Rock Hard

Chapter 39

Beth grabbed Jessica in a bear hug the moment she stepped into the terminal. “I missed you,” Beth said breathlessly. “Tell me all about your summer. Did you make good money stripping before you got fired?”

“No,” Jessica said.

“Are you and Sed back together?”

“No.”

“No? What do you mean, no? I thought things were going well. What happened?”

“We’ll talk at home. I’m tired.” Jessica was tired, and didn’t think she could handle talking about Sed at the moment. His rejection was still too fresh. Too… raw. She’d thought they were finally working as a team instead of butting heads in constant opposition and then this.

Jessica stomped through the terminal toward baggage claim. “We need to make an ice cream and chocolate run,” Jessica said to Beth over her shoulder.

By the time they got to their shared apartment, Jessica was no longer in the mood for ice cream or chocolate. She really just wanted to curl up in a ball on her bed and cry herself to sleep. Beth wouldn’t hear of it. She brought two enormous servings of cookie dough ice cream into Jessica’s room and interrupted her unpacking.

“Tell me everything.” Beth slurped a bite of dessert into her mouth.

So Jessica told her everything. Well, almost everything. From Sed finding her in Vegas to him kicking her off the bus that morning. She conveniently left out some self-incriminating tales.

“Why do you put up with him? He’s such an asshole. Seriously, Jess, you can do better. You deserve to be happy.”

“I love him, Beth. It’s not something I can help. I tried to tell him why I want to drop out of law school—”

“What?” Beth’s spoon slipped from her grip and rattled in her bowl. “You’re dropping out of law school? Why would you do that?”

“I told you I was on academic probation.”

“But you got your scholarship back.”

“I was thinking of becoming—don’t laugh—a nurse.”

Beth’s brown eyes enlarged until Jessica feared they’d pop out of her head, and then she fell over on the bed laughing. “You had me going there for a minute, Jess.”

“I’m serious. I can take most of the classes online—”

“Have you lost your mind? What a horrible, thankless job.”

Jessica scowled. “I don’t think so. I can’t think of a more admirable job.”

“All that time around that drug addict—”

“His name is Trey.”

“All that time around… Trey… must have addled your brains and given you some ridiculous Florence Nightingale syndrome. You’re going to be a great lawyer, Jess. You’re so smart, and you’re really good at arguing points logically.”

Jessica snorted derisively. It was apparent that Beth had never seen her when she was around Sed. There was nothing logical about her interactions with the man.

Beth patted her hand. “You’ve had a tough day. Sleep on it. I’m sure you’ll see that continuing with law school is what’s best for you.”

“I’m really tired of everyone thinking they know what’s best for me. This is my life and I should be able to do whatever I want with it.”

“Just sleep on it, okay? And promise you’ll go to the first day of classes. For your bestest best friend.” Beth offered an exaggerated pout.

“Yeah, fine, whatever. Now get out of my room and take your nightmare-inducing midnight snack with you.”

Jessica would go to the first day of classes, but just to prove to herself that law school wasn’t for her. It had nothing to do with Sed. The big jerk.

God, she missed him already.