My nose tingles and burns, a sure sign that tears are on the way. I don’t want to cry in front of Baxter!
I tense up, ready to make my escape, when his body is suddenly blocking my path. Gazing up at him, I blink back hot tears.
“Jade.”
My name hangs between us, his blue eyes soft and full of concern. He sits down on my side of the booth, his hip bumping into mine. I shuffle over, overwhelming aware of the warmth and strength in his thigh pressed against me.
His hand reaches out, fingers light and gentle as he tucks some escaped strands of hair behind my ear. “Who hurt you, Jade?” he asks quietly.
There’s no use denying it. Still, it’s embarrassing to admit to this beautiful man what an idiot I am.
“My best friend.”
***
BAXTER
I must admit, I wasn’t expecting that answer. I fully expected it to be a man.
Fumbling for a napkin, I press it into Jade’s hand, a foreign ache in my chest as I watch her roughly swipe away her tears. I want to snatch the napkin from her and do that with a lot more care. My hand raises on its own, meaning to do just that when I crumble my fingers into a tight fist and grind it down on my thigh until the urge passes.
When I can speak, I ask, “What happened?”
“She slept with my fiancé,” she whispers in a voice choked with pain. When she raises her tear-streaked face, there’s absolutely no way I can hold back any longer. Angling my body, I pull her shuddering form into my arms. She doesn’t resist and snuggles into my chest, her hands gripping my shirt.
I’m holding her, offering her comfort, yet the tension I always carry in my shoulders and neck eases. Laying my cheek on her head, my eyes slip closed, and pure bliss fills me, her warmth and sweet scent lulling me unlike anything else.
Sensing a presence at my back, I open my eyes, catching sight of our worried server. At the shake of my head, she wisely catches on and leaves us in peace.
My hands rub small circles on Jade’s back, and I hug her tighter against me for a long moment. It’s all too soon when her fingers unclench from my shirt, and she pulls away from me. Reluctantly, I let her go, already aching to have her in my arms again.
“I’m so sorry,” she says, unable to meet my eyes.
With gentle fingers under her chin, I urge her head up. “There’s nothing to be sorry about. I’ll never say no to a hug from you.” I give a fast wink, which has the desired effect, and she smiles.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask.
“Not really, but I will. I mean, I cried all over you, so you earned it.” She lets out a sad little laugh, grabbing her drink and taking a sip. “The condensed version is my best friend since high school slept with my fiancé and, to make things really interesting, I worked for her parents’ company. So, I lost my best friend, my fiancé, and my job all in a day.”
For several stunned moments, I can’t even fathom how this woman is functioning, let alone able to smile and be so kind to a jerk like me.
“Shit! Jade…” I trail off. There’s nothing to say. Words are meaningless in the face of everything she’s gone through. For the first time in an extremely long time, I feel petty as hell. When my ex broke things off with me, it wasn’t a huge deal. We weren’t serious and I felt mildly inconvenienced because suddenly I was without a date to an awards event that I wasn’t even nominated for any categories at.
And here I am sulking like a brat while Jade’s entire life imploded.
“Yeah, pretty rough right? But at least I found out before we did any wedding planning.” With a sigh, she grabs a fry. “I was going to ask my friend to be my maid of honor.” Jade stuffs the fry in her mouth, staring down at her plate.
“Fuck them both,” I snarl, “you were far too good for either of them.”
Jade’s head jerks up at that, her stunned brown eyes wide.
“This is your big dream vacation, right?”
Wordlessly, she nods.
“I want to do whatever I can to help you enjoy every moment of it.” I have no idea where the idea came from but once the words are out of my mouth they feel right.
A trembling smile creeps across her face and she launches herself into my arms, hugging me tight. “Really? Baxter, thank you!”