Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
S he’d not even been back a week, but already Jade knew the answer to the question Liam had posed to her. Go home, pick up your life and work out for certain what you want .
Then again, she’d known before she’d come home that she’d wanted to go back to Nantucket, to live a life with him in it. Even if it meant flying back on that tiny Cape Air nine-seater Cessna, which had given her more than a few moments of holy shit , alongside the amazing views. What she couldn’t do, was go back to Nantucket and live a life there without him. She loved the island, had grown closer to some of the people than she’d thought possible in such a short space of time. But it was Liam she was in love with.
‘Daydreaming again, Sis?’
She shook herself and turned to face Lauren, who’d surprised them all by accepting the mid-week dinner invite. ‘Maybe, a bit.’
Lauren handed her a glass of wine. ‘Mum said she’s got the kitchen covered. We’ve been instructed to sit and relax.’
‘Better do as she says, then.’ Jade accepted the glass and went to sit on the squishy cream sofa. ‘How’s Ned?’
Lauren smiled. ‘Still younger than me.’
‘Don’t you mean still junior to you?’
‘Ouch. Why don’t you say what you really mean?’
‘I just think, be honest with yourself. He doesn’t fit the mould of the man you had in mind. It doesn’t mean he’s wrong for you,’ Jade added. ‘You can’t choose who you fall for.’ If you could, then Jade would’ve chosen someone way easier to love than a certain grouchy resort owner.
Lauren gave her a quiet appraisal. ‘You’re missing Liam, aren’t you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you think you did the right thing, coming home rather than staying and trying to make a go of it?’
It was the question that kept her awake at night. She’d done exactly what Liam had predicted, and left him. Rejected him. Yet could she really jack in her job and fly back out there when she didn’t know where she stood? He liked her, liked the sex, but was she content to bumble along, waiting for the day he realised she wasn’t his type? That, actually, elegant brunettes with rich pedigrees were what he wanted all along. ‘I think so, yes. I’m done with guys who want to get away with only giving part of themselves. I want a man prepared to go all in.’ She gave her sister a sad smile. ‘Only that way will I know if he meant everything he said up to that point, or if it was all just to keep me having sex with him.’
‘Good for you.’
Except… why did she feel she’d let him down, like everyone else in his life had done, except his beloved grandma? ‘Oh God.’ She pressed a hand to her chest, the ache almost unbearable.
‘It was obvious what you saw in him,’ Lauren continued, oblivious to her meltdown. ‘He was definitely drool-worthy, but too grumpy for you. I know a lot of women go for that taciturn, broody thing, but someone as warm and sunny as you really needs a man?—’
‘I need him,’ Jade cut in, feeling panicked. ‘Shit, I shouldn’t have come home. I should have stayed and told him how much I loved him. Maybe that was all he needed, some reassurance from me. To feel loved when he’s spent so much of life feeling the opposite.’
‘Oh.’ Lauren peered at her. ‘So just to be clear, you like grumpy now? Because none of your previous boyfriends have been like that.’
‘He isn’t grumpy, he’s reserved.’
‘Sorry, but I definitely saw grumpy when I FaceTimed you the other week.’
‘He was protecting me.’ She levelled Lauren a look. ‘You talked down to me, implied managing a bookstore wasn’t a proper job.’
Lauren reared back. ‘No, I didn’t. Did I?’ When Jade nodded, her sister’s face fell. ‘Shit, that’s awful. I didn’t mean it like that. You’d only been doing it a short while, and I just thought it was like a paid vacation.’
‘And I was going to come home when it finished and get a proper job,’ she finished for her.
Lauren winced. ‘I suppose, yes.’ Her face crumpled. ‘God, I’m sorry. I guess I don’t understand jobs that aren’t involved with healthcare or science, but that’s no excuse.’ She leant forward. ‘Tell me what you did managing the bookstore. What did it involve? Educate me so I can be a better sister from now on.’
Touched, Jade began to describe what she’d done on the island, not just getting to grips with the store, but the events she’d run to increase business and bring the shop into the centre of the community. The more she talked, the more she felt an acute sense of pride. And an even more acute yearning to be back there.
