Wash (3 page)

I pulled out my compact and stared in
the little round mirror at my bloodshot hazel eyes. I looked so
tired and beat. I used the tissue to wipe the blackish-gray rivers
from my cheeks and to touch up my raccoon eyes with the Samsonites
under them, then fixed the long brown strands of hair that had
insisted on falling out of my French braid. Fortunately, my
clothing had stayed pretty much intact; I’d opted for a
long-sleeved, covered placket blouse tucked neatly into fashionable
black slacks.

A knock on the door made me glance up,
eager to see who we’d been waiting for.

“
Come in,” the lawyer
said.

When the heavy walnut door
creaked open, my jaw dropped. There, standing before me, was my
high school sweetheart, though he somehow looked like a stranger.
Speechless, I stared at his beautiful face. His rain-soaked black
locks fell around his shoulders in silken ebony waves.
My eyes slid up his towering body, gliding over
his high cheekbones and the d
ark stubble
shading his sharp jaw.

I felt like I’d been struck by
lightning. My breath froze in my throat, and my stomach clenched.
The last time I’d seen the man was when he’d stood me up on my
wedding day, five years prior. Now, all that loneliness rushed
right to my head again, leaving me lightheaded. All over again, I
felt like that broken girl in the fluffy white gown, shooing guests
away from the ceremony that was not meant to be. I had no idea how
to react to such an unexpected intrusion. I couldn’t breathe, and
the attorney’s office seemed to suddenly grow smaller and
hotter.

He just stood there, staring at me
with those baby blues, those eyes I thought I’d spend the rest of
my life getting lost in. He was casually dressed in a white T-shirt
that stretched over his broad shoulders and tucked into a tight
pair of jeans. He was all grown up, far more muscular than the last
time I’d seen him. He was more manly, more masculine, but that
didn’t stop me from wanting to punch him right in the jaw, just to
make him feel the pain I’d felt on the most horrible day of my
life. I’d never been more humiliated, shocked, and devastated. It
had felt like a bunch of Romans had taken a battering ram and hit
my stomach a thousand times. When he’d run away like a coward, when
he’d abandoned me, he had, quite literally, knocked the wind right
out of me.

We’d spent days, hours,
minutes, and countless seconds talking about our new life together,
and it was all supposed to be perfect. We’d planned the perfect
wedding and the perfect reception. I’d even found the perfect
wedding gown, and Nadia had pinned up my hair and perfectly draped
my dangling curls around my tiara. We were supposed to ride off
into the sunset and live happily ever after, but he had prevented
that. I would never forget those questions that ran across my mind
for months after that dreadful, embarrassing, heartbreaking
day:
Why wasn’t I good enough? Pretty
enough? Smart enough? Sexy enough? What’s wrong with me? Aren’t I
enough of a woman?
I had collapsed into my
mother’s arms, sobbing, and the memory of that stung all the more
now that she was gone.

“
Ashly,” Jake softly
said.

As anger flooded through me, I lunged
at him and slapped him in the face. “You! You betrayed my love and
trust. You’re nothing but a spineless, gutless, pathetic coward,
Jake! You dumped me, your fiancée, and didn’t even bother to call
to check on me or see how I was,” I said sternly, hoping my slap
had stung him as much as his betrayal had stung me.

His frown deepened. “I apologize.
Truly. From the bottom of my heart.”

I just stared at him in
disgust.

“
You’re probably wondering
what I’m doing here.”

“
Yeah, you could say that.
My mother hated you after what you did to me, so I don’t see why
she’d leave you anything, and I couldn’t blame her, you lying
son-of-a—”

“
Look, I’ve got no idea
what I’m doing here either. I’m just as confused as you are,” he
said, cutting me off.

“
If you’ll have a seat, Mr.
Connors,” the attorney said, “we’ll get started.”

My heart rate doubled, then tripled,
until I thought might just burst out of my chest. Seeing him again
was too much, too painful. Nausea rose from the pit of my stomach.
I decided that if I had to vomit, I’d aim for Jake’s shoes. I stood
and reached for my purse. “No, I don’t think I can do this.
Sorry.”

“
Uh…would you like to
reschedule?” Mr. Shelby asked.

“
I think that would be
best,” I said, my voice cracking like an adolescent
boy’s.

As I started to walk to the door, Jake
gently reached for my arm, and I shuddered from his touch. I hated
that he could still make me feel that way, especially since I
despised the man.

“
Please…” he
begged.

“
I just can’t,” I said,
throwing those dreadful words back at him, the three little words
he’d spat at me on our would-have-been wedding day, instead of the
“I love you” he should have said.

“
I’d like to see what your
mom wanted to say to me.”

“
So let me get this
straight. You’ve gone and screwed up your life, and now you’re
broke, so you’re hoping my dead mother left you some expensive vase
that you can pawn the second you get your hands on it?”

“
Haven’t lost that
sarcastic edge, have you?” he said.

“
I’ll tell you one thing I
have lost.”

He cocked a brow, as if daring me to
say it.

“
I’ve entirely lost my
desire to date pretty bad boys from the wrong side of
town.”

“
I’m so sorry about what I
did, Ashly, but I was young and—”

“
How could you dump me like
that in front of all my friends and family?” I shouted, cutting him
off.

Tired of the drama, the lawyer
interrupted. “Folks, if we’re going to read the will, we must get
on with it. If not, we should reschedule. I don’t feel comfortable
being in the middle of this very personal argument, and I have a
family obligation tonight.”

Jake pulled a chair and motioned me to
sit down.

“
Fine, but you’d better
read it fast, because I can’t stand being in the room with this
jerk a minute longer than I have to be.”

Jake met the lawyer’s gaze and winced.
“In case you didn’t notice, she hates me.”

