Jade's Spirit (Blue Collar Boyfriends Book 2) (35 page)

“People will tell you things like, ‘I just knew he was the one’ or ‘the first time he smiled at me, I knew I’d love him the rest of my life.’ But it wasn’t like that for me.” Grandma Nina folded her hands in her lap. Her plain gold wedding ring was just where it had always been even though Grandpa Earl had been gone for eleven years. “Your grandfather and I had a slow courtship. We were both older, you know. Both wary of jumping in too fast. I don’t know if I ever told you, I was married before. Divorced three years later.”

“Wow. I didn’t know that.” It was a day for surprises.

“You know that old saying ‘fools rush in?’”

Jade shook her head. “I can guess what it means, though.”

“Means when you rush into something—like a marriage—you might find yourself wishing you hadn’t, feeling a fool. It isn’t always true, honey. There is such a thing as ‘love at first sight,’ but I’ve never experienced it. Thought I had. But I was wrong. I was that fool that expression warns about. I was nineteen. One look at a cute ass in a pair of tight Navy whites, and I was done for.”

“Grandma!”

“What? I remember what it was like, being young and horny all the time.”

“TMI.” She clapped her hands over her ears but only for a second. She couldn’t help laughing at her grandmother’s mischievous wink.

“Anyway, I learned my lesson. Your grandfather and I took our time. We were friends first. Our attraction bloomed slowly. It wasn’t like fireworks or being hit over the head with a mallet or any of those things people say about love. It was a quieter love. A steady love.” She took Jade’s hand in her warm dry grasp. “I married your grandfather because I knew he’d always be there for me. I knew he was a good man. Nothing else mattered but that. Things weren’t always perfect, of course, but I could always go back to that certainty. Honey, you find a man who’s good to the core, you grab on and don’t let go.” She leaned back to study Jade’s face. “Or have you already done that?”

Jade sighed. She was so tired and so confused. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“How do you not know something like that? Did you meet someone or didn’t you? What on Earth is going on with you?”

“I think I got married last night,” she blurted. “But I don’t remember it. And I don’t want it.”

Her grandmother frowned. “I thought I was done dealing with all that drinking and drug drama when your mother passed.”

“I wasn’t drunk or high. I was—” possessed. “Unconscious.”

“You realize you’re not making any sense, honey?” Her grandmother was looking at her like she’d gone off the deep end. “And you look so tired. Why don’t you go home and take a nap?”

There was no way she’d fall asleep in that house any time soon. “I don’t want to go to the house.” Partly because she was afraid of it, partly because Emmett might come looking for her there. She wasn’t ready to face him. But she couldn’t stay here, either. Betty would have to go home eventually.

“Well, what do you want? What is your heart telling you?”

That was easy. “To run away.”

“So, what are you doing here?”

She sat up straight. “Hey, you’re supposed to tell me to grow up and face my problems, not of run from them.”

“You should face them, honey, but look at you. You’re exhausted. You’re stressed. I’ve seen you tired before, and I know whatever’s going on with you is bigger and badder than anything you’ve faced before. You’ve been up here for almost two weeks, and all your friends are down in Boston. Why don’t you get yourself a coffee and go for a drive? Clear your head. Visit with your friends. Have some fun. Then come back in a few days and face what’s got you all knotted up.”

Her grandmother was so wise.

Half an hour later, Betty deposited her in front of her grandmother’s house. Everything looked in order. Her Jetta sat in the driveway, the sun reflecting off the rear window. Lacy shadow cast by the big purple maple danced across her front lawn, which was neatly trimmed, but yellow from heat and neglect.

She got out of Betty’s Buick and eyed the house.

“Have a wonderful afternoon,” Betty said.

“You too. Thanks for the ride.”

“Any time.” Betty shuttled her Buick into her driveway, and Jade lost sight of it behind the hedges.

