Jade stays in her office until midnight on Wednesday.
On Thursday, I bribe her with takeout to have a break, but she goes right back to work the moment she sets down her chopsticks.
My next idea is to offer to run the deliveries for her, but she refuses my help. The only thing she’ll let me do is sit behind the register because I can edit photos while I’m on my ass. Ella isn’t feeling well after insisting on three portions of mac and cheese, so she nods off in Jade’s office while Jade’s out making deliveries and I’m manning the register out front. I should probably run back to make sure Ella hasn’t puked. That was a lot of cheese for one little kid.
On my way into the office, my phone buzzes with yet another message from Alex.
Family meeting tomorrow at 6pm
Be there
A “please” wouldn’t go astray, although Alex has never been one for pleasantries. She’s been setting meetings all week. Iris has been felled by morning sickness, so Justin has dropped Ella over every morning. I haven’t heard a peep from Hayley since Halloween. I have a feeling this “family meeting” is really an excuse for an ambush.
Can’t make it tomorrow
Sorry
Alex texts right back, but I shove my phone in my pocket and head into the office, where Ella’s snoring away on the floor with her hands tucked beneath her chubby cheek. Damn, this kid is cute. I’m going to miss her if I go back to Austin. Things are also going so well with Jade; I kinda hate giving that up too. Sure, we could try the long-distance thing, but does that ever work?
The front door’s jingling bell drags me out of my head. I slap on a smile and hurry back out front to greet the customer. My smile vanishes when I nearly trip over a woman with a long blonde ponytail who’s collapsed in the middle of the floor. A woman that—
“Jade?” I run around the counter to kneel beside her. “Jade!”
She’s not responding. Why isn’t she responding? I shake her shoulder and call her name again, but only silence answers.
CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN
JADE
My eyes slowly peel open,the aroma of coffee drifting over my nose and rousing my senses. Blinking groggily, I make out a pattern of dark beams of wood stretched across a white cathedral-style ceiling.
I turn my head, my disoriented gaze catching up to my surroundings. A basket of wood set beside a stone fireplace. An enormous flatscreen TV mounted above it. A plush leather armchair draped with a knitted blanket. I’m in some sort of luxurious cabin that’s beautifully decorated in shades of wood and soft grays. The only thing I recognize is—
“Dylan.” My voice comes out croaky.
His head whips toward me from an open-plan kitchen, his lips splitting into a smile. “You’re up.”
Not technically correct, since I’m lying on the world’s most comfortable couch, but I am awake.
A run of hazy memories drifts into my vision like a slideshow.
Dylan shaking me awake on the floor of the store.
A sleepy ride to the hospital with Dylan behind the wheel of my car.
A crowded waiting room, nurses and doctors, sharp needles and blood tests, a quick phone call with Ruby, and a middle-of-the-night diagnosis of “exhaustion.”
After that, Dylan had spoken to the doctor in hushed tones and taken me home, except I woke up…
“Where am I?” I ask scratchily, sitting up on my elbows as Dylan places a steaming mug of coffee on the glass table beside me.
“My cabin. Actually, it’s my family’s, but I use it the most. Hayley never took you here?”
“No. She did tell me you guys owned a cabin near the springs, but you know Hayley.”
“Likes galleries and martinis, hates insects and silence?” he replies with a wry smile before gently lifting my feet under the blanket so he can sit beside me. He settles my legs over his thighs, and a flurry of sleeping butterflies awakens in my stomach.
I force my eyes off his handsome face to give the spacious yet cozy room another glance. Through the patio doors, the strip of sky over the oak trees is painted with the peach hue of dawn. Dylan did tell me he was a morning person, whereas I tend to start my days erring on the side of homicidal. But right now, through the tiredness, I feel strangely…content.
