The Exception Read online

  “What other stuff?” Anger began to rise from the deepest part of me.

  Dear God, please let me have misunderstood that.

  “Just his drinking and stuff.”

  The spinning ring gave her away.

  “I’m not going to press you for details about that right now.” My voice was hard as steel. “But if my gut instinct is right, and it always is, my path better not ever cross his.”

  “It’s fine, Cane. I am here and he is there. It took me a long time, but I finally realized that I couldn’t be all he needed.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake! Don’t even start with that shit, Jada. His problems are his problems—not yours.”

  I’m going to need a good couple rounds with the heavy bag after this.

  “Anyway, the moral of this story is that there will be no more bad boys for me. No more players. No more games because I always end up losing.”

  “And how does that preclude me?” I asked playfully, trying to put a smile on her beautiful face again.

  “Are you serious!?” she laughed. “By your own admission—you’re the coach!”

  I got up and threw my things in the garbage, considering what she said. “So you think I’m a bad boy and I’ve been blacklisted because of it. Correct?”

  “Correct,” she grinned.

  “That seems tragically unfair. You don’t even know me.”

  “So, tell me about you. Tell me why you are so damn interested in making me crazy.”

  “I honestly don’t know. It could be a number of things,” I said, weighing my words. “It could be your charming personality or your fuckable body.”

  Jada turned two shades of red and I stifled a laugh.

  “Or it could be that we just have this chemistry that I feel like would be a pity not to explore.”

  We eyed each other carefully, trying to figure out our next move. It was Jada who broke the silence.

  “Cane, you’re the poster boy for a broken heart. I know how you work. As soon as you get your fill of me, you will move on. You said that yesterday—you want one night to fuck me out of your system. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I can’t do it. I’m not like Kari, if that’s what you are thinking. I know she and Max have some sort of friends with benefits thing going on and that’s great. But it’s just not me.”

  I wasn’t convinced that was something we couldn’t get around. “What do you need, Jada?”

  “I want to feel like the only girl in the world to somebody. I want to be their priority, their everything. I don’t know what that feels like.”

  The hurt in her voice made me want to pull her onto my lap and hold her tight. I cringed at my reaction. Get a grip, Alexander.

  “I don’t want to have random sex. I don’t want to be a booty call or whatever you call it.” She looked up at me and gave a weak smile.

  “So you still want the picket fence thing?”

  If that’s what she wants, I can’t get around that.

  “No,” she laughed. “I mean yes. At some point, I do hope I can still have all of that. I’m going to be picky this go around. I wasted years of my life with Decker and I don’t want to throw any more of them away on someone who doesn’t really care about me. I know that makes me needy as hell, but that’s the truth. I may as well own it. I want kisses in the rain. Flowers for anniversaries. Texts for no reason. I want all of the things I have never had. And I know, without a doubt, you are not interested in giving me those things. And that’s fine. But that also seems to make us spending time together pointless.”

  I looked at the beautiful woman across from me, shocked that it really bothered me that she had never experienced those things. She deserved to be made to feel beautiful and wanted. But that didn’t change the fact that I was not the person who could do those things for her.

  “Have you ever just been with someone, spent a few hours with them, enjoyed yourself, and went home? There’s something to be said for that,” I smiled, hoping to broaden her horizons a little.

  “Yeah, of course I have.” She looked up at me again. “You aren’t the only one that can read people. I can read you, too, and I know who you are. And you are what I need to avoid.”

  My phone started to ring and she motioned for me to go ahead and get it. I looked at the screen and then stepped in the hall to take the call from Max. By the time I had finished the conversation and came back in her office, Jada had cleaned up the mess and had her bag on her shoulder.

  I was relieved that she was ready to call it a night. Her little speech, as much as I hated to admit it, got under my skin a little bit. She had her mind made up that she wasn’t going to be with me and that pissed me off a little, even though she was right.

  You aren’t changing jack shit because of her. This is just some stupid obsession and you’ll have moved on in a few days.

  We exited the building and Jada locked up. We made our way quietly to our cars, neither of us speaking.

  “Thank you for dinner tonight.” She fished her car keys out of her purse. “It was really sweet.”

  I studied her under the moonlight, the warm air blowing her hair around, the smell of her soft perfume swirling around me. She was the closest thing to perfection I had ever seen.

  “We could do it again sometime. I can always have food delivered. I have people.”

  “I don’t remember agreeing to it this time.” She raised her eyebrows and I chuckled. “But really, thank you.”

  “Goodnight.” We exchanged a small smile as we reached her Jeep. She got in and started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot, leaving me standing beneath the parking lamp.

  I watched her drive away and considered that I may be watching the one woman I could see more than once a week drive out of my life. I briefly considered jumping in my Denali and chasing her down, but the rational part of my brain took control.

  You aren’t going to go do something stupid. Follow the rules. No exceptions.

  CANE

  “There’s beer in the fridge.”

  Max walked across the kitchen and grabbed a Corona. “And that’s all that’s in the fridge,” he mumbled.

  I ignored him. “How did the jobsite go today?”

  Max opened the bottle and took a swig. “Well, I didn’t know if we were pitchin’ or catchin’ yesterday, but we kicked ass today. Back on schedule and maybe even a little ahead.”

  I led Max into the living room and sat down on the black leather sofa. Max made himself at home in the recliner as always.

