Something Worth Saving by Chelsea Landon

searched mine as I grasped the meaning behind his words. He knew, and he was looking for me to admit it. “I saw him at your shop when I was getting in my truck.”
    “You said you were out on a job.”
    “I went after that.” He blinked and then looked back up at me. “The call came in and I was mad, so I went on the job instead of coming into your shop and beating the living shit out of him for showing up here.”
    “I honestly don’t know,” was my response. He just stared at me, knowing that wasn’t the truth. He blinked once, slowly, annoyed. “He . . . he wanted to know that I was okay.”
    “And you said?”
    I swallowed carefully. “I said I was fine.”
    His hands found mine, his jaw tight as he spoke in a rigid tone. “You don’t want him here?”
    “No.”
    Jace gave me a nod, then a small cagey smile. “That’s all I needed to hear, then.”
    Was it?
    His expression didn’t look so convincing. In fact, his expression told me something else entirely. His head hung, his left hand scrubbing deliberately across his forehead, easing his frustration.
    The motion told me that for one, he wasn’t happy my ex was in town and that he had to ask for the information. Jace was never someone who wanted to search out information. He wanted to know. But he also wanted you to tell him before he had to ask. It went back to that trust thing.
    “Why are you mad that he’s here?” I had an idea of why, but I asked anyway.
    “Because he’s got no business checking up on you after you left him. It only means trouble that he’s here now.”
    Before I could say anything else, he gave a nod toward the door. “Let’s go.”
    I nodded, feeling like maybe just hiding. Jace always had a way of making me feel like he always had the upper hand in everything he said and did. Had he given me a chance, I would have told him about Ridley. I was sure I would have. Eventually.
    Jace didn’t let me get away, and his right hand cupped my cheek. “I just want to take my girl on a date.” I didn’t miss the possessiveness in his voice. I could tell by his eyes I wasn’t meant to, either. “Can we do that?”
    And, just like that, he wanted to drop it. Sure, I was nervous then, how could I not be, but I didn’t want to ruin our date or our night over something like Ridley. The last thing I wanted to do was think about Ridley in any way.
    For years I’d been hung up on how I could let that happen to me, but no more. I was done with that life and with Ridley Harrison. I wouldn’t spend more time thinking about the past.
    Through dinner and well into the movie, Jace was quiet and spoke about work a little, but seemed very distracted. Naturally I knew why, and it frustrated me to no end. It frustrated me more than my mother telling Ridley where I was.
    Then we got into the movie, which was about a man hung up on a girl and not seeing what was right in front of him. Was I not seeing what was in front of me?
    I had a tendency to stick my own head up my ass at times and not see reality and what was happening right in front of me. Who doesn’t from time to time?
    For some reason, the movie sparked something in me. Not sure exactly what, but it got me thinking about how relationships can turn like that.
    How do they go from good to bad?
    Is it the same as a fire, and eventually the heat will die down?
    Romantic movies always made me think about my own relationship and how different reality is from what’s revealed in books and movies.
    For one thing, I hate the movies and books where they talk about the guy who meets a girls and never looks twice at another woman. Where’s the veracity in that? It’s bullshit. Guys look, and if you think they don’t, you’re crazy. You’re just not seeing it.
    And women do, too.
    Sure, in the beginning you’re all eyes on, but what happens a year or two into it and you look?
    If you talked to my mother, according to her, if you’re looking, you’re ready for something else. That would