The Tycoon's Defiant Southern Belle (13 page)

Three days later, Jade forced herself to leave her cottage.  She’d been holed up inside,
ignoring her phone, ignoring the knocking on the door and just hiding inside.  She
didn’t eat much, but she cried a lot.  She wished she could come to terms with the
way she was feeling.  And fortunately, she wasn’t overly upset about having sex with
Angelo.  That had only been her initial reaction but after she’d delved into the situation
when she’d finally calmed down, she realized that she was more upset with herself
for having sex with a man she loved, but who didn’t love her back. 

She was so desperately in love with him and she wasn’t sure how to cope.  She knew
with certainty that Angelo wouldn’t ever love her back.  She sort of grasped that
he might not understand how to love another person.  He’d lost his parents at such
a young age, and coping with that, he might have learned to shut out feelings.  When
her father had died, she’d been devastated, but she’d still had her mother to rely
upon, her shoulder to cry on and her mother was never stingy with hugs and reassurance. 

But after another three days of living in her pajamas and eating chocolate cakes,
cupcakes and tarts, she knew it was time to get out and figure out how to move on
with her life.  She needed to put everything into perspective. 

Time to get back to her schedule, she told herself. 

The idea of running into Angelo was a bit daunting, but in the end, she knew that
she had to get back to life.  This zombie person she’d become simply wasn’t like her. 

She and Angelo could be friends, she convinced herself as she showered and changed
into a professional skirt and crisp, white blouse.  She didn’t feel like adding any
jewelry, but put on a gold chain and simple gold hoops just to force herself back
into her normal mode of dress.  She didn’t like being this depressed and colorless. 

After taking a deep breath, she picked up her laptop and purse and headed out the
door, determined to go about her normal schedule, even though that meant she would
need to go to Angelo’s house and inspect the work that had been done over the past
three days.  She glanced at her cell phone, noticed there were about twenty different
message, all from Angelo. 

Yikes.  He was probably furious.  Angelo didn’t like it when someone ignored him. 
He was a man of action, someone who confronts issues head on.  He wouldn’t agree with
her strategy of hiding her head in the sand. 

Well, neither did she, she told herself as she pulled her front door closed behind
her.  But it also didn’t stop her from looking to the right and left, just to make
sure Angelo wasn’t going to come out of nowhere.  Not that he would.  If he wanted
to confront her, he would be standing right in front of her door, waiting in ambush.

She took another deep breath, bracing herself to face the day and anything that came
of it.  She forced her feet to walk all the way to the coffee shop several blocks
over, even ignoring the heat and humidity that was creeping up despite the early hour
of the morning. 

Jade sat in the back of the coffee shop, her mind finally focused on something important
and not on herself or the man that was slowly driving her insane.  She couldn’t believe
how much time she’d been spending thinking about the man but no more, she vowed. 
Her fingers flew over the keyboard, her ideas pinging from one issue to the next. 
It was one of those days when her creativity was flowing better than she could have
hoped and she loved it.  She had several new ideas to show Angelo on the different
possibilities for the room off of the kitchen and she was working the cost into the
budget to see if they might change things. 

When she’d finally gotten all of the data input into her spreadsheet, she sat back
and smiled.  If she did things correctly, the cost would actually be lower.  It was
just a matter of asking Angelo which way he wanted to move with that room, she thought
with a great deal of satisfaction.  She took a sip of her coffee, enjoying the rich,
aromatic flavor of the brew instead of the more anemic stuff she’d been making for
herself over the past few morning.  Yes, she could get through this latest catastrophe
in her life.  She would put it all behind her.  The renovations were ahead of schedule
and under budget, not to mention his house was turning into a showpiece, although
not one that would ever see it.  She didn’t think of Angelo as a great party thrower. 
She suspected that he preferred his privacy.  She couldn’t fault him for that since
she felt the same way. 

