What Friends Are For (4 page)

Chapter Six

Jacey awoke to the smell of bacon. Her stomach grumbled and
she realized she was starving. She rolled over and stretched, feeling all the
delicious aches and pains that one could expect after a great night of sex. And
that was just what she’d had. A fucking incredible night of sex. The best night
of sex in her life.

She grinned. Jonas was cooking breakfast. He was cooking for
her, for them. She stepped out of the bed and moved toward his bathroom. She
noted the damp towel and water droplets still on the shower door. Jonas must
have already showered. She slid it open and flipped the water on before taking
care of more pressing needs.

She found a new toothbrush on the counter by the sink and
smiled. Did he think of everything? The water was wonderful. His soap smelled
like Jonas and now she was going to smell like him all day as well. Stepping
out, she wrapped a towel around her body and a second around her hair. No
blow-dryer. No makeup. No clean clothes. She sighed. She really hadn’t thought
this through.

Walking back into Jonas’ bedroom, she rummaged in his
drawers until she found some boxers and pulled a pair on. Then she raided his
closet for a shirt. She found a selection of T-shirts and grabbed one at
random. Moving back into his bathroom, she cleaned up after herself, brushed
her teeth and towel-dried her hair as best she could. Then she headed down to
the smell of bacon and coffee, both of which she desperately wanted.

She stood in the kitchen doorway and just watched. Jonas had
cleaned it up since they’d been in here last night. The clutter was gone. The
dishes in the sink were gone. The bottle of whiskey was gone. He stood with his
back to her, cooking French toast. She could see a plate piled high with what
he’d already made.

“Are you just going to stand there and watch me or are you
coming in?” he asked without turning away from what he was doing. “Coffee’s
ready. Just finishing the French toast.”

“Smells incredible, Jonas,” she said, moving toward the
coffeepot. “Need a cup?” She was as at home in his kitchen as she was in hers.
Honestly, she probably spent more time in his kitchen then she did in her own.

“Please,” he said and she poured him a cup, leaving it black
as he took it.

She noted that he’d set her creamer out for her. Funny.
She’d never given it a thought before but Jonas tended to keep things in his
kitchen, in his refrigerator, that were for her. The tea bags on the counter
and the teakettle that she bet was only used when she was here. Her favorite creamer.
She moved to open the fridge. Skim milk next to his two-percent, a jar of
mayonnaise that she loved even though he never ate it, and other little things
that she just hadn’t paid attention to.

What type of guy did that? Hell, even the guys she’d dated
for a while never went to the effort of keeping her creamer at their house. But
Jonas did. Jonas always had. He found out what she liked and the next time she
was over he inevitably had it for her. How had she failed to see what was in
front of her this entire time? He’d always cared about her, looked out for her,
been there for her.

She walked over to him just as he turned with the plate of
bacon in one hand, French toast in the other. As soon as he set them on the
table she moved into him and hugged him close, leaning her head against his
chest. His arms wrapped around her and held her tight. Comfort. Warmth.
Acceptance. He offered them all. And love. He said he loved her.

“You okay?” he whispered against the top of her head.

“Yeah.” She nodded. “I’m wonderful.”

“Yeah?” he asked and used his hand to tip her face up to
look at him.

“Yeah.” She smiled, lifting up to kiss him. It was slow and
sweet and made her heart stutter more than all the passion they’d shared the
night before. “I’m starving.”

“I made food.” He smiled, pointing to the table.

He held her chair out while she sat and then went around and
took the seat across from her. He always did that. Waited for her to sit before
he did. Stood when she stood. Held doors open for her. Always walked on the
street side of her, keeping himself between her and the road. He was a
gentleman.

“You work today?” he asked while they filled their plates.

She shook her head, her mouth already filled with the first
bite of syrupy toast. He made the best.

“Feel like spending the day with me?” he asked.

“Sure,” she answered between bites. She was almost finished
and he had yet to take a bite. “What did you have in mind?”

“A motorcycle ride,” he said. “No particular destination.
Just a ride. Maybe dinner later.”

“Sounds good,” she agreed, forking another piece onto her
plate and grabbing another slice of bacon. “If you plan on eating more than
what’s already on your plate, you’d better get started. I won’t be nice and
save you any. It’s too damn good.”

He laughed and dug in.

“I need to go by my house,” she said. “Change clothes.”

He nodded.

“Maybe pack a bag for tonight?” she asked. Did he want her
to stay another night with him?

“I’d like that.” He smiled.

