It was him all right, but he wasn’t alone. He sat at a small table in the dim recesses of the bar with a dark-haired woman who had Shelby’s eyes almost popping out of her head. Andrew’s wife!
Her mouth fell open as she stared at Jake and Gianna, sitting side by side, their heads bent close together, talking in what appeared to be an intense conversation.
“What’s wrong?” Andrew turned too to see what she was looking at. Shelby made a squeak of warning but it wasn’t even a word and it was too late. He too had spotted Jake and Gianna. She turned her gaze up to Andrew, sitting beside her, watched the reaction on his face—eyes widening, brows drawing down, mouth opening and closing and then opening again.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” he breathed. His cheeks got very red and his breath came fast and shallow.
Chapter Eighteen
Shelby turned back to Jake and Gianna, her own heart doing a tap dance beneath her ribs, a chill gripping her as if someone had just turned the A/C in the bar on full blast. A million questions flooded her brain, backing up and spilling over each other. What were they doing here? Why were they together? What? What?
Okay, she knew he already knew Gianna, because he and Andrew had planned to go into business together. But the way they were sitting there, side by side, heads close together, looked intimate. It made her stomach hurt.
Andrew slid off his stool. Shelby put out an arm to stop him, but why she had no idea. It was his wife, sitting there with another man. He shook her hand off, fire blazing in his eyes, his mouth a grim line, and strode toward the small table.
Jake and Gianna hadn’t apparently noticed them either, but Jake looked up as Andrew approached and came to a halt in front of the table, his hands curled into loose fists.
Shelby scrambled down off the stool and trailed behind Andrew. Was he that furious to see his wife with another man? There couldn’t be anything going on between Gianna and Jake. Could there?
But it hurt to see him with another woman, she had to admit, even though she tried to tell herself nothing could be going on. Even though technically she had no stake in this. She and Jake didn’t have a real relationship.
Except, after the night after the funeral, she’d realized maybe Riley and Myra had been right and she had been in denial about the truth. Now she knew she was in love with Jake.
Andrew, on the other hand, had a right to be pissed. The way Jake and Gianna had been sitting there and talking so intimately didn’t look like two strangers having a casual drink together. It just didn’t make any sense.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Andrew demanded, earning a couple of startled glances from the three men at the next table.
“Andrew!” Gianna’s head whipped around and her hand flew to her throat, her dark eyes huge. Shelby’s throat tightened and she pressed her lips together. She turned her gaze to Jake. He blinked at Andrew, but of all of them, he was the only one who seemed unaffected. Then he looked at her. Their eyes met.
Shelby stared at him, every question bouncing around in her brain surely showing on her face. And a flicker of something—what?—passed over Jake’s face.
What the hell was going on?
Okay, this wasn’t what he’d had in mind when he’d agreed to have a drink with Gianna.
Shelby stood there staring at him with such confusion and pain in her pretty blue eyes it felt like a knife in his own chest. And Andrew…hell, the guy was ready to burst out of his skin with rage. When Andrew turned furious, hurt eyes on his wife, another twinge of remorse snapped inside Jake. Maybe he hadn’t really thought this through. Yeah, he’d thought if he had a drink with Gianna, which would be only a drink and would be completely innocent, he’d be able to convince her that maybe she and Andrew should get some counseling or something. He’d thought that if they fixed their marriage problems, maybe Shelby wouldn’t have to worry about Andrew anymore. He’d never thought Andrew would come along, or that he’d look so…decimated by seeing them together.
And so did Shelby. He hadn’t thought about her knowing about this, either. She looked so hurt and bewildered, which kind of confused him. Did she really care that much? About him?
“Andrew, relax,” Jake said to the man who used to be his friend. “We’re just having a drink.”
“No.” Andrew shook his head. “Uh-uh. You don’t have ‘just a drink’ with the person you were once in love with.”
Shelby’s gasp had everyone turning her way. Her eyes widened, but she never took them off Jake.
“In love with?” she asked, voice quivery and soft.
“Shelby…” Jake began, but wasn’t sure what he was going to say.
Andrew scowled at her. “You didn’t know?”
Shelby shook her head slowly. She still didn’t take her eyes off Jake, and perspiration broke out beneath his shirt and suit jacket. He ran a finger inside his collar. The tie was already loosened, the top button undone, but it still felt constricting.
“You and Gianna…?” Shelby’s face drew into lines of confusion and disbelief. He could see her agile brain processing things. “I knew you two knew each other…but…I don’t understand.”
“This is fucking nuts,” Andrew snarled. “Gianna, what the hell are you doing here with him?”
Oh boy. Jake waited for more shit to hit the fan when Gianna told Andrew what she’d told him. She bit her lip, glanced at Jake. His whole body went tense.
“We ran into each other on the sidewalk outside,” Jake said quickly. “She suggested having a drink. I thought, what the heck? We’re old friends.”
“Friends!” Andrew snapped. “Bullshit.” He slapped both hands flat on the table, the impact sloshing the wine right out of Gianna’s full glass. He ignored it. “What the hell are you playing at, Jake?”
“I’m not playing at anything.” Jake tried to swipe up some of the spilled wine with a paper napkin before it ran off the table, his heart still jumping. Jesus, Gianna was the one who was stalking him, begging to see him.
“Oh for—” Andrew’s jaw tightened as if he was grinding his teeth. A vein pulsed at his temple. “You know you are, you sonofabitch. You’re still not over her. Maybe you had some twisted idea of getting back at me by going after Gianna, but you’re an asshole for doing this to Shelby. She doesn’t deserve to be treated like this.”
White-hot anger rose inside Jake at the accusation but he fought for control. “Andrew…be careful…” Acutely aware of both Shelby and Gianna taking all this in, Jake tried to warn his old friend not to say too much with his wife there. If Andrew showed his feelings for Shelby right in front of Gianna, well, there was no way Jake was going to be able to avert that fucking train wreck. He cast a look at Shelby again.
A frown creased her forehead. “Get back at you for what?”she asked slowly. “What went on between you two? You told me you were thinking of starting a business together. Why would you want to get back at him?”
“Because of me,” Gianna spoke up. Her fingers trembled and her voice shook but she lifted her chin and spoke up. “Jake and I were in a relationship. We were thinking about moving in together. Jake and Andrew were best friends and we all spent a lot of time together. It’s true, they were going to start a business together, and then Andrew and I fell in love.”
Shelby made a small noise that struck Jake like a hammer blow and made him wince. He looked back and forth between Gianna and Shelby, watched Shelby’s throat move as she swallowed, saw her eyes close.