Page 55 of Love Among Vines

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

JADE

Tears streamed down Jade’s cheeks as she navigated the country roads. Rett’s words had lacerated her straight to the bone. She didn’t even recognize that man on the porch.

She rolled to a stop at an intersection and let out a guttural scream. Back at square one. There wasn’t a future for her here. Not with a man who could speak to her in that way.

There was no choice. She had to go back to New York. Her phone rang, and she whipped it out. Rett. She ignored the call and then blocked his number.

She had put herself and her heart on the line, and it had been returned to her mutilated and dragged through the metaphorical mud.

It wasn’t fucking fair. She had lost her entire family, then Nate, then her basic ability to find any beauty or inspiration in the world around her. Her muse, her financial security, her future. And just when things were starting to look up, the universe pounded her back into the dirt.

As soon as she passed her driver’s license exam on Monday, she was heading back to the city.

It was time to build a new life. Without Rett.

It had been insane to think that she could make a new beginning here.

She didn’t belong here. She didn’t really belong anywhere.

There were no roots, no family. Nothing to tie her to any one place.

Air whistled in and out of her nose as she took deep, steadying breaths. Penny still needed her. She couldn’t break down completely. She wasn’t entirely alone.

Even though everything had catastrophically fallen apart, things had been worse after Nate left. Something deep within her called out for release. She focused on the feeling as she drove back to Margie’s, hands shaking with adrenaline.

The new canvases she had bought just in case—and also because they were significantly cheaper than the ones she had bought in New York—waited for her in shopping bags just inside the door of the cottage.

She dropped to her knees and took a moment to tearfully hug Penny. She let her outside, breathing in the crisp fall air like it would be the last time. And maybe it would. Maybe it would hurt too much to come back here. Every inch of this town was going to remind her of Rett.

Steven skittered past them, but Penny barely gave him a passing glance. Jade put his evening snack on the porch and closed the door behind her.

She unzipped her dress and let it slide down her shoulders, a mess of sequins on the floor. She grabbed a clean palette from the drying rack and angrily squirted colors onto it. Back to the deep reds, the blacks, the indigos. A canvas slammed onto the easel.

There was something primal and angry waiting to burst out of her. She took a moment to turn her focus inward, to embrace and accept without judgment the feelings that waited for her.

And then she painted.

The next morning, Jade woke with a start when something rapped on her front door. She sat up like she had been struck by lightning. The colors of sunrise still bled into the sky.

Her heart raced. If that was Rett, she was going to answer the door with a can of Mace. But a quick inspection revealed only Cindy, who stood on the porch with a casserole dish covered in foil.

She whipped the door open, and Cindy’s eyes bulged out.

The casserole dish hit the wooden floor with a clunk, and Cindy immediately started checking Jade’s vitals.

“Hey—what are you doing?”

“What happened? Did you cut yourself in the kitchen? I have my kit in the car. We’ll stop the bleeding, and then I’ll take you into the office and?—”

“What the hell are you talking about? I’m fine.”

Jade looked down at herself and noticed for the first time that not only was she wearing only her beige strapless bra and panties, but she was also covered in splotches of red paint from her angry painting session the night before.

“It’s paint,” she said hurriedly. “Not blood.”

Cindy deflated in relief. “Thank god. I’m a little hungover from last night, so I was not looking forward to suturing any surprise gaping wounds. What happened to you last night? I saw you go outside with Rett and then you disappeared. You didn’t answer any of my texts.”

The memories flooded back, and unwelcome tears formed in Jade’s eyes for the millionth time in the past twenty-four hours. She had thought for sure she had cried them all out the night before.

Guttural screams and grunts had exploded from her for hours as she aggressively dragged the brush across canvas after canvas. Shreds of newspaper, splinters of a vinyl record, even pages torn from books joined the fray.

It was mixed media at its most unhinged. A return to her roots. It was probably all garbage, but at least it meant that she hadn’t lost everything again.

Even if there wasn’t hope for love, at least there was hope for her future.

Jade stepped back and let Cindy inside.

While Penny greeted Cindy, Jade slipped a sweatshirt over her paint-covered body.

Cindy set the casserole dish on the kitchen island and turned to look at Jade, arms crossed. “So?”

“He yelled at me and he asked me how I was going to ‘fix this when I can’t even fix myself.’”

