“It’s unlike you to hole up and hide out.”
“I’m not.”
“Bullshit you’re not. How many women have you dated this year?”
Dell craned his neck and narrowed his eyes at his brother.
“Yeah,” Adam said. “I can’t count, either. You’ve never even looked back. But you’re looking back now. Why don’t you just man up, tell her how you feel, and work it out?”
“We’re
“Okay. Except we are.” Adam took the desk chair and made himself comfortable, leaning back, folding his fingers together over his abs. “Because I’ve been voted to kick your ass into gear.”
“Look, she was needed back at home, so she went. It’s not that far. We’re going to visit.”
Adam nodded.
“And anyway, I should be relieved. It’s a forced slowingdown period, right? Things… they were getting a little out of hand.”
“Out of hand?” Adam repeated. “Is that what you kids call falling in love these days?”
Dell turned to face Adam, his ass resting against the window sill because his legs felt a little wobbly. “Who said anything about love?”
“Oh, that’s right. You only love four-legged furry creatures.”
“Fuck you.”
“Aw, you’re repeating yourself again.” Adam stood. “Listen. What happened to us when we were kids, that was… fucked up.”
Not wanting to hear this, or anything else for that matter, Dell gave Adam a push toward the door.
Adam took a step back but held his ground. “But we still managed to make something of ourselves.”
“Adam-”
“That was all you, man. Brady and I kept our heads on straight because we had you to look after. And then later on when the both of us lost it,
“Look, I told you, we’ll be okay. I’ll see her whenever I’m in Chicago, and-”
“You’re in Chicago never.”
Dell gave Adam another push to the door.
“Good talk,” Adam said, just before Dell slammed the door in his face.
It took three days for Jade to get back to Chicago. The drive was easy enough, smooth weather, no car problems. Her phone rang steadily. Lilah, checking in with traffic reports, wanting Jade to know about the cow reportedly on the highway in Wyoming, and the detour in Nebraska, and that Lilah had already planned a Chicago trip.
Jade had hung up each time smiling.
Then tearing up.
She missed Lilah already.
Brady called, letting her know he’d changed her oil the night before she’d left and also put on new windshield wipers.
Adam called several times as well, asking about work and scheduling. Things they both knew that he already knew.
No pressure to come back, not from any of them. They wanted what was best for her.
They wanted her to be happy…
Dell didn’t call. She didn’t expect him to. But she picked up her phone often and thumbed to his contact info, then set her phone down.
Back in Chicago, she went straight to her town house. There were no surprises. Well, except that when she set Beans’s carrier down and opened the door, the cat didn’t want to come out.
Jade coaxed her with some treats, but after she ate them she went right back into her carrier with a low growl that Jade would have sworn said,
Jade’s mother had sent people in to clean periodically and Sam had long ago adopted her few plants, so she shouldn’t have been surprised to find everything in order and in its place, smelling slightly of lemon cleaner.
It was bigger than she remembered. More open.
More empty.
She’d spent her first day alone, not having told anyone she was back, but by day two Sam had sniffed her out.
He let himself in with his key and called to her from the front door. “Jade?” Before she could blink, he’d crossed the living room, hauled her off the couch and was hugging her. “Jesus, are you a sight for sore eyes.” Pulling back, he stared down into her face and smiled.
When she didn’t return it, his slowly faded. “You okay?”
“Of course,” she said. “Just tired from the drive.”
“How tired? Because your mother’s expecting you for dinner.”
“I know. I’ll go get that over with and then come back here and crash, I think. Catch up on some sleep. Three solid days of driving is pretty exhausting.”
“Is that all it is?” Sam asked quietly, still holding on to her. “Trip exhaustion?”
Pulling free, she moved around, running a finger on some of the pictures on the walls, pictures of her and her family over the years.
Friends.
Old friends that had easily vanished from her life when she’d left here. There’d been a few token efforts to keep up, from both sides, but that had petered out with shocking ease.
Now she looked at the pictures and realized her real friends were seventeen hundred miles away in Sunshine, Idaho.
And possibly her heart.
“Jade?”
Throat burning, she turned to face Sam, forcing a smile that totally crumpled when he just looked at her and said her name.
“I’m just really tired,” she whispered, and swiped angrily at the sole tear that escaped. “That’s all.”
And utterly belying these words, she burst into tears.
His face softened and he gathered her in, stroking her hair. “Oh, Jade. It’s going to be okay.”
She nodded and tried not to snot on his shirt, hoping he was right. That somehow it was going to be okay.
Sam drove to Jade’s parents’ house, which worked for Jade. She was too nervous. Unsettled.
Heartsick.
She stirred when Sam got off the freeway two exits early.
“What are you doing?” Jade asked.
“Need to go by the center and pick up some files to read tonight.”
Panic slithered through Jade. “No.”
Sam slid a look at her, then did a double take, his easy smile fading into worry. “Jade.”
“I’m not doing this now.”
“They’re expecting you tomorrow, you know that, right? I thought it’d be easier for you if we went there now, tonight. When there’s no one there. You can walk through, get your bearings.”
Her pulse was up to stroke level and her palms were sweating. “I’m not going back for the first time at night.”
Again Sam sent her a questing, concerned look but he didn’t press. He simply executed a U-turn and got back on the freeway without another word.
“Thanks,” she said quietly.
“I just got you back.” He reached for her hand to give it a gentle squeeze. “I’m sure as hell not risking chasing you out of here.”
