Chapter Twenty-Seven
Holy shit, what had just happened?
Hunter stalked back into the house.
Because it sounded a lot like Jade had just told him she couldn’t trust him, and that she was leaving Shell Grove.
That could not happen.
For many reasons. But mainly because he’d recently come to the conclusion that she was it for him.
The One.
He was not going to lose her. Especially not over a stupid misunderstanding. There wasn’t anything in the world he would let come between them. Nothing he’d allow to jeopardize their relationship.
Speaking of which—
“Well, now that she’s gone…” Rebecca crooned behind him.
“Get out, Rebecca,” he snapped. “Now.”
“What?” She sounded way too damn cheery, considering the level of destruction she’d just caused. “I thought we were going to—”
“Out!” he yelled. He swiped his keys off the kitchen counter, pushed her out the front door, locked it behind him, and jogged to his truck.
He had to fix this.
Quickly.
Before there was nothing left to fix.
“Hunter!” Rebecca screamed. “Where are you going?”
He turned to glare at her before shutting the truck door. “If you ever try to interfere in my life again, I’m going to tell the entire town about your nose job. And don’t for a minute think I won’t.”
It sounded weak. But since she actually cared—a lot—about what other people thought of her, he knew it was a direct hit.
He slammed the door in her face, gratified at her outraged expression, then backed out of his driveway, tires squealing.
Jade’s house was the first place he went to find her. It was quickly apparent she wasn’t there. Her car wasn’t in front and all the lights were off in the house. He stood on the front porch, gripping his head with his hands, trying to figure out where she could have gone.
“Are you looking for Jade?” a female voice called.
Dropping his hands, he looked over to see Ivy standing at the foot of the driveway with a worried expression.
“Yeah,” he answered. “Have you seen her?”
She gave a small nod. “Sort of. I’m looking for her, too. She ran out of here earlier after her stepbrother paid her a visit.”
That put Hunter on high alert. “He’s in town? Are you sure it was him?”
Ivy walked closer, nervously fidgeting with the fringe on her vest. “Yeah, it was definitely him. I was outside watering my plants, and I heard shouting coming from over here.”
Shouting? Shit, that didn’t sound good. Based on what Jade had told him about her stepfamily, they were nothing but trouble.
“I walked in as soon as he left,” Ivy continued. “I tried to get her to tell me what was going on, but she just took off. Told me we’d talk later.”
The whole situation was making him even more apprehensive. He didn’t have a clue why Lane would be in town, but it couldn’t have been for anything good. And having that close encounter with Rebecca right afterward probably hadn’t helped Jade’s state of mind.
Definitely hadn’t.
His cell phone rang, breaking him out of his anxious thoughts. He reached in his pocket, praying for a miracle that it would be Jade. Frustration spiked in his blood when he saw Finn’s name instead.
“What?” Hunter answered tersely.
“So, you might want to get your ass down here,” Finn said cautiously.
Hunter’s body stilled. “Why? What’s going on?”
“Jade’s here at the bar and…she’s pretty drunk.” Finn grunted. “I wasn’t here when she showed up, but apparently she’s been downing Maggie’s Punches like water. I cut her off, of course, but she’s refusing to go home. Figured you might want to come handle this yourself.”
Hunter’s eyes closed with relief at knowing where she was. But a sense of foreboding wasn’t far behind. Getting drunk alone wasn’t like her.
“I’m on my way.” He hung up and ran for his truck. “Come on,” he said to Ivy. “She’s down at The Clumsy Clam, laying one on. I’ll probably need your help to talk her off the ledge.”
Ivy climbed into his truck, eyeing him speculatively. “Why?”
He sped down the street, his hands tightening on the wheel. “We kind of got into an argument, and she’s pretty pissed at me.” He was grateful when Ivy didn’t ask for an explanation.
The spike piercing his heart drove in deeper when he walked through the door and saw Jade slumped over the bar, propped up on a stool as the bartender handed her a glass of water. Ivy rushed toward her, but he hung back for a second, catching Finn’s eye near the end of the bar.
Hunter nervously rubbed the back of his neck and slapped Finn’s shoulder. “I appreciate the phone call. Thanks for looking out for her.”
