Cade’s amused expression caught hers. “Don’t you want to clean up?”
Jane’s hand went to her dirt smeared face. “No, thanks.” She sat down on the bank of the pond, averting her eyes as her sister made the most of the male attention she was receiving.
Jane’s eyes widened when her sister came out of the water, taking her time to get redressed.
“Do you have a comb, Jane?”
“No.”
Bailey gave a fake laugh. “You have grenades but no comb?”
“No, I don’t,” Jane repeated. “Maybe you can find something inside. I didn’t look in the overhead cabinets.”
Bailey went in the trailer to look.
“You and your sister don’t get along, do you?” Cade asked, not taking his attention from the area surrounding them.
“No. We didn’t grow up together, but I hear a lot of sisters don’t get along.” Jane tried to make light of the situation. She had tried to be close to Bailey, yet Bailey had rebuffed all of Jane’s attempts.
“She try to steal all your boyfriends?” Cade teased.
“There weren’t any to steal,” Jane confessed. “She doesn’t care for any of my friends.”
“You haven’t had any boyfriends, but you have male friends?”
“I have a lot of those. I belong to a motorcycle club. At least, I think I belong. My friend Sex Piston does. Her father was the former president and her husband is now. Since I’m her friend, it means I’m a member, too, doesn’t it?”
Cade just stared at her. “You don’t know?”
Jane bit her lip. “Of course I know. I am a member.” She nodded her head, trying to convince herself. “Stud lets all of us hang out at the clubhouse.”
“Who’s Stud?”
“Sex Piston’s husband. He’s a nice guy. Me and my friends really like him.”
“They all have nicknames like Stud and Sex Piston?”
“Of course,” Jane stated. “There’s also Killyama, Crazy Bitch, and T.A. We’ve all been friends since grade school, except Sex Piston. She didn’t join our group until middle school.”
“What’s your nickname?”
“Fat Louise.”
He stopped looking around, turning to study her, instead. “Fat Louise?”
“I was a little chunky when I was younger,” Jane admitted.
Cade stared at her doubtfully.
“It’s true.” She nodded. “I have to work hard to keep the weight off. I like to eat a lot.”
“You look like you need to gain ten pounds.”
Jane shook her head. “No, I’m exactly the weight I’m supposed to be, according to my height and age.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I work to stay in that range.”
“Does it really matter if you’re a few pounds above?”
“Yes,” Jane said grimly. She had worked hard to lose the weight.
“Bailey doesn’t seem to be having any trouble with her weight,” Cade remarked.
“No, she doesn’t.” She lowered her lashes to hide her hurt reaction at him comparing the two of them.
“What I meant was that maybe, if you weren’t as active when you were younger, you might not need to watch your diet as closely now that you’re older.”
“Did you miss the part where I said I like to eat a lot?”
Cade’s mouth curled in a smile, the first genuine one she had seen since she met him. She felt her nipples tighten. Embarrassed by her reaction, she glanced shyly away. If one of her friends was nearby, she would have felt more comfortable, maybe even casually flirted with him, but she didn’t have any confidence without them.
“Was my father very upset?” Jane asked, changing the subject.
“Your father seems the type to think no problem can’t be solved with his money.”
“Unfortunately, that’s true. He thought getting Raul to sign that pre-nup he had drawn up would protect Bailey. I tried to tell him not to keep giving Bailey such a high allowance after they married, but he wouldn’t listen. I think, without the money, he wouldn’t have brought Bailey with him.”
“I don’t, either. He seems like a dick. I can see why no one in the family likes him.” He rubbed the badly bruised side of his face.
“Would you like me to clean up your face for you? It’s in pretty bad shape.”
Cade stared at her in amusement. “Have at it.”
Jane dug into her backpack, pulling out a shirt. Ripping off a section that seemed fairly clean, she used the water in the canteen to wet it. Then she dug in her pack again for some salve she had put in before coming into Mexico.
“You got a first aid kit in there, as well?”
“No.” Jane laughed. “Just Neosporin. I’m kind of a pack rat.”
She motioned for him to sit down and then carefully scrubbed his face of the dried blood, trying not to hurt him. She felt a blush rise in her cheeks as he stared up at her.
After she finished cleaning him off, she dabbed the salve onto the cuts. Putting the cap back on, she took a step backward, forgetting her backpack was behind her. She started to fall, but Cade’s hands reached out to steady her. She balanced herself by placing her hands on his shoulders.