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He flashed her a smile. “I’ll have your car right here.”
She nodded and walked into the cool, elegant lobby.
The elevators were to her left. She pushed the up button, then rode to the fifth floor and turned left again. When she was outside of David’s door, she knocked loudly.
It opened seconds later. David, wearing jeans and nothing else, was already talking. “That didn’t take long. Are you sure those steaks are… Rebecca?”
His hair was mussed, and he didn’t have shoes on. Those should have been clues. Later she would remind herself she hadn’t been thinking. Or maybe she had known exactly what she was doing.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” she snapped. “Dammit, you know better. Dating Jayne and sleeping with her is one thing, but falling for her? You fuck the help, David. You don’t marry them.”
There was a sound. Not quite a gasp, but a sharp intake of breath. Rebecca looked past her brother and saw Jayne standing in the doorway to the bedroom. She wore David’s shirt, a diamond necklace, and nothing else. Her cheeks were red, as if she’d been slapped, her brown eyes wide.
For the second time in a week, Rebecca felt shame.
Jayne closed the bedroom door. David grabbed Rebecca’s arm and shook her.
“What’s wrong with you?” he demanded. “How could you do that? She’s your best friend.”
“Not anymore,” Rebecca whispered. “Not anymore.”
Seventeen
JAYNE SCRAMBLED TO GET into her clothes. There was something wrong—she couldn’t see very well. When she wiped her face, she felt dampness. From what? Tears? She couldn’t be crying. Not over anything to do with the Wordens.
She pulled on her panties, then ripped off David’s shirt and grabbed her bra. There were voices coming from the living room, but she didn’t bother listening. Neither of them could say anything she wanted to hear.
She knew this wasn’t David’s fault. His only sin was being a Worden. He had a biological connection to the insanity. But there was no way to separate him from them. No way to have one without the other. And as she’d teased earlier, he simply wasn’t worth it. Later, when breathing didn’t hurt so much, she would tell him.
She stepped into her shoes, then tugged at the necklace around her throat. She couldn’t get the clasp to open at first. There was a sharp pain as she scratched herself, but finally it came free, then tumbled into her waiting hand.
The diamonds winked up at her, all sparkly and perfect. She would never own anything like it, probably never even see one like it again up close. Which was fine. Like with David, the price of the necklace was too high.
She pulled open the door to the living room. Rebecca and David stood close together, obviously having a heated conversation. Jayne looked at the beautiful blonde standing next to him. Tall and lovely, the kind of woman who stopped traffic.
Jayne knew everything about her. She knew her moods, what she found funny, what annoyed her. She’d seen Rebecca happy and sad and sick and exhausted. They’d traveled together, had endured the flu together. They’d shared hopes and dreams and clothes. They’d grown up together. Jayne had thought they would always be friends.
She’d been wrong.
She and Rebecca weren’t friends—they’dneverbeen friends. Theirs was a relationship born of proximity and loneliness. Under ordinary circumstances, they never would have met. And if they met now, they would have nothing in common. They weren’t friends, and it had been Jayne’s mistake to assume they ever could be.
They’d used each other. That wasn’t friendship. That wasn’t anything.
“Jayne, wait,” David said coming up to her. “Please, don’t go. I don’t know what shit my sister has going on, but it has nothing to do with me. Don’t go.”
He was so beautiful, she thought sadly. Everything a man should be. Not perfect, but perfect for her. She could have loved him forever. Maybe she would, but he would never know.
She held out the necklace.
“No.” He backed up, tucking his hands behind him. “I won’t take that back. I want you to have it. Dammit, Jayne, don’t do this. Don’t listen to her.”
“She knows I’m telling the truth. Jayne, I care about you, but this is impossible.”
David turned on his sister. “Shut the fuck up,” he yelled. “What are you doing here anyway? Why are you doing this?”
Jayne didn’t know why Rebecca had turned on her. Jayne’s relationship with David had been amusing before. Something that could be used to annoy Elizabeth. Except Jayne had told the woman she was dating her son, and Elizabeth had panicked. Did she know about the diamond necklace? Had she talked to her son and realized that maybe this was more than a game?
Jayne wanted that to be true, wanted a moment to hold the thought inside. But there was no point. Whatever David felt for her didn’t change the fact that he was indelibly connected to the rest of the Wordens.
