Give Me Fever (22 page)

Three weeks later

“Okay, baby girl, enough is enough. It is time for an intervention.”

Jade looked up as Deena picked up the remote and turned the television off with a click. “You make me sound a crackhead,” Jade drawled before she dug her tablespoon into the pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Macadamia ice cream.

“At least a crackhead doesn’t put on ten pounds in two weeks,” Deena said.

Jade looked comically offended.

Deena strolled over on her gold heels and snatched the pint of ice cream away.

Jade jumped to her feet in her plaid-footed pajamas. “I have no job, no business, and no man,” she said emphatically before she stuck out her hand. “Now give me the ice cream.”

Deena felt like she was squaring off in a ring. She quickly kicked off her stilettos as she kept her eyes locked on her daughter and her hand locked around the carton. “Why are you sitting around here doing this to yourself when
you
broke it off with
him
?”

“Mama, please give me my ice cream?” Jade asked calmly as she took a step toward her.

Deena took two steps back. “A moment on the lips and a lifetime on the hips.”

Jade released a heavy breath. “It’s just ice cream.”

“So why are you acting like it’s crack?”

Jade threw her hands up in the air. “What’s with you and the crack fixation today?”

Deena eyed Jade before she took off across the room and slammed the ice cream in the trash just as Jade took off behind her.

“Wow, old lady, you’re faster than you look,” Jade drawled.

Deena laughed. “Sex is like exercise, and trust me, your mama
stays
in shape.”

Jade pretended to gag herself as she made her way back to her couch. “Oh good God, Mama, please!”

Deena walked over to the sofa, sitting down and settling her daughter’s covered feet in her lap. “Hey, your granddaddy called me and he’s worried you’re all cooped in this house and moping around behind Kaeden.”

Jade shifted her eyes to her mama. “I miss him,” she admitted.

Deena patted Jade’s leg. “Do you want him back?”

Jade shook her head. Then she nodded. Then she shrugged.

“But you miss him?” Deena asked.

Jade nodded. “But I don’t miss the jealousy thing. It’s a big issue for me and you know it. I’ve been there and I’ve done that. He would really have to prove to me that he’s dealt with his issues and he can trust me.”

“So in the meanwhile, you’re going to sit around here and live in a funk.” Deena sniffed the air and held her nose. “Smelling like funk.”

“I don’t stink. I wash.”

“Good. Just checking.” Deena looked relieved.

Jade dug down deeper on the couch. “I’m fine. I promise.”

“Well, I need you to get up and find a cute outfit to put on,” Deena said, rising to her feet. “We’re going out.”

Jade snuggled down even deeper on the couch. “I’ll pass.”

Deena waved her hand dismissively. “Whenever I’m in town you and I hang out. There’s nothing that changed because Mr. Lover Lover has been put on pause. Up and at ’em.”

Jade eyed her mother and she knew it was give in quick or be harassed until she gave in. Without another word, Jade rolled off the couch and made her way to her bedroom thinking of what to wear. Who knew what her mother had planned.

She tied her hair with a silk scarf before she turned on the shower spray and waited to climb in once the steam swirled up to the ceiling. She sighed in pleasure at the feel of the water pulsating against her skin.

As she closed her eyes and leaned forward enough to wet her face and not her hair, Jade thought the sound of the water hitting the wall and the tub and the shower curtain sounded just like a waterfall.

She shivered at the memory of the first night she’d shared herself with Kaeden. The sound of the waterfall in the distance had been the serenade to their passion. Passion like she had never known and often wondered if she would ever feel again.

Swarmed by sudden emotions and afraid that her face would be wet from more than just the water spray, Jade rushed through the rest of the shower. She rubbed her body down with baby oil before she patted herself dry with a soft towel.

Maybe a night out was just what she needed.

After pulling on a thong and lacy bra, Jade reached for a pair of her favorite jeans. She frowned when she couldn’t pull them any higher than her thighs. She had put on weight! “Oh, hell to the no…”

Jade valiantly tried to pull up and then zip the jeans. She lay down and pulled. She stood up and jumped. She sucked in and tried to zip.

“Still want the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream?” Deena drawled.

Jade turned to find her tall and shapely mother leaning in the doorway of her bedroom. “Oh, hush.”

