, yeah.” Hallie felt a little confused by what he was talking about, but she remembered Jack bringing up the toys Alex had gotten for Tigger. “Um—”

“We were shooting the shit in the parking lot, and when I gushed about you and it being fate, he told me about the bet.”

“What, um—”

“Your bet on who’d find someone first.”

“Oh.” Hallie felt like she was missing something, but she wasn’t sure what it was. “He mentioned that to you?”

“I think he just wanted to set the record straight that you and I were definitely not fated.”

Hallie narrowed her eyes and looked at Alex. Why would Jack tell him about their bet? Jack had known how much she had liked Alex. Why would he interject that into a conversation with a guy he barely knew?

And why hadn’t he mentioned it to her when Alex had dumped her?

“Listen, Alex, the bet was just our way of motivating each other to keep trying to find someone. There was nothing—”

“Oh, I know—that’s what he said, too,” Alex said. “Honestly, I got the impression he was trying to make something happen with you, and I was in the way. But that doesn’t matter.”

She smiled even though she felt unsettled by their entire conversation. “It doesn’t?”

“No, the screwup was all mine. Listen, can I text you later?” He leaned in a little closer and said, “This is a weird place to chat, and I would really like to finish this conversation.”

She nodded and said, “Sure.”

After she walked away from him, Hallie started filtering through everything in her head. She was on autopilot as she went to the restroom, washed her hands, and stepped onto the escalator. Jack’s words, Alex’s words, Olivia’s words—they all looped through her mind, and by the time she approached the baggage claim area, she had it figured out.

And it fucking sucked.

She’d been Jack’s low-hanging fruit, just like Olivia had predicted, and when he’d seen her connecting with someone else after he’d gotten dumped, after he’d spent two weeks in Minneapolis being sad and lonely about his uncle Mack, he’d ruined it for her.

Why else would he have kept his conversation with Alex a secret?

When he’d been holding her in her bedroom, making her feel better about her breakup while she bawled, the right thing to do would’ve been to say, I told him about the bet—that’s probably why.

But he hadn’t said a word.

He’d let her cry her eyes out without even mentioning it.

And then he’d offered to swoop in and be her Prince Charming.

She had no idea what to make of this information after everything that had happened between them last night. It had been an amazing, perfect night for her, but what exactly had it meant to him?

God, was she just overthinking everything?

She knew she was, but on the other hand, she’d thought Ben was about to propose when he actually had realized that she wasn’t someone he could love, as hard as he tried. So what if Jack was happy right now with his easily picked, low-hanging fruit? Would it last? Or would he ultimately realize that as hard as he’d tried to make her the solution to his loneliness, she wasn’t the one?

“I thought you got lost.”

Hallie turned around, and there was Jack, grinning down at her with their luggage piled in front of him. His smile made her stomach drop, and as she turned her lips up into a smile, she kind of wanted to cry.

She said, “I just saw Alex.”

His smile disappeared. “The blond clown?”

She nodded. “He wants to call me later. He said he regrets breaking things off.”

His Adam’s apple moved when he swallowed, but that was the only change to his countenance. He didn’t look like he had anything at all to confess. “You gonna wait by the phone, TB?”

She shrugged and tried to sound teasing when she said, “I guess time will tell.”

He slid his fingers between hers. “I’ll just have to keep you too busy to hear the phone, then.”

They took the shuttle to his car, and Hallie thought it felt like it’d been years since they’d left town. Jack kept hold of her hand, but they were both quiet, and it felt like there was a huge, unspoken issue hovering over them.

When they got to his car, she called Ruthie to check on Tigger and tell her they were on the way. Ruthie said she couldn’t bear to part with her cat baby and might have to borrow him the next day.

“So he finally stopped hitting her?” Jack asked.

“Apparently so.”

They settled into silence as he pulled away from the parking lot, and Hallie was relieved when he took a work call. She was able to get in her own head and think while he discussed the concrete finish that was going to be used in an upcoming project.

The one lesson she’d learned from the Ben breakup—thank you, Dr. McBride—was that the most important thing was for her to be honest with herself about how she felt about every little thing, good or bad.

So her first honest admission: She loved Jack. She wanted Jack. What she wanted, more than anything in the world, was to pretend she’d never talked to Alex at the airport. She wanted to throw herself into being with Jack, living like they had over the weekend.

