“Jade?”
Slowly she turned her head towards him. “I’m sorry? What did you say?”
“Where’d you go?”
“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that I’ve got a lot to figure out.”
She snapped at him, but Cole decided to let it pass. She was going through a lot. “You want to bounce some of it off me? I’ve been told I’m a good listener.”
“Really? That must have changed in the last ten years because you were never a good listener. Your idea of being a good listener was listening for me to say, ‘Yes Cole.’ ‘Okay, Cole.’ ‘I’ll do whatever you say, Cole.’ ”
He laughed. “Was I really that bad?”
“It’s not all your fault I guess. I think it’s something with the male gene.”
“Well, I’m listening to you now. Also, I was just asking if you were hungry. Do you have a taste for anything special? I hadn’t planned on having anyone over and my housekeeper, who also does my cooking, Olivia, is off for the next few days. We can pick something up.”
Jade shrugged. “Honestly, I’m not that hungry.”
“Well, you’ve got to eat something.”
“Whatever you pick is fine.”
“Alright.” Cole thrummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “So, you said you lived in that apartment for nine months. What were you doing before that?”
Jade wasn’t really in the mood to take a trip down memory lane. She needed to let the past be the past, but how was she going to do that if he was so insistent on bringing it up? “I moved around a lot. Finding work that pays decent money is a challenge without a college degree.” Jade rushed to add. “I do plan on going back to school.” She didn’t want him to think badly of her considering his success. Not that she should care. “It’s just the timing is never usually the best and things like this seem to always come up.” Jade wasn’t a slacker. She was just dealt a pretty crappy hand in life.
“So, what happened with the apartment?”
“It was my roommate's apartment. We both work for the same cleaning service. She needed a roommate, and I needed a place to stay. It worked out. At least, I thought it did. I paid her my half of the rent, and she apparently put it in her pocket and walked away a few days ago with my money. I had about a week to figure out my living arrangements and thought I had a plan. Then I got sick.”
“That’s messed up.”
“You’re telling me. If I had known he was going to rent the apartment out to someone else, I never would have given him almost all of my money for the last two month’s rent. Then, I would have at least had money for another place.”
“I’m glad you gave him the money.”
“What? Why?”
Cole tipped his head to the side. “Honestly, I want us to get to know each other again. If this situation had not happened, I probably wouldn’t have this opportunity.” His cell vibrated in his shirt pocket. He pulled it out and looked at the name on the screen. “I’ve got to take this call.”
Jade looked out the window while he was on the phone. Her emotions were all over the place. For as much as she wanted to scream at him for forgetting about her, he made it seem so easy to fall back into how things used to be between them.
“Hey, babe. I tried to call you earlier. We’re going to have to reschedule dinner tonight. There was a slight emergency. Jade needed a place to stay, and I volunteered my place. She’s with me now.”
Jade couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but it couldn’t be good. He started responding in clipped tones and one-word answers.
“I’ll explain it all to you later, Elise. No. Bye.”
Cole focused on the road and looked straight ahead.
“She’s not too happy about the living arrangements, huh?”
He glanced at her then back on the road. “She just needs to get to know you. Once she does she won’t feel so threatened. So, back to us trying to catch up. You married Kevin.” Cole did his best not to show his shock over that one. Kevin was a jerk. And, he wasn’t remotely what he thought Jade’s type would be.
Jade squirmed a bit in her seat. “Cole, if this is going to work…us reconnecting and me living in your house for a couple of months, Kevin has to be off-limits. That chapter of my life is closed, and I don’t really want to revisit it.”
He stared at her long and hard before responding. “Alright, closed. Got it. Anything else?”
She looked down at her hands. “Nothing that I can think of at the moment.”
As they drove to his home he tried to engage Jade into more conversation, hoping that she would loosen up. She didn’t. Whatever happened between her and Kevin was really traumatic. He’d have to tread carefully there.
Finally, they arrived at the gate to his home. Cole pressed the security code. A second later, the gates opened, and he drove his car through.
Jade couldn’t believe her eyes. They were entering a place that looked as if it should be on episode of HGTV. The long winding driveway seemed as if it went on for at least a mile before reaching his house. When they finally pulled up in front of it, Jade was in utter disbelief. It was huge! She knew that he had done well for himself, but she couldn’t imagine the kind of wealth Cole must have to own a mansion like this.
Cole was used to his money, but seeing the look on Jade’s face stirred up an emotion within him that felt like pride. He hadn’t even felt that on the day he’d purchased it. Maybe it was because this was something he and Jade had dreamed about often when they were younger. He would sneak into her room, or she would