“Okay.” She grinned. “I’ll head over to my apartment after
breakfast then. Change clothes and throw some stuff in a bag.”

“You want to drive back over here or me to pick you up?” he
asked.

“I’ll head back here,” she decided. “That way I have my car
in case I need it for something.”

“Sounds good,” he said and reached out to take her hand in
his. “I’m glad you didn’t listen to me last night.”

“Which time?”

“When I told you to just leave. I’m glad you stayed.”

“Me too.”

* * * * *

Jacey had her clothes from the night before in a bag she’d
grabbed from Jonas. She dumped them in her overflowing laundry basket and
thought with disgust that she really needed to do laundry. Or go shopping. She
opened drawers, tossing stuff aside as she found the bras and panties she
wanted to wear and packed them. She tossed shorts and jeans in along with a few
different shirts she liked.

She opened her lingerie drawer and dug through it. She
didn’t want to wear anything she’d ever worn for another guy. It had to be
something new, something she’d never worn, and she found it on the very bottom.
A sexy red-and-black set that she’d bought on a whim but never worn. It was
tossed in the bag. Once she got back to the car, she’d be sure to throw in her
new toy as well. She’d told him she’d picked something up but not what. With
his fascination over her ass, she had little doubt that he’d enjoy trying out
the anal beads she’d grabbed last night. She would definitely enjoy trying them
with him. The thought of having them stuffed in her ass while he pumped his
cock in and out of her pussy had her squeezing her thighs together. Oh yeah,
those were definitely getting broken in soon.

A quick stop in the bathroom for toiletries and she was
grabbing another bag. Blow-dryer was a must, plus all the other mish-mash of
stuff she used on a daily basis. She looked at the two bags and laughed. All
this for a night. Then really laughed as she took in the state of her bedroom.
Clothes thrown everywhere. Shoes all over. Drawers half open with their
contents spilling out.

Maybe she should let Jonas see her bedroom. He might change
his mind about her staying with him then. Her heart did the stutter thing again
and she reached up to rub her chest. She glanced at his boxers and T-shirt on
her bed. She should pack them and take them back to him. But she wouldn’t. That
way, just in case she said or did something stupid to chase him away, she’d
have them here.

She took a deep breath and headed out of her bedroom. She
stopped to check her answering machine, hitting play while she grabbed a bottle
of water from the fridge.

“Jacey, oh my god, you’re not going to believe it.” Dee’s
voice bubbled out of the machine. “I don’t believe it myself. I wished. I
hoped. But I’d accepted that it might never happen.” A giggle and a squeal.
“But it did. Last night. After we…well, after.” In typical Dee fashion she was
taking forever to get to the point. “Oh, Jacey.” She could her the sniffle of
tears in Dee’s voice now. “Jack said he loves me. He loves me. He really loves
me.” Definitely tears there and Jacey had to wipe them off her cheeks while she
listened. “I’m so happy. I didn’t think I could get any happier but I was
wrong. I thought I didn’t need to hear the words. But I did. I love him, Jacey.
I love him so much. I’m always telling him. But this time, this time he said
them back to me.” A long sigh. “They mean everything. I’m going to call Mischa.
Talk to you later.”

The message ended, another beep and then Dee’s voice filled
the air again. “I forgot to ask about last night. I hope you and Jonas worked
things out. I saw your car there last night and again this morning.” A deep
breath and Dee continued. “I’m going to say this because I love you and I know
you. You’re a good person, Jacey. And you deserve to be loved and to be happy.
You deserve a great guy like Jonas. Okay, off my soapbox. I’m seriously calling
Mischa now. Love you! Talk to you later.”

The machine stopped. Jacey was sitting on her couch and
tears were flowing down her cheeks. Her brother had told Dee that he loved her.
How did he know? What was it about Dee that made him see that he loved her? If
he could fall in love then maybe she could. Maybe he could tell her what it
was, what it felt like? She had to talk to Jack. Her brother would know the
answers.

She called him real quick before she thought on it.

“Hey,” he answered by way of greeting.

“Jack,” she sniffled a little bit as she said his name.

“You okay, Jacey?” he asked. “Are you crying?”

“Can you come over to the apartment?” she asked, unable to
keep from sniffling again. “I need to talk to you.”

“On my way now,” was his terse reply and then he hung up.

She hit a button on her phone and brought Jonas’ number up
to send him a text.

Running late. Be there soon.

His reply was almost instantaneous.
Can’t wait.

