Fun With Rick and Jade (21 page)

Trudy stood, folding her hands primly in front of her. “If they’re degenerates, then so am I.”

All eyes turned to Trudy and her stance of defiance, in her pink golf shorts and matching T-shirt. Hardly degenerate wear.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Dave said. “Come along.”

Trudy cleared her throat. “I have a confession to make.”

Rick got a sick feeling in his stomach. He didn’t need her confessing to their near-kiss experience. He had enough problems without getting beaten the hell up by a guy who could then ruin Rick’s reputation in the technology field by word of mouth alone.

“Go on, Trudy,” Candy prompted her. “Tell him. Don’t be afraid. The truth will set you free, honey.”

Shut up, Candy
.

“I…when I was sixteen,” Trudy began, her face turning beet red, “I got pregnant. So there.”

“Not true.” Dave blinked rapidly, processing. “You were a virgin when I married you.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I gave the baby up for adoption, and I want to find him. I don’t care what it costs. There. I said it. So if Jade is a whore, so am I.” She bobbed her head at him. “If her baby is a bastard, then so is mine.”

Dave stood there sputtering and turning nearly as red as Trudy.

Trudy sniffled. “He’d be twenty-three now.” She looked toward Rick. “Younger than Rick, but I imagine they’d look about the same. I hope he’s as happy and healthy and smart as Rick. I can choose to believe
he’s
found a woman to love—or a man—if he’s so inclined. Maybe he has a family of his own. Children. My grandchildren.”

Jade looked at Rick and her mouth dropped open. She snapped it shut.

“Oh,” Rick said. “Wow. Okay. Now I get it. I’m sorry, Trudy.” He relived the near-kiss, seeing it completely differently with the new information. “I totally misunderstood your kiss.”

“Kiss!” Dave shouted.

“This has been weighing heavily on her for quite some time,” Candy said. “Seeing Rick brought it all to a head.”

Everyone looked at Candy.

“We had champagne with our brunch,” Candy explained. “Confessions were made. Secrets were spilled. The air was cleared.” She bowed her head. “All is forgiven.”

“Our bags are in the car,” Dave said, much quieter than his earlier, heated words. “We should go. We’ll talk about this later. When we get home.”

Trudy hugged everyone good-bye. Dave remained standoffish. Rick predicted an awkwardly quiet flight home for the couple.

“You go find your son,” Candy said to Trudy with a double-cheek kiss farewell. Sneering at Dave, she added, “Don’t let anything or anyone stop you. And remember, honey, you own half his shit.”

“Candy,” Bob warned her. She was fond of handing out legal advice, since her husband was an attorney.

The house was pin-drop silent after they left.

“Well,” Rick finally said, “that’s that.”

“We’ll find you another investor,” Bob said.

“At least you have each other,” Candy offered. “Some folks have a lot less.”

Coral wailed from upstairs.

“I’ll get her.” Rick stepped toward the stairs.

“No,” Jade said. “I’ll go.” She did go, and he let her.

“Listen, Bob, my car is buried in your garage.” Rick dragged his hand down his face. “Mind if I borrow the SUV?” He nervously jingled the keys in his hand. “I need to drive. Think. Figure out my next move.”

“Sure, bro.”

“Now is
not
a good time for you to leave, Rick,” Candy said. “It would send the wrong message.”

“Yeah, Rick.” Bob changed his tune to suit his wife, who’d missed her calling as a psychiatrist or one of those advice columnists in the entertainment section of the Sunday paper.

Rick paced, contemplating. Coral ceased her crying. “I think I’m through listening to the two of you for a while.”

He needed a little time and space to come up with a backup plan. Jade was accustomed to designer clothes and Egyptian cotton sheets with high thread counts he didn’t understand. She’d called his place a dump. He’d seen no evidence she cooked and very little proof she cleaned or had any marketable skills other than escorting. Rick couldn’t see kissing his wife good-bye as she went out the front door to meet up with a client. She sure as hell wouldn’t slum with him for long. And his prospects for money had marched out the door. In a huff.

“What are you going to do?” Candy inquired.

“Take a drive. Clear my head,” he said. “Tell Jade….”

“Tell Jade what?”

“I don’t know.” He walked away—out the door—into the darkness.

