“Then why... Oh, I get it.” He shook his head. “You thought you could use our past to convince me to sell.”
Her head popped up. “No! I would never do that.”
He sat back, the wheels of his antique chair squeaking.
“Is that your old chair? You never got it oiled?”
Her question stopped his interrogation. “It is. And, no. Kept meaning to. But”—he shrugged—“life—”
“—gets in the way.”
“Yeah.” He met her gaze, mesmerized by her pretty green eyes. That was why her mother named her Jade, she’d told him. When she was born, her eyes had a slight green tint to them. That was the one and only time she mentioned her family. He figured he would meet them eventually... but that never happened.
She didn’t look away. Neither did he.
“Jade,” he said, surprised at his gentle tone when a minute ago he was angry at her. But he couldn’t ignore the sudden stirring inside him, a feeling that knocked him back to the past. To the good times, not the bad. When they—
The door flew open, and Evelyn Margot barged in. “Guess what! I—” She stopped. Looked at Seb, then at Jade, who had swiveledaround in her seat, then at Seb again. Her eyebrows slowly lifted. “I didn’t realize you had a meeting.”
His sister’s entrance diffused whatever was going on inside him, bringing him back to reality. “It’s over,” he said, picking up the folder and handing it back to Jade.
Her expression turned to shock, then exasperation. “Keep it,” she said, grabbing her briefcase and rising to her feet. “We can discuss this later.”
“No we—”
She breezed past Evelyn and left the office.
“Won’t.”
Evelyn slid over to his desk. “Who wasthat?”
“No one.” He set the folder back on his desk. Just what he needed—more clutter.
“Come on, big bro. She’s certainly someone, the way you two were looking at each other.”
How exactly were they looking at each other? The last few moments seemed like a dream as he’d gotten lost in her eyes. Or had he just imagined she was also reminiscing about their better times. He blinked. Shook his head. Looked at his annoying little sister and snapped, “What do you want?”
“You need a new picture,” she groused, putting her hands on her hips. “A snarling beast.”
“Sorry.”
She grinned. “You just confirmed that there’s something betweenyouandher.” Evelyn sat down and crossed her legs. “Spill.”
Seb pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “I assume you barged into my office for a reason?”
She put her elbow on one knee and peered at him. “You’re being cagey. All right, I’ll let this go. For now.” She sat back, then said, “Ifound another advertiser. They’re nowhere close to Piggly Wiggly, but they’re willing to do a small advertisement.”
His expression relaxed. “I’ll take everything I can get.” Especially since Jade confirmed thatThe Times’s financial problems weren’t a secret. He wasn’t sure how Harrington Media had figured that out, not that it changed anything. “Tell me about them.”
After Evelyn had explained that a new car wash had been built in Cherry Hill and they wanted to drum up business, he struggled to focus on the rest of what she was saying. Jade loved car washes. He remembered when she had revealed her secret to him shortly after they started dating. She worried he would think she was weird. Of course he didn’t, and he’d gone to a couple of car washes with her on their dates. One time they’d even made out in one—
“Sebastian? Are you even listening to me?”
“Sure, sure. Cherry Hill Car Wash. Glad to have ’em. Is that all you needed?”
“That’s all.” She got up from her chair. “I’ll leave you to your thoughts about...her.”
“Shut up,” he said only half-heartedly. She just delivered good news, and he wasn’t going to get bent out of shape over her teasing. Evelyn Margot was practically a professional at it.
