“She probably knew you were going to get weird about it,” Mollie said pointedly. “As far as her liking me, what can I say? I’ve got a knack with the sixty-and-older set,” she said with a little wink. “Now, if only the twentysomething guys were as easy to charm as your father. Say, like these Oxford guys.”

He groaned. “Drop it.”

“Fine. But if my eggs dry up, it’s on you.”

“You’ll find someone, Molls,” he said, his voice a little gruff. “Your mate-for-life worm, or whatever is out there.”

“Eh.” She waved her hand. “I’m guessing I’m going to have to relax my stance on that.”

Jackson frowned. “Meaning?”

“Meaning that my eyes are open on that whole mate-for-life thing. I mean, when I was twenty, it was easier to focus on the scant few species that are loyal, but I’m twenty-eight….” She shrugged. “I just don’t know that monogamy’s all that realistic an expectation.”

He stared at her for several moments. “That’s bullshit. And pardon me if I want to pound every single jackass who’s had you believing you’re not deserving of a man’s loyalty.”

Um, what? This, from him? Really?

Mollie’s hand faltered a little as she reached for her beer, and his eyes narrowed. “What? What’s that look?”

She bit her lip and waited until the movers, who’d just reentered the apartment carrying a stack of boxes, had gone down the hall to her room.

“What, Mollie?”

She blew out a breath. Other than the wee crush on him she’d had back in the day, Mollie had never kept a secret from this man, and she wasn’t inclined to start now.

“Okay, it’s just…it seems a little hypocritical coming from you,” she said, the last words coming out in a nervous rush.

Jackson shook his head to indicate he didn’t understand, and Mollie felt a little stab of irritation. Was the man being deliberately obtuse?

“I mean…your own marriage wasn’t the most faithful. Yes, Madison had the affair first, and I’m sure you were hurt and pissed, and maybe a little vengeful, but, well, you weren’t exactly the worm.”

Jackson’s head snapped back. “You think I cheated on Madison?”

Mollie stilled, the sheer rage in his eyes freezing her in place. “I—”

Of course he had. Hell, Mollie wasn’t even sure she blamed him. She knew he’d tried desperately to get out of his marriage. Knew that in the last year he and Madison had barely been speaking, much less sharing a bed. It wasn’t that Mollie was cavalier about monogamy so much as realistic, and realistically, she couldn’t imagine him staying celibate while his estranged wife slept with half of Houston.

But the look on his face told her that perhaps she was dead wrong on that.

Jackson very slowly rounded the counter and moved toward her. Instinctively she leaned away. Not that she thought for a second that Jackson would hurt her, but he was mad. Really mad.

“You think I cheated on Madison,” he repeated, his voice little more than a growl.

She looked at him helplessly. “Well, sort of. I mean, I assumed, especially when all of those pictures and rumors about you and those women, and…well, you never denied it.”

“I shouldn’t have to!” he shouted, coming to stop just inches away from her. “Not to you, Mollie.”

Her lips parted, and she was saved from having to respond as the movers headed back out the front door to get another load. Mollie and Jackson stood silently, their eyes locked on each other, as they waited for the movers to retreat into the hallway and toward the service elevator.

“You didn’t cheat?” Mollie asked quietly.

“No.” His voice was clipped.

Mollie lifted her fingers to her lips, her mind reeling.

Jackson hadn’t cheated on Madison.

He wasn’t a cheater. Her heart jumped for joy, even as her mind tried to accept the fact that her sister had outright lied to her—to everyone.

But worse than any of that, Mollie had doubted him. And even now it was a struggle to wrap her mind around the fact that he had been loyal to a woman who long before had stopped acting like a wife.

She had doubted one of the people she cared about most.

Mollie’s eyes closed, struggling to sort everything out.

“You believed the media,” Jackson said, his voice completely devoid of emotion. “You didn’t even ask me.”

Her eyes opened and she reached out a hand. “Jackson—”

He backed away from her touch. “Don’t, Mollie. Just fucking don’t.”

“But wait, I didn’t know—”

“You should have.”

He walked away then, retreating down the hall toward his bedroom, shutting the door with a quiet click.

“Well,” she said to a silent room, “this is off to a great start.”

Chapter 8

It was official. Jackson was avoiding her.

They’d been roommates for nearly a week now, and ever since their sort-of fight in the kitchen, she’d barely seen the guy.

He was gone before she got up. This morning she’d even been out of bed by five-thirty, hoping to coax him into coffee with her, but she’d opened the door to her bedroom just in time to see him disappear out the front door with both gym bag and laptop bag in hand.

And since her workweek had turned unexpectedly crazy, she was lucky to make it home by eight, at which time he’d force a tight smile, give her a cursory “How was your day?” and then retreat to his bedroom to watch TV, only to have the same stifled routine repeat the next day.