She was alone with her grandmother’s house. She did not want to go inside, did not want to face a kitchen covered in shards of glass and filled with memories of shadows taking form and attacking Emmett.

“No guts, no glory.” She hustled up the walk to get it over with as quickly as possible.

Her carryon bag rumbled on the bricks behind her. She dragged it up the two stairs to the sun porch. Forcing herself not to pause, she slipped the key in the lock and worked the thumb latch on the front door.

There really had been a demon in her house. She’d seen it for herself. Was it so hard to believe she’d been possessed and had married her sexy church boy to save herself?

Yes, it was. Emmett claimed he proposed and she said yes, but she couldn’t see herself agreeing to it for the reason Emmett gave her this morning, not even if her life was at stake.
Marry for love,
her mother used to tell her and Jilly,
only for love.
Her mother had a lot of faults, but Jade had always looked up to her for staying single. She’d dated a lot of losers, but she’d never committed to any of them. She’d taken care of herself and her girls. It hadn’t been a glamorous life by any stretch of the imagination, but they’d had food, shelter, and money for school supplies. They’d gone to the dentist and doctor whenever necessary. Her mother had seen to all the important things, and she’d done it without handouts. In fact, she’d often extend their food and shelter to whatever non-marriagable idiot she happened to be seeing at any given time.

Her mother hadn’t needed marriage, and Jade had learned young it was better to keep a legal distance from men. You never knew which ones you might need to get a restraining order against. Easier to keep separate names and checking accounts. Easier to run when things went south.

No, she wouldn’t have married for anything but love. She would have let a demon take her soul before offering it up to a man she hardly knew.

When she shouldered into the front hall, the healing scabs on her chest and cheek prickled with the memory of hot glass shards. Her throat tightened as she remembered Mr. Shadow slinking along her walls.

Why did she have a strange certainty she would never see him again? Why did that bother her?

Get a grip. Whatever was going on here is over.
At least according to Nick. But could he be trusted? He was on the crazy boat with Emmett. Apparently, so was Chiboza.

She’d moved to Nutsville, USA. A trip to Boston had never sounded so good.

After a bracing breath, she jogged up the stairs, leaving the carryon in the front hall. She couldn’t face unpacking it right now. She just wanted to grab a change of clothes and get out of the house. Besides, Maxi was expecting her, and she would have everything Jade might need.

No ghosts slid across the walls and no cold spots chilled her to the bone as she grabbed her phone charger and some clean underwear from the turret bedroom. Settling into a sense of normalcy, she detoured into the bathroom to take care of necessities. No shower, though. No way did she feel comfortable enough to draw a curtain between her and the rest of the house. She’d clean up at Maxi’s when she got there.

As she washed her hands, she glanced at her face in the mirror and noted the dark circles her grandmother had pointed out. She looked like hell. While she debated digging through her carryon downstairs for the makeup she’d packed, she couldn’t help remembering the startled face of a young man peering back at her as she got ready for her date with Emmett last Friday. She had the strangest feeling there was something important she had forgotten, and it had to do with that young man.

Whatever. It had been a strange day. She ignored any feelings she couldn’t explain and headed downstairs, bypassing her carryon. She just wanted out of the house, out of Dover.

While locking up, her phone buzzed in her sweatshirt pocket, making her jump. The display said it was Emmett. She wanted to dodge him again, but eager as she was to get back to her familiar stomping grounds, she couldn’t bear to give him anything to worry about while his sister was hurt. She picked up.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” he said, and there was a smile in his voice.

She smiled, too, against her better judgment. “How’s your sister?”

“Sleeping. Rob says all the tests they did show she’s healing well and doesn’t have a concussion or anything.”

“That’s great.” It was also great to hear his voice, maybe a little too great. Isn’t this how brainwashing worked? One minute you’re determined to leave the cult. Then, the leader smiles at you and suddenly you’re holding out your cup for seconds on the Kool-Aid.

No Kool-Aid for me, thanks.

