13. River
RIVER
My kitchen table feels emptier without Jade sitting across from me. The bacon on my plate remains untouched, and for once, Marty doesn’t seem to want it either.
I went after Jade immediately, but Natasha warned me she needed some time to process everything. She also filled me in on all the missing pieces I didn’t know about—the slimy principal, the wrongful termination, the police hardly taking a statement much less launching an investigation.
Though my anger has tempered since last night, I’m livid.
I hope Jade won’t hate me for sending in some reinforcements to her shitty Indiana town.
I didn’t spend twenty years in the Marines not to make a few connections.
I give it a week before that bastard is taken down.
Because if there’s anything I know about men like him, it’s that it’s never just one victim.
I’d have flown to Indiana myself, but I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving Jade behind.
She has every right to be mad.
I lied to her.
But she also lied to me.
I don’t know where that leaves us.
I only know that the love I have for her is too strong to be torn apart by a couple of simple misunderstandings.
But the call is hers and hers alone now.
Marty perks at the sound of the screen door. It takes less than two seconds for him to go from depressed and lying on the floor to leaping over the back of the couch to get to Jade.
Jade.
She’s here.
My heart thunders in my chest as I wait for her to meet me in the kitchen. It kills me not to go to her, but I need to allow this to unfold at her pace.
“Hey,” she says, her smile sheepish as she appears in the doorway. Marty is beside himself, pressing his entire body against her leg so hard she has to prop herself up against the doorframe to stay standing.
“Jade, I—”
“I’m sorry I lied to you,” she says. “It was a silly dare, born of Sangria and desperation. I wanted so badly to be anywhere else. But in my defense, I never thought I’d get the job.” She folds her arms over her chest and leans against the doorframe. “So I have just one question for you.”
“Yeah?”
“If you knew I was a fraud, why did you hire me? Why did you double my pay when you knew damn well I wasn’t qualified for this job?”
“Because from the moment I saw your face, I just knew.”
“Knew what?”
I push up from the chair and cautiously approach her. “That I was supposed to love you for the rest of my life.”
“You knew all that from a three-minute video full of lies?”
“The words you spoke didn’t matter.” I reach for her elbows, and her arms fall immediately. “You could’ve told me you went to school on Mars, and all I would’ve heard was how much I needed to meet you.”
“How? How could you know?”
I shrug. “I can’t explain it, Jade. But one thing I learned in the military was how to trust my gut. And my gut said you were The One. I didn’t question it. Not once. I knew I loved you before I stepped out of the truck your first night in town.”
“You love me?”
“Isn’t that obvious? Natasha said it was.”
“She would say that,” Jade says, laughing.
“I don’t want you to stay if you think you won’t be happy here. But if this past week has shown you anything, I hope it’s that you belong here. Not just with me—but in Wildwood. There’s a teaching position open. High school—”
“—history teacher. Yep, already applied.”
“What?”
“I was trying to figure out how to tell you I lied. I’m sorry, by the way. I had a bad experience back in Indiana, and this whole discovery sort of triggered me. It wasn’t fair that I blew up on you. I needed some time to separate what happened then from what happened here.”
“No, what’s not fair is that bastard got away with assaulting you.”
She looks away, but I cup her cheek and tilt her chin up until she looks at me. “If I have anything to say about that, he’ll be canned before the Homecoming game.”
Such gratitude sparkles in her eyes. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I will do everything in my power to protect the woman I love. And make no mistake, Jade Sweeny. I love you fully and completely.”
“You know what?” she says, her watery eyes sparkling.
“What?”
“I love you too.”
I scoop her into my arms and kiss her until we’re both lacking oxygen and Marty starts barking enthusiastically.
“Right, Marty loves you too. But I think you knew that already.” I kiss her again as the front door opens. Natasha and Josh burst into my living room.
“Oh good. We’re staying, right?” Natasha asks. “Because I have three more books to write in this series. So please tell me we’re staying?”
“Yes,” Jade says, refusing to tear her gaze from mine. “We’re staying.”
“You can all consider your plane tickets canceled,” I say. “I’m not letting this woman out of my sight.”