Locked and Loaded (Bullet, #6) by Jade C. Jamison Read Free Book Online

trying to distance herself from him.  He kissed her on the cheek before she could object and said, “So good to see you, Jen.  You look great as always.”
    She looked him in the eyes.  “You do, too.”
    “Liar.”  He could tell she didn’t mean it.  Yeah, he knew he looked like shit, but his appearance was a hell of a lot better than it had been two months ago.  A waiter approached them as they walked in the front door and ushered them to a booth, taking their drink orders (no liquor) and handing them large menus covered in clear vinyl before zipping off.  Zane opened the menu but his thoughts weren’t on food.  Not in the slightest.
    No, his internal focus was on Jennifer, and he felt at peace for the first time in months just having her near.  He would be glad to simply float in her orbit once more, and he had to hope that this time, out of all the times they’d been together before, it worked.  He was tired of the merry-go-round.  He might have spent half (or more) of his adult life blitzed out of his mind, but he hadn’t lost so many brain cells as to not know his behaviors were cyclical.
    And destructive.
    While his every focus was on that woman, he didn’t want to freak her out, so he let his eyes scan the menu while he talked.  “How’s the job going?  You still at the same place?”
    Jennifer drew in a slight breath.  “Yeah.  Probably till the day I die.”
    Zane looked up.  He hadn’t expected something so real in their conversation so soon.  He knew Jennifer well enough to know she’d meant it to come across as half joking, but he could see right through her.  “You’re way too young to talk like that, Jen.  If you don’t like it there, get out.  Find something else.”
    “I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”
    He was relieved she’d put the menu down and was looking him in the eyes now.  “So...do you?”  After a pause, he prompted.  “Like it?”
    She lifted her eyebrows and shrugged before giving him an almost convincing “Yeah.”
    “Do you love it?”
    Jennifer let out a slight chuckle then.  “I’m a glorified clerk, a secretary in a sea of secretaries...and that’s all my four-year liberal arts education has gotten me.  Do you think I love it?”
    Ah... there was the Jen he was used to—a woman comfortable enough with him to tell him how she really felt.  No social conventions, no polite nonsense just because it was expected.  Real.   “So what do you want to do, Jen?  What did you go to school for?”
    She raised her eyebrows, and it was as if he saw a curtain being drawn across a window.  Too much, too soon, as if they didn’t have a long and varied history behind them and could go there anyway.  Goddammit.  “Very easy for you to sit in judgment, Zane Carson.  You’re the bassist of one of the most popular bands nowadays, and I’m pretty sure you want for nothing.  So it’s pretty simple for you to point from your throne and tell me what I’m doing wrong.”
    Oh, fuck.  They’d barely been together five minutes.  She was going to start this shit already?  He got ready to fire right back and then realized that he didn’t have to feed it.  Maybe she’d had a shitty week and she was just venting.  Maybe this was what she needed.  So he took a deep breath and tamped down the internal flames before responding.  “Hey...I wasn’t trying to point a finger, okay.  I just really wanted to know what’s going on with you—and I don’t like hearing that maybe you’re not happy...‘cause out of everyone I know, you deserve some happiness.  I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”
    He saw her facial features soften then, and she let out an almost inaudible sigh as she let go of the tension in her body.  “Oh, geez.  I’m sorry, Zane.  I, uh—”
    “No worries, Jen.”  Zane saw the waiter making his way over to the table.  “But I hope you know what you want, ‘cause it’s just about time to order.”
    * * *
    J ennifer