Chapter 16 Jade
Jade
A rush of electricity coursed through Jade from touching Lucy’s knee, and it took a moment for Jade to withdraw.
She was drunk off Italian food, flawless conversation, and Lucy’s cupid bow mouth, and couldn’t control her actions.
The car turned warm, even with the air conditioning on, and Jade rolled up her sleeves to cool down.
Lucy’s chest lifted. She bit her lip and jolted forward with a metal crunching sound. ‘Grinding gears like an amateur. There goes the transmission.’ She grinned. ‘Too much spaghetti.’
Dinner had been as close to perfect as Jade could have imagined. She had expected it would be smooth – after sticking Lucy with a needle yesterday, Jade knew her on a totally different level – but it was hard to know exactly how people would act on a first date-ish.
Not a date. Not a date. But it felt like a date. Jade had dressed up like it was a date – as had Lucy. And now Jade really, really wanted to do what people sometimes do after a date.
They pulled into Lucy’s house, the last sliver of fuchsia evening sun warming her skin.
Lucy held the front door open for Jade and the sound of a trotting animal on hardwood floors grew louder. ‘Hi, baby. Were you a good boy?’ She bent down for snuggles. ‘I need to fill his food and water.’
Jade’s eyes skipped through the gazillion framed photos lining the wall.
Most were candid shots of Lucy at various ages on a boat, fishing off a dock, some with a school in the background.
One particular photo caught her attention: Lucy with rain boots, a hoodie snugged over her head, and a massive smile, standing next to a man with crossed arms and a deep frown.
‘Who’s this?’ said Jade, nudging the frame with a finger.
Lucy approached and looked over Jade’s shoulder.
Sweet vanilla and jasmine scent wafted to her nose, and Jade’s heart pounded a little harder. Play it cool, she told herself.
‘The stupidly handsome ginger is Drew,’ said Lucy.
‘He’s cute. Total Prince Harry vibes.’ Jade peered closer. ‘He looks pissed.’
‘He was.’ Lucy grinned and ran a finger across the framed photo.
‘A few years ago, we tried camping for a weekend. He dropped like a thousand bucks for tents, cooking equipment, sleeping bags, everything. It rained almost the entire time, and he kept whining that he should’ve spent the money on a luxury resort.
Mason and I were cracking up so hard, and Mason snapped a photo. Poor Drew. He’s too pretty to camp.’
Jade’s gaze flashed to the photos of multiple women, and a tiny tinge of jealousy bolted through her. ‘You have so many—’
‘Friends,’ Lucy said. ‘These are all friends, or co-workers.’
Jade laughed. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to, you know, insinuate—’
‘That I’m a hussy?’
‘No one says that word anymore.’ Jade grinned and stepped back from the wall. ‘Besides, I’m all about free love. Women’s empowerment. Sleep with whomever you want.’
‘Oh, my.’ Lucy fanned her face like a joke, but her eyes shifted to Jade’s mouth and lingered. She cleared her throat.
‘Although sometimes I feel like I should take my own advice.’ A heat flushed Jade’s chest, but maybe now was the time to get all these sorts of things out into the open. ‘It’s, um, been awhile.’
Lucy’s eyebrow arched. ‘Oh yeah?’
‘Yeah. Not since my ex-wife. And before that, I was scattered at best. Would you think less of me that I’ve slept with exactly three people in my life?
’ The air seemed tight, at least to Jade, but Lucy’s face showed nothing but a soft grin.
Jade wasn’t some college kid bragging – or not bragging, she supposed – about conquests.
And yet, there was something maybe a little depressing that she never put herself out there more both before she got married, and after her divorce.
‘Less of you? There is probably nothing you can say that would make me think less of you unless you tell me you’re a cat person.
’Cause, what?’ Lucy chuckled, but she still had that look, the one that seemed to be staring directly into Jade’s soul, the one that was hungry and waiting, and Jade’s body churned in response. ‘Want something to drink? Lemonade?’
Whew. Something needed to break this moment. Jade’s toes were tingling, and even though it wasn’t unpleasant, it freaked her out. She needed to take herself into the bathroom, give her body a stern scolding, and splash some icy water on her face.
Lucy was going to have a baby. Jade wanted nothing to do with babies. She had left her damn wife over a baby. Moments like this needed to stop. She stepped away from Lucy. ‘No thanks. I’ve reached my sugar limit for the night.’
‘No such thing.’ A timer shrieked and Lucy’s head snapped to the sound. Her shoulders lifted with a deep inhale. ‘Shot time.’
‘What do you need me to do?’
‘I think just moral support.’ Lucy pulled the bottle from the cabinet and rolled it between her palms. ‘And if I can’t do it, then you can take a stab at it. Get it? A stab.’
