The nurse looked at me disapprovingly. “If you don’t keep your pain level down, you won’t be able to do the deep breathing and coughing like you need to do. That means the pneumonia could get worse than it is right now.”
I weighed my choices with a frown, and then took the pill cup from her hand, tossed back the medication, and swallowed it with some water.
If I had to be out of it for days, so be it.
Since Jade wasn’t answering me, I was determined to go and find her the moment I was able to get the hell out of bed.
And taking any longer than absolutely necessary to get healthy again was not an option.
CHAPTER 25
JADE
“It’s been nearly two weeks, Brooke. I don’t think Eli is going to call.”
My words hung in the air like a dark cloud as I chatted on the phone with my sister.
I looked down at the text messages that I’d received from Eli the day after we’d slept together. I’d probably stared at them a thousand times, but they still didn’t make any sense. But the message was loud and clear.
Don’t want to see you.
Don’t want you here with me.
Better off being alone.
There was really no question about what he’d been thinking after we’d slept together.
He was done with our relationship, and his swift rejection had nearly broken me.
Okay, I’d rationally known that there was a chance that things might not turn out well between me and Eli, but I hadn’t expected that the night he’d finally taken me to his bed would be the last time I ever saw him.
We’d reached for each other all night long, both of us hungry for the passion that we found every time we touched.
To be honest, we hadn’t really slept much, so I hadn’t expected to wake up to find Eli already gone to his office in the morning. His driver had arrived to take me home during the late morning, but I hadn’t really been worried. It was the radio silence I’d had from him for fourteen straight days after his text messages that told me that he didn’t ever intend to see me again.
“Honestly, Jade, I just don’t see it,” Brooke answered. “I don’t know what’s up with the weird text messages, but the guy is crazy about you.”
“Maybe he wasn’t,” I said thoughtfully. “Maybe I was just a distraction.”
I hadn’t uttered a word about the things that Eli had told me the last time I saw him. It was personal, and I was pretty sure that he hadn’t shared the experience with very many people.
My heart still bled for him, even though we hadn’t seen each other. Not only had he lost his twin brother, but his father had died two years after Austin. So while he was still trying to twist himself into a person he was not, he’d had to give up his own dreams to take over for his dad.
How does anyone recover from two enormous losses so close together in their life?
“You were not a distraction,” Brooke answered. “Nobody acts like he did when you were in the hospital, over a casual fling. He has feelings for you, Jade. I can’t say that I understand what happened, but I’m positive I’m right. I think it’s more likely that he’s afraid of the way he feels, and wants to run away.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I muttered as I got my lazy butt off the couch and headed to the kitchen. “Whatever the reason, I’m not going to see him anymore. I wish it had lasted longer, but I knew what I was getting myself into when I started seeing him. No commitments. No strings attached. It was just sex.”
Really, really good sex.
“You can’t fool me, Jade. Please don’t try to sound philosophical. It’s not working. He broke your heart.”
“He did,” I admitted softly. “But I’ll get over it. I’ll have to.”
I’d been crying nonstop for the last two weeks, and it needed to stop. Even if Eli was running away, I couldn’t stop him from doing it.
“Oh, Jade. I’m so sorry. He’s such a jerk for hurting you.”
“I thought you liked him,” I reminded her.
“I did. But I don’t anymore,” she said adamantly. “How could I still like him if he doesn’t have enough sense to know what he had?”
I sighed. That was one thing in my family that was always consistent: if you mess with one Sinclair, you’re messing with them all. We all stood by each other no matter what.
“Please don’t say anything to our brothers,” I requested. “You know how they are.”
“I’m not so sure that I don’t want to see them clean Eli’s clock,” Brooke said.
“Brooke,” I said in a warning voice.
“Oh, all right. I won’t say a word,” she promised, sounding like staying quiet was the last thing she wanted to do.
“I’ll be okay, Brooke,” I said, not sure if I was trying to reassure my twin or myself.
“I know you will,” she replied softly. “I just hate seeing you hurting now.”
“Sometimes experiencing pain leads to something good, right? Look what you went through. And you found Liam because of it.”
Brooke snorted. “You’ve been reading too many romance books, sister. Pain sucks. And don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. But I did find Liam.”
“Okay. If you want to know the truth, I’ve been thinking about calling him. I have to fight my instincts every damn day. And it does hurt.”
“I know,” Brooke said with a sigh. “I can feel your pain.”
I had no idea why I ever tried to brush things off when I talked to Brooke. Maybe because she was so happy, and I didn’t want to be a downer. But she always knew, just like I could always tell when something was wrong with her.
My twin and I had the same kind of connection that I knew Eli had experienced with his brother.
“He’s gone through a lot, Brooke. I can’t tell you everything, but he went through something terrible. So maybe he is running away. I know he cared about me.”
“I know he did, too,” she agreed. “Look, maybe you should talk to him. It was pretty damn clear that he really cared about you, Jade. And I wouldn’t ever get your hopes up if I didn’t believe it.”
“I think Eli and I are actually a lot alike,” I mused. “I found out he was a science geek, too. He has a PhD in aerospace engineering, Brooke. He went to Caltech.”
“Holy crap!” she exclaimed. “Do you have any idea how selective they are?”
“I know. And his money didn’t get him in there. He’s probably smarter than I am.”
“But I don’t understand why he isn’t working in the field,” Brooke commented.
“His dad’s death was unexpected,” I explained, trying not to lie to my sister. “He took over after his father passed away.”
“Is he okay with that?”
I thought about her question before I answered. “I’m not sure. But he does have his own aerospace lab, so it isn’t like he isn’t still involved in rocketry.”
“Talk to him, Jade.”
I paused before I said, “He did offer to make me his unofficial intern so I could learn about conglomerates and investing.”