Unbreakable Love (13 page)

“Okay, Mom,” Jen said without even turning around. Jennie let out a sigh of exasperation but eventually turned to go back in the house. As she walked through the door Nate held open for her, she looked him directly in the eyes and said, “We’ll talk later.” Nate smiled at her politely and thought,
not if I can keep you busy
.

Nate didn’t have to worry about Jennie cornering him for the next couple of hours. After her friends sang Happy Birthday to her and enjoyed cake, all of them except Marissa left for Blake’s party. Luckily for Nate, Braiden was out of town and Marissa would be with them all night. While the girls spent some time upstairs getting dressed for the evening, Nate played a rousing game of Monopoly with Jennie’s little sister Kate. It didn’t take long for Kate to dominate the board and by the time Jennie came back downstairs, Kate had taken most of his money as well.

“Just in time,” Nate said to Jennie, grateful to be saved from theoretical bankruptcy. Nate pulled himself off the ground where he and Kate were spread out playing the game and smoothed down his shirt.

“Yeah, good timing,” Kate taunted. “I was just about to serve up some humble pie.”

Nate laughed good-naturedly. “I feel for the business world. After you take it on, they won’t even know what hit them.” Kate blushed as if he’d given her the greatest compliment a person can receive. Just then, Marissa trailed down the stairs, looking made up for the party.

“Are we ready?” Jennie asked.

“Let’s go,” Nate confirmed.

Jennie, Marissa and Nate walked out together and piled into his Mustang. He’d readily agreed to be the designated driver for the evening although Jennie hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol since meeting Nate. It had seemed natural to her not to drink around Nate, but he wanted to be in charge of the keys just in case. It was New Year’s Eve and her eighteenth birthday, after all.

Blake’s house wasn’t far from Jennie’s and it was easy to identify by the cars parked haphazardly all over the lawn and driveway. Every light in the house blazed and, music spilled out, waking up the normally quiet suburban neighborhood. Pulling up to Blake’s house was like watching a stadium fill up just before a concert or a big game. There was an excitement in the air, even an urgency of sorts to congregate and then let loose. Nate wedged his car between a large truck and another car parked halfway on the sidewalk. As Marissa and Jennie led the way to the door, Nate tried not to notice Jennie’s short shirt and long boots that accentuated her graceful legs. Instead, he looked up at the sky and reminded himself to keep his promises and act like the man he should be. The twinkling stars seemed to help, or at least they averted his gaze. Soon after they went inside the three friends became separated. Jennie and Marissa went off to the kitchen and Nate hung out with some of the guys from the basketball team, but Nate began to get bored quickly. Drinking parties didn’t do much for him, so he began to wander the house looking for Jennie. After combing the first floor and not finding her, he tried upstairs.

Just as he was about to go back downstairs, a bedroom door opened and Jace came out with his arm slung casually around Kia, a foreign exchange student from Finland. When he saw Nate, Jace feigned a smile and walked right up to him.

“Is Jennie here?” he asked snidely. “I have a birthday present for her.”

Nate started to count to ten backwards in his head to make himself stay calm, but Jace wasn’t done. He stepped away from Kia and got close enough to Nate for Nate to smell his rancid alcoholic breath and see his bloodshot eyes.

“I’m not scared of you,” he taunted. “I know you won’t lay a hand on me with Jennie around.”

Jace was partially right; Nate didn’t want to make a scene. Suddenly, he had an idea. He turned to Kia and spoke to her in perfect Finnish. Jace couldn’t understand what they were saying but he was pretty sure that Nate was talking about him.

After Nate was done, Kia briefly looked at Jace then back to Nate before responding in English. “Nate, are you sure?”

Nate nodded his head
yes
. Without any forewarning, Kia turned to Jace and slapped him across the face, leaving a red welting imprint on his pasty skin. Before Jace could even respond, she gave him an additional verbal lashing in her native tongue and stormed down the stairs, making an impressive exit.

Jace raised his hand to his face where it still stung and let out a string of swear words, but she was already out of earshot.

With no one else to blame Jace turned his anger toward Nate. Nate didn’t care, in fact he was wearing an unapologetic smile from ear to ear.

