The Right Side of My Pillow, стр. 33
The way Jade was feeling, she could have hung out with him for hours and Jasper too. It was probably a good idea to get moving. “All right.” She sighed and pouted just a bit before speaking softly into Jasper’s ear. “I’ll be back to visit you very soon, okay?” He neighed as if he understood.
They walked side by side from the stables back to the main house. Thankfully, her hands were tucked inside the front of her hoodie pockets. They were a bit shaky. She wasn’t ready for Cole to know how much opening up to him again affected her. Jade managed to speak clearly without showing any of the nerves she’d been feeling. “Thank you.”
Perplexed he responded. “For what?”
“For bringing me here today, and giving me a bit of Serenity.”
“You’re more than welcome.” Over the years, Cole had made a lot of money, and had lots of material things, but nothing meant more to him than hearing those words from Jade.
Chapter 18
The drive back to Cole’s, after a full day at Serenity House followed by dinner at a fast food dive felt like it did when they were teenagers riding in the back of Rob’s car. They laughed and talked and laughed some more.
“You remember this?”
“What?”
Cole turned the radio up. “This song. I swear we played the hell out of this song.”
“Oh my god. I haven’t heard this in years! You were definitely going through a phase when this song was out.”
“Don’t pretend like it was just me. You were a rida, and I was a rolla.” The laughter just poured out from between them. Even more so when Cole started trying to rap along to the lyrics.
Jade was doubled over. They were having so much fun that when they pulled through his gates and pulled up in front of his house, they didn’t even notice Elise’s car.
She, however, saw them first and got out of her car almost stepping in front of his before it came to a complete stop.
All the fun and games ceased immediately. Jade looked at Cole. “She looks pissed.”
“Yeah, she does.”
They couldn’t even get out of the car before Elise had something to say. “You two seemed to be having a great time. Why wasn’t I invited to the party?”
Cole walked over to Elise and tried to pull her towards him. She stepped away. “It was a spur of the moment thing, Babe.” He managed to kiss her on the lips as he walked toward his door. “I didn’t know you were coming over.”
“It was a spur of the moment thing.” She threw his words back at him.
This was the part Jade hated. When they were younger, she managed to maintain a blank face when Cole would show affection towards his girlfriends. It surprised her how easily she was able to fall back into that unhealthy pattern.
His back was to them as he opened the door, so he didn’t see Elise as she cut her eyes at Jade. He only heard her speak. “Jade.”
Jade responded, doing her best to keep the dislike from her voice. “Elise.”
As they entered the house, Elise grabbed ahold of Cole’s hand. “I was hoping we could spend some time together, maybe even have dinner. You’ve been so busy with work and…” She looked over at Jade. “And, other things. I’m feeling a bit neglected.”
This was crazy. Elise was Cole’s girlfriend, and that was that. “I’m going to make myself scarce so you two can have some alone time. Thanks Cole for today.”
Cole looked over at Jade. He wasn’t ready for the night to end and hated to see her go. He didn’t realize it, but he’d watched until Jade was out of sight.
“Hello? Remember me?”
Cole turned back to Elise. “Of course I remember you. That’s a crazy thing to say?”
“Is it? I’ve just caught my boyfriend staring after another woman.”
“You're delusional.”
“Am I? You’ve also been spending quite a bit of time with Jade. I know you said that the two of you were like siblings, but I don’t get that feeling when she looks at you.”
“Jade doesn’t see me in that way.” There was a part of him that felt somewhat guilty. Not because of Elise’s assertion that Jade had romantic feelings for him, but because there was a part of him that was noticing her romantically. Cole exhaled. “Elise, I haven’t seen her in almost ten years. Of course we are going to spend some time reconnecting. Today was a really good day for us. All we did was hang out and have dinner.”
“You’ve already had dinner?” That seemed to piss her off more than anything.
“Yes. We had dinner.” He pulled her to him and rested his forehead on hers. His voice dropped to a sexy octave. “But, how about we have dessert?”
Her anger seemed to dissipate just a little. “Do you mean it? Seriously? I know what you’ve said, but I’m feeling insecure about her.”
“You don’t need to. Now, can we get back to dessert?”
“I guess. But only if it’s sugar-free.”
“You know, that I know, exactly how you like it.” Cole pulled her along behind him not just to pacify her but to get his mind off of Jade.
*****
Jade was up early. She’d received a call from Brenda about a job opportunity for a hostess position at a restaurant not too far from Mario’s. She thought it might work out well considering Tommy was never able to get her car going. It was dead and well past time to put it out of its misery. If she was going to catch the bus in time to make her interview, she had to leave in a few minutes. Jade was putting her glass of juice in the sink when Elise walked into the kitchen wearing Cole’s robe. She stretched and plastered on a huge Cheshire cat smile when she saw Jade.
“Good morning.”
Jade swallowed deeply and mumbled. “Morning.”
A moment later, Cole walked in behind her wearing nothing but a