  “I thought Franklin really fucked us on the Bluestake. I’m not sure why we keep him around.” Max looked at me, peeling the label from the bottle in his hand.

  “You know why. He was my dad’s right hand man for a hundred fucking years. I can’t fire him.”

  “Such a pussy,” Max grinned.

  I shrugged helplessly. Franklin was getting a bit senile in his old age, but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about that, other than trying to give him simple jobs and write his paycheck every week.

  “I got some information on Powers today.” The grin was gone from Max’s face as he sat the bottle on the end table.

  I leaned forward, my elbows resting on my knees. “And?”

  “He’s living out past Surprise now at the end of a dirt road.”

  “Maybe he realized he isn’t fit for society.”

  “I drove out there this afternoon. Nice house, looks like it’s been there a while but has had some renovations done recently. And our boy has a new Camaro in the driveway.”

  “Camaro?” I asked puzzled. “He was driving an Avalanche yesterday.”

  Max nodded. “Yeah, he has one of those, too.”

  I chewed a fingernail, trying to figure what he was getting at.

  “So, he’s working as a foreman for a contractor in Phoenix. I happened to know the guy that he works for, so I gave him a call. He said Simon has worked there less than a year. Pretty good employee, I guess. Just takes quite a bit of sick time.
He’s been going to Mexico a lot. Like once a month.” Max’s eyes narrowed, watching me closely as I started to put two and two together.

  “I see.”

  “Yeah. I’m guessing he’s going down there, picking up drugs of some kind, and bringing them back. It would make sense. It would explain why he misses a lot of work. It would explain how he has the money to even consider buying a place like Solomon. And it would explain how a job foreman has the money to afford to live the way he does because his income definitely does not explain his assets.”

  Max didn’t say anything, giving me time to process everything.

  “That motherfucker.”

  “Yeah. So what do you want to do?”

  I leaned forward again, getting a plan together. “I’m going to doubt that he buys Solomon Place now that he knows I own it. Why would he do anything that would benefit me in anyway? But if he does—that’s fine. I will take his money.”

  “I really don’t think he knew you owned it, Cane. Simon’s boss said he has been all over the place lately, talking about starting businesses and moving to fucking Texas and all kinds of shit. It doesn’t seem like he’s been thinking about you at all, so I think we can chalk this up to one huge coincidence.”

  “Yeah, well, if I had ran into him at a gas station, I wouldn’t fucking care. But Jada was right in the middle of it.” I looked Max in the eye, driving home my point. “And you know Simon. He doesn’t miss much.”

  Max nodded. “I see what you’re saying, but do you really think he would bother trying to fuck with you now?”

  “If this is a coincidence like you think, then no. But let’s be real here. A lot of shit went down and you know he blames me for it. Even though that’s fucking ridiculous.”

  “No doubt. And if you are right and Simon picked up on something between you and Jada … it isn’t fair to her to be put in the middle of whatever bullshit he may try to pull.”

  “I don’t want to get paranoid here because I think he’s smarter than to do something that will wind up getting him in a cot next to his dad. But we do need to use our heads. Watch our backs.”

  Max took a final swig of his beer and started fumbling with the label again. “I’ll watch the jobsites. To me, that’s where he will try to hit you. That’s what started all of this in the first place.” He looked at me seriously. “Especially Benjamin Estates. And I’ll keep my ears on the ground.”

  “Who knew that your college roommates would come in so helpful this many years later, huh?”

  He grinned. “That’s why you gotta be nice to everybody; you never know when you’ll need them.”

  “One of these days you will need me. I promise you.”

  “That’ll be the day.”

  “Anyway, we need to make sure we keep an eye on Jada. I really don’t think he will buy the building, but if he does, I’ll make sure she doesn’t work on the deal. I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. But I need your help in making sure she stays away from him on the private side.”

  “And how do you expect me to do that?”

  “You are over there all the fucking time. Just make sure she doesn’t mention seeing him or him calling her. I don’t think that will happen, but assholes like him pick up on shit. And it wasn’t a surprise that I was pissed that he was there with her. So let’s just be safe.”

  “Should we just tell her? Lay it all out there on the table?”

  I blew out a breath. “No. I don’t think so. I think we are probably overreacting and I don’t want her to be constantly looking over her shoulder, you know? We can look over it for her.”

  “Do you really think he would go that far?”

  I exhaled. “There would be nothing I would put past that motherfucker, Max.”

  JADA

  An acacia tree was beating against my bedroom window furiously, the monsoon in full force. The sky was a nasty shade of brown as wet, sandy rain dumped from the thick clouds above. I felt much like that inside—turbulent, frustrated, and a little heavy-hearted.

  Cane was right. There was something unnamed that pulled us together. We definitely had a chemistry, like he said, and it was going to be a pity not to explore it. Because things weren’t going to go any further.

  The look on his face a few days before when I explained that to him made it clear that he understood my reasoning. And he agreed. Which was exactly what I wanted … so why wasn’t I more relieved?

  My emotions were a battleground and my heart was the target.

  I remembered my mother saying that the best way to predict the future was to look at past behavior. I was adamant that my future be brighter than my past, so I had to change my habits. Unfortunately for me, the one habit I had to break was the one that had taken over my subconscious with his bright blue eyes.

  I have Muffin and Twilight on my Kindle. I don’t need a real man