Page 108 of Love Among Vines

“Come on. I just want to apologize. I know I did a shitty thing.”

“A shitty thing?” A bitter laugh escaped her lips. “Are you kidding me right now?” She punctuated the sentence with a pointed finger. “My parents’ bodies were barely in the ground, and you were screwing my best friend behind my back. And then you had the audacity to lie about it to my face and pretend like nothing happened between you two. How many other girls were there, Nate?”

“None. I promise,” he said. He took his sunglasses off and slid them into the neck of his polo. He reached for her hand, and she slapped it away.

“Your promises mean nothing.”

“I’m sorry, Jade. The guilt’s been eating me alive. Ashley too. We had a huge fight. We should never have been together. I know what I’ve done to you. Done to your life. You were this amazing, gifted painter. And look where you ended up.” Hegestured at the fall festival. “Some Podunk-ass town surrounded by nobodies. This isn’t where you belong.”

She reeled like he had slapped her. Her hands curled into fists. She was going to drown him in this Podunk-ass lake. Someone put a hand on her arm and she whirled around. Cindy. She shook her off.

Cindy sighed, and a first aid kit hit the booth with athwack.

“Why the fuck are you here?” Jade said to Nate.

“I told you, I want to apologize.”

“No, you don’t.” A realization shattered over her like a glass window in a hailstorm. “You’re here because you’re jealous. You saw me with Rett and couldn’t handle the idea of me preferring someone else to pining over your shitty memory. I only have value to you when another man is interested.”

Her voice was basically at shouting level, but she couldn’t stop herself.

“And I’m sorry, but where’s your wife? The girl that you fell so madly in love with that you ‘had no choice’ but to crush my heart and leave me in an apartment I couldn’t afford by myself?”

“We never should have gotten married. I never should have left you. I had what I wanted, I was just too blind to see it.”

“You’re despicable. You always want what you can’t have. The second you nailed Ashley down, you got bored and slept with someone else. And you will keep doing the same thing because it’s all you’ve ever known. I’m not an idiot.”

“Come on, Jade,” he said in a softer voice. “I know you don’t love him. I know you’ve been going from guy to guy, chasing after what we had. But you haven’t found it. Because you’re meant to be with me.”

He tugged down the neck of his polo, where a matching ice skate tattoo lurked beneath his collarbone.

She was numb. She was going to carve this tattoo out of her body like a cancerous tumor. Forget laser removal.

“You don’t knowanythingabout me.”

He took a step closer. “I know you’re a city girl. You need the lights, the action. You’re not going to find your muse here. When we were together, you painted something new every day.Iwas your muse. Can’t you see that? I can give it back to you, Jade. Let me help. Let me take you home.”

What the hell was this? Some kind of ego trip? Was he getting off on the idea of being her inspiration? Maybe that was part of his problem with Ashley. She was poised to become a brilliant doctor in addition to a shitty friend. Ashley didn’tneedhim. Nate had always had a deep desire to be needed.

But he wasn’t Jade’s problem anymore either. And she sure as hell didn’t need him.

He reached for her again, but a large shadow moved in front of her.

“Jade doesn’t want you here. It’s time for you to leave.”

Even with moderate sweat stains and baggy athletic shorts, Everett Rhodes was a commanding presence. There was danger in his voice. A thrill ran through her.

Jade peeked around him in time to see Nate take stock. Did he just stand up a little straighter to try to close the distance between their heights? Pathetic.

At some point, Margie, the book club, and a large number of people she recognized from the café had crowded around. Margie came to stand beside her with a protective hand on her shoulder. Ethel had produced a pair of knitting needles and was holding them menacingly in Nate’s direction.

Was anAnchorman-style rumble about to go down at this picturesque fall festival?

“Why don’t you make me?” Nate lunged toward Rett but stopped before making contact.

Rett didn’t flinch, though he did curl one hand into a fist.

Jade gripped Rett’s arm. “Don’t take the bait. He will sue you.”

---