Jade flew backward onto the bed and kicked her feet high up in the air as she peeled the now-offending jeans off. As she ignored her mother’s smug and pretty face, Jade promised herself a couple of things. One: She was going to have a good time tonight. Two: It was good-bye to Ben & Jerry and hello to the gym.

Kaeden slammed his fist against his desk as an image of Jade and some faceless man having sex flashed before him. Closing his eyes, he wiped his hands over his mouth. Kaeden tossed the remote onto the leather ottoman serving as the coffee table in his living room. He stretched his tall frame on the sofa, trying very hard to think of anything else but Jade.

Three whole weeks.

He missed her.

Throughout the day he was preoccupied with thoughts of what Jade was doing. And with whom. And the thought of another man with her tore him up on the inside.

“What’s up, stranger?”

Kaeden looked up and his face shaped with surprise to see Kade strolling into his office. “What’s up, bubba?”

“Nothing much,” Kade said before he folded his tall frame into one of the chairs in front of Kaeden’s desk. “I had some errands to run in town and I’d thought I’d come check up on you.”

Kaeden felt guilty. In the time following the breakup, he had pulled away from his family and buried himself in work. “Just been real busy.”

“No Strong is too busy for family,” Kade told him. “You have to stop letting this thing with Jade kick your ass. Talk to us about it. Talk to me about it. I’m here.”

Kaeden locked eyes with his brother through his spectacles. He released a heavy breath as he shrugged a shoulder and leaned back in his chair. “I know we didn’t have a lot in common, but I really felt like what we had was going to last.”

“So what happened?”

“Bunch of nonsense and lies that I fell for from her ex and…she claims I was too jealous.”

“Were you?”

Kaeden thought back to little things he’d done in their relationship. The phone calls just to see where she was. Feeling threatened whenever he saw her just talking to a man. Not wanting to let her out of his eyesight or wanting her to go places where a lot of men were.

These were things he
thought
he’d never revealed to Jade or to anyone else. Maybe he hadn’t held his feelings as close to his chest as he thought, especially when he went off on her behind Darren’s lie.

“Let me ask you something,” Kaeden said, shifting in his seat to lean forward on his desk. “Go.”

“Garcelle is beautiful, and no offense, but her body is…” Kaeden used his hands to mimic an hourglass.

Kade smiled broadly. “That’s my baby,” he said.

Kaeden slapped his hand down on his desk, causing papers to flutter. “See, I couldn’t take another man telling me about Jade’s body. I would…would wanna break your neck,” he told his brother emphatically.

“You’re my brother and I wouldn’t let you be disrespectful about my wife, but you didn’t say anything to make me wanna toss your young ass from that chair.”

“When we were together, I felt like there was always somebody waiting to step in and take my place with her,” Kaeden confessed. “It felt like I had to keep her close so some knucklehead didn’t get in her ear, and I always had suspicions that she was cheating on me.”

“Was she?”

“No. Yes. Hell, I don’t know.”

“So you don’t trust her?”

“That night in the woods really messes with me because she
was
dating that dude Darren. So no, I guess I don’t trust her,” Kaeden said as he shook his head. “And that’s a big issue for her.”

“Sounds like an even bigger issue for you, little brother,” Kade told him.

“How do you and Kahron do it? How you can be so laid back with these fine-ass women walking around, living life, with men probably flirting and trying to get at them?”

Kade smiled. “Because I have the utmost faith that I am handling my business as a man, and not just in the bedroom. Emotionally. Financially. Mentally. Socially. I’m a good man and I’m good to my wife. Listen, it boils down to me trusting my wife and me being secure in myself. I’m sure Kahron feels the same way.”

“So I’m insecure?” Kaeden balked.

Kade held up his hands. “You don’t have a reason to be insecure, but hey, are you?”

Kaeden shifted his eyes away.

“Listen, little brother, and this might be hard for you to hear…but if you can’t trust Jade and have faith that you are giving her everything she needs from a man, then there’s no need for you to get back together.”

Kaeden fell silent.

“Listen, Jade is ten. That we know. Now it’s time for you to work on realizing you’re a ten too. Jade is not slumming by being with you. She’s not doing you a favor. She got one hell of a catch—just like you did. Until you deal with that, you two are gonna have nothing but drama.”

“Look here, Dr. Phil,” Kaeden joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Kade laughed.

“I appreciate always looking out for me. Hell, for all of us. You are the best big brother ever,” Kaeden told him with honesty.

