J.S.

“I asked her out for dinner, and she refused.”

“Whoa. What did it feel like to actually suffer rejection?” Jett joked. “I think it’s probably been a while for you.”

He gingerly touched the back of my head. “It was you versus me. I won by a pretty large margin. Why in the hell were you using your phone? I moved to avoid you, but you came right across the path so quickly that I couldn’t avoid you. Are you okay?”

He crouched in front of me. “Climb up.”

“You can’t carry me,” I argued.

“Do it,” he demanded.

“Carter, it’s too far back to our building.”

“How so?” he questioned. “You invaded my space just like I invaded yours.”

“It wasn’t…intimate.”

“The hell it wasn’t,” he answered. “Your leg connected with my nuts.”

I closed my eyes in mortification. “I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?”

“I’d feel better if you said you forgive me for yesterday,” he suggested.

“Carter is driving me crazy,” I shared with Laura while we were having coffee four days after my injury. “I can’t walk across my condo without tripping over him.”

“Feel free to look around,” he offered.

“I’m pretty sure I might get lost,” I mumbled.

He looked up and shot me a grin. “Don’t worry. I’ll find you.”

And I wouldn’t have met or understood Ruby if things hadn’t gone the way they did. I wouldn’t trade being with her for anything.”

I nodded. “That’s because you’re half crazy.”

“I think you might be right,” I admitted reluctantly.

Jett smiled. “Damn! Did it hurt to say that?”

“You have no idea,” I shot back.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Carter growled as he barged through my front door. “I don’t care if you have trust issues. You’ll learn to trust me eventually.”

“I don’t care about that,” he said in a guttural tone. “But I want you to be able to trust me. Maybe I’ve never really been the kind of guy most people trust, but I’d really like to try.”