Read Online Please Remember Me by Wendi Zwaduk - Free Book Online Page B

she’d got away from Marlon and his mouth-watering body. If she’d lingered any longer, she might have told him flat-out she wanted him.
    Sparky seemed to like walking three blocks north and sniffing the trash around the bakery before heading two blocks east to the municipal building then back the way they’d come. Along the way, Jaden admired the turn-of-the-century brick buildings lining the main drag of Crawford. Each storefront bore the owner or the builder’s name. Grand windows faced the street, some filled with goods, like in the hardware store, while others had plastic taped to the other side, hiding the emptiness.
    Unless the stores had clothes, she’d rarely paid attention to the buildings in Beverly Hills. Heck, most of what she’d seen of California had been the inside of nightclubs and the interior of limousines.
    As she strolled, her phone rang. Without looking at the ID screen, she flipped it open. “Hello?”
    Her father spoke on the other end of the line. “Are you ready to come to your senses and come home? Ohio isn’t ready for Jade Weir, remember? We learned that when you chased Logan a year or so ago.”
    Gritting her teeth, Jaden clenched the phone. “You don’t want me home because you care about me. You miss the ridiculous things I did that sold copies of your magazine.”
    “You’re my daughter. I worry about you.”
    “No normal father gives his little girl the green light to pose nude on her eighteenth birthday!”
    “So that wasn’t a bright decision. It still doesn’t mean I don’t love you. But you’re a beautiful woman that men want to see. Call the pictorial my gift to the masses.”
    “Gift? You charged ten bucks for the issue. You love that magazine, not me.” She kicked a rock in the middle of the sidewalk. “Now stop calling me. I don’t need a shadow.”
    “I doubt it. Shadows work well in the right circumstances. Then there’s always airbrushing. Think about what I said.”
    Before she could answer, he cut the connection. Jaden slid the phone into her back pocket with more force than necessary. Damn him! Damn Delish magazine. The tabloid rag ruined lives and tore relationships apart. And what did he mean about a shadow? Clicking her tongue, she got Sparky’s attention. “Let’s go.”
    When Sparky stopped to nose a pile of leaves and snort, Jaden noticed the slap of footsteps on the sidewalk behind her. When she turned, a blond man with a jagged scar bisecting his right eyebrow like a C stared at her. She shivered. He reminded her of the endless throngs of paparazzi and grunt news people waiting for her to falter. “Can I help you?”
    “Are you?”
    Narrowing her brows, she wrapped her hand around Sparky’s leash. “Am I who?” The dog forgot the leaves and growled low in his throat. Maybe he read her fear. Or he didn’t care for strangers.
    The man’s sky blue eyes widened and his mouth fell open. “You’re Jade Weir! Miles wasn’t kidding. He said you moved to town because you went off the rails. Fuck, yeah. Can I take you out sometime? I have my own car.”
    Stepping backwards, she attempted to put distance between the blond fan and her position. “I’m Jaden Marie, not Jade Weir. I have the unlucky coincidence of looking like that blonde airhead.” On the inside she winced. Jade was a bimbo. Aw hell.
    “No.” He shook his head. “I’d know that body anywhere. You chunked on a few pounds and need a diet bad, but you’re still doable. How about me and Miles at the same time? I heard you liked kink. He likes to use the video camera. Will that do?”
    Sparky growled and barked. Spittle spewed from his jowls. The blond man jerked back a step or two. Her heart thundered in her chest. What a great time to have a dog! Maybe she’d get Sparky a brother or two—or ten.
    “She’s not doable, into kink or any of that other bullshit you mentioned. You need to leave or I’ll make you leave.”
    Jaden knew that voice. She whipped around and smacked