But her second honest admission: She would rather lose any romantic possibilities with him now than go through what she’d gone through with Ben later. That had been hell, and she was positive it would be ten times worse with Jack.

Her third honest admission: She wasn’t mad he’d told Alex about the bet—it wasn’t a super-sworn secret or anything—but she was livid that he hadn’t mentioned it sometime between Alex dumping her and now.

“You okay?”

Hallie glanced over at Jack as he drove along the freeway—she hadn’t even realized he’d disconnected the call.

“Oh. Yeah.” She smiled and her throat was tight. “I’m just so tired.”

“Same.”

She laid her head back on the seat and closed her eyes, preferring to feign exhaustion over making conversation. Because her fourth honest admission was that she knew exactly what she had to do.

And it made her want to weep.

Jack

Fuuuuuck.

He wasn’t usually insecure, but Hallie had been quiet and distant since running into Alex. She seemed weird about him calling her later, almost as if she was open to it, which made Jack want to toss her phone out the damn window.

He couldn’t stop his brain from thinking, over and over again like a fucking demonic chant, She still wants Alex.

Jack pulled into the parking lot of her building and grabbed her luggage from the trunk, and they went up to her apartment. Ruthie spent twenty minutes telling Hallie everything Tigger had done in her absence while Hal snuggled the huge tabby, so he had a few minutes to get his shit together.

When Ruthie finally left and Hallie closed the door behind her, he pulled Hal into his arms. They were great together, and Alex showing up at the airport was just a blip they’d both forget after five seconds together in her apartment.

But instead of being her playful self, Hallie looked dead serious as her wary eyes stared into his. So serious, in fact, that he actually felt a pang of nervousness slice through his belly.

“What’s up, Tiny Bartender?” He kissed the tip of her nose, the center of the constellation of mini-freckles. “You look troubled.”

She swallowed and said, “Nah, I’m just a little . . . introspective as we leave the fake dating behind.”

“Introspective, huh?” His heart started pounding—stupid, that—as he got ready to tell her exactly how he felt. If she was ready to talk about their relationship, God help him, he was ready to put himself out there and confess to every overpowering feeling he had for her.

She nodded and set her hands on his chest. “This is our last night of pretend, and part of me is going to miss it.”

“It has been fun,” he said, a little confused by her referring to that night, that moment, as pretend when it was only the two of them in her apartment.

Also—what the fuck—the night before definitely hadn’t been pretend for either one of them.

“Agreed.” She looked sad as she said, “The lines got a little blurry over the weekend, but you were the perfect fake boyfriend, and I’m so grateful.”

He didn’t say anything, because his throat was too tight to speak. It was all there on her face, in the fatalistic way she looked up at him.

Holy shit.

She was ending things.

It was over before it’d ever started.

Hallie

She was dying inside and wanted so badly to crawl into her bed and cry her eyes out. But not before having one last night with him as more than friends.

“I totally get it if you want to go home and get back to normal. There are probably girls in the dating queue right now, waiting for your response.” She tried to surround it in a sarcastic laugh, but none came out. “I personally will not be getting back on the app until tomorrow, because I’m far too tired.”

“Hal.” His blue eyes were stormy. “What the hell are—”

“But if you’re interested, I’m game for one last night of pretend. One last night of Hallie and Jack, the couple at the wedding, having mind-blowing sex.”

It sounded desperate to her ears, but she was when it came to Jack. She was desperate for one final night.

His jaw flexed, and he looked pissed as his eyes traveled all over her face. It took a long moment before he said, “Let me get this straight. That whole fake dating game is over and we’re back to being friends, but you want to fuck one last time?”

“Forget it,” she said, mortified by the insulting way he’d said it. “I didn’t—”

“I’m in,” he growled, and then his lips were on hers.

It was angry and hot, his mouth opening hers and kissing her with a wild aggression. His hands came up to hold her face so he could absolutely go feral with his teeth and tongue, and she grabbed his biceps because she felt like she needed something to hold on to.

He made a sound in the back of his throat before sucking her tongue, before treating her mouth like it was a juicy, ripe peach that he wanted to eat whole.