Chapter Seven

Her brother pounded on the door when he got there. She’d changed
her mind almost as soon as she’d received Jonas’ text but Jack hadn’t answered
the phone when she’d called him back. She’d seriously thought about just
leaving but she had little doubt that her brother would just hunt her down
until he found her.

“What happened?” were the words her brother greeted her with
as soon as she opened the door. He stomped inside and immediately started
looking around. “Is he here?”

“Who? What?” Jacey asked, shutting the door.

“Whoever made you cry. I’ll kill ’em.”

“I’m fine, Jack,” she shook her head and laughed. “But it’s
nice to know you’d kick ass for me.”

He turned and looked at her. “So what’s up then? You don’t
usually call me. I hear from you less now that I’m home than I did while I was
gone. I have to pry info out of Dee to know what’s going on.”

“Hmmmm, so what did she tell you?”

“Nothing,” he said staring at her intently. “And I’m
beginning to think I should have made her talk before I headed over.”

“I’m surprised she isn’t with you.” Jacey laughed.

“She was in the shower when I left,” he said, and when Jacey
lifted her eyebrow he laughed. “I told her I’d be right back.”

“You love her,” Jacey said.

“Hell yeah, I do,” Jack said, dropping to sit on her couch.
“What’s not to love about her? I’m an incredibly lucky man.”

The way he said it. So easily. As if saying it once opened
the door and made it easier to say it again.

“What’s going on, Jacey?” He interrupted her thoughts.

“First off, promise me you won’t go crazy or do anything
stupid,” she said.

“Fuck, I hate it when you start out with shit like that,” he
groaned. “It means I’ll probably do both.”

“Promise, Jack,” she said.

“Fine.”

“I spent the night with Jonas.”

Jack surged to his feet, fists clenched tightly. “I’ll
fucking kill him.”

“He’s your best friend,” Jacey said with a laugh.

“You’re my sister.”

“You can’t beat up Jonas.”

“I’m pretty sure I can take him.”

Jacey remembered Jonas’ body, every delicious naked inch of
him.

“And I don’t even want to know what you’re thinking right
now with that sappy look on your face. Did he hurt you, Jacey?”

“No.” She shook her head but she felt the tear slip down her
cheek.

Jack walked over to her and used a finger to wipe it away.
“Then why the tears? What happened?”

She walked away, paced around. “Jonas and I have been friends
for a long time.”

“I know.” Jack nodded. “He kept me up on stuff with you
while I was gone.”

“He’s always been like a best friend to me, the guy I could
go to and talk to about anything.” Jack nodded and sat back down, listening
quietly to her. So she kept talking. “I don’t know when things changed for him.
But they did. At some point he…” She stumbled over the words. “At some point he
fell in love with me.”

Jack laughed.

“What?”

“You say that like you’re surprised,” he said. “Jacey you’re
an incredibly sexy woman. Hell you’re almost as gorgeous as me.”

She shook her head and laughed.

“Besides, honey, Jonas has been in love with you for a long
time. Remember the summer we went to the beach?”

She nodded. Jonas had brought that time up too.

“He could barely take his eyes off you. I had to remind him
that you were sixteen and my sister several times. He started calling you
princess that summer. Did you ever wonder why?”

“I…” She shook her head.

“He said you reminded him of royalty, a princess. So
confident and sure on the outside with all your emotions locked away, just
waiting for the right prince to come along and awaken you.”

“He said that?”

“Yeah, and I laughed my ass off and told him he was a douche
bag.”

Jacey couldn’t help but giggle.

Jack stood back up and walked over to take her hands. “Jonas
is my best friend, Jacey. He has been for a long time. But you’re my sister and
I love you. If he hurt you, I’ll kick his ass.”

“You’d kick your best friend’s ass for me?”

“Hell yeah,” he grunted. “Buy him a beer afterward but it’s
the point. No one gets to hurt my sister.”

“I love you, Jack,” she whispered, hugging him close.

“So what’s it to be?” He sighed, releasing her and stepping
back. “Ass kicking?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Honestly I called because of Dee.”

There was panic in her brother’s eyes and Jacey had to bite
her lip to prevent the burst of laughter from escaping.

“Did she say something was wrong? Is she not happy? Fuck!”

He was pacing now and Jacey realized that it was the first
time she’d seen him that way over a girl.

“No, she’s happy,” Jacey assured him and he stopped pacing
to turn and face her.

“What then?”

“She was giggly and happy and bouncing off the walls.”