Kade shrugged. “It’s what I do,” he said, rising to his feet.

“And Kaeden—”

“Don’t worry, this is between just me and you,” he threw over his shoulder before he walked out of the office.

Kaeden knew Kade was right. His brother’s comments had echoed Jade’s own question of why he didn’t feel he was enough for her. He didn’t want to be that dude around town acting a straight fool because of his jealousy. As much as he missed and wanted Jade, maybe it was time for him to take some time and get his head on straight.

Ten months later

“Here you go, Mr. Strong.”

Kaeden looked and smiled at Mrs. Hoover as she handed him a stack of incoming mail. “Thank you,” he told his new receptionist/secretary before she turned and walked back out to the outer office.

She was a short and thin sixty-year-old woman who had been happily married to the same man for the last forty years. Everything about her had seemed drama-free for Kaeden when he interviewed her a month ago, and so far his instincts had been right. With Mrs. Hoover came a dependable employee and lots of coffee with freshly made bakery products.

He glanced at the clock over the fireplace. He had to call it an early day if he was going to make it to the wedding on time. And there was
no
way he was going to miss it.

Scratching his new five o’clock shadow, Kaeden tried his best to stay focused on his short list of things to do. He was just selecting files to load into his Coach briefcase when Mrs. Hoover knocked on the door and stuck her head in.

“You better get going,” she told him. “Weatherman is calling for rain. I hope it doesn’t ruin your friend’s wedding.”

Kaeden paused at the term “friend” but didn’t bother to explain otherwise as he slid the files and his laptop into his briefcase. He hurried into his suit jacket. “Yeah, I’m headed out now. Thanks.”

“I’ll lock up, and you have fun,” she called behind him after he strode past her and out the door.

He made a move to adjust his glasses but then remembered that he no longer wore glasses or contacts since he had the Lasik surgery last year. Turning up the radio, Kaeden settled in for the forty-five-minute ride to downtown Charleston.

It actually felt good to leave the office early. With the expansion of his business, it seemed like he hadn’t been home before nine in ages. He was considering bringing on a junior accountant to assist with his bulging workload.

Bzzzz.

Kaeden picked up his BlackBerry from the passenger seat.

“Hey, Kade.”

“No, this is Garcelle.”

He smiled at the sound of his sister-in-law’s voice. “Hey, you calling to tell me my new niece or nephew has arrived?”

Garcelle laughed. “No, not for two more months, Kaeden. We’re throwing some meat on the grill and we want you to come before you head home. I’m making quesadillas on the grill.”

Kaeden’s stomach growled at the thought of Garcelle’s quesadillas. “I have a wedding to go to in Charleston, but I’m not going to the reception so I’ll be there.”

“Who’s getting married?”

Kaeden laughed. “I’ll tell you about it later.”

“Is Taja with you?”

“No, Taja and I broke up couple of weeks ago. I’m going alone.”

“Oh good grief, Kaeden, another one bites the dust,” Garcelle said, her accent prominent.

Kaeden laughed.

“What was wrong with this one? You know what, never mind, we’ll talk when you get here.”

Kaeden tossed the BlackBerry onto the seat as he made the left turn onto the parking lot of the church. He put on the tailored jacket to his gray lightweight summer suit and smoothed it out as he made his way toward the brick steps of the towering church.

He laughed a little as he thought of Garcelle’s reaction to his breakup with his most recent girlfriend, Taja. During the last few months, his dating life had become the running joke among his family. He finally decided to start to date again, but as soon as he would find one it didn’t take long to find something—anything—wrong with her…and soon she was out of there.

He hadn’t had much luck in the love department ever since his breakup with—

“Hi, Kaeden.”

He froze.
Damn if that didn’t sound like…

“Jade,” Kaeden said as he turned around and spotted her standing there. His heart hammered so loudly in his chest that he was almost deafened by it. He was speechless.

He hadn’t seen her in months, and she was still just as beautiful.

Her chocolate skin gleamed. Her hair was cut into a shoulder-length bob with long asymmetrical bangs. Her makeup made her eyes and lips glow. And the silver strapless satin dress she wore emphasized her shape and her long legs below the knee-length hem.

She smiled at him and gave him a little wave.

Kaeden had to check himself to recover. “Hey, whassup,” he said, sounding casual even though his heart beat so quickly and his whole body felt more alive than ever. “It’s good to see you.”