“No problem,” Finn replied. “What the hell happened, anyway? You don’t choose to drink Maggie’s Punches lightly.”
Hunter shot him a look. “Rebecca happened.”
Finn nodded in understanding and returned the shoulder slap. “Well, good luck, man. I have a feeling you’re going to need it.”
No shit. Probably all he could get.
Hunter blew out a heavy breath and headed toward Jade, who was gesturing wildly to Ivy, as if in the middle of telling a story. But when Jade’s eyes fell on him, the smile instantly left her face and her hands dropped to her sides.
If that wasn’t the most discouraging thing, he didn’t know what was.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Ssssparky,” she mumbled, wagging her finger in his face. “I wasth…wasssted a perfectly good dress on you.”
Oh, he’d noticed the damn dress, all right. And that she was still wearing it. She must have come straight here from his place. Thank God it was Finn’s bar she’d waltzed into wearing that killer dress. Anywhere else, and she would have been mauled by every man within a two-hundred-foot radius.
It made him even angrier that she’d gone to all that trouble wearing it for him and he hadn’t been able to properly appreciate it. Or express that appreciation.
Because the night had been shot to hell, and all that.
Ivy wrapped an arm around Jade and helped her from the stool. “Come on, honey. Let’s go home, okay?”
Jade fell into a fit of giggles when she tripped over her own feet. “Shucks, ya know…they weren’t lying about Maggie’s Bunch. Packsss a wallop.” She laughed hysterically. “Wallop. Is that a Southern thing?”
He shot out a hand to help steady her as she teetered and wove toward the exit. She immediately slapped it away.
“No touching,” she muttered. “Not after you lissstened to that trollop when she told you to ssstay away from me. That— Hey! Trollop rhymes with wallop!” More laughter.
He would have laughed along if he weren’t so damned angry and annoyed.
“Jade, I told you. It was never about going along with Rebecca’s stupid schemes. I—”
Oh, what the hell. Jade was drunk. There was no point in arguing. Even if just hearing her insinuate that he gave a flying fuck what his deranged ex wanted, bothered him to his very core.
“Ssave your breath.” She squinted up at him and took turns closing one eye at a time, making it look like she had a tick. “I’ve got two eyes and I can see both of you just fine. I know what’s going on here. I’m not ssstupid.”
He bit back a sigh and didn’t say anything as he and Ivy carefully placed Jade in the backseat of his truck. Ivy sat in the back with Jade’s head in her lap as he drove back to her house. By the time he got there, Jade was semi-passed out.
Ivy unlocked the door, and he carried Jade back to her bedroom. While Ivy was busy getting water, aspirin, and a change of clothes for Jade when she woke up in the morning, he had a few moments alone with her. He laid her gently on the bed. Her eyes fluttered open when he brushed her hair off her face.
“I’m mad at chou,” she murmured.
“I know, baby. I’ll make everything better, though. I swear.”
Her mouth tilted in a sad smile as her eyelids drooped. “Can’t.” Her breathing started to even out. “Going back to Conticennicut. Money’sss there. Famwy…” She hummed out a drunken sigh. “Go ’way forever.”
What? Her babbling wasn’t making any sense.
Was she going back to Connecticut? Forever…?
What the hell had that asshole Lane said to her?
The money must mean her trust. But she’d told Hunter she couldn’t face the stepmonsters long enough to sign the papers to get it. Had she finally decided to go back…for the money?
That didn’t sound like her. She’d been so determined to make her business a success all on her own.
Besides, hadn’t she also said she wouldn’t get the payout for another three years?
Or…
Had he once again been dumped by a woman looking for a man with a bigger bank account?
He knew better than to take the ramblings of a drunk woman to heart but… Alcohol didn’t exactly make a person lie. It just lowered one’s inhibitions, oftentimes allowing the truth to explode to the surface.
Maybe the money was more important to her than she’d let on. Maybe she’d just been downplaying it to spare his feelings. Or his ego. Because he didn’t have enough zeroes to his name.
Hell, maybe he didn’t really know her at all.
He rose to leave when he felt her falling asleep, but stopped at the sound of her soft, muffled voice. “Just sucksss ’cuz…think I…love…you.”
Those were the last words she spoke before slumber carried her off.
And he was left there, staring down at her in shock.