“That’s a good thing. Right?”

“It’s a great thing. Want to know why?”

“Do I?”

She laughed. “Because you said the words, Jack.” When he
just looked confused, she told him. “You told her that you love her. You said
the words.”

“But she’s known I love her for a long time. How could she
not?”

“The words were important to her.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“So you called me over to tell me that the words were
important to her? No offense, Jacey, but you could have told me that in a phone
call or a text for that matter.”

“I called you over because Jonas said he loves me and it
terrified me.” She was pacing again, her hand rubbing at her chest. “I don’t
know about love. I don’t know if I can love.”

“Jacey.” Jack sat back down on her couch and patted the
cushion beside him until she came over and sat down. “You love me. Mom. Dee.
Mischa. You can love.”

“That’s different. You and mom are family, blood. And Dee
and Mischa, they’re like sisters to me.”

“And Jonas? Tell me what you think of him.”

“Jonas is….well, Jonas is Jonas. He’s always there for me.
No matter what time, I know that I can count on him. He listens, really
listens. He’s smart and funny and reliable and not afraid to tell me what he
thinks. And sexy, so sexy.”

“What would you do if something happened to him? How would
you feel?”

“I’d kill anyone who hurt him,” she vowed, her eyes hard.

“I think you know how you feel then, Jacey,” Jack murmured.
“And you know that you’re capable of feeling it.”

“But how do I know for sure?” she asked. “How do I know it’s
changed from what I’ve always felt for him before?”

“Let me ask you this,” Jack said. “How do you feel when he
walks in the room? Do your eyes go immediately to him and only him? Do you get
that tingle or tug inside and a smile instantly on your lips? Would you kill to
protect him? Die to save him? Do you just want to be with him? You and Jonas
have been friends for a long time, Jacey. That makes you lucky, in my opinion.
You already know the little things about each other. Each other’s likes and
dislikes.”

She nodded her head.

“So you have to decide if that friendship is all you want or
if you want what comes next.”

“I don’t know.” She shook her head, eyes wide as she looked
at her brother.

“I think you do.” He tapped his fingers over her heart. “In
here. You just have to catch up.” He tapped her temple. “In here. Stop
overthinking, Jacey. Sometimes you just need to feel.”

He kissed her on the top of her head and stood up. “I love
you, Jacey.”

“Love you.”

“Call me if you need to talk again.”

Jacey nodded but sat and watched as her brother walked out
the door. Her brain was thinking so hard that she was surprised the fire alarm
wasn’t going off. He told her not to overthink but here she sat going over and
over and over stuff again and again.

She thought maybe she’d always cared for Jonas. First as her
brother’s friend. Then when Jack left for the Marines, she’d kind of claimed
Jonas as her surrogate brother. Or had she? Hadn’t a part of her started
sharing bits of her sex life with Jonas to see what he would do? To see if she
could make him jealous? Then over the years it had just become routine. She had
a guy problem, she went to Jonas.

Jacey was always turning to Jonas. And when he’d told her to
find someone else, it had blown her entire world apart. Then she’d seen him at
the restaurant with the redhead and she’d gone ballistic. Because it hurt. It
cut to the bone to see him with a woman who wasn’t her. Jonas didn’t date. Or
at least if he did, he was so discreet that she’d never once known about it.

Hell, she’d been miserable the two weeks she’d forced
herself to stay away from him. She’d cried. She didn’t cry. God, she’d been
dripping tears like a weepy woman for two weeks now. She thought about her
brother’s questions. She would kill for Jonas in a heartbeat. She thought about
him at least twenty million times a day. He always made her feel. Happy, mad, giddy,
pissed off. He just made her feel. No other guy had been able to get past her
shield and make her feel emotions.

Maybe Jonas was right and she was a princess just waiting
for the right prince to come along. If that was true, then she’d been in a deep
sleep for too long. Her prince was here, had been since she was sixteen.

She took a deep breath and walked to the bathroom to splash
cool water on her face. Straightening up, she dried it off and looked at the
woman in the mirror. Really looked at her. Her dark hair was pulled back in a
high ponytail and her face was bare of makeup. But there was a sparkle in her
eyes, a flush to her cheeks. She looked like a woman with a secret.

She grinned, just couldn’t hold it back. Sometimes
overthinking paid off. She hurried back out to grab her bags and head out of
the apartment. She was done waiting. She’d finished thinking. She was a woman
of action. She had a prince waiting. And she had something really important to
tell him.