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“I don’t understand what you mean by that.”
“I know you don’t, and that’s why we won’t work together. It’s why whatever’s between us was over before it began.”
“Wait a minute.” Ian came up beside her. “Let’s not jump ahead of ourselves. Let’s talk about this. Tomorrow, after all the excitement has worn off, I’ll send everyone else home. You and I can be alone, finally, and have a chance to talk, to get to know each other better.”
“I’m not going to sleep with you, Ian. Not tonight or tomorrow or ever.”
“Dammit! That’s not what I was going for.”
“You’re right. That was unfair of me.” She seemed to get sadder with each passing second. “What I should have said was, it’d be too hard to spend more time with you. We come from two different places that are so far apart they might was well be two different planets. I can’t understand your world and you can’t understand mine.”
“Opposites can and do attract, Jada,” he said.
“For a little while, maybe. We’re too far apart in too many ways, though. It can’t work. I’ve been kind of trying to tell you that all day,” she said. “I’ve been feeling it since this morning. The fantasy’s over, Ian. And it was great. I loved every minute of it. But now it’s time to go back to the real world, the one where you run a multi-billion dollar empire and I work (or don’t work anymore), at a small accounting firm in a small town. It’s real life, where you and I will never bump into each other in the city at a glittery gala charity event, or in Springers Glen at my brokedown neighborhood market. Our paths don’t cross, and they never would have if Sasha knew basic U.S. geography.”
He shook his head vehemently. “This is the wrong time to make decisions. It’s not condescending to say that it’s been an emotional day, and not only for you. For me, too. I freely admit that you’ve made some points that I need to think about. I’m asking you to think about them again after a good night’s sleep, after some of the crazy of this day has worn off. We’ll talk tomorrow when nerves aren’t so close to the surface.”
“I won’t change my mind, Ian. I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m going home tomorrow and we shouldn’t see each other again. It’s too hard ... because we can never be.”
Her melancholy smile was painful to see. “Jada, we don’t know that.”
She ignored him and glanced out over the grounds. “I’m going to remember my time with you on this amazing estate as one of the best times of my life. Fishing in that little boat, our kiss on the dock, the picnic by the bridge. Mrs. Best and Elly, everyone and everything. Oh, Ian, thank you for sweeping me away in this fantasy where I got to feel like the most beautiful girl in the world. I never imagined I’d get anything like it, not even for the length of a three-day weekend.”
She put her hands on his shoulders to steady herself, and raised up on tip-toe, kissing him softly on the cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered.
And then she turned and hurried away, into the house, the front door swinging closed behind her, only her bright floral scent remaining, the perfume that had haunted his dreams every night since he met her.
What the hell had happened? He’d been blind-sided. One minute he was coming outside to make sure she was okay, and the next minute she was telling him she never wanted to see him again.
Why did she keep going on about fantasies? She actually was the most beautiful girl in the world and what did that have to do with a three-day weekend? It didn’t make any sense.
He considered going after her, sitting her down and talking until she saw reason. But no, better to let her get some rest.
This sudden change in her was because of everything that had happened that day. And who could blame her for it? He still hadn’t processed most of it himself. No wonder Jada wasn’t making sense.
He’d leave her alone, let her get a good meal, a good night’s rest. Everything would be different in the morning, he was certain of it.
Morning. By then his people would have CGTV and the other gossip outlets racing to retract today’s story. He’d tell Sasha and Agatha to leave tomorrow, too, because they could only be thorns in Jada’s side. And Mrs. Best. He’d ask her to make her famous eggs benedict and deliver them to Jada in bed. A meal like that couldn’t fail to start Jada’s day off the right way.
Tomorrow. Everything would come together then.
He was so convinced of it, that he didn’t mind when Jada didn’t join everyone for dinner. And he didn’t mind when she didn’t leave her room at all that evening. Thanks to the day’s revelations, everyone’s mood was subdued. No one spoke much, not even Agatha. It was a quiet night in the lake house.