She was busy putting in a few additional numbers when Dave walked in and sat down
across from her.  Jade looked up, irritated that he would dare to interfere with her
morning.  He knew from long experience that her morning coffee was a ritual she preferred
to enjoy by herself. 

She looked at him curiously and a thought struck her.  Perhaps she’d been so fanatical
about her solitary morning coffee because she simply couldn’t deal with his irritatingly
weak demeanor so early in the morning.  She knew that she didn’t mind when Angelo
invaded her space in the early morning.  She knew that she wouldn’t mind if Angelo
interrupted her peaceful morning ritual.  In fact, she hoped he would do so very soon. 
There was something about Angelo that was just so….different than Dave.

“Can I help you?” she asked when he continued to fidget in the seat across from her.

“I’ve heard rumors,” Dave said, a belligerent tone to his voice.

“There are always rumors going around in a small town.”  She eyed him with irritation. 
“Although the rumors don’t generally reach the ears of those who need to hear them,
do they?” she asked pointedly, referring to his cheating ways.  “Besides, some things
are better left unspoken.” 

Dave at least had the grace to blush at her not so subtle gibe.  “I’ve already apologized
for what I’ve done to you.  And I know that someday, you’ll forgive me for that and
we’ll get on with our lives, exactly as we’ve always planned to do.”

Jade thought back to what she and Angelo had done just a few nights ago.  The idea
of doing the same with Dave just made her skin crawl.  “No.  We won’t.”  She sat up
again and tried to focus on her computer.  “If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

“I’ve heard that you’re dating that Donati character,” he interrupted her, completely
ignoring her request for privacy. 

Jade couldn’t stop the smile that broke across her face.  It was just a small smile,
but she shook her head anyway.  “Angelo is a very nice man, but our relationship is
not your business,” she said firmly.

“So it’s true?” he asked, horror coming through in his voice.  “I can’t believe you
are dating him!  It’s just so…unseemly,” he said with disgust.

She saved her spreadsheet and closed her laptop.  She knew from experience that Dave
wasn’t going to go away so it was up to her to leave.  As irritating as that was,
she wasn’t going to cause a scene here in the coffee shop.  She’d been the topic of
too many conversations of late and she wanted her privacy back.  “I have to go,” she
said and shoved her computer into the laptop case.  “Have a good day, Dave,” she said
and started to stand up, but he put a firm hand on her arm, stopping her from moving.

“You don’t know who he is!” he snapped.  “I’ve looked into his past and there are
things you need to know.”

Jade looked around and more than one table had stopped their conversation and were
now staring at the two of them.

“Dave, get your hands off of me.  I don’t want you to ever touch me in any way again.” 
She said that with a smile so that she appeared friendly, but her eyes showed her
anger and revulsion for his hand on her skin.  When he removed his hand warily, she
took a deep breath and pulled her purse and her laptop bag onto her lap.  “Thank you,”
she said with that graciousness that was the heart and soul of every southern lady. 
“Now, I’m going to stand up and walk out of here and you’re not going to touch me
again, nor are you going to follow me.  Do you understand?” she asked, tilting her
head slightly as if they were having a perfectly normal conversation without any of
the warning undertones. 

Dave blinked, never having seen this side of the woman he’d been dating for so long. 
“Jade, hear me out.  You don’t know what that man is like.  He’s not who you think
he is.”

Her smile grew wider.  “I believe that he’s my neighbor.  Is there anything else I
need to know?”

“Of course!”

“Has he committed any murders?”

“No!” he growled.

“Raped anyone?” she asked prettily.

“Of course not.”

“Done anyone any bodily harm?” again with a saccharin sweet tone.

“That I don’t know.  But hear me out, would you?”

