Chapter 3 #2
Cane ignored her as he ordered a Corona for himself and Max from Julio. Julio blushed as he headed toward the bar, drink order in hand.
“Lucky for you, I still have your number.” She smiled sweetly, recovering quicker from Cane’s downplay than I had anticipated. “I’ll just shoot you a text later, and you can hit me up.”
“You do that,” he said, nodding. “Now I’m about to enjoy a meal here with my friends, so why don’t you go find yours?”
“Oh, okay. Talk to you soon, baby.” She walked away, her head held high despite being clearly dismissed by Cane.
I was speechless.
“That was interesting,” Max said, shaking his head. “You really find the crazy ones, Cane. That girl has no shame.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Kari said, rolling her eyes.
Cane laughed as he took his drink from the server. “The crazy ones are the most fun.” He looked at me and laughed at the look on my face. “No, seriously—she’s not nearly as fun as she thinks she is. And I think four times is a stretch.”
“I don’t know what to say to any of that,” I mumbled.
“Don’t worry.” Cane brought the bottle to his lips. “I’d be happy to take you home tonight instead.”
I was appalled for the second time in as many minutes.
“Excuse me?” I asked in disbelief, my voice rising. My mouth hung open at his audacity. “I’m not interested in going home with you, thank you very much.”
Cane leaned in close, his eyes sparkling and his voice just above a whisper. “Don’t act like you don’t want me, Jada.” The way his voice caressed my name made my entire body light up. “Your eyes give you away.”
I forced a swallow as my brain left me hanging, abandoning me when I needed a quick, sassy retort. We watched each other, neither of us saying a word until a beeping noise drew his attention away.
I sagged in my chair with relief, glancing at Max, who looked amused. I glared at him, and he responded with a laugh before taking a drink of his beer.
Cane’s eyebrows furrowed as he dug into his pocket. “Excuse me for one second,” he said, swiping his phone and holding it to his ear.
“Alexander,” he said, sitting upright. “Are you kidding me? That’s impossible.” Cane shook his head with exasperation. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. I’ll be there in a little while.”
He shoved his phone back into his front pocket and looked at Max as he stood. “I have to go take care of the mess in Queen Creek.”
Max nodded, seeming to understand what Cane was referring to.
One part of me relaxed while another part secretly wished he would stay. I had never met someone like him before, someone who could walk into a room and immediately own it. I knew I couldn’t take it any further, but it would’ve been interesting to watch him try.
“Kari, it was nice to see you again. Jada, have Max give you my number.” He smiled confidently at me.
I was flabbergasted, annoyance at his presumptuousness overriding every other emotion. Is he freaking serious? What kind of girl does he take me for? “I don’t need nor do I want your number.”
“Are you going to play hard to get? That’s so cute.” He gazed down at me, his eyes daring me to disagree.
I was incensed and aroused—and mentally berated myself for the latter. Just as I was on the cusp of giving in to my body’s demands, images of Decker and Sarah flashed through my mind, and I tumbled back to reality with a resounding thud. “I’m not playing anything. I don’t want your number, Cane.”
He studied me for a moment, his forehead creased in thought. “Do you have a boyfriend?”
“No, I don’t. I’m not sure why that matters.”
I glanced at Kari and Max, and they were watching us now. And I thought they would be the entertainment.
I glared at Cane for putting me on the spot.
“I’m pretty sure you have somewhere to be. And time is ticking,” I reminded him, glancing at my watch for emphasis.
He let out a deep breath and grabbed his wallet. He tossed a few bills in the center of the table. “I’ll take care of the bill.”
Bending down, his breath hot on my cheek, he whispered, “I look forward to seeing you again.” I started to respond, but he cut me off. “Oh, Jada. We will see each other again.”
His words, both a threat and a promise, ignited my core, and I shifted in my seat.
“I’m not sure why you’re playing hard to get,” he breathed, his lips so close to my skin that I fought hard not to shudder. “You shouldn’t bother, Jada, because I’m not a player. I’m the coach.”
CANE
I quickly pulled my Denali out of the parking lot, cutting off some poor fucker. The guy shook his fist at me out his driver’s side window.
He thought he was frustrated. I just had to leave a very promising dinner to take care of some bullshit my employees couldn’t manage.
How did I not know Kari had a sister who looked like that? And why didn’t she want my number? Am I slipping? Am I losing my touch?
I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration.
Why do I even care that she didn’t want my number?
I thought about it for a few minutes and was left with no answers and felt a little pissed off. My phone began to ring, diverting my attention. “Howard? What’s going on over there?”
“We got it figured out, boss.”
“What was the problem?” My annoyance began to bleed away. There was no sense in being a dick to Howard. He was the best employee I had, besides Max.
“The utility subcontractor called and said they wouldn’t be able to show up tomorrow. I got ahold of the owner, and it’s taken care of. They’ll be here. No worries.”
