Jacoby appealed to me, though.
His presence was all I craved. His company was all I needed.
When and how did this happen?
12
Jacoby
Tasha was on her back with her arm slung over her face when I returned. Her legs were straight out in front of her, and her mouth hung open. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought she was asleep. But since I’d only been out of the room for two minutes, I knew she wasn’t.
“Pizza will be here in fifteen to twenty minutes,” I said, plopping onto the cushion next to her feet. Without waiting for a response, I grabbed one foot and began to knead my thumbs into her heel. She didn’t have to tell me that she liked it, I could tell that by the way her body instantly relaxed.
She lifted her arm and rested it behind her head while regarding me with an unexpected emotion in her eyes. I’d anticipated returning to find her in the same mental state as when I left—which was slightly better than drooling on herself while rocking back and forth in a corner. However, the woman staring back at me now seemed filled with awe, consumed by gratitude. And I had no idea why.
“This was your plan all along, wasn’t it?” I teased, doing my best to lighten the mood in the room. “To get me to rub your feet. You did this on purpose; don’t even try to deny it.”
Her face lit up in genuine awe. “You caught me.”
“I knew it. I bet that phone call was completely staged.”
“Dang, I’ve got to get better at acting. Ex-specially since I’m supposed to convince everyone that I’m someone else.” Her exaggerated pronunciation made me laugh, but as soon as she started talking again, my laughter died on my lips. “And now that I know about my sister’s infidelity, pretending to be her is going to be way harder.”
“Wait. What?” Not that it came as any surprise, but the way she admitted it shocked me.
“Yeah. One of the girls made a comment today that didn’t sit well with me. She didn’t say it in front of anyone, but it was just the way she said it that had my stomach in knots. Then, on my way home, I called Ty to see what he knew about it. Turns out, she wasn’t wrong. Except it’s much worse than I thought. Tiffany didn’t just cheat on Adam…she cheated on Adam with one of the other girl’s husband.”
I didn’t have any words. Not because I thought that Tiffany was some standup individual who’d never cheat on her fiancé. It had more to do with how I viewed Tasha, and considering she was impersonating her sister, it left me with a bit of a confused reality.
“I just don’t know what to do. I don’t feel that my sister should get away with it. And what’s worse is she’s basically profiting from being a horrible person. But I can’t say anything. I can’t do anything. My hands are tied, and it makes me feel gross.”
As I continued to knead the soft arch of her foot, my mind spun with thoughts and ideas and suggestions that could help her out of this. I truly hated that she was in this situation, and there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t give to get her out of it. “What if you didn’t say or do anything, but at the same time, didn’t do anything to deny it?”
Tasha took a deep breath, and on her exhale, she shrugged. “I guess it would depend on how that happens. You know? As long as it doesn’t come back to me or could be proven that I had knowingly done something wrong. But I don’t see what I could do—or not do—that wouldn’t come back to me.”
While waiting for the pizza to arrive, we tossed around a few ideas. I continued to massage her feet, and she continued to look at me like I’d hung the moon. If I’d only known that a foot rub had this kind of effect on her, then I would’ve purposely lost the bet. This was way better than watching her squirm while finding excuses not to touch my feet.
“Please don’t be mad at me, but I’m not really in the mood for pizza anymore.” The way she regarded me with a furrowed brow and pleading eyes made her look like a child scared of getting in trouble for spilling juice on the carpet. It made me laugh.
“Why would I be mad?”
“Because the only reason you ordered it was because I asked you to.”
“So? It’s just pizza, not a diamond ring.” As soon as I said that, I couldn’t help but glance down at the rock on her left hand. She’d briefly explained it before, shortly after I had discovered the truth about who she was. It was a replica of the one Adam had given her sister when he proposed, which had been made specifically for her since Tiffany refused to let her wear the real one.
Tasha must’ve caught me staring, or maybe she noticed a subconscious thought written across my face, because she quickly flashed the cubic zirconia in front of me and laughed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that pizza cost more than this piece of plastic.”
“Is that really the same size as Tiffany’s?”
She flattened her hand on her thigh and regarded the shiny stone. “I honestly have no idea; I’ve never seen it in real life, but based on what it looks like in pictures, I’d say so. Not to mention, I doubt they would’ve gotten an imitation ring that didn’t look identical to the original, much like the imitation Tiffany.”
I swept the pad of my thumb over her cheekbone and followed it around her ear, brushing her hair away from her face. “I think you got that a bit backwards, babe. More like you’re the