Cindy’s mouth dropped open. “No, he fucking didn’t.”

Jade smiled sadly. “It’s better that I know. I always kind of figured he felt that way under the surface. How could he not? I am pretty pathetic.”

“You shut that beautiful mouth. You are not pathetic. Do you see what you’ve overcome since you’ve come here? What you’ve created?” Cindy pointed at the stack of canvases drying in the kitchen. “You have such power, Jade. No one can take that from you. No one.”

Jade sniffed and crossed her arms. She stared out at the silent gray form of the lake. More than half the leaves were missing now. It was time for her to go.

“I have to go back to the city. There’s no future for me here.”

Cindy shook her head and ripped the aluminum foil off the dish.

“I’m going to murder him. I meant what I said before.

No matter what happens, you will always have us.

Even if you purposely move five hours away.

Now why don’t you go take a shower? You look like a homicide victim.

I’ll brew some coffee and take Penny out. ”

“Thank you,” Jade said. The kindness was almost enough to bring her to tears again. She needed to get it together. She wasn’t going to be able to take her driver’s test tomorrow if she stayed a weepy mess.

Twenty minutes later, she re-entered the living room with damp hair. Gemma and Elena now sat at the island, yawning into cups of coffee. They turned at her arrival and enveloped her in a group hug.

“You didn’t have to come.” Jade’s voice was muffled in the hug.

“Yes, we did. Nobody disrespects our Jade.” Gemma drew back to look at her. “I will happily troll Craigslist and find someone to put a curse on him if you want.”

“I could go in and knock a bunch of bottles off the shelf,” Elena offered.

Jade shook her head. “I don’t think I need to bring any more bad karma to myself. But I appreciate you. All of you. When Nate left me, he took all our friends.”

“Even though he cheated on you?” Gemma said in disbelief.

“Yep. I’ve been alone for a long time. I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have close friends.”

Cindy, Elena, and Gemma all looked at each other. Cindy’s lip quivered.

“I can’t believe that wine-slinging fuckface said that to you,” Gemma said with a harrumph. She slid a plate in front of the empty seat at the island. “You need to eat,” she said to Jade.

“I’m not really?—”

“No buts,” Elena said sternly. “Eat.” She pointed at the plate.

Jade obeyed and sank into her seat. Even though her soul felt as battered as if she had just gone five rounds with a prizefighter, a sense of peace was creeping in.

If it wasn’t meant to be, it wasn’t meant to be.

She deserved someone who would choose her every single day.

No matter what kind of emotional baggage they carried from their past, or whose brother was getting engaged.

Rett had gently reminded her that she deserved more than a string of one-night stands and emotional distance.

She deserved a partner in life. Someone to share all the good and all the bad.

Like her parents had. Like Margie had. And she would find them.

Right after she fixed everything else that was wrong in her life.

Penny laid her snoot on Jade’s leg, and she petted her. For right now, life with Penny and her new friends was enough.

Hours later, bellies full of coffee and the eggs Benedict casserole that Cindy had made, the girls had all piled into Jade’s new car.

The steering wheel was cool beneath her fingers.

What the hell was she supposed to do about the car now that she and Rett had imploded?

He said it was a gift, but the insurance and title were still in his name.

And she would think about him every time she sat in it.

She shoved the thoughts to the back of her mind and drove to the local DMV branch.

Ten minutes later, Cindy pointed out the window. “Okay, this time, just watch the cones. I know you can do this.”

It was Jade’s fourth attempt at parallel parking, and none of them had been pretty.

“Pull up parallel to that car, slap it in reverse, then crank your wheel as hard as it’ll go,” Gemma instructed over the incessant clicking of the turn signal.

Elena slapped Gemma on the arm. “What if she cocks it too hard and she hits the other car?”

“She won’t. I’m telling you, this is how my dad taught me.”

“Okay,” Jade said wearily. She cranked the wheel and started to reverse.

“When your back passenger door passes their bumper, turn your wheel straight.”

Jade obliged and continued reversing.

“I think she’s gonna do it,” Cindy whispered.

Elena and Gemma shushed her.

“Now when your side mirror covers their taillight, turn the wheel the total opposite way.”

“Oh my god. I’m doing it,” Jade said.

The car slid smoothly backward and lined up with the curb.