Can't Get Over You (Fortune's Island, Book 2) by Shirley Jump Read Free Book Online Page B

never even visited—Cedar Junction. The state prison sat in Walpole, a couple hours north of his parents’ house, but it might as well have been the moon, because Zach had never made the journey on visitation day. All his life, he’d vowed to take a different path from his brother, a smarter path—
    And what had he just done now? Let his emotions overrule common sense. Damn it. What was wrong with him? “I’m sorry, Jillian,” Zach said. “He was kissing you and—”
    “Because we are out on a date,” the bastard said. “And none of this concerns you. Not earlier, not now.”
    Zach ignored him. Because if he didn’t, he’d end up hitting him again. “Jillian—”
    “No matter what is going on tonight, that doesn’t give you a right to hit anyone. God.” She shook her head. “You know how I feel about that kind of thing. And after what happened to me that summer…”
    She shook her head, and her words trailed off. The guilt inside of Zach quadrupled. Why hadn’t he thought of that summer before he acted like a Neanderthal?
    “Jillian, I’m so sorry. I didn’t think. I just…reacted.” A thousand times over the years, he’d wanted to tell her the truth about that night on the beach when she’d been attacked. But at the time, he’d barely been an adult, a kid really, who still worshipped his older brother and didn’t want to be the one to send Keith to jail. In the end, Keith had sent himself to Cedar Junction, after beating up and robbing an old man outside a grocery store in Plymouth. And Zach had keptthe secret that summer, a summer that scarred Jillian to this day, afraid that if he ever told Jillian, she would look at him exactly the way she was looking at him right now.
    “No, you didn’t think, Zach,” Jillian said.
    The bastard was sitting on the ground beside the lamppost, watching them, and tenderly touching his jaw from time to time. He started to get to his feet. “Jillian, we should just get out of here.”
    “Give me a second,” she said. The bastard’s gaze narrowed in Zach’s direction, but he kept quiet.
    “I’m sorry, Jillian,” Zach said again. “I really am. I was an idiot.”
    She ignored his apology and went on, taking a step toward him to emphasize her point. “You don’t have the right to follow me, or tell me who I can kiss or not kiss. And you especially don’t have the right to hit a guy just because he kissed me. I broke up with you, remember?”
    “Yeah, I noticed that.” Zach shook his head. “All I’ve done since then is my best to get back together with you.”
    “Your best, Zach?” she scoffed. “That’s the problem right there. That you think a few half-hearted attempts to talk to me was your best.” Then she turned back to the other guy. She leaned toward him, her back to Zach. Her tone softened, and she reached out a hand to touch the red spot on his jaw. “You okay?”
    He nodded, but there was anger flashing in his eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
    The valet, a skinny young kid with glasses, jumped out of the car he was bringing up to the station, ran over to them, looking like he was about ready to have a heart attack. “Sir? Uh, sir, are you okay? Do you want me to call the cops or anything?”
    Zach scoffed. On Fortune’s Island, cops plural was a misnomer. Usually only one of the three members of the Fortune’s Island police force was on duty at any given time, and most often, to deal with someone too drunk to drive. Still, the last thing Zach needed was trouble with the law. He wasn’t Keith—and refused to follow in his elder brother’s footsteps. This had been a mistake, a big, huge mistake.
    “I got out of hand,” Zach said to the valet, and then to the bastard who’d been kissing Jillian. “I’m sorry, man.”
    The other man gave Zach a quick, dismissive look, then turned to the valet. “No, thanks. I’m fine.”
    Jillian slipped her hand into the other man’s, then shot Zach a glare. “You’re right. It’s about