Page 4 of One Night Stand After Another
Shame was bright and scalding as he remembered Jack catching them at their graduation party…in the supply closet of his father’s restaurant. Kissing. More than kissing. His hands had been places they’d had no business being during a first kiss—and it had been unforgettable. There had been something real between them, a spark returned, but under Jack’s furious gaze, he’d failed her.
He wouldn’t fail again.
Chapter Two
“I have no idea why Jack invited me to your wedding,” Clara said honestly.
“Then what are you doing here?” Lila’s smile was at odds with her blatant challenge. “When your RSVP came in, I filed it with the rest of them. There were a lot of people I didn’t know on the list. I guess Jack didn’t expect me to notice.” She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I didn’t ask him any questions—I asked his stepmother. She was very informative.”
Lila’s body language was as relaxed as it could be in a gown that looked like it had an unforgiving corset sewn into the bodice. From the way she had hustled her into the ladies’ room, Clara had thought she was upset, but Lila didn’t look in the least bit worried about why Jack had invited her. Instead, her blue eyes were curious.
Relief filled Clara, instantly followed by regret. She hadn’t given Lila’s feelings a single thought when she hatched her plan.
“I’m so sorry,” Clara said. “I should have called him, talked to you, done something that would make this less weird. I’m an avoider of the worst sort, and I came to apologize for something that happened ten years ago. This is the absolute wrong place to do it, but I was afraid I’d let myself off the hook without a deadline and consequences. If I said yes on the RSVP, I knew I’d come.” She shook her head. “God, that sounds awful now. Jack’s celebrating. He should be focused on you. What the hell was I thinking?”
Lila’s bright gaze narrowed, and she shrugged. “I can probably think of a few less awkward places to apologize, but let’s not forget Jack invitedyou. Out of the blue. Without mentioning it to me. Jack’s a planner, so he’s got a reason for doing it, and it isn’t because he’s still in love with you. So why?”
Lila’s confidence in Jack’s love for her was so absolute, Clara’s heart nearly turned inside-out with envy. What did it feel like to be so sure of something?
She sighed, crushed by doubt, before she recovered and took a deep, bolstering breath.Time for the truth.This very direct bride whom she instantly liked deserved no less. “I am truly happy for both of you. I wouldn’t be here if that weren’t true. Jack and I went to high school together. We dated our junior and senior years. I worked at Breeze, his dad’s restaurant. We were friends more than anything, really, and we were planning to stay friends after graduation. We’d even talked about seeing other people…but that didn’t mean it was okay to hook up with Zane at Jack’s graduation party.”
Lila blinked. Her lashes were, like, eight miles long, and they looked real. “You hooked up with Zane?”
Clara pressed both hands to her flaming cheeks. “In the supply closet at Breeze,” she finished miserably.
“Classic.” Lila snorted. “This is gonna be good.” She pulled her phone from a hidden pocket in the voluminous skirt of her wedding dress and texted furiously for a second.
“It wasn’t great.” Clara sighed. “I thought—well, I thought Zane and I had thisconnection.” She stressed the last word with sarcasm so Lila would know she was over it.So over it.“But it was just a tragically acute case of teenage hormones—for me, at least. I don’t know what it was for him. Because when Jack found us, Zane acted like it was a big joke. A dare. Like he’d done it just to prove he could kiss Jack’s girlfriend. I was humiliated.”
Lila’s head tilted, and her nose scrunched adorably. “What did Jack do?”
Clara would never forget the look of ice-cold disappointment Jack had given her before he’d turned his fury on Zane. Yes, they were going to see other people, but she’d known, even when Zane kissed her and she’d felt things she hadn’t known were possible, that Zane was off-limits.
“Jack said, ‘How could you?’ and then he punched him. Zane didn’t even fight back. He just grinned and said, ‘Not her fault she couldn’t resist me.’ Then Jack’s stepmom walked in and started whisper-screaming.”
“Oh my God, I can’t imagine! What did you do after that?” Lila was transfixed, eyes wide—all she was missing was a bucket of popcorn.
“I didn’t say a single word to either of them. Jack was taking another swing when I walked through the middle of the party, out the front door, and into a cab. I think the Calabrese family had hired an entire fleet of them for the party. Then…”
Then she’d made a snap decision that changed the course of her life.
“I’d won an incredible grant from a yarn company,” she explained. “Instead of staying in New York, working at Breeze, and using the grant to learn more about crocheting, I decided to follow my mom’s wishes, move to Buffalo with my aunt, and use it for the university there that had offered me a scholarship to their business management program. I left the day after the party, so I never had a chance to apologize to Jack in person. I texted him.”
Clara rolled her eyes heavenward to show she knew it was the absolute worst way to communicate such a thing. “I never punched Zane in the throat for being an ass, either. And I never followed my dream of traveling and crocheting on the beach. You probably think I’m a coward. And if you do, just so you know, I agree with you.”
Lila shook her head. “Nope—I don’t think you’re a coward. In fact, I think you’re kind of awesome for having the nerve to come to Jack’s wedding, apologize, and wish him well. But I have to ask…crocheting? How did you go from crocheting to business school?”
“My concentration was in accounting. Numbers make sense to me. Kind of like stitches, but on paper, I guess. Everything has to line up and balance, and sometimes you have to get creative to make it happen.”
“I never would have made that connection, but I get it,” Lila said. “By the way, I’ve got some serious dirt on Jack that will make you feel better about your behavior, but I’ll save it for another time.”
A knock sounded on the door. “Special delivery!”
“What on earth?” Clara asked.
“Hang on.” Lila turned to the door, unlocked it, and opened it just enough to accept two full glasses of champagne.
She handed one to Clara.