The next morning, however, everyone was bustling, staff and guests alike. As expected, the press was backpedaling on the Ian-Jada-Sasha triangle and already moving on to greener gossip pastures. Mrs. Best said Jada loved the eggs benedict. And Sasha and Agatha didn’t even need to be prodded to leave. They were packed and gone by nine a.m., Trey not far behind them in his growling Bugatti.
Everything was going according to plan. Except for one thing. And Ian couldn’t figure out how it happened.
The one thing that really mattered that morning hadn’t gone right at all. If it had, he wouldn’t be standing in his driveway watching his helicopter take off from the landing pad, thunderstruck as it turned and flew away. Gone.
If everything had come together according to plan, Jada would never have told him she hadn’t changed her mind. She’d never have gotten on that helicopter five minutes ago and left him.
Forever.
It wasn’t supposed to happen. But there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Nothing at all.
Chapter Eight
JADA THOUGHT SHE’D NEVER GET used to how loud the helicopter was, even when wearing big, noise-cancelling headphones. It didn’t matter, though. After this day, she wasn’t likely to ride in another helicopter for long time, if ever.
The kitty carrier shifted on her lap. Poor Ms. Kitty was stressed. She didn’t like the roar of the copter any more than Jada did.
Beneath the roar, Marina and Sullivan chatted through the headsets. Sullivan was traveling on into the city after Raul dropped Jada and Marina at the armory field in Springers Glen.
Marina had been grilling him the whole trip for details about what had been done already and what would be done in the future to set the marriage license problem to rights.
Jada listened in, curious herself. One of Marina’s questions about Sasha particularly drew her attention.
“What’s going to happen to Sasha now?” Marina asked.
“Some of it will depend on what Jada wants to do,” Sullivan said, sending Jada a significant glance. “It also will depend on the Springers Glen district attorney. Ian thinks there’s room for leverage because of the involvement of the DA’s grandmother.”
“Sasha needs to be punished for what she did,” Marina said. “It’s crap if she gets away with it because she’s got friends in high places.”
“I don’t think Ian’s interested in letting her completely off the hook, but I don’t think he wants to see her in jail either. I don’t. Do you?”
“I don’t know,” Marina answered. “Kind of.”
Jada turned her headset down. She didn’t want to listen to any more. She didn’t much care what happened to Sasha, after all. Maybe she’d care later, but right now, not so much.
Sasha had kno
cked on Jada’s door right before dawn that morning. She’d walked in, not slouched the way she usually did, and actually apologized for “not thinking things through” and for “not being honest about much of anything until it was too late.” That was how she put it.
When Jada accepted her apology, Sasha looked genuinely relieved, and it was nice to see that the supermodel could care about something.
She’d scratched Ms. Kitty’s under the chin and said, “See you around, Cat. You’re alright.” Jada had taken this restrained display as further evidence that Sasha was feeling sentimental.
But she was still Sasha and wouldn’t leave well enough alone. On her way out the door she quipped, “Of course, if I hadn’t made that fake license, you wouldn’t be hooking up with one of the few billionaires in the world who’s actually hot. Oh, and he’s one of the best friends I’ve ever had. So I can’t feel too badly for you.” She shot Jada a saucy look then was gone.
Jada didn’t tell Sasha that she wasn’t getting the guy after all. It would have been too difficult to explain and Jada didn’t think Sasha would understand anyway.
When she told Marina that she was parting ways with Ian, Marina certainly didn’t understand. She gaped at Jada like Jada had lost her mind.
“You dumped a billionaire because he wants his own way? He’s a classic alpha male. By definition he’s going to be a little bossy,” Marina said.
“He’s not just a little bossy,” Jada said. “He’s overbearing and wants to run my life and he’s overprotective and condescending ... and ... quit looking at me like that! The bottom line is, he doesn’t respect me!”
“That’s stupid,” Marina said.
“Don’t call me stupid.”
“Fine. Slow-witted. Is that better?”
“Shut up.”
“Fine,” Marina said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I won’t say anything else.”
“Good.”
“Except this one thing. You can always teach him to tone down the bossy, you know.”