“I don’t think there’s anything relevant you need to tell me.  The man hasn’t committed
any crimes that you know about…”

“That we know about.  But,” and Dave leaned forward, “he was in foster care as a child.” 
Dave said that as if it were worse than being a rapist or murderer.  “Apparently he
was this huge, dark haired, dark eyed silent wretch who’d lost his parents and wouldn’t
talk to anyone.  So no one would adopt him.  They all thought he was some sort of
mental case or would grow up to be a behavior issue.  No one wanted to have anything
to do with him.”

Jade couldn’t believe what she was hearing.  Since Angelo had already told her the
crux of this issue, she wasn’t surprised but Dave’s comments filled in a lot of blanks
for her.   “And yet, he’s grown into a handsome, powerful man with an empire that
dwarfs anything even you, with your grandiose opinion of yourself and your abilities,
could even imagine.”  She shook her head.  “Dave, don’t you get it?” she asked, sharply,
amazed that the man sitting across from her could be so ignorant.  “Apparently, Angelo
was a sad little boy who had lost his parents.  I remember the pain of losing my dad
to a heart attack and I still had my mother’s shoulder to cry on and a house to live
in.  I still had my own bedroom and all the things that mattered to me and gave me
a strong sense of continuity.  While Angelo,” she said, her voice breaking on the
enormity of what she’d just figured out, “had been devastated by the loss of both
parents with no relatives to help him through it.  I can’t even imagine the pain he
was going through and with his kind of intelligence, he would probably feel things
in a different way than you or I.”  She wiped the tear that suddenly appeared in her
eye and fell down her cheek. 

Dave’s mouth dropped open at her passionate defense of the man he was slowly growing
to hate.  “Don’t you understand?  He’s not from ‘good’ people, Jade!”

Jade stood up, unable to contain her disgust any longer.  “Angelo Donati doesn’t need
to be from ‘good’ people to make it in this world.  He’s done it all on his own without
the help of anyone around.  And without the support of family and friends apparently.” 
She looked around and noticed that others were silent.  “Regardless of whether I have
a personal relationship with Mr. Donati, he deserves our friendship and our care. 
We’re southerners!” she stated emphatically.  “And if anyone from our community had
been in the same position as Angelo was in as a child, how would we have treated him?”
She glared angrily at the other patrons, feeling Angelo’s pain and confusion even
decades after the loss of his parents.  “Well I can guarantee that he wouldn’t be
put into foster care!  Emma,” she pointed to the woman sipping herbal tea with concern
in her eyes, “you know you would have made your chicken soup because it has been proven
to heal everything from ear infections to heartache.”  She turned to Norma who was
nodding her head. “And you would have made sure he ate biscuits and gravy every morning,
telling him with a hug that he needed his energy if he was going to grow up.  You
did that for me after my father died.” 

She looked around at the people staring at her, her heart breaking for the man who
had lost so much at such a painfully young age and yet had overcome all the obstacles
life had presented to him.  She looked down at Dave and shook her head.  “Shame on
you, Dave!  That’s not how we treat people in our community.  We don’t reject people
because they might be bad.  We embrace them and make sure they don’t go bad.  We help
them out and care for them.  We might gossip too much and cook with a bit too much
bacon, but that’s because…” she wasn’t exactly sure why everyone cooked with bacon
and stumbled.

“Because it makes everything taste better, dear,” Norma piped up, filling in the silence. 

The rest of the room nodded their head and Jade laughed, wiping her cheek with the
back of her hand. “I guess you’re right.”  She turned back to Dave.  “I don’t know
what’s going to happen with Angelo.  But I can guarantee that you and I are never
getting back together.” 

With that, she stormed out of the coffee shop, hearing others cheer her on.  She didn’t
stop though, too eager to get home and face this new information Dave had given her
about Angelo. 

His past suddenly made his present make sense.  The man “wanted” her, but he wasn’t
the marrying kind.  When she’d asked if he was going to propose to her, he’d reared
back, shaking his head. 

“Not the marrying kind!” she grumbled, walking rapidly down the street, her head bowed
and anger building up inside of her.  “Bad husband material!” she stomped around the
corner.