Chapter 19
Over the next few days, we work on getting Jade registered to start the next semester with us.
There’s a lot of back and forth between Hoppers and the house as we try to get all of her information in order with Kratos.
It takes two days, but eventually, we put together enough background and schooling to make it look like she should be there.
Anything that isn’t airtight is easily overlooked with the hearty donation from her “family,” aka Froggie.
With that taking up most of our day yesterday and today, I make sure to steal Jade away once we’re back at the house for the night.
Each day, I try to show her more. Watching her face light up with every new thing is so addicting.
She looks at me like I’m the thing that’s bringing her happiness.
I’ve never really cared about what other people think of me, but I would give up my entire knife collection for her to keep looking at me like that.
The first time I had that thought, it caught me off guard, but even if it startled me to care so much and want her attention, it didn’t make it any less true.
We continue making simple meals. Unfortunately, Rick is the chef in our group. In my opinion, the things I teach her are still delicious and essential for everyone to know.
Like mac and cheese, everyone should know how to make that.
I also show her more music. Whenever we have downtime, we cycle through songs and artists; before I know it, she has her own Spotify playlist. Whenever she hears something new, she eagerly comes to me so I can tell her the artist and add it to her list. It doesn’t matter if we’re in the car, club, or gym.
Music seems to be something she can’t get enough of.
I love that I got to show it to her and experience it with her.
Tonight, I’m taking her down to Clair’s library.
Rick told me that she often picks up the magazines that lie around the house while she drinks her coffee early in the morning before I’m awake.
Most of them are fashion ones from Clair, but some are my car and motorcycle ones.
Apparently, it doesn’t matter to her what the material is so long as she can sit and read.
Hopefully, that means she’ll enjoy the books that have been mostly forgotten in the extensive basement library between Rick’s room and the gym.
I walk down the hall toward her room, passing by Spencer’s.
His door is closed. I haven’t seen much of him this week, other than when Kratos called him in to help with the tech side of setting up Jade’s transcripts and family past. I can’t say I’m upset about that after what happened Friday night.
The only way I want to see his face is if he’s apologizing to Jade, and even then, I’m not sure I want to.
I walk up to her door and knock twice before pushing it open, not waiting for her to respond.
Since she moved in, we’ve spent a lot of time in each other’s rooms and company, and after the first few nights, she told me I was welcome in her room.
I didn’t know exactly what she meant until the night of the party when I knocked at her door to see how she was after Spencer lost his shit.
She yelled at me for waiting for her to let me in.
Now, I just knock out of habit, but so long as I go in right after, I don’t get yelled at anymore.
I close the door behind me after I let myself in. I expect to find her on her bed listening to music or working out, but she isn’t.
We brought up a few simple weights, a jump rope, and a few other small things so that she could work out a little here instead of always going to the gym.
Now that she’s eating more, she has more ability to build muscle, and even after just a week with us, I swear I can see the difference.
She looks healthy, less like she could blow away with a strong breeze.
I can only imagine how she’ll look in a year or two.
Imagining her here for an extended period of time has me stopping mid-step.
I’ve never thought long-term with most things in life, even less so regarding women.
They have always been like a revolving door for me: women come and go.
The only constant in life was the guys and our position in Vengeance.
But something about her being around feels right.
While the idea might be scary, I can picture her here easily, making a place for herself and building a home with us.
Surprisingly, the idea of her not being here in a year or two is actually worse.
Having the options laid out like that in my mind makes me want to ask her what her plans are for the future, but I know this is all new to her and pushing those questions now could scare her away.
I’ll ask her someday, but for now, I’m just going to enjoy this.
I take a few steps into her room before I hear the water running. One thing Jade seems to be obsessed with that really threw me at first was the fact that she had a shower in her room. During one of her first days here, I teased her about it because, out of everything, a shower didn’t seem special.
Apparently, to her, it was, and it was kind of heartbreaking.
She explained that when she was living with the dirtbag who owned her, they rarely got to shower, mostly when she was going out to see a client.
Even then, the showers were very short, only allowing her to get clean with just the bare necessities.
There were no beautifully scented shampoos and body wash.
Hell, conditioner wasn’t something she even knew about until I showed it to her.
Hot water, forget it.
Before coming here, she had never had a warm shower, let alone a hot one.
So now, I just let her enjoy them, even when she often takes two or three a day.
I can’t imagine the life she lived before coming here, where something so simple as a warm shower and things I consider basic necessities were unheard of.
I plop down on the end of the bed as I try to imagine the kind of hell she had to endure, not for the first time.
But, like always, my thoughts take a dark turn, and I have to push them from my mind.
Thinking about how hard it had to have been for her and all the shit she had to endure to get here makes me want to stab people.
If I’m ever given a chance, I’ll do just that, but I’d rather not focus on that now, not when I get to spend my night with her.
Lost in my thoughts, I miss the silence that fills the room when the water shuts off and the click of the bathroom door as it opens, letting steam waft out.
The smell of her pomegranate shampoo pulls me from my thoughts as she walks out into the room and heads right for her dresser.
She doesn’t look at me as I watch her, but I know she knows I’m here.
Another fun fact I’ve learned about Jade is that she’s damn near impossible to sneak up on.
Years of being on high alert seems to have made that her default setting, again, not that I can blame her.
It’s still weird just how well she pays attention, though.
Other than Rick and Spencer, most other people are easy for me to get around undetected.
Shit, most of my roles in our early runs with grunt work consisted of sneaking around.
It’s something I’m damn good at if I do say so myself.
Even with my thoughts in other places, my eyes never leave her. I can’t help but smile as I watch her stop before her dresser and grab long, loose-fitting pajama pants and a tight tank top. It doesn’t escape my notice that she seems to have skipped over not only a bra but underwear as well.
“So, what do we have planned for tonight?” she asks me. With her back still mostly to me, she pulls her towel off her body and works on drying her hair, peering at me over her shoulder with a smile.
I intend to tell her it’s a surprise, but the words get caught in my throat as my eyes trace down her body, over every curve and bare inch of skin that’s now visible.
The water from her hair beads down her back before she gets the towel to it, and I follow it with my eyes.
It trails around the side of her breast that's on display, even with her mainly facing away from me.
Her body’s riddled with scars, most of which are small and hard to notice if you're not looking for them. The only real exception is the one across her back. Just looking at it makes me want to murder people, but again, I’ll save that for another time.
I drag my gaze from her scars and let them wander the rest of her. She has to feel my eyes on her, but if she has an issue with my wandering gaze, she doesn’t voice it.
Even covered in scars, she’s beautiful. I think they add to her beauty, honestly.
It sounds crazy. Trust me, I know. But seeing her on display, knowing she’s fought to be here and stay alive, makes each scar add to her value.
I know she’d disagree; I’ve seen how she looks at herself in the mirror, but maybe I can show her how wrong she is.
If she gives me a chance, I intend to worship the ground she walks on.
“Earth to Zander,” Jade says with a little laugh, and I have to physically shake my head to clear it.
“Oh shit, what did you say? I was distracted.” I know she asked me something, but for the life of me, I can’t recall what it was.
I feel like a teenage boy who saw a girl naked for the first time.
I rub my thumb against the handle of my blade on my hip, a nervous tick I’ve picked up over the years.
I don’t know what it is about her, but she makes me feel like a nervous virgin all over again.
It’s ridiculous, considering the number of women I’ve not only seen naked but slept with over the years. Yet here we are.
I can’t say I hate it.