“Oh, I’m not sure about normal,” Livie corrected. “Piper did my hair the other day and I ended up with some teased nest on top of my head, three ponytails in the back, and random bows to complete the style.”
“Pretty sure that’s still better than the slicked-back onion look I had.”
“Ouch. Well, I’ll bring wine and sparkling juice for Melanie and Piper.”
“Plenty of wine,” Jade added. “Even if it’s just you and me drinking it. I need a good night in where I don’t have to worry about driving.”
“You can count on us,” Livie promised.
“I know I can. See you in about an hour, if that sounds good.”
“We’ll be there,” Livie assured her.
Jade disconnected the call and stared down at her opened suitcase. The glaring orange dress was such an eyesore. Pretty much the only thing it was good for would be rags for dusting or tossed in a fire for roasting marshmallows.
She clutched layers of the thin material in her hands, remembering how Cash had nearly torn it off, along with her panties. How often would she replay that night over and over in her mind? Because they may have started at the dining table, but then they’d progressed into the bedroom, the shower, the couch in the living room.
No wonder she was worn out and tired. She’d barely slept with Cash last night.
Had that only been last night?
Throwing the dress onto her bed, Jade went to her suitcase and zipped it up before putting it back in her closet. She’d be better off if she went to the kitchen and put together some snacks for ladies’ night in. She should stick with her shake and veggies, but chocolate and wine were on the agenda for tonight. She could get back to her regular routine tomorrow.
As she headed down to the kitchen, she couldn’t help but worry. What if Cash talked? What if he ended up telling Tanner and Jax that he’d shared a room with her?
Dread curled in her belly. What if he told them even more? Guys were different from girls, and she didn’t know Cash well enough to know if he was a bragger.
Oh, please don’t let that be the case. They hadn’t discussed what happened. When they’d gotten up this morning, Jax had flown them back to Haven. She’d sat silently in the back while the two men in front dissected the reasons the Skycatcher had engine trouble. Their verbiage was foreign to her, but she could make out a little. The bottom line was, they were going to have quite a mess on their hands in repairing it.
Jade stopped at the kitchen island and pulled out her phone. She stared at the open message to Cash but wasn’t quite sure what to say. She started about three different texts, deleting each one, before she decided.
We need to talk. Alone.
She hit Send, then realized she should’ve added “with our clothes on.”
With a groan, Jade set her phone on the isl
and and shoved the image of a naked Cash from her mind.
Okay, fine. She didn’t shove that image from her mind at all. She actually let it roll through her head over and over because she’d never in her life seen someone as magnificent as Vincent “just call me Cash” Miller.
Why? Seriously. Of all the men in the world, why did her body have to respond so intensely to this one?
But sexual attraction was just physical. There was no reason to dissect this any further. Just because her heart had done a flip at the idea of him sticking up for her with Brad or the way he’d defended her to her mother, that didn’t mean anything at all. She was thankful for his protectiveness, but she didn’t need him fighting her battles.
They were home now. Their night was in the past and would remain in Nashville. There was no way she could let their encounter enter their lives here in Haven, because she planned on staying. She had no reason to go anywhere else. Her best friends were here, and she enjoyed coming back to her hometown more than she thought she would.
Maybe living in the big city had left her jaded; maybe she was over the snobs and the fake smiles. Something about Haven just felt right at this moment in her life. She’d been in such a hurry to leave when she’d been eighteen, but now she couldn’t imagine herself anywhere else.
As she pulled out the ingredients to make snacks, she caught herself glancing to her phone. She wasn’t waiting on Cash to text her back. She wasn’t.
Nearly an hour later, when she’d finished putting cute little plates together for her friends, she refused to admit the disappointment at her still-silent phone.
* * *
“I think you’ve had enough cookies.”
Livie Morgan eyed her stepdaughter, but Piper just smiled and slid her hand up over the edge of the island in the kitchen and swiped another snickerdoodle.