Jade groaned. ‘Yep, got it.’ She followed Lucy to the bathroom, as Chucky pulled himself away from watching the yard and followed the women down the hall. ‘Why are you rolling the bottle?’
‘It heats the oil in the meds, so it’s easier to inject. Or at least that’s what they told me. But I call bullshit. Last night it felt like super glue was pushing through my veins.’
Jade shuddered at the visual.
Lucy closed the bathroom door behind them. A thud hit the floor. ‘Chucky gets so moody when he’s not invited to the party.’
The bathroom was a decent size, but between Lucy’s vanilla scent and the way her ample cleavage peeked out from her sundress, the room felt a heck of a lot smaller.
And warmer. After scrubbing her hands, Lucy hiked her dress up past her hip, hooked her finger on the strap of her black underwear, and lifted it higher.
Jade stopped breathing. She whipped her head to look somewhere else, anywhere else, besides the smooth skin and curve of a beautiful, perfect ass that was so close. ‘Alcohol wipe?’
‘Yes, please.’
Jade grabbed the wipe and met Lucy’s eyes in the mirror. A look – a curl-the-toes, heart-patter, hot-neck look – passed between them.
‘Looks like my Sharpie circle is still intact.’ Lucy’s words were rushed.
‘I might need to re-outline my bull’s-eye later this week.
I’ve been too scared to exfoliate, but I don’t want to get all flaky and crunchy.
’ Lucy filled the syringe and contorted her body.
She held the needle away from her hip as her lips pulled tight.
Her nostrils flared with each heavy breath.
Jade wished she could strip that fear away. She tiptoed behind her and touched her shoulder. ‘You got this.’
Lucy nodded. ‘One, two, OWWW!’ She leapt from the counter. ‘Christ, that hurts.’ She pressed a gauze strip on the entry point, her cheeks morphing from white to pink. ‘I did it! Oh, my God. I can’t believe I did it!’
God, she’s beautiful. ‘You should be proud! I’ve never injected myself, but I’m sure it’s hard.’ I really need to get out of this small space. ‘Do you think you should lie down in case you get dizzy again?’
‘Good idea. I need to lie in the bed. I have to massage my leg for like a hundred hours or it gets super stiff.’
Jade followed Lucy out of the room. ‘Did that happen yesterday?’
‘Yep. I seriously got so stiff. Like I’d been dancing the running man all night, forgetting that I’m thirty-two and not sixteen. I woke up and my leg was all “Bam, sucker! Take that!” It hurt so bad.’
Jade couldn’t help but laugh at Lucy’s animated words and air punches. ‘Oh no. Hopefully tonight isn’t as bad.’ Jade stepped over a sleeping Chucky in the hallway. ‘Well, I should probably head out.’
Lucy stopped. Her eyebrows squished together. ‘You don’t have to leave yet. I know this probably isn’t the most exciting Saturday night of your life, but maybe after I’m done, we can watch a movie or something?’ Lucy’s cheeks turned pink.
Jade needed air. She needed to not be walking this closely to Lucy, who smelled so good and looked so delicate while also looking so fierce. The sense of urgency in Lucy’s voice shouldn’t affect her this much. And she definitely shouldn’t be this conflicted over staying or leaving.
‘So … bedroom?’ Lucy asked.
Jade swallowed. ‘Bedroom it is.’ The air felt like sludge in her throat.
Lucy didn’t mean bedroom bedroom. Jade knew that.
She simply needed to lie down more comfortably to massage a leg.
So why did those words, coming from that mouth, make her pulse do this?
‘Hey, that lemonade sounds good right now. Cool if I grab us some glasses?’
‘For sure.’
The air in the kitchen was breezier, thank God.
Jade fanned the bottom of her shirt to cool her sticky skin and dug into the fridge.
Exhaling, she calmed her racing heart, expelled the vision of black lace, and returned to the bedroom with two glasses.
She stopped in the doorway. ‘Wow. This was not what I was picturing at all.’ Her eyes travelled over the soft grey pallet-wood accent wall, the wrought-iron bed, the rustic nightstands, and two single grey-scale abstract paintings, one on each wall.
‘Be honest. Were you picturing it more like a rainbow unicorn exploded?’ Lucy pulled her knee into her chest and ground her fists into her thigh.
Jade set the drinks down and returned to the doorway.
She could not let everything about tonight – about the last month – fuzz her judgement.
Sure, Lucy was amazing. But she was about to embark on a life-changing journey, one that Jade couldn’t be part of.
Right? Yes, er, no. Definitely, no. ‘I just didn’t expect it to be so, I don’t know, calming in here.
Not that the rest of your place isn’t calm. It just has a lot of—’
‘Stuff?’
‘More like a lot of colour. And stuff, but not in a bad way. Like a homey way.’