‘Wow, Sis. That’s incredible. No way could I have done what you did. I’m awful at making friends, at networking. And as for thinking creatively, like your speed dating for book lovers idea, forget it.’ As Jade’s phone buzzed, Lauren rose to her feet. ‘You check on that. I’ll check on Mum. Make sure she’s not in danger of burning the dinner. Or the house, for that matter.’
Before she walked off, Jade reached out to stop her. ‘Thank you, for what you just said. It means a great deal, coming from you.’
Lauren shook her head. ‘Don’t thank me. I should have said it ages ago. You’ve always been so supportive of me, yet looking back I never gave you the same respect. Too focused on me. From now on, I’m going to do better.’
Lauren’s words, coming on top of her already sky-high emotions about Liam, brought a lump to her throat and Jade was glad of the distraction of the message from Jenny, one of the girls at work.
Have you seen this??
Frowning, Jade clicked on the link and her eyes filled with tears as she read it. It was a job advert for Little Bay Book Shack. He was replacing her already, yet he’d told her the job was hers. Had he assumed she didn’t want it. Or had he changed his mind?
Requirements: must be creative, smart, compassionate, light up any room with a smile, able to get on with anyone, including the surly resort owner. Be willing to build a life with said surly owner.
Her heart tripped. Holy cow.
Quickly, before she let the balloon of hope become untethered, she messaged Jeremy.
Was this advert your doing?
A reply pinged straight back.
Joint effort with boss man. Are you going to apply? Pretty please??? He’s back to being an asshole again.
* * *
He didn’t know what the hell he was doing. The job ad was out there. He’d shown his hand. The safe option was to wait and leave the next move up to her.
But what if she didn’t make a move?
It was the question that had sent him flying three thousand miles across the Atlantic. Fuck safe, he had to know if he had a chance of persuading her to come back.
The taxi came to a halt and Liam climbed out, eyeing the red-brick terraced house warily as he paid the driver. What if Jade wasn’t in? She could be out on a date. Or she could be at home with a date. Or just at home and not want to see him.
Or…
Goddammit.
He squared his shoulders and, holding tight to the package he’d brought with him, strode up the steps, heart galloping a million miles an hour.
He wasn’t expecting her sister to open the door.
‘Oh, it’s you.’
He took a moment to regret being so curt with Lauren the one and only time he’d talked to her. ‘Is Jade home?’
A slow smile spread across Lauren’s face. ‘She is. But we’re in the middle of dinner. I guess you can come and wait while we finish.’
‘Who’s that, dear?’ A voice echoed from inside.
‘Just someone trying to sell something.’ Lauren raised a brow. ‘I assume that’s why you’re here? To sell Jade on the idea of going back with you?’
His heart felt like it was about to explode, his emotions were on a knife edge. He wasn’t in the mood for games. ‘I’ll wait outside.’
‘Oh no, Mum would go mad.’
‘Why would I go mad?’
Holy Mother of God. If he wasn’t in the mood for games, he certainly wasn’t in the right frame of mind for polite conversation. Even with this short, smiley-looking woman with eyes that reminded him of Jade’s.
‘You’d go mad if you knew Jade’s boss, or should I say, ex-boss?—’
‘Boyfriend,’ he interjected, feeling like a fucking fourteen-year-old.
Lauren smirked. ‘If you knew Jade’s ex-boyfriend was waiting outside for her while we finished dinner.’
‘Oh, well.’ Those blue eyes swept him up and down. ‘If you’ve come here to upset her, I will be the first to throw you out. Then her father will try and rough you up, though he’s got a bad back and is unlikely to make much of a mark, but you need to pretend that he’s hurt you.’
‘And don’t forget me,’ Lauren added. ‘I’ve had self-defence training and I know exactly where to put my knee and my elbow to inflict maximum pain.’
‘I get it,’ he said. ‘Upsetting Jade is the last thing I want to do.’
