Chapter 16
W ell played, Jade.
And that’s how he felt—played. For the most part anyway.
As she stood there, all business, despite her casual outfit and gorgeous, albeit still damp hair, he was stunned how she could flip a switch so fast. A few seconds ago, his heart ached for her.
There were so many things he hadn’t known about her when they were together.
Learning the real reason she took the Atlanta job had been a relief.
She hadn’t just dumped him on a whim. She had a good reason—her love for Logan.
The knowledge carved out the resentment he’d held against her for so long.
Underneath the frost—the protective barrier she developed due to her childhood—was a generous, loving, heroic woman.
And he was falling for her, even harder than before.
.. until the switch. He’d seen the emotion change in her eyes after he said he would have helped her, and her softness grew an immediate edge when she moved off the couch.
Then she went in for the proverbial kill.
For a split second he wondered if her vulnerability was just a ruse to catch him off guard.
Except she hadn’t been able to completely detach. Even at this distance, he could see a flicker of emotion, of uncertainty. Of desperation. And because he caught it, he was able to speak his next word.
“Okay.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll talk to him.” Seb patted the empty seat next to him. Yeah, he was being a little manipulative himself, but she started it. “I have a condition, though.”
She moved to resume her seat, still looking guarded, but much less so. “What’s that?”
“I want to tell you why The Clementine Times is so important to me.” It was also important that she understood why he would inevitably say no to Miles, no matter the price, no matter the circumstance.
But he wouldn’t tell her that part. He wasn’t looking forward to listening to Miles Harrington’s greasy sales pitch, but he could go through the motions to help her out. “Are you willing to listen?”
“Absolutely.”
He settled back against the couch as she faced him, sitting cross-legged.
He started from the beginning, telling her about working for Buford when he was a kid, much like Tyler did for him now. He skipped over his time at The Democrat-Gazette , since there was no point in rehashing, and explained how Buford had offered him the paper.
“You bought it for a dollar?”
“Yep. The deal of the century.” He told her about learning the business, about Buford’s and Glenda’s deaths, about dealing with the ups and downs.
“ The Times is on a shoestring budget, but it wasn’t always.
We have longtime employees like Paul, Cletus, and Flora, who just came back on a volunteer basis.
We also have some local stringers. Mayor Pancake has a column, Eugenia Pickles donates recipes—”
“The square dance lady, right?”
He nodded. “The point is, even though we’re going through a hard time right now, Clementine needs its newspaper.
So do the surrounding communities. It’s how we stay connected.
How else am I going to know that Tilly Henshaw had baby number three last month, Rob Cartwright is giving half-off haircuts every other Saturday, that the Cherry Hill school board is considering renovating the football field, and the Clementine Community Church is planning a potluck on June twentieth. ”
“What’s special about the twentieth?”
“Not sure, although the CCC doesn’t exactly need a special occasion to get together to eat.
” He smiled, but it quickly faded. “I know big companies are picking up the little papers at a discount, and that bothers me. Harrington Media isn’t going to care about people who live here.
They’ll get their news from feeds, their advertising from companies that don’t even exist in this area, and of course, their money.
I can’t blame publishers for selling if they can’t keep their paper afloat.
The Times isn’t there. Not yet, and I’m going to fight to keep it that way as long as I can. ”
Jade didn’t respond. He didn’t either, wanting everything he said to sink in. There were many other reasons why he wanted to hang on to The Times , but he’d given her plenty to ponder.
Finally, she spoke. “I hadn’t thought about it that way before. I’ve always been focused on the numbers.”
“Those are important too.”
“On behalf of us accountants, thanks for being so magnanimous.”
“Hey, I admire you accountants. Since Flora left, I’ve been trying to make sense of—” He stopped. Jade didn’t need to know about his aversion to balance sheets, and she definitely didn’t need to know about the lost ledger. Which he still had to find by Tuesday. Egad, he had to get on top of that.
“Not everyone can have the gift of words that you do,” she said softly.
He was touched by her compliment. “I didn’t know you read them.”
“I read all your columns, remember?”
