“Did you lose about a hundred pounds in the last couple of weeks?” I teased while passing her the menu. There still hadn’t been a greeting, but I was over it. No sense in making shit even more awkward.
She cocked her head to the side and squinted, her brow furrowing with confusion.
“You told me you weighed over two hundred pounds. Looking at you now, I’d say you’re a buck twenty-five, tops.” She definitely had curves, which were accentuated by her short stature, but she was nowhere near what I had imagined before seeing her approach the table.
The way she refused to talk, keeping her mouth closed, made me wonder if she had some odd insecurity. A girl I’d dated back in high school had a slight gap—her parents couldn’t afford braces—and if she wasn’t forced to show them, she never did. It was a shame, because she really did have a beautiful smile.
But the second Jade’s lips split, I couldn’t take my eyes off the row of perfectly straight, white teeth that about had me speechless. Her lips were average, nothing overly special about them. They weren’t big or dark with natural color, but when she smiled, they completed the picture.
“Says the guy who claimed to be…what was it? Three hundred pounds?”
I shrugged, not recalling all the different ways I’d deceived her in regard to my appearance. “Yeah, I hit the gym a few times between then and this morning. Just keep the bread away. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to hold my breath to keep my gut from falling out.”
When she laughed, she covered her mouth with the tips of her unpolished fingers and dropped her gaze to the table. I’d heard laughter that pulled me in like a toxic melody, the kind that sent me running for the hills, and occasionally, the kind that shot a spark of excitement straight to my cock. But Jade’s was different. It held the ability to soothe and calm a raging storm, quiet a riot, heal the weak, and save the defenseless. I’d heard it dozens of times, but there was something uniquely different about living it in the present, feeling it cascade over me, cover me, consume me. Fill me with an ease I’d never experienced before.
Confusion set in with that thought.
I sat there, staring at her, sensing nothing other than a kinship between us, friends lost long ago who finally rediscovered each other in a different life. It made the perfect roommate. But I couldn’t stop the uneasy threats I felt when I found myself lost in her.
Rubbing my chin, I dismissed the concerned voice in my head, the one that told me to be careful with this one. But I knew myself. As long as I had no desire to become intimate or fall for her in any way, there was no problem. Not to mention, I’d been hit on by countless women in my life, so I’d be aware if she fit into that category. And considering she didn’t look at me like she wanted to rip my clothes off and ride me until the break of dawn, I shut down the paranoia and continued with our lunch.
When the waitress came by, we both went ahead and ordered lunch, as well as drinks.
“Thank you for meeting with me, Jade,” I started as soon as we were alone. “I’m sure this whole process has been strange—trust me, it’s been new for me, too. I figured if we got together, it might be easier to tell if this is something we are both still interested in, or if we should just walk away with a new friend.”
I could read anyone; it didn’t matter if it was the first time I saw them or not. The flicker of eye movement, curl of a lip, even nostrils flaring could tell me everything I needed to know. Hand movements, stuttering, blinking. The most casual swipe of a person’s tongue over their lip meant something. So I couldn’t figure out why in the hell I couldn’t get a read on Jade. Her subdued behavior didn’t tell me anything.
But even though I couldn’t figure anything out by her level of calmness, the moment she glanced up and to the left, it became clear she was hiding something. And if anyone could get her to spill, it’d be me. I wasn’t arrogant by any means, fully confident in my abilities to read people, to judge them, to find them and smoke them out of hiding. Those were things I was good at—yet comforting a woman who was clearly at odds with her own secrets wasn’t my forte.
“We’ve talked a lot, about a lot of things, but now is the time to get it all out on the table. After this, a background check will be run, and that will be my deciding factor—as well as yours. I plan to give you all the information you need to research me, and I advise you to take advantage of it. My goal is to protect myself and my property, and you should do the same.”
My no-nonsense tone captured her attention and set her posture rigid, ramrod straight, across from me. At first, I expected her to tell me never mind and to run out of here like a bat out of hell, but instead, she folded her hands on the table and nodded in agreement.
She drew her lip into her mouth, clamped it gently with her teeth, and trailed her gaze along the tabletop. She had something on her mind, but I could tell she warred with whether to speak up or keep quiet. I’d give her a little bit of time to come forward, and if she didn’t, I’d have no choice but to pry.
Then, out of nowhere, she asked, “What all will you be looking for on a background check? I’ve never done one before, so I don’t have a clue what to look for on yours. Is it like a credit report? Or more like a criminal search? Will there be medical things on there?”
Settling into the role of confidant, I leaned forward—without touching her—and lowered my head until I caught her attention. Whatever she was hiding, she worried I’d find it in my search. Little did she know, the access I had would tell me how many times a day she flushed the toilet. There wasn’t anything I couldn’t pull up, including what kind of toothpaste she used. Where most people couldn’t tap into sealed records, I could have them flying open with the snap of a finger. Most minor records were redacted, but not the copies I could get.
“There are all kinds of reports that can be run. Why?” When she hesitated, I reached out and placed my hand over hers, forcing her to drop the napkin she’d shredded. “If there’s something you think I’ll find, go ahead and assume I will. If it’s something that you think will change my mind about you moving in, then either way, I’ll change my mind—whether it’s now or when I get the report back. Keeping quiet won’t prevent me from finding out.”
“I was actually worried more about yours. I don’t know what information I should be looking for. And if you’re going to pull up mine, I think I have the right to know what types of things you’ll search for, so I know what I should be paying attention to. Do you not agree?”
Speechless. Again. I was convinced she was about to spill whatever it was she didn’t want me to know, but as it turned out, it had nothing to do with that at all. Jade Robertson seriously made me question if I was losing my touch.