Chapter 68

“You don’t know if you don’t try.” Jake cuts in flatly from his position behind me. His arms are around my shoulders, and his back is to the closed patio door. “Just saying.” He shrugs, and I can feel his smirk as Daniel eyes him up, and Leila stays intensely focused on Daniel’s profile. I can feel her willing him to make a choice—a real one.

“I don’t want to keep hurting you.” He looks at Leila, and even from his tall, over six-foot height, to her tiny, five-foot odd, they still manage to lock eyes. No one can deny the electrical surge sparking all around them, an ever-present hum whenever these two get close. I wonder if Jake and I exude the same thing, and he instinctively pulls his arms up around me a little more firmly.

“You’re hurting me now. By doing this. This nothing. This waiting thing.” She cries quietly, and he slowly lifts a hand to tenderly brush away the tears on her cheeks. She slaps it away, and he raises his hand back up to try again, ignoring the furio