Chapter Fifteen
Jade was able to get a flight out of Puerto Rico that night. She spent a miserable day in the airport waiting for her flight to board. She forced herself to deal with her text and email messages that she’d mostly ignored for the past nine days.
When she saw the email from Joshua to her, Curtis, Gabe, Trevor, and Peter she was shocked, to say the least. He’d told them all that he trusted her implicitly, was reinstating her in her position, and recommending her to the CEO position when Curtis retired next year. The most significant part was, if she was remembering correctly, that email had been sent before he’d vaulted from his balcony to hers. She didn’t know that it righted all the wrongs he’d done, but it definitely helped that he’d chosen to trust her, before Gabe had revealed himself.
She finally boarded the plane at eleven p.m. and spent a miserable few hours trying to get comfortable in the small coach seat with the man next to her leaning against her. She got to her apartment in Miami about four a.m. and finally fell asleep. When she awoke the sun was setting outside and her phone was ringing. How long had she slept?
Searching for her stupid phone, she saw it glowing on the dresser. By the time she climbed out of bed and made it to the phone it had stopped ringing. She checked the caller I.D. Teal. She and Teal had talked several times yesterday while she was at the airport. Her sister had been sympathetic and heartbroken for her and for Joshua. She kept saying that it seemed like he had “semi-valid” reasons for hiding things and he had in the end decided to trust her before the thief was caught, but Jade wasn’t ready to forgive. She didn’t know if she’d ever be.
“Hey,” Teal said. “You okay?”
“As good as I can be. What’s up?”
“Have you looked at your website lately?”
“No.” It was another punch in the gut. She’d almost forgotten about her hopes to interview the elusive Joshua Jewel. Instead she’d fallen in love with him. She usually tried to do a new interview at least every month on her site. She was behind and didn’t have much enthusiasm for it. “Why? Did somebody post a bad comment or something?”
“No. Just look, please.” Teal hung up.
Jade stared at the phone. That was weird. She used the bathroom and splashed some cold water on her face and then pressed a cold washcloth to her eyes, brushed her teeth and put on some cinna-mint lip gloss. Feeling almost human again, she wandered back to her bedroom and found her laptop bag where she’d left it next to her suitcase when she came in this morning. She was starving so she carried the laptop into the kitchen, set it on her counter, and found a bag of baby carrots that were close to their expiration date and not slimy.
Propping open her laptop, she typed in her web address. On the home page it flashed, “New exclusive interview with elusive billionaire Joshua Jesse Jewel.”
She gasped. There was a picture of Joshua grinning next to the caption. He was so beautiful. Who had done this? Maybe Gabe had gotten a hold of her site from jail and posted a fake interview with Joshua as retribution and now Joshua would hate her. She jutted out her chin, knowing she was being crazy. She didn’t care. She was mad at him.
With a trembling finger, she pushed the play button. Joshua’s handsome face was smiling at her and she could’ve sworn it was Teal’s voice saying, “I’m here with Joshua Jewel, the elusive billionaire owner of Jewel Enterprises at his beautiful home on Hilton Head Island.”
The camera panned around a view of a gorgeous house. Hilton Head was in South Carolina, right? He’d said his parents had a house in Savannah, Georgia which was nearby. She didn’t know Joshua had a house in Hilton Head. Her stomach was squeamish. There was a lot about him she didn’t know, obviously.
“So, Joshua?” Teal was saying. It had to be Teal. Her own sister had betrayed her and taken Joshua’s side? When had they set this all up? “Why did you finally agree to show this handsome face to the world?”
Joshua grinned and Jade stared at his dimple. She loved that stinking dimple of his.
“Well last week I fell in love,” he said.
Jade pressed a hand to her heart.
“Congratulations,” Teal said.
“Thank you. I messed up though and I’m afraid she won’t be able to trust me.”
Teal tsked. “You men are experts at messing up. My Stetson messed up, but I forgave him.”
“That was kind of you,” Joshua said in that deep voice. Jesse’s voice, Priest’s voice, Joshua’s voice. Jade loved all three of them. “I’m not sure if Jade will forgive me but I hoped giving this interview on her blog, showing her that I’ll reveal my face to the world for her, might convince her of how deeply I love her.” He swallowed and said, “I’d do anything for her.”
“But you damaged her trust,” Teal said.
“I did.” He nodded gravely. “I wish I could change it, but I can’t. All I can do now is beg her to forgive me and promise I’ll do anything to earn that trust back.”
“Well, I wish you luck,” Teal said all bright and cheery as if Jade’s world wasn’t crumbling around her. “She’s stubborn but she’s amazing. You’d be a lucky man to get Jade to love you.”
“Yes, I would. I’ll keep praying someday she can love me like I love her.”
“I’ll pray for you too. Thanks for giving us this short interview.”
He nodded somberly, and Teal turned the camera around to show her face. “From all of the fans ofCream the Celebrity,I think we’re all in agreement that Jade should give this man a chance. Do it for me, sis.”
The clip ended.