one. “Good?”
She was quiet for a moment too long, and he hated the disappointment that balled up in his stomach. “We’re good. I’ll see you around. Good-bye, Cole.”
“Bye, Jelly Bean.” He hung up before she could respond, and then grinned as he imagined her narrowing her eyes in irritation at the nickname. Back when they were kids, he called her Jelly Bean to annoy her. She was cute all riled up and he wasn’t blind; he knew she had a crush on him. How to handle it had been the enigma. He ignored it until he couldn’t any longer. Now he needed to figure out a way to remind her of those old feelings and the connection they had.
Her life was so damn far from Cole’s, but he didn’t care about the details. A couple of weeks were better than the nothing he had with her the last six years. He would never forget the way she felt in his arms, the tinkling of her laughter when he spun her around the dance floor at Mia’s wedding reception. God, the taste of her lips.
He turned on the shower and stepped under the hot spray. Placing his hands against the wall, he let the water hit the top of his head, then trail down his skin like a caress. He remembered tugging her into the storage room at the reception hall and locking the door. They were bathed in darkness, feeling their way around each other’s bodies. God, the way she moaned in his ear when he lifted her dress to touch the moist panties between the legs she wrapped around his waist...
Fuck, he wanted her. He kept his eyes closed and reached down to grasp his cock. It didn’t take long to come, not with those memories in his head. He finished washing and stepped out of the shower.
This time there’d be nothing holding him back. Well, except the woman herself. He just had to convince her to give him one more shot.
CHAPTER FIVE
Mia’s client called the next day in a panic. Her flowers hadn’t arrived at the reception hall for her wedding that afternoon, and her hysteric tears could be heard from across the room through Mia’s cellphone speaker. Jaden supposed if a bride were to have a breakdown, missing flowers would be the perfect trigger. Mia left in a rush with a promise to check in later once she settled the bridal party in at the reception hall.
By noon, all of the photos taken during her time stranded yesterday were uploaded to her computer. She’d written and scheduled two blog posts, and had a video conference with the writers of The Road to Bliss.
By two, she was bored. She wasn’t great at sitting around. She spent a few minutes browsing Mia’s small collection of books—each emotional, tear-your-heart-out-through-your-chest-cavity-and-stomp-on-it novels—but she wasn’t interested in an emotional rollercoaster. There’d been enough of that in her lifetime. So she walked through the first floor of Mia’s house and browsed the photographs. When she found herself lingering in front of an image of her snuggled in Cole’s arms in what seemed like another lifetime, gazing up at him as if he were the only man—person—on Earth, she decided it was time for a walk.
River Bend was so different than she remembered, and it astounded her. Had she walked these streets with blinders on the entire time she lived here? Maybe it was the fact she was seeing the town through adult eyes, gazing at the sights fully instead of keeping her head down in case she ran into Ellie stumbling from one of the bars. As a teenager, she had always fought the fear of not belonging, and she worried about being strong enough to face the gossip Ellie drew like wildfire.
At first, her blog had been for herself. A place she could browse and remind herself how far she’d come from the teenager who counted down every single day until she could leave the trailer park and that life behind. Publishing her first post had been a high, and she’d discovered her purpose—to visit and see as many places as she could and share them with the world. There were
She was quiet for a moment too long, and he hated the disappointment that balled up in his stomach. “We’re good. I’ll see you around. Good-bye, Cole.”
“Bye, Jelly Bean.” He hung up before she could respond, and then grinned as he imagined her narrowing her eyes in irritation at the nickname. Back when they were kids, he called her Jelly Bean to annoy her. She was cute all riled up and he wasn’t blind; he knew she had a crush on him. How to handle it had been the enigma. He ignored it until he couldn’t any longer. Now he needed to figure out a way to remind her of those old feelings and the connection they had.
Her life was so damn far from Cole’s, but he didn’t care about the details. A couple of weeks were better than the nothing he had with her the last six years. He would never forget the way she felt in his arms, the tinkling of her laughter when he spun her around the dance floor at Mia’s wedding reception. God, the taste of her lips.
He turned on the shower and stepped under the hot spray. Placing his hands against the wall, he let the water hit the top of his head, then trail down his skin like a caress. He remembered tugging her into the storage room at the reception hall and locking the door. They were bathed in darkness, feeling their way around each other’s bodies. God, the way she moaned in his ear when he lifted her dress to touch the moist panties between the legs she wrapped around his waist...
Fuck, he wanted her. He kept his eyes closed and reached down to grasp his cock. It didn’t take long to come, not with those memories in his head. He finished washing and stepped out of the shower.
This time there’d be nothing holding him back. Well, except the woman herself. He just had to convince her to give him one more shot.
CHAPTER FIVE
Mia’s client called the next day in a panic. Her flowers hadn’t arrived at the reception hall for her wedding that afternoon, and her hysteric tears could be heard from across the room through Mia’s cellphone speaker. Jaden supposed if a bride were to have a breakdown, missing flowers would be the perfect trigger. Mia left in a rush with a promise to check in later once she settled the bridal party in at the reception hall.
By noon, all of the photos taken during her time stranded yesterday were uploaded to her computer. She’d written and scheduled two blog posts, and had a video conference with the writers of The Road to Bliss.
By two, she was bored. She wasn’t great at sitting around. She spent a few minutes browsing Mia’s small collection of books—each emotional, tear-your-heart-out-through-your-chest-cavity-and-stomp-on-it novels—but she wasn’t interested in an emotional rollercoaster. There’d been enough of that in her lifetime. So she walked through the first floor of Mia’s house and browsed the photographs. When she found herself lingering in front of an image of her snuggled in Cole’s arms in what seemed like another lifetime, gazing up at him as if he were the only man—person—on Earth, she decided it was time for a walk.
River Bend was so different than she remembered, and it astounded her. Had she walked these streets with blinders on the entire time she lived here? Maybe it was the fact she was seeing the town through adult eyes, gazing at the sights fully instead of keeping her head down in case she ran into Ellie stumbling from one of the bars. As a teenager, she had always fought the fear of not belonging, and she worried about being strong enough to face the gossip Ellie drew like wildfire.
At first, her blog had been for herself. A place she could browse and remind herself how far she’d come from the teenager who counted down every single day until she could leave the trailer park and that life behind. Publishing her first post had been a high, and she’d discovered her purpose—to visit and see as many places as she could and share them with the world. There were
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