Actually, he didn’t. Had she mentioned that when they were dating? Or was he too distracted by her, in a good way, of course? Definitely a good way. It was nice to hear... again.
“I understand what you’re saying about your community too,” she said. “I took a drive today.”
He listened as she told him about her trip through the greater Clementine area. When she finished, he said, “I can show you some other places if you’re interested.”
“Actually, I am.”
She seemed surprised by her own statement. He wasn’t going to draw attention to it. “How about tomorrow?”
“You’re off on Memorial Day?”
No, and he’d planned to work on another column in the morning while doing a third search of his office for the ledger. But that could wait. “Half a day. I can pick you up at the inn around eight. I might even clean up the back seat for you.”
She arched a brow. “Is there something special about the back seat?”
He wondered if she was aware she was leaning toward him, her dreamy malachite eyes holding his.
He’d meant it as a joke, considering how much of a disaster his messy car was.
But “back seat” had suddenly taken on a new meaning, and he was picturing them parked in a secluded, woody spot, climbing into the back seat together and—
“Honeys, I’m home!”
Seb jumped at Evelyn Margot’s overly loud and quite obnoxious entrance. Her timing, both good and bad, was another one of her gifts.
His sister poked her head into the living room. “Everyone decent?”
He face-palmed, then glanced at Jade. She was looking at Evelyn, but there was a rosy blush on her cheeks that hadn’t been there a second ago. Hmm, maybe he hadn’t imagined—or wished—that Jade’s enticing expression was real.
Evelyn laughed. “I bought snacks. I thought maybe we could watch a movie.”
But Jade was already yawning. When she was aware of it, she stopped. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Evelyn set two plastic Piggly Wiggly bags on the kitchen counter. “I don’t mind an early bedtime.”
Seb took that as his cue to go. He stood and turned to Jade. “See ya.” He almost said “tomorrow,” but if Evelyn Margot knew he and Jade were getting together, she wouldn’t let him be.
Jade nodded. “See ya.”
He passed by the kitchen, where Evelyn was putting away the groceries. “Thanks again. She’s gonna be okay.”
She gave him a sly look. “Looks like you will be too.”
Oh well, so much for Evelyn not figuring things out. He left the apartment, fully intending on going home and crashing. If he got up really early, he could get part of his column done and search the office before picking up Jade.
When he got home, though, he tried. He wasn’t in the mood to pen Seb’s View Part Deux either.
But he was in the mood to write something that he should have been working on a long time ago.
He sat down at the dining room table that was never used for actual dining and where his Royal typewriter made its home, a stack of crisp paper nearby waiting to be used.
He cranked a sheet into the roller, and his fingers flew.
* * *
Monday morning, Kalista showed up at The Times , still bummed that she had to work on a holiday.
Then again, what else would she do? Hang out at Viv’s house?
That might have been a little fun. Now that the hoedown was over, Viv was focusing on her wedding again, and she had mentioned yesterday that she wanted to start hand-lettering the invitation envelopes this week.
She offered to show her how to do the calligraphy, but Kalista didn’t want to mess up the envelopes. She could lick a stamp, though.
Kalista was also tired, and that was solely her fault.
After her conversation with Ryan, she had trouble falling asleep, so she grabbed a book from the bookcase and started to read.
Pride and Prejudice. It kind of sounded familiar and she wondered if she was supposed to have read it in school in one of her English classes.
She’d paid little attention to her assignments, but she was a decent test taker, even though she rarely remembered the information past the actual test. Two pages into the book and she was fast asleep.
Who knew reading was the antidote to insomnia?
Tyler’s car was in the parking lot, and a light shined underneath the basement door. When she walked inside, she saw him stuffing flyers into each newspaper on top of the flat stack on the table. “I could have done those,” she said.
He didn’t look at her. He also didn’t tell her to roll up the papers.
But if she didn’t get moving, she’d be late for her route, so she joined him at the table and started rolling.
It was only the two of them, and soon the other carriers would show up.
If she was going to do the gratitude thing, she needed to do it now.
“Thanks for buying me a funnel cake.” She injected more enthusiasm into her voice than was probably warranted, but she had to get his attention somehow. Coldness was coming off him in waves.
Silence.