“You’re right, as usual,” Nate retorted, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I wouldn’t lay a hand on you with Jennie around, but then again I didn’t need to. Kia took care of that for me.”

Jace could feel his fist balling up in response when he happened to look past Nate, over the low wall to the first floor below them. Kia had just brushed by Jennie near the bottom of the stairs when at the same time Jennie looked up and saw Jace and Nate in the middle of their heated discussion.

Jace knew he could do a lot more damage to Nate by getting to Jennie than he ever could by hitting him. Without saying another word, Jace bounded down the stairs to catch Jennie.

Jace had been taking tiny steps toward repairing his relationship with Jennie ever since the night of the winter formal. He’d carefully chosen certain people to talk to about how his life was miserable without her and how he wanted her back. Then once the gossip was set in motion, he just sat back and watched the carefully constructed rumors trickle effortlessly through the student body like a river flowing away from its source. Once he knew she’d heard them, he started sending Jennie text messages.

Things like,
I miss your friendship
or
You look beautiful today
. Simple things, not too pushy, just enough to make her think about him. His plan seemed to working. After Jace’s heartfelt apology at the winter formal, she had been warming up to him a little at a time. Last week, he’d even stopped by the pet store and bought some food to feed a nonexistent stray cat in his neighborhood and she’d gushed about how proud she was that he was caring for a helpless animal.

Jennie was primed and ready for the next step in his plan and now Jace saw a perfect opportunity to turn her against Nate. This, of course, would get him one step closer to having her all to himself.

Before Nate even realized what was happening, Jace was down the stairs, whispering in Jennie’s ear, carefully putting into motion his recently concocted plan to destroy Nate and Jennie’s friendship. His words were fervent and indignant and framed Nate as the bad guy and himself as the innocent bystander.

Nate looked down just as he was pulling away from Jennie. Once Jace knew Jennie wasn’t looking he flashed Nate a smug expression that was a near mirror image of the one Nate had worn only minutes before. Even from upstairs, Nate could see Jace’s eyes dance with vengeful glee. Clearly, Jace saw Jennie as a prize to be won and weapon in a war of territory to be conquered. Immediately, Nate regretted his impulsive behavior. He should’ve ignored Jace and Kia, for Jennie’s sake.

Jennie peered up, trying to catch a glimpse of Nate on the second floor. Even from that distance Nate could see in her eyes that she was upset. He knew he’d better handle this quickly, before it spiraled into a bigger problem. Nate had only used the truth when talking to Kia, but Jace was far more unscrupulous than that. Nate rushed down the stairs to reach Jennie before Jace could do more damage, but she was already on her way up. They met in the middle on the landing where the stairs split in two.

“Let’s talk upstairs,” Nate suggested.

Jennie didn’t reply, but she followed him up to one of the bedrooms toward the back of the house, walking with angry footsteps.

Before the door was even closed behind them, she blurted out, “Is this where you took Kia?”

Nate had assumed Jace would turn the truth around on him. That was the way he worked. Jace’s plan wasn’t even that creative, but unfortunately Jennie seemed to believe him, especially since she’d passed Kia downstairs.

“I didn’t do anything with Kia,” Nate protested vehemently. “Jace is angry with me so he made it up.”

Jennie considered this for a minute. It did seem out of character for Nate to hook up with someone at a party, but he had also been avoiding her for days and Kia did look disheveled when she came down the stairs. For the moment, the evidence was stacked against Nate.

“I don’t know if I believe you,” Jennie said, sounding strangely cold and distant.

Jennie’s response felt like a knife in Nate’s gut. After all this time, he couldn’t believe that she would take Jace’s word over his. As the full weight of Jennie’s words hit him, he found himself becoming increasingly angry. They were supposedly best friends. She should have believed him—outright, no questions, no doubts.

Nate stood close to her, even reached out his hand and placed it on her arm over her silky black shirt. “You don’t really believe Jace, do you?”

Jennie looked away, purposely not meeting his gaze. Nate was stunned again—she actually thought he was lying. Nate let his hand fall to his side and then realized it felt unnaturally heavy as it hung there, unable to touch Jennie’s skin. For the first time in a long time, Nate felt utterly helpless and that made him even more angry. The longer he stood there looking at her, the more he wanted to lash out. All of the frustration of the last five months that had been simmering unrecognized inside of him was quickly building into a fiery boil.