She stuck her long and slender sequined clutch under her arm as she stepped up to stand before him. “It’s good to see you too, Mr. Strong,” she said in that husky voice of hers, and she looked up at him.

“This is an odd place to run into each other,” he told her as he pushed his hands into his pockets.

Jade laughed. “That’s an understatement…but I couldn’t miss it.”

Kaeden laughed. “Me either,” he admitted.

“You look different. Good. I mean…great. But different. I like the beard.”

Kaeden grinned as he ran his hand over it. “Well, you know, what can I say,” he said in the worst imitation of J.J. from
Good Times
.

“And no more glasses,” she said with an approving nod.

“Lasik,” he told her.

They fell silent as they stood there in the parking lot. Both looked around at anything but each other, and when their eyes did happen to lock they both laughed nervously.

“So, um, no date?” Kaeden asked.

“No, nope, no date,” Jade admitted as she used a hand to swipe her hair behind her ear. “You?”

“Nah.” Kaeden shook his head before he offered her his arm. “Want to enjoy the show together?”

Jade slipped her arm through his. “Oooh, this should make it even more interesting.”

They walked into the crowded church together and sat on one of the pews in the rear.

“Those two deserve each other,” Jade muttered under her breath.

“Tell me about it,” Kaeden drawled.

They both shook their heads as Darren lifted the veil and planted a kiss on Felecia’s smiling lips.

“Lawd, they gone have some crazy babies,” Jade quipped as they rose to their feet.

Kaeden laughed.

Jade glanced over at him, and the nervous anxiety she felt since she saw him in the parking lot only increased. The man was finer than ever with his five o’clock shadow and minus the glasses. The color of his suit fit his caramel complexion and the silvery flecks in his low-cut fade. And there was more of an air of confidence about him that Jade could not deny.

Feeling that familiar breathlessness, Jade licked her lips. “I should do like J.J. and trip ’em up,” Jade joked as Darren and Felecia made their way up the aisle to an up-tempo song.

The couple were so caught up in each other that neither even noticed Kaeden and Jade standing in the pews.

After the bridal party made their way down the aisle, the wedding goers started to file out the church. Jade and Kaeden waited until the church was nearly empty. “Were you going to the reception?” Jade asked him as they stepped into the aisle.

“Nooo. Nah. Nah.” Kaeden laughed as he looked around at the massive amounts of floral decorations. “When I got the invite I just felt like I had to see it to believe it.”

“Me too. Me too.” Jade nodded. “You know, I think they think that it would bother us.”

Kaeden shoved his hands into his pockets as he looked down at her. “Those two can have each other. Trust and believe that.”

They fell silent as they stood at the end of the altar, their feet pressing into the petals on the runner, the scent of flowers teasing their noses.

Jade glimpsed at him and those familiar stirrings were awakened. “I better get going,” she said softly as she stooped down to scoop up a handful of petals.

“Yeah, me too.”

Jade tossed the petals up into the air just as she stepped up to press her hand to Kaeden’s chest and then lightly kiss his cheek as the petals rained down upon them. “It was good seeing you, Kaeden,” she whispered in his ear.

“You too,” he whispered back.

They stepped apart slowly and made their way up the aisle side by side. As they reached the open double doors, they both turned and looked down the length of the artfully decorated aisle at the altar.

With one last shared look they left the church and went their separate ways.

Kaeden took a sip of his light beer as he watched his parents doing the shag while Kade grilled steaks on the brick patio in his and Garcelle’s backyard. His brothers and Garcelle’s dad were losing horribly in a poker game with a pregnant and round Garcelle. As always, his sister Kaitlyn was off on some out-of-town adventure with her friends. And Bianca was inside putting KJ and Kadina to sleep. Or at least she was until she walked out the back door.

“Hey, brother-in-law, why are you over here by yourself?” she asked as she came to stand beside his chair.

“Got a lot on my mind,” he admitted, taking another swig of his beer.

“I heard we can add Taja to the pile.”

He looked up at Bianca, her diamond hoop earrings flashing as she shook her head.

“You know, after you and Jade didn’t work out, it took you a long time to start dating again, and we all were glad because we could tell that you were hurting.” Bianca stepped down on the porch and took a seat next to Kaeden’s feet. “But you know what, you’re not fooling me or anyone else.”

