“Have you been following any of Winter’s social media accounts?”
She gave him a look that said he should know better than to ask. “No, I’m not keeping up with my ex-boyfriend’s ex.”
Jace hesitated and seemed to be weighing whether he should say more or not.
“Why?” Riley asked.
“I don’t want to make speculations, but I’ve noticed that for someone who loves taking selfies, there aren’t any of her standing in front of European monuments.”
Riley’s brows furrowed. What did that mean? “You think she lied about going to Europe?” Why would she do that, and what did that have to do with Lucas?
Jace held up gloved hands. “No speculations on my part.”
“Obviously you’ve speculated something, or you wouldn’t have brought it up.”
“I’m only saying you should go look at it yourself and come to your own conclusions.”
Down the street, a snowblower started up, letting out a low hum of complaint. Jace raised his voice a little. “And I’ll reiterate that Lucas and I confide in each other about nearly everything, so if he said it was a matter of life and death, he meant it.”
Lucas and he confided in each other about nearly everything. Was this Jace’s way of saying he was going to tell Lucas about last night? Had Jace been making some sort of point when he dropped her off at her apartment—that people occasionally made mistakes and kissed the wrong person?
“Okay,” she said slowly, dragging out the word. “I’ll give some thought to what you said, but right now we should talk about last night.”
His tone turned sympathetic. “Sorry about what you went through with Mr. Travers. It couldn’t have happened to a worse person, and I’m not just saying that because you clearly don’t know how to hold your liquor.”
“Yeah, agreed. Look, I don’t remember everything that happened after you brought me to my apartment.”
His eyebrows quirked up. “That makes two of us.”
She couldn’t keep looking at him. She turned her gaze firmly to the sidewalk and the snow piled off to the side. “We really should talk about…you know…the way we kissed.”
She cut a glance at him. Jace’s eyebrows had lifted higher. He either thought she wouldn’t remember kissing him or he hadn’t thought she would bring up the topic.
She bit her lip. “I mean, if we don’t talk about it, last night will always be this huge awkward thing between us.”
“Awkward is one word for it,” Jace said.
“Obviously it was a mistake. I was feeling emotional and lonely, and I was drunk. I’m sure you also have an excuse…”
“I’m sure I do,” he said slowly, “but I can’t really tell you what.”
Just like his brother. She expected more from Jace. She waited. He kept shaking his head, jaw clenched as though chiding himself.
At least she hoped he was chiding himself. “You don’t have an explanation as to why you kissed me while I was drunk?”
Jace’s tongue went over his teeth, and he nodded unhappily. “Sometimes I’m just struck with uncommonly bad judgment.”
Well, people had certainly been saying as much since he started dating Jennifer. “Speaking of your girlfriend,” Riley said, “I don’t remember everything I said about her last night…”
“Wait,” Jace said. “How was any of what we just said speaking about Jennifer?”
Oops. Best not to explain that connection. “I just wanted to tell you that I was totally out of line.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“You know, when I said she was as unpopular as snow in May and that literally any other woman on the planet would be better for you. And if I said anything else about her flaws that I don’t remember, I’m sorry for that too.”
Jace grunted and shook his head. “Why shouldn’t we have discussed Jennifer’s flaws? That’s just par for the course.”