Jade lounged by the pool the following day, holding Coral supine on her lap beneath a shade umbrella. Playing peek-a-boo to pass the time, she distracted herself from Rick’s absence. She pretended to gobble up her daughter’s feet, sound effects included. Coral gurgled and made a funny face. Jade wasn’t sure if it was a laugh or gas. She’d been told Coral was too young to truly laugh. Jade felt too miserable to laugh.

She’d let Rick down.

In the past, she’d been hired to attend high school reunions, weddings, and business conventions with a variety of men, young and not so young. She’d never failed to deliver the fantasy, the illusion. Until now. When it counted most. On the contrary, she’d single-handedly mucked it all up.

He knew what he was getting into, she told herself. Rick had made it personal. He had made her fall in love with him.
Damn him
.

Jade sighed.
I should have been colder, more aloof
. She’d discouraged many would-be suitors who’d paid for a night or a weekend of companionship. She’d do her job so well the client sometimes became infatuated, thinking there was some sort of love connection. She herself had never caught the love bug before. Until now.

Ewan McShane was the closest she’d ever come to loving a client. Jade believed now that was more a case of loving his child. She leaned in and kissed Coral.

Candy padded out, scurrying in three-inch heels, taking quick, choppy steps. “He’s back.”

Jade’s stomach tightened and clenched. “He who?” Hopefully she’d manage to
not
throw up.

“You know very well who,” she whispered. “Rick.”

“Come to get his belongings?”
Aloof. Like so
. That was the way she should have played it.
Double-damn him
.

“Sit up straight. Shoulders back.” Candy demonstrated. “Smile.” She smiled big, but Jade did not follow her lead. Bending at the waist, her friend pinched her cheeks. “What, no makeup today? What’s the matter with you? You knew he’d be back today.”

“To fire me.” If one could be fired from the position of wife. It was called divorce. “I think I’ll save him the trouble and quit.”

“The hell you say.” Candy pinched her arm hard.

“Ow! Damn, Candy.” With one hand on Coral, Jade rubbed her arm with her free hand. “That hurt.”

“Rick’s here,” Bob announced from the open French doors. He wandered in her direction and she knew with some certainty Rick would not be far behind.

Jade’s stomach dipped as if she were on the extreme downward portion of a runaway roller coaster. Her gaze wandered from Rick’s general direction and fixed on the diving board, which reminded her of him. She remembered making love on the board, falling into the water, and frolicking in the pool.

“Hey, Jade.”

Hey, Jade?
Was that all he had to say, like he’d popped out to fetch a gallon of milk at the corner store, returning nearly twenty-four hours later with no milk?

Be remote
. “Hey, Rick,” she replied, refusing to look at him for fear she’d lose her resolve and melt into a kiss she’d force on him against his will.

He crouched by her lounge chair and tickled Coral’s foot. “Hi there, cutie pie.”

Coral gurgled, spit bubbles forming and popping in and around her mouth.

Act detached
. “To what do we owe the pleasure? Forget something?”

“Can we talk?” Still crouched, still touching Coral’s toes like he owned her, he added, “Alone.”

She spotted Candy and Bob in her peripheral vision, turning to go. “Whatever you have to say to me, you can say in front of my attorney—and Candy.”
Way to play it cool. Bravo
. If only she could look at him.

Not looking at him was quickly turning awkward. Especially since he was so close she could smell him. He reeked of soap and that cheap shampoo from his apartment. His scent took her back to the shower they’d shared and the kisses they’d exchanged.

“All right.” He shifted, making her curious. “We’ll do it your way.”

Jade glanced his direction. He wore jeans and a button-down shirt, the rectangular patch of hair on his chest peeking out from the vee of the collar. He’d changed his stance, resting on bended knee.

Rick dug through his front pocket, producing a ring. “Jade Li, will you be my wife?”

Her head swam. The noise of the pool and the street traffic and the lawnmower across the street faded, replaced by the thrumming of her heart.
Be the bitch
. “I am your wife.” She wanted to add the endearment of dummy to her statement, but didn’t have it in her. “For now.”

The curt words took every ounce of energy she had. If not for the baby on her lap, she might find the strength to tackle Rick and take the ring by force, although it appeared he’d be willing to give it to her freely. But he’d regret the decision later—next week or next month and every month after that.

