“Jacey, this is Nora Greene.  Nora, this is Jacey Vincent.  Kinkaide, I mean.”

Nora holds out her hand, but Jacey by-passes it, hugging her instead.

“It’s nice to meet you.  So nice to meet you,” Jacey gushes.  “I feel like I know you, but that’s not possible, right?”

“Her parents own the Greene estate,” I interject helpfully and Jacey’s eyes widen.

“Ohhhh.  You’re little Nora Greene!  I knew I knew you.  I used to wait tables at The Hill. I remember you coming in sometimes with your parents.  You’ve…uh… grown up.”

That’s a tactful way to skirt around the topic that Nora was na**d on Jacey’s beach.

Nora smiles gracefully, only the barest hint of a blush along her pale cheeks.

“It’s nice to meet you, Jacey. I’ve heard so much about you.”

There’s the barest hint of acid in her voice, and I wonder at it. Is she jealous?

Jacey looks at me, her brown eyes soft.  “I couldn’t help but notice, as I drove down this road, that your parents’ house seems to have burned down.”

There’s a knowing expression on her face, because she knows me well.

I nod.  “Yeah. There was a bit of a matches and gasoline problem.  Apparently, when you douse something with gasoline and toss a match onto it, it burns.”

She raises her eyebrow.  “Is the problem resolved now?”

I nod.  “It’s all good.”

“Good.”  Jacey yawns widely, then slaps a hand over her mouth. “God, I’m sorry.  I’m jetlagged.  Dom’s still on-set in the UK and he couldn’t come, but I wanted to be here for a couple of days to check on you.  The jetlag is killing me, though.  I’m gonna nap for a couple of hours, then we’ll catch up, okay?”

“Of course,” I tell her.  “Take all the time you want.  You can sleep in your old room.  Nora’s been sleeping in with me, anyway.”

Jacey smiles knowingly.  “I bet. I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”   She heads down the hall, but calls over her shoulder.

“Don’t think I’m not pissed that you didn’t call me yourself.  I’ll be kicking your ass after I wake up.”

“I’m scared!” I yell at her back.

The click of her bedroom door is my only answer.  I look down at Nora, only to find her staring up at me.  I can’t read her expression.

“I’m sorry we were interrupted,” I murmur into her hair, pulling her close.  “But I’ll make it up to you tonight.”

She nods, but stays quiet.  Her uncharacteristic silence is getting to me.

Jacey sleeps for hours, and in fact, I don’t hear her stirring until long after Nora and I have gone to bed.

I lay in the dark, listening to Jacey’s movements in the living room, and ponder my situation.

A year ago, I would’ve given anything to get Jacey to see me for me…. A grown man in love with her.

But things have changed, and the only thing I feel at the moment is annoyance, that her arrival has triggered doubts in Nora.

Because I saw the doubts in Nora’s eyes.  I saw that she questioned my feelings for Jacey, that those doubts caused her to question my feelings and my intentions for her.

We’ll hang out with Jacey for a few days, but I’m going to have a talk with Nora. I know she wanted me for the summer, but I’m not cut out for that.  Gran was right… when I open myself up to someone, I’m in it for the long haul.

The summer won’t be enough.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Nora

I wake up to laughter and an empty bed.

Brand is gone, and as I glance out the bedroom windows, I see why.  He’s sitting at the picnic table in the sun, eating breakfast with Jacey.

I feel the early stirrings of jealousy in my belly and I fight to tamp them down.  I don’t own him.  He’s not mine.  But he sleeps with me at night, he holds me all night long.  I don’t have anything to be jealous of.

That’s what I tell myself.

It’s hard though. Jacey keeps laying her hand on his arm, and they keep laughing over jokes I don’t know. There’s a familiarity between them that comes from years of knowing each other. Really knowing each other.  It’s hard not to be jealous of that.

Even though, at the same time, Jacey isn’t throwing herself at him.  Maybe she did at one point, but now, today, there doesn’t seem to be sexual tension there at all. 

I pull some clothes on, and run a brush through my hair, then join them outside with a cup of coffee.

“I wasn’t sure how strong you like your coffee,” Jacey tells me, looking up from their conversation.  “So I just made it pretty mild.  I hope that’s fine.”

“It’s perfect,” I assure her.  I glance at the table, trying to decide which side to sit on.  Jacey solves that problem by patting the bench next to her.

“Come tell me all about you,” she sings cheerfully.  “I’ve got to know all about the girl who has Brand intrigued.”

He sighs loudly, but doesn’t try and steer her away, so I sit down next to her.

We chat for the next hour.

Where do you live?

What do you do?

Where did you go to school?

The entire time, I find myself wishing that I was at Brand’s side instead of Jacey’s but I smile politely and chat and play the game.  Because it’s a game.  I know it and Jacey knows it.

She’s acting friendly and cheerful, but she’s also acting on Brand’s behalf.  She’s searching my motives, trying to decide if I’m good enough for her friend.

But she has no right.

She hurt him more than anyone else ever will.

But I keep a smile pasted on and I answer every question.

I even ask a few of my own.

What’s it like being married to Dominic Kinkaide?

Where do you live now when you aren’t on set with him?

Do you miss Angel Bay?

She answers my questions for the same reason as I answer hers.

A show for Brand.

It’s when my phone buzzes in my pocket and I see William’s name that I remember that I’ve got bigger problems to face than Jacey today.

Don’t be late.

That’s all he says.  I glance at the time.  It’s already twelve-thirty.  The knowledge that I need to go soon makes me uneasy.  I don’t want to leave them alone.  But that’s stupid, I tell myself.  Brand is as loyal as they come.