Things were never the same, period.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
JADE
I slept late. It was Saturday, and I didn’t have to go to work. I wanted to make sure I got up well after Talon had risen and headed out. At ten a.m., I finally rose. I knocked on Marjorie’s door, but she wasn’t there. Maybe she was in the kitchen or in the family room watching TV, maybe outside. Nope.
After taking a walk around the entire house and the patio, I could not find her. Just as well. I needed some alone time to think.
The coffee in the coffee maker was cold. I started a fresh pot—a strong fresh pot—and then headed back to my room to shower while it brewed. The doorbell waylaid me.
Who could be coming at this hour on a Saturday? Then I laughed to myself. This hour? It was ten, not six a.m. It could be anyone. Of course, if they were looking for either Talon or Marj, they’d be out of luck.
Still in my boxers and tank top that I’d slept in, I walked to the door and looked out the peephole.
I rolled my eyes. Who should be on the other side of the door but my ex-fiancé, Colin Morse.
I hadn’t seen him since the rehearsal dinner the night before wedding. He had never bothered to show up later on the wedding day to apologize or anything. I had no idea where he had gone, and at this point, I didn’t rightly care.
Curiosity more than anything forced me to open the door.
He looked the same—handsome in a refined and priggish way—why had I never noticed that before?—with blondish hair, greenish eyes, boringish khaki trousers and white cotton dress shirt. His gaze zeroed in on my breasts. I crossed my arms.
“What are you doing here, Colin?”
“Can I come in?”
“No.”
“Come on, Jade.”
“Fine.” I stepped backward.
He strode into the foyer. “I took the red-eye to Grand Junction. I’ve been here since six this morning. It took me a while to find this place. It’s not exactly on a map.”
“The Steel property is pretty big.”
“I’ll say.”
“So what are you doing here?”
“I…I want to tell you how sorry I am.”
“You know, Colin, if you’d had the balls to tell me this before the wedding, or at least at the rehearsal dinner, we could’ve saved a little bit of money by canceling. Not a lot, mind you, but a little.”
“I didn’t really think this was about the money.”
Unbelievable. Colin had grown up with a silver spoon shoved so far up his ass he didn’t know reality. “You didn’t? You know my dad lives a modest life. You know I do too. He spent twenty grand of his hard-earned savings to give me the day of my dreams, and we weren’t able to get any of that back. Not a freaking penny.”
“I intend to pay your father back, Jade.”
“Great. I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.” I tapped my bare foot. “Did you really come all this way just to tell me that?”
His cheeks reddened. “No. I…I came to tell you that…I think I made the biggest mistake of my life.”
He could not be serious. “Yeah? And what might that be?”
“Letting you go.”
I shook my head, laughing. “This is rich.”
“I’m serious, Jade. I still love you. I never stopped loving you.”
“Then why in the hell didn’t you want to marry me?”
“I got scared.”
“Scared. Okay. And you think I wasn’t scared? Binding yourself to another person is pretty scary thing, Colin. But we had seven years under our belts.”
“Yeah, I know. You were my first and only serious girlfriend. I just started wondering if…”
“If what? If something better was out there?”
He bit his lip.
That fucking bastard.
“Well, here’s news, Colin. We are over. You blew it.”
“Come on, Jade. We should be back from our honeymoon by now, settling in together. Both of us starting our careers at Dad’s Denver satellite.”
“Yeah, we should. But you know what? I’m here, hanging out with Marj and her brothers, and I’m having a great time. I’m really glad to be here. My bar results are due any day now, and in the meantime, I’m working for one of Marj’s brothers at the winery. I’m learning lots of stuff that I’m becoming passionate about. All in all, I’m glad we didn’t get married. I think it really would’ve been a mistake. So I should thank you.”
His lips trembled. “Please don’t say that.”