“I love you, Jade.” He tempted her by thrusting the ring closer. “I love the kid.”

“Jade?” Candy prompted her.

“Is that Grammy Edna’s ring?” Bob asked.

“Yeah. It’s been in our family for generations,” Rick said, sweetening the offer like she needed it any sweeter.

Bob stepped closer to take a look at the family heirloom in question. “How did
you
get it?”

“Mom gave it to me.” Rick snapped his fist around the ring, protecting it from his brother. “About a year or so ago. Maybe longer.”

“To keep it out of my hands, I’m sure. I asked her for it to give to Candy, and she refused.” Bob turned and walked away. “I’m going to call her and give her a piece of my mind.”

Jade disguised her choked-up emotion with a scoff. “I’m sure if she knew Rick would give it to a whore, she would have kept it.”

“It’s mine to give to whoever I please.” Rick wrapped his free hand around hers. “I want you to have it.”

His hand on hers softened her coldness. She reminded herself how he’d left the night before without a word to her. Jade wanted to be angry but couldn’t blame him. She wanted the best for him.
I’m not the best for him
. He deserved better.

“Listen, Rick.” Jade squeezed her eyes shut, trying to focus while his thumb swept back and forth along her palm. “Bob is working on a custody and child-support arrangement with Colleen and Ewan.”

“Great.”

“I’m going to get a job doing…you know…something legit. So I don’t need you to ride in on your white horse and rescue me.” She tilted her head. “Okay?”

“I think I’ll leave you two to talk.” Candy took a few steps backward before turning and disappearing inside the house.

“Marriage isn’t about rescuing or being rescued, Jade.” He held the ring up between his thumb and index finger. “I love you.”

She leaned in and whispered, “You’re infatuated, Rick.”
I’m in love
. He couldn’t possibly be feeling what she felt, as if she needed a doctor.

“I think I know my own mind.”

She slipped her hand out of his hold. “So you’re saying I don’t know my own mind?”

He grabbed a chair, pulled it close, and took a seat. “No. I’m saying you’re being stubborn and difficult.”

Jade hugged Coral against her chest for protection from Rick’s convincing words and eyes. “Welcome to the real me. I’m stubborn and difficult and so much more.”

He barked out a laugh. “I know the real Jade.”

“You think you do.”
Watch and learn
.

“Okay.” He grinned as if they were playing some kind of game of wits, of which he was sure he’d win on account of his big brain. “I’d like to get to know the real Jade.”

She dug deep for some attitude. Her mouth felt like a desert. “Rick, if we
hadn’t
signed that pre-nup and if you
had
gotten that lump of money from the Honeycutts, maybe we could strike a deal.” She patted his hand. “But you
didn’t
get the money and we
did
sign a pre-nup.” Jade shrugged. “Our union wasn’t meant to be.”

His mirth vanished. The entire landscape of his face changed to pain and hurt. She wanted to tell him that it hurt her more to say the cruel words than it hurt him to hear them. She also wanted desperately to take it back, but the lie was for his own good. He’d thank her someday. Some day when he was married to someone else and had a family of his own.

“Right.” Rick stuffed the ring in his pocket. “What was I thinking?”

“Let’s stick with the original plan,” Jade said. “Just because we enjoyed a little recreational sex while married, doesn’t chain us together indefinitely.”

“I’ll talk to Bob on my way out about getting started on the divorce paperwork once you have a firm agreement in place with Ewan.” He bobbed his head. “So we’re good?”

“Yeah.” The word stuck in her throat. “Totally.”

He leaned in and placed his hand on Coral’s head. “I’m going to miss her. But she’s got a dad and it’s not me, right?”

Jade couldn’t respond. Couldn’t agree with his assessment.

Rick pushed up to standing. He floundered like he had more to say, some unfinished business. She willed him to argue with her, give her a good reason why they should be together. Something she could sink her teeth into, more so than love. Giving up, he stalked away to the house without another word.

Jade held her baby girl to her chest, hanging on for all she was worth.

***

Rick hid his dirty dishes in the dishwasher, opened some blinds to let the light in, and ran the vacuum cleaner over the carpet. Glancing around, he confirmed the apartment looked lived in, but not dirty.