No worries, my ass.
“Are you absolutely sure? It is imperative that we stay on schedule on this. We can’t afford any delays at this point.”
“No worries, boss.”
I shook my head. It was still odd to hear Howard, who had worked for my father for decades, call me boss. But I wrote the paychecks, so I guess it made sense. “If I don’t worry, who is going to make sure everything doesn’t get fucked up?”
“Me. Max. I’ve told you this a time or two, Cane. Relax a little. Trust us. You are so hardheaded, just like your old man used to be.”
I blew out a breath and swallowed hard, not wanting to go there. “You know I had you put on this job because it’s the most important one. I want the expansion of Benjamin Estates done on time and with no corners cut. I need you to make that happen.”
“I’m on it. I’ll bitch out Franklin for calling you. I was on the phone getting everything figured out when he decided we couldn’t handle this on our own.”
“Let me know if you have any problems. I’ll be by early in the morning to make sure everything is kosher.”
“Will do.”
I ended the call before tossing my phone onto the passenger seat.
I needed to make sure I was there before the guys in the morning. That’s what Dad would have done. He led by example, and that’s why everyone respected him. He kept calm, made rational decisions, and didn’t get worked up. Unfortunately for me, my maternal DNA was a little stronger than his.
Treat me good, I’ll treat you better. Treat me bad, I’ll treat you worse.
I saw that in a bar in Newport shortly before my world flipped upside down. I liked the motto that had been carved into a wooden table and it had stayed with me. It appealed to the side of me that was more like her, the side of me that was a pure hedonist.
Fuck her.
I tossed my sunglasses beside my phone as I glanced at the clock.
7:54 PM
I briefly considered turning around and heading back to the restaurant and to the beautiful brunette who pretended she didn’t want me. Traffic was a motherfucker, and it would be an hour to get back in the other direction, so I continued toward home.
I zipped through the lanes, weaving in and out of the cars, my driving erratic. It mirrored my thoughts. I had spent less than thirty minutes with Jada, and now my mind was focused on her?
What the fuck? This is not how I operate.
She told me no. I shook my head, a grin touching my lips.
I jumped off the freeway and meandered through the streets before taking a left into my subdivision. The cookie-cutter houses annoyed me as they always did.
The idea of it—each house the same but in various color schemes—was the epitome of what I hated. They were just like people, all the same underneath their personal color palette. When you broke ninety-nine percent of people down, they were all assholes. Some people just covered it up better.
I arrived home and walked into my house.
The warm scent of baked goods met me at the door.
Although Penny was originally hired to clean up and do laundry, over the years she had taken pity on me.
Very rarely did I come home on a day she had been by and not find a cake or cookies in the kitchen.
She said I needed a mother; I said I would keep paying her salary.
My phone buzzed in my hand as I walked across the tile floor. “Hey, Max.”
“Was everything okay in Queen Creek?”
“Yeah, Howard took care of it. In more interesting news, how’s my girl?” A cheeky grin broke over my face.
“Your girl?” Max sounded confused. “I don’t know. Did Miriam text you?”
“Miriam? I mean Jada.” I flopped down on the black leather couch, my thoughts drifting back to her bright green eyes.
Max chuckled loudly. “I’m pretty sure she shut you down, man. That asshole thing you have going on turns some people off. Shocker, I know, but you should reconsider that. You’ll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”
“Don’t start your Southern-boy shit with me now. She’s just doing that passive-aggressive thing some women do. She wants me. It was written all over her.”
“I thought she may like you, but I’m not sure she does.” His voice was full of amusement, enjoying the fact that Jada didn’t fall all over herself to get with me like women normally did.
“She does. Trust me, she does.”
“The most troubling times in my life are when I trust you.”
“They are also the most memorable.”
“Speaking of which, I’m not going to Payson with you this weekend. Kari has some movie she wants to see, and I told her I’d take her.”
“You’re ditching a weekend at my cabin with all the Coronas you can drink for a weekend with her? I’m losing my faith in you,” I said, shaking my head.
Max laughed. “You’re going to have to find someone else who can stand to be around you for longer than twenty minutes. I know it will be hard, but there are four million people in this city. It should be doable.”
“What-the-fuck-ever. Everyone wants to be around me. I’m the one that can’t stand people.” I sat up and kicked off my shoes. “Come to think of it, I could be around Jada for more than a few minutes. So why don’t I take her out tomorrow night?”
“Because she doesn’t like you?”
“Fuck you. Seriously, let’s do something tomorrow.”
“First, you need to ask her, not me. Second, did the Cane Alexander just offer to take a girl on a real date? And third, she starts work tomorrow. So I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be a good day, even if she did like you. And I have serious doubts about that.”
“What does she do?” Suddenly, I was all ears.
“She’s a real estate agent. Kari said she’s going back to work for their dad in the morning.”
I smiled devilishly. “That I can work with.”