That elicited a smile from the mother. ‘I’m glad we got that settled. Now, give me your jacket.’ Her gaze dropped to the small parcel he carried. ‘And whatever you’ve got there. I’ll pop it in the cupboard under the stairs. Are you hungry? I made a stew so there’s plenty left.’
Okay, he could do this, he thought as he followed her down the hallway. He could make polite conversation with Jade’s family while she was in the room, close enough to look at but not touch. To see her face but not know how she felt about him being there until he was able to get her alone.
Fuck.
The moment he stepped into the large family kitchen, his eyes collided with Jade’s. She gasped, and her knife and fork clattered to the table.
‘We have a visitor.’ Jade’s mom turned to him. ‘I’m Kathy, this is Donald,’ she waved a hand towards the balding man at the head of the table. ‘Lauren, you’ve clearly already met.’
‘And me.’ Jade cleared her throat, her gaze a mix of emotions too complex for him to decipher. ‘You’ve already met me.’
‘I daresay you’re the reason he’s here.’ Donald gave him the sort of look any doting father would give a man he didn’t trust with his daughter. ‘But if he dares to upset you, he’ll have me to answer to.’
‘Dad.’ Jade groaned, burying her head in her hands.
‘What? My warm, big-hearted, spirited, champion of a daughter has been hurt enough by men not treating her right.’
Liam watched Jade blink back tears before turning his attention to her father. ‘I have no intention of hurting your daughter. Ever.’
Donald gave him a steely glare, then nodded.
A beat of awkward silence followed, broken by Kathy. ‘Someone go and fetch another chair for Liam while I get him some stew.’
He felt like he was in some alternate universe. One where he was meeting Jade’s parents for the first time as a shy, awkward youngster. It had to be the reason he put up no objection and simply slid, meekly, onto the chair Donald set next to Jade.
Immediately he inhaled, registering her unique smell, his body stirring into life for the first time since she’d left him. He was desperate to touch her, just to reach out his hand and wrap it around hers, but he didn’t know if she’d accept the gesture. Or smack him in the face.
‘How long have you been in England?’ Kathy asked as she set a plate of mashed potatoes with some unrecognisable brown meat in a brown gravy in front of him.
He glanced at his watch. ‘Nearly two hours.’
‘You came straight here from the airport?’
What the hell else was he going to do? Seeing Jade was his sole focus. Persuading her to come back with him, his sole purpose. ‘Yes.’
Beside him, Jade let out a noise that sounded like a snigger. ‘This is going to be interesting,’ she whispered.
‘What is?’
‘Seeing you being interrogated by Mum. I’m warning you now, she’s a master.’
‘What are you two whispering about?’ Kathy called over to them.
Jade gave him an innocent look. ‘I was asking him why he was here.’
He baulked. ‘Seriously? You want me to do this now ?’
‘Well, it would be good to know.’ It was only then he saw the fine line of tension around her mouth. She wasn’t nearly as collected, as assured, as she was letting on. ‘Have you come to ask me about the bookstore? Because I saw you’d advertised the manager job already.’
Lauren gasped, but Liam ignored her. If he was going to have to do this in front of her family, so be it. ‘Then you’ll know I didn’t come here for the shop. I’ve come for you.’
‘Oh.’ She swallowed, her gaze bouncing up to his.
‘Yes, oh.’ He glanced down at his plate. ‘Do you want to keep talking, or should we finish eating and go somewhere more private?’
‘I vote for the first,’ Lauren stated. ‘If you’re interested in my view, that is.’
Jade’s eyes searched his, and a small smile played around her mouth. ‘Mum’s cooking isn’t the best, so eating fast is probably advisable.’
‘Hey, I heard that.’ Kathy looked over at her daughter. ‘Five minutes. You finish your meals and we get to learn a bit more about this mysterious man who’s landed on our doorstep. Then you can escape next door.’
Jade smiled. ‘Deal.’
Liam looked down at his plate, shovelled a forkful of brown slop, and geared himself for five, painful minutes, knowing the time after that could be even more painful.