Kaeden shifted his Kenneth Coles as he cut his eyes over at her. “What do you mean?”

“You still want Jade and you know it.”

Kaeden silently took another swig of his beer.

“And all these women you dating don’t have a chance against that.” Bianca eyed him. “I thought the whole Felecia thing you told us all about had cured you of that.”

Kaeden shook his head. “Not the same thing at all.”

“Kinda…sorta…maybe. Nope, you know what? Definitely.”

Kaeden chuckled as he held the bottle from his mouth. “It’s funny that you mentioned Jade. She was at the wedding too.”

“Oooh! The plot thickens.” Bianca leaned back a bit and fanned herself.

Kaeden laughed at her. “She look good too. Real good.”

“She still stay in Holtsville? I never see her at church anymore.”

Kaeden sat his empty bottle next to his feet. “Yeah, she eventually switched churches after we broke up.”

“Whatever happened with you two?” Bianca asked, knocking her shoulder against his knee. “We all really thought she was the one for you.”

Kaeden’s eyes clouded over and he clearly remembered everything that led to their downfall a year ago. “I messed up. I was a jealous ass and she wasn’t having it. Took some time and it was a hard pill to swallow, but I realized she was right. My jealousy would’ve had us fighting and carrying on all the time.”

Bianca nodded in thought. “You know…there are many reasons why people get eaten up with jealousy. The solution is to find out why we’re jealous and work through it. Did you ever do that?” Bianca asked.

Kaeden shrugged. “I was mad at her for a little bit after the breakup. By the time I got my act together, I felt like she had moved on with her life. I barely saw her. I was dating again. Our lives just were on two different tracks…
again
.”

Bianca nudged his leg again. “How was it seeing her today?”

Kaeden smiled. “It was a’ight. You know, no biggie.”

Bianca arched a brow and leaned back to cast him a disbelieving eye.

A vision of Jade smiling up at him tugged at his heart, but Kaeden pushed it away. “Seeing her again messed my head up for a little bit, but it’s back on straight again.”

Bianca acted like she wanted to say something, but she stopped herself. Instead she just patted his knee before she rose and walked away. “Pride goeth before the fall, brother-in-law,” she told him over her shoulder before she walked away.

Kaeden released a deep breath, lost in his thoughts.

Jade’s brain was working overtime as she put her body through an intense workout on her home treadmill. Sweat was pouring off her body and her pulse was racing. Her muscles ached but she felt good. She felt exhilarated. She’d almost exercised all thoughts of Kaeden out of her brain.

At the thought of him she lightly pounded her fist against the handlebar in frustration as she ran faster. Seeing him had left her filled up with thoughts of nothing but Kaeden, Kaeden, Kaeden.

Thinking of Kaeden.

Yearning and wanting…Kaeden.

And she was sick of it.

It had been nice seeing him at the wedding, but if she had known that that one moment in time would leave her absorbed into him again, then she would have climbed back into her Jeep and never spoken to him at all.

In the last few months, she had gotten back into dating, she enjoyed her new job, everything about her life was stable. Everything was just fine.

She didn’t want to go back to the place she was in after their breakup. It had taken her a month to lose the weight she’d gained from her days on the couch sucking down Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Macadamia ice cream like it was nobody’s business.

Jade breathed heavily after she hopped off the treadmill. She reached for the bottle of ice water on the table as she looked out the living room window. The skies were darkening as she took a sip. It had rained nearly every day that week, making any local outdoor adventures nearly impossible. Jade was definitely feeling stir-crazy, especially being left to her thoughts.

Wanting to grab some fresh air before the rain, Jade grabbed her journal and left the cottage to sit down on the small stoop. The journal was one of the new additions to her life after the end of her personal relationship with Kaeden and her business relationship with Darren. She had stopped trying to find the answer to all her frustrations inside the bottom of an ice cream bowl. So she axed the spoon and reached for a pen.

Eventually Darren bought out her share of the business. Jade put the money in her savings and went to work for a larger adventure tour company that kept her away from home on the weekends. And that had been ideal because she didn’t want to run into Kaeden. She wanted that time to get over him once and for all.

And Kaeden. In time she’d gotten over him. Every day she missed him and loved him a little bit less. Every day her journal entries became more about reclaiming her own happiness and not dwelling in the sadness created by their breakup. And she had been a wreck in the weeks following their split.