Just like that, she was in his arms and he was carrying her into the bedroom as she wrapped her legs around his waist. His eyes were dark as he dropped her onto the bed and crawled up her body, his mouth only leaving hers long enough to remove clothing.

Her hands were shaking as she fumbled with the zipper of his jeans, and then everything changed.

His expression stayed just as serious, just as hyper-focused and intense, but his body gentled. His touches softened. His mouth grew worshipful instead of ravenous.

It broke her heart, because it was too much.

And when he finally slid deep inside her, she had to close her eyes to hold back the tears. It was so good, like it always was with Jack, and she tried to just lose herself in the physicality of it all.

Don’t think, don’t think, don’t think.

“Open your eyes,” he said, his voice gruff. “Please?”

She did, and his throat moved as he swallowed and looked down at her. She saw the flare of his nostrils, the flex of his jaw, and as their eyes locked, they exchanged powerful unspoken words. Goodbye. One last time. She reared up to kiss him, needing his mouth on hers. She locked her hands around his neck and sealed her mouth on his as he made her dizzy with the way he moved in her body.

Then they reached the point of no return, where emotions ceased to matter as raw lust took over, and when she shifted her weight to flip them, so she was on top, he cursed like a sailor.

His fingers held her hips, digging into her skin as he watched her move, but when he sat straight up and kissed her, taking her face in his hands, she was done.

She moaned into his mouth as every muscle in her body clenched and flexed, and a second later he was biting her lower lip and groaning into hers.

Jack

He turned and moved, sliding them on the sheets so they were lying side by side. Hallie’s eyes were closed, her breathing labored as they both came back to themselves. He felt emotional as he looked at the freckles on her nose, the bow of her lip, and like a pathetic fool, he touched the curve of her cheek and said, “Are you sure you want to be done with this, Hal?”

Her eyes opened, and he hated the way they looked. Hurt, distant—he couldn’t put his finger on what he saw, but it wasn’t good. She blinked fast before she said in a pinched voice, “Absolutely.”

He gave a nod and sat up, getting out of bed and grabbing his pants from the floor. There was a roaring in his ears, and even though he knew he didn’t want to know, he heard himself ask, “Is this because of Alex?”

He shoved a foot into one of the pant legs, unable to say the guy’s name without gritting his teeth. Because honestly, he was so fucking jealous it was almost painful.

“Um, I guess you could say that,” she said, her tone flat, and her response ripped his heart out of his chest.

He turned back to the bed and she was standing now, the sheet wrapped around her body, her arms crossed over her chest. He swallowed and muttered, “Awesome.”

She squinted at him and said, “Why didn’t you tell me that you told him about the bet?”

His hands stilled on his button. “What?”

“Before the wedding.” She glared at him and said, “It sounds to me like you got dumped by Kayla, so you decided to tell Alex about the bet to get me dumped.”

He felt everything rush to a halt as he realized how it looked. What she thought. How it seemed. He shook his head and said, “No, it wasn’t like that at all. I just told him about the bet because that jackass thought fate brought you two together. That you were meant to be.”

“Why did you care?” She inhaled through her nose, her eyes flashing, and she said, “And it was like that, Jack, because you’re wholly responsible for him breaking up with me.”

He ground his teeth together so hard it felt like they might shatter. Why did he care? Because I have huge fucking feelings for you, Hallie Piper.

Not that he could tell her that now.

She said, “I can’t believe you let me cry over him without telling me the truth.”

He wanted to apologize, because he did feel like trash about that, but his mouth couldn’t form the words when she was looking at him like that.

Like she was livid because he’d ruined her relationship with that guy.

Because she wanted Alex, not him.

“My apologies, Hal,” he said as he finished putting on his pants, feeling like a chump for grabbing at the chance to sleep with her one last time. He hadn’t been able to resist being close to her again, even knowing he’d regret it afterward.

Hell, if he were being honest, he’d been half hoping it would change things.

“Sure,” she said, biting down on her lower lip and yanking up the sheet a little higher.

Looking at her suddenly felt physically painful, and he had to get the hell out of there before he made a fool of himself. “I’ve got to go move my car before it gets towed.”

He pulled on the rest of his clothes, and as he grabbed his keys from the kitchen counter, she said, “Bye, Jack.”

And then she went back into the bedroom and closed the door.

Well, fuck.