She walked to the wall of windows and stared out of them at the beach and ocean below, thinking, praying, she had no clue how to leave tomorrow without offending Jesse but she couldn’t stay. Not when she loved Joshua like she did, and didn’t know when she’d ever be able to forgive him for betraying her trust like he did, all the while not trusting her.
A movement behind her startled her. Whipping around she saw a tall man slip out of a suite on the opposite side of hers. He had on a hat and sunglasses. He was clean-shaven but it had to be …
“Jesse?” she asked.
The man walked slowly toward her, stopping right in front of her. Her eyes narrowed. With him being clean-shaven the resemblance to Joshua was even more startling. Was Jesse maybe his brother or cousin or something crazy like that?
“Jade,” he said her voice with such longing and feeling. It had to be.
“Joshua?” she asked.
He nodded.
Jade’s eyes widened and her stomach danced. She reached up and in one swift motion yanked off his hat and sunglasses. Joshua’s startling blue eyes stared back at her. His gaze was begging for her to understand, to forgive him. Jade almost crumpled and threw herself into his arms. She’d missed him these past twelve hours.
“Jade, I …” He peered at her. “Are you okay? Your eyes.”
“Pink eye,” she said defiantly, dropping his hat and sunglasses. They clattered to the floor but neither of them took their eyes off each other.
“Oh.” His gaze said he didn’t believe her. “Again, I’m so sorry. So terribly sorry for how this all went down.”
“You lied to me … again.” She couldnotbelieve this. “YouareJesse and you looked me right in the eyes and lied to me, pretended you had no clue who Jesse was.” She backed away from him until she hit the glass wall. “How could you do that to me?”
He looked … miserable. Well, good, she was miserable so he deserved to at least look it. “I … there’s no excuse really. I didn’t know you, and I don’t trust easily. I’ve been hurt before. Back in college I thought I was in love but she betrayed me then exposed me in pictures online.”
Jade had an insane urge to find whoever had hurt him and rip her hair out. That was silly. He probably deserved it if he’d treated that girl anything like he’d treated Jade.
“The thing with the embezzling played strongly into it too. The fingers were pointing to you, and like I said, I didn’t know you, so I thought I’d get to know you, as friends, and see if the accusations could be true.”
She guessed she could understand why he couldn’t implicitly trust her at the beginning and had tried to find out the truth, but after he got to know her it should have been easy to trust her. She wasn’t willing to simply forgive him for lying to her, multiple times.
“Please, Jade. Please try to understand and forgive me. You were completely irresistible to me, and once I started down the path of hiding my identity I didn’t know how to change it.” He shoved his hand through his hair. “I never thought I’d find somebody like you. I never thought I’d fall in love this deeply. I’m so sorry I didn’t trust you. I’d do anything to be with you.”
Jade stared at him. She could see he was sincere. He did love her every bit as much as she loved him. Yet with her being lied to her entire life by her parents it was the thing she didn’t know she could forgive. “I’m sorry too, Joshua.” She shook her head. “I’m so sorry.” She turned and ran to the suite, slamming the door behind her.
Crumpling onto the floor, she started sobbing again.
* * *
Joshua felt like he was being ripped apart. He waited in the main room after Jade had run from him, alternating between praying and simply staring out the windows waiting for some kind of inspiration and for her to come back out of the suite door. He didn’t know how to make this right, but he couldn’t give up on her. He loved her far too much to give up.
Finally her door opened. She had her purse and laptop bag over her shoulder, tugging her suitcase behind her. Her eyes were even redder than they’d been. Pink eye? At least he knew he’d affected her.
Jumping to his feet, he ran to her. “Jade.”
She put up a hand. “Goodbye, Joshua,” she said firmly.
His stomach sank and his shoulders felt like the weight of the world was on them. Not waiting for his response she wheeled her suitcase toward the elevator. Joshua hurried to try to take it from her.
“At least allow me to—”
“No.”
Shouldering past him she walked into the elevator. Joshua stared at her as the doors closed. Her green eyes looked as tortured as he felt. The doors closed and she disappeared.
He wandered the suite. He had no clue what to do. Not chasing after her went against his every instinct. Last night on the cruise ship had been horrible trying to sleep in the suite next to hers, wanting to go to her, talking himself out of it time and again. Maybe she just needed time. Part of him doubted it would make any difference.
Finally he pulled his phone out and dialed the number of the smartest person he knew.
“How’s the best big bro in the world?” his sister teased with a grin in her voice.
“Rachel.” His voice caught. “I need help.”
“Anything.” Her voice was now full of concern.
Joshua didn’t need any more prompting to spill the story. As it progressed he could tell by her comments that she was firmly on Jade’s side, but Rachel loved him, and she was brilliant. If anyone could help him out of this mess it would be his sister. He prayed hard, wondering if there was any hope.