“I did not touch Kia,” he spat angrily at her. Each word coming from his mouth seemed to touch a nerve on her spine, and she bristled from the inside out.

Jennie wanted to believe him, but part of her, the part that wanted this fight, was overriding good sound logical reasoning. Jennie wanted to be mad; feeling angry was keeping the possible hurt at bay.

Jennie glared at him without saying anything; then the anger won out and she fired back, “I’m not sure what to think.”

Jennie’s words stung, further driving a wedge between them. “And what right do you even have to ask me about Kia, anyway? We aren’t even dating,” he said through clenched teeth.

The second the words were out, Jennie actually cringed and sank onto the bed in a gesture that might as well have been a physical blow. Nate thought she would admit defeat, but instead she seemed to be still only for the purpose of gathering strength to speak her next words. It took awhile but when she spoke again, she spoke with urgency and surprising tenderness.

“We are having this conversation, Nate, because I am in love with you and cannot wait one more day to know if you feel the same.”

As soon as the words were out, Jennie felt relief, like she had finally let go of a burning secret that had done nothing but leave her singed on the inside. Anger still hung in the air, but at least now Nate knew the truth. Jennie kept her eyes pasted on the ground in front of her, too terrified to look up, but when Nate walked to the door and opened it, she looked up confused.

“Didn’t you hear me?” she said, “I just told you I love you!”

Nate met her eyes from across the room. The anger was fizzling now, but a new emotion had taken its place. Nate looked scared.

“What’s wrong?” Jennie asked.

“The house is on fire; I have to get you out.” Momentarily distracted, Jennie ran to the door but never left the room. She had been so caught up in their conversation that she had ignored the pungent smell that was drifting up from the first floor. The smoke was already in the staircase and right behind that a wave of unbearable heat that was intensifying by the minute. Instinctively, Nate closed the door to keep the fire temporarily at bay.

“I saw kids smoking in the living room,” Jennie said to no one in particular. She’d taken on a dazed expression as if she didn’t know quite how to react to the situation.

Nate knew he had to take charge. “We need to use the patio to get out.” Nate quickly moved to the French doors that led to a walk-out patio overlooking the grassy backyard below.

“Come here,” he commanded.

Jennie had been in danger around Nate before. Angry or not, she knew he would handle the situation. She knew in the end, whether or not he loved her in return, Nate would save her life even at the expense of his own. She forced herself to snap back to reality and follow his directions. Once outside, they looked over the rail at the grass below. It was only one story below them and provided a relatively soft landing. Jennie could hear fire engines coming in the distance. The scream of their sirens cut through the chaos breaking out around them. Because the fire started in the front room, kids were pouring through the back doors and making their escape over the fence. Nate would have to time their jump just right so no one got hurt.

He turned to Jennie and met her anxious eyes. “I’m going to jump first and then I’ll catch you,” he stated firmly. “Are you okay with that?”

Jennie nodded her head. The reality of the danger they were in had final taken hold, and Jennie was trembling as she climbed to the top of the rail. Somehow, Nate leapt from the second story and landed on his feet. Panicked teenagers pushed by him but he held his ground. Jennie could hear the powerful engines of the fire trucks pulling up in the front yard. Flames engulfed most of the first floor and Jennie knew there was no time to hesitate. She took one last look at Nate. The flames of the fire cast an eerie glow on his eyes.

“Jump!” he called out to her. Jennie, already on the other side of the rail, closed her eyes and let go. Although Nate’s strong arms caught her, they both fell to the ground from the impact. Immediately Nate wrapped himself around her so that she wouldn’t get trampled in the confusion. Then as soon as he could, he stood up and pulled her up by her arm just as the firefighters began to appear around the corners of the house.

“I have to go back in,” he said to Jennie. Jennie didn’t want him to go, at least without knowing how he felt. She grabbed his hand, holding it tight, and met his gaze. A mirror image of the dancing flames reflected in his eyes, but she wouldn’t give up without her answer.