Restacking the bricks in her emotional barrier, she said, “So, she’ll be all right?”

“Yeah. Looks like it. We’re all hoping she’ll be back to her old self when she wakes up. How are you? Resting up?”

“Sure, yeah. I feel fine.”

“Good.” He sighed, and the sound tripped her heart with longing.

More bricks. More mortar. Wall it up. Keep those feelings out.

“I’ve got so much to talk to you about,” he said. “But I think I’m going to have to crash when I get home.”

Guilt pricked at her. He’d stayed up all night, and by skipping town she would probably make it hard for him to catch up on his rest today.

He stayed up all night taking care of me. Because I had a demon in me…or a minion.
Every time she thought about it the horror sank in a little deeper and made her feel a little sicker.
Why don’t I remember?

“I’ll leave here soon as Lisa wakes up and I get to say ‘Hey’ to her. I’ll bring you some lunch and we can eat it in bed and then sleep the rest of the day. Sound good?”

It did. Too good.

“Listen, take your time there. Family comes first. Don’t worry about me.”

“Okay. I miss you, though. The guys aren’t bothering you, are they? I called Theo to tell him to make sure they keep it down in the shop.”

“They’re fine.” Guilt, guilt, and more guilt. She shouldn’t let him believe she was at his house, but she didn’t want him trying to stop her from putting some distance between them. She needed time and space.

She got off the phone with a minimum of deception and climbed in her car. She was still ravenously hungry, so on the way out of town, she stopped at Dunkin Donuts for an egg sandwich and an enormous coffee. Once she hit the freeway, she rolled down her windows and let the wind whip her hair.

Maybe she was running like a coward, but she felt free. It sure beat feeling trapped in a house that may or may not be haunted and a marriage that may or may not be real.

Chapter 31

Steaming coffee hissed from one of those push-button machines into the Styrofoam cup in Emmett’s hand. He’d selected the strongest setting, hoping it would keep him awake another few hours. He’d been sitting with Rob in Lisa’s hospital room when he found himself conking out in the visitor’s chair. Rob had tactfully suggested he go to the cafeteria for coffee, but Emmett doubted there was enough coffee in the state to keep him awake much longer.

He’d been up since five the morning before, when he’d gotten up for his sweeping shift. It was now creeping up on ten o’clock the next day. That was…twenty-four plus five…twenty-nine hours awake. At least his brain was still functioning, albeit a little slower than usual.

He filled a second cup for his brother-in-law and headed back to the room, praying as he navigated the halls of Brattleboro Memorial that Jade was resting well and healing up from whatever damage she’d sustained during her ordeal. His skin still crawled whenever he thought about how skeletal she’d been just a few hours ago. And when he remembered how close he’d been to having sex with the abomination that had mind-raped his girl—damn it. He’d crushed the flimsy cups and spilled hot coffee all over himself. Whispering a curse, he tossed the crushed cups into a trash bin and returned to the cafeteria.

Ten minutes later, he pushed into Lisa’s room to find her awake and sitting up in bed.

“Did I miss a food fight in the caf?” she asked with a smirk at the coffee stains on his jeans. She looked tired and a little pale, but otherwise good.

“Hey, sis.” He handed a coffee to Rob, set his down, and pulled Lisa into a hug, being careful of her IV and the bandages on her arms. There were bandages under her hospital gown, too, Rob had told him. She’d been stabbed three times by a biker chick, according to the police report. Emmett could only imagine the biker chick thought Lisa was someone else. His sister could be a tough cop but she was a great person. No one could possibly get mad enough at her to want to hurt her.

Lisa cleared her throat. “Rob, hon, would you mind giving me and Emmett a few minutes alone? Maybe you could pick me up a sandwich or something?”

Rob left, and Emmett parked his hip on the edge of her bed. “What’s up?” Her expression fell and she teared up. “Hey, hey,” he said and tried to put his arms around her.