How Times Change

Chapter 6

Jade screeched to a wet halt, the bumper of her Audi just missing laying an angry kiss on the garage door.  The sky had opened up a pour at this point, hammering the pavement with abandon. By the time she reached the top step she was soaked, hair plastered down and rain seeking every inch of her, covered or not. She fumbled with the keys.

Pushing on the door, it swung open on its own.

Jade froze on the doorway oblivious to the rain. She never ever left her door unlatched, something her father had made her promise when she came out West. Too many episodes of CSI she thought, but he had a point. Her hurry to beat Lucas to the house disappeared into a deeper danger.

What was it that Daddy said- you don’t turn on the light- it surprises them and they bolt before the police can get here…She willed on some of Tony’s fierceness and stepped into the entryway leaving her shoes to soak on the porch to stay quiet. She also grabbed the umbrella that was still sitting in its stand, forgotten today. It wasn’t much, but…

Before she could free her phone from her rain soaked purse, in the other room she heard shuffling. She tensed, grabbing the umbrella baseball bat style and waited. I’m little, but one good swing-

Tiger bounded around the corner, purring like a happy chainsaw. Jade laughed out loud as the tension left her. Tiger hated strangers. If someone had been in the house he’d never be in the kind of mood he was in, purring and rubbing on her like she’d been dipped in catnip. Maybe I did just leave it open. God knows my mind hasn’t been straight since all this Lucas-

Lucas! She released the happy tabby and turned, looking to get back to losing her drenched coat and hopefully get into something presentable before Lucas showed up.

“Hi JJ.”

 Lucas’s warm voice, soft in the half dark from the storm, froze her in her tracks. With her coat still hanging from her hand, she spoke without turning around. “How the hell did you get in here?”

“You need to learn to lock your garage too- it isn’t safe to…”

“The garage?  You broke into my house through my garage?” She turned at this point, arms stiff by her sides and hands flexing at the chill. She was shivering, but not from cold. Lucas was a catalyst; he turned on emotions she tried so hard to shut off. She was angry. Powerfully angry. She pushed back her sopping hair and fixed Lucas with a glare that would melt steel, waiting to hear the apology, the excuse, the reason- there were always reasons.

Instead, what she received was Lucas, mouth open and eyes glowing shaded green in what little light was coming in the windows by the door. He was frozen in mid speech.

“What?” She was ready, ready to let him know exactly how much upside down he’d introduced in her life. She was ready to tell him exactly how little time she had for the kind of caring he was willing to pull out of her- more than ready. She took a deep breath and-

“Jade. My God, you’re beautiful.” It was awkward, quiet and hoarse. Jade’s mind screamed at her- Is that the best you can do. After all this, that’s the best you have? It wasn’t her mind that had grabbed control of her body though. Her heart was a lump in her throat, refusing to be swallowed. Everything in her mental process was upside down. Somewhere deep inside a neon sign was flashing. He came back.

In the split second between hearing Lucas speak and her deciding to rage at him, she did something unique. She let go. She could feel the anchor lines on her heart snapping one by one, and in their place was a breath like an autumn gale, filling her up with too much for her to handle. In one step she crossed the narrow hall and crashed into Lucas, tears and incomprehensible words spilling on his chest.

He came back.

*****

The storm faded to background noise. On her dark leather sectional, Jade sat, a UCONN sweatshirt hiding most of her as she leaned into the couch. A hot mug of Sidamo stewed between her sleeve covered hands, adding warmth. Lucas sat a cushion away, an identical mug in his hand, his arm stretched just far enough to reach Jade’s smooth cheek. Tiger was curled between them, apparently declaring himself the chaperone. Jade reached down and ruffed his furry head. When she spoke it was soft.

“So.” Her hand ran down Tiger’s tabby fur and then back to her mug. “I guess we need to talk.”

Lucas nodded, meeting her eyes, all of the goofball humor gone and in its place intensity Jade had never seen before. Not cruel, but kind- focused on her. “We do.” He set his cup down on the coffee table and leaned back into the plush of the sofa. “Jade..”

She raised a hand. “Wait Luc. If this is the part where you tell me how you never meant for any of this to happen, I’ll save you the trouble.”

Lucas frowned. “No- that’s not it. I mean, yes, I wasn’t expecting it, but last night Jade.” He paused, and reached out a hand, lifting her chin, which Tiger eyed suspiciously. “Last night was no accident.”

Jade wanted to believe that, but she wasn’t ready. She pulled her head away. “ No. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a mistake either.” She stared out the darkening window. “ Lucas, I don’t know if this space has room for…” She faded off into thought.

Room for what- love? Happiness?

Lucas snapped her back to the moment. “Room for me?  JJ, if you mean all of this.” He waved his hand in a circle and Jade knew what he meant. The money. The timing. The hearts on the line. All of it. “Then you need to hear something.” Lucas scooted himself up, straightening, started to speak, paused and started again.

Wait- Lucas don’t say –

Too late. “Jade Brawley, I have been in love with you since the first time I smelled your cherry lip gloss way back when. You notice there’s no Mrs. Lucas? There’s a reason. None of them were you.”

Jade stared, struck dumb by the bluntness of what Lucas had just landed on her. Words went whipping by the screen in her mind’s eye. Words like, impossible. Unlikely. Terrifying. All of them wrapped around one sentence that wouldn’t stop speaking to her mind- “I have been in love with you…”

Carefully, like handling a baby bird, she set her cup down, and just as gently moved Tiger to the floor. Moving deliberately, she scooted closer to Lucas, inside the arc of his arm, and leaned her head on his chest. She could feel the heat of his breath on her still wet hair. She could feel every pulse in the arm that he wrapped around her.

For the longest time, all was still. When Jade did speak, it was as if she was a long way away. “I don’t do love Lucas. It’s never had much use for me.”

He kissed her forehead and leaned his head on hers. “Then it doesn’t know what it’s been missing.” He fell still for a moment. “Who was he?”

Jade blinked. That was a good question. Looking back through the lens of the two years since Aaron it was more like who he wasn’t. She’d laid everything on the line, every time, for Aaron, and before, done the things a girl is supposed to do when she’s one hundred percent sold on her man. Not one of them had stayed. Not one of them had picked up what she was laying down. When she responded it was rueful. “It was me. I expected to get back what I gave.” She moved a little closer, feeling very raw and vulnerable but having no desire to move away. “So I stopped giving.”

Lucas took in a breath, his chest rising like a swell and falling again. “Jade-I’m not asking for anything from you but you. Whatever you can give. “

Again, Lucas’s forthright delivery caught Jade off guard. She leaned back enough to see his eyes. They were only a breath away, but Jade needed an answer more than a kiss. “But how do we do this Lucas? Whatever this is? I’m out here up to my next year’s grant application in research, and you have an empire to run from Raleigh.” As she said it, a pragmatic spark burned up. “It’s two different worlds Luc- East is east, and West is..”