“
Can you blame her?” Mr.
Shelby said, much to my surprise. “You left this beautiful woman at
the altar. I was there when she told all of the guests there
wouldn’t be a wedding. What you did to her was…it was just
deplorable.”

“
Thank you for defending my
honor,” I said, smiling sheepishly.

“
Well, since it’s clear
that neither of you are in my fan club, is there any way we can
make this short and sweet?” Jake asked.

“
The pawn shop closed at
six,” I said. “What’s your hurry?”

“
Number one. I’m a fireman
with a nice sized studio, so please quit treating me like a
homeless man. Number two. In case you haven’t noticed, you could
cut the tension in here with a knife. Then again, I’m more worried
that you’re gonna cut me with this guy’s letter opener if I’m here
much longer.”

“
You never should have come
back, Jake.”

“
I’m sorry if my presence
upsets you.”

“
You didn’t even thank my
mom for getting those assault charges dropped. Even after
everything you did, my mother used her connections and helped you
out. She only did that because I begged her to. I loved you so much
that I couldn’t bear to see you hauled off to jail. Now, I’d like
to put the cuffs on you myself and throw you in a hole where you’ll
never see the light of day.”

“
I only punched that guy
because he nearly tried to rape you. You know that as well as I
do.”

“
Ahem.” The lawyer cleared
his throat. “Are you both ready, or would you like a little bit
more time to discuss things?”

“
If you don’t mind,
Counselor, I’d like to talk to Ashly alone,” Jake said.

I shook my head and vehemently
proclaimed, “Not a chance!”

Wanting to get it all over
with, the attorney ignored Jake’s request and began with the
proceedings. I almost tuned him out as he went over all the
legalities of the will. Anger flooded through me like a stormy
ocean, and I couldn’t even think straight, let alone focus. I was
fuming.
What is he doing here anyway? Why
in the hell would my mother give him anything?
She had begged me to break it off with him countless times.
She’d told me constantly that he’d never amount to anything, warned
me that he was a loser, and she’d yelled at the top of her lungs,
“My daughter deserves better!”

I took a quick peek at Jake
as he wiped the water from his brow. My mind drifted back to months
after the breakup. I dreaded telling people I was single. Nadia
encouraged me, telling me my renewed bachelorette status was going
to be a fun and wonderful experience, but I only considered it a
punishment, as if I’d committed some terrible crime that had pissed
fate off. I was sure nobody could ever love me again. Nadia assured
me that wasn’t the case, but I refused to listen. My world had
crumbled and shattered all around me.
Maybe if I was prettier, sexier, or smarter, Jake would’ve
stuck around,
I told myself. I felt upset,
worthless, and beyond depressed. “What did I do that was so wrong?”
I often asked. Nadia was insulted by such questions and made me
write down a list of twenty-five things that I loved about myself.
Learning to value and accept myself had helped with the healing
process, and eventually I did feel a little bit better, but there
was no therapy that could help me put my broken heart back
together; Jake had, after all, taken some of the biggest pieces
with him.

“
Are you listening?” he
asked. “Did you hear what the man just said?”

“
What?”

His eyes were wide in
shock. “Your mother left her estate and the sum of fifty million
dollars to…
us
.”

“
What!?” I shouted,
standing back up. “Why would she leave anything to
him
?” I pointed to the
will. “Check it again. This has to be some kind of
mistake!”

“
My team and I were the
ones who put it together,” my attorney said. “Your mother’s
intentions were quite clear.”

“
No! My mother would never
do that, not in a million years.” The room started to spin, and
everything grew hotter. He handed the official documents to me. As
I ran my fingers over the raised notary seal and stared down at the
words and my mother’s signature, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Why
?

“
She did not just flatly
leave the money to him. There are some, uh…stipulations to getting
the money,” my lawyer said.

I sucked in a deep breath, then let it
out slowly. I was frazzled, confused, and discombobulated all at
once. “What kind of stipulations?”

“
I think it’s best that you
sit down, Ashly,” Jake said. “Let’s figure this out
together.”

I didn’t want to obey a word he said,
but I sat down and tried to keep my composure. I knew lashing out
at Jake wouldn’t change the instructions my mother had left. I
wanted to ask more questions, but at that point, I could barely
breathe. I was on the verge of hyperventilating, and the last thing
I wanted was for either of those two to give me
mouth-to-mouth.

“
Take slow, deep breaths,
Miss Roberts,” my lawyer coaxed.

“
In and out deeply,” Jake
chimed in.

I stared into his eyes. “I’m not
giving birth here, and even if I was, you sure as hell wouldn’t be
my labor coach.”

“
C’mon, Ashly. I’m just
trying to help.”

“
Shut up, Jake,” I said. “I
don’t need your help. I don’t need anything from a coward like
you.”

He let out a huff and turned back to
the lawyer. “What are these so-called stipulations?”

“
Miss Roberts’s mother,
Virginia, chose several locations around the world that you must
visit together. Everything will be paid for, and you will be given
an ample allotment of funds for food, personal items, and traveling
expenses. In order to fulfill the requirements, you will have to
provide a photograph of the two of you together at each
destination.” He then turned his gaze to me. “Your mother referred
to these as ‘Kodak moments’. When you obtain all the pictures, come
back to my office for verification. If they are legitimate, each
one of you will be given twenty-five million dollars of your
mother’s fortune.”

Jake and I met each other’s gaze,
staring for a long, stunned, silent moment.

Finally, he let out a long breath.
“Whoa. I can’t even imagine that amount of money. It’s
just…huge.”

My lawyer crossed his hands on the
cherry wood desk. “Each picture must be an eight-by-ten, depicting
something that proves you were at each destination
together.”

“
So no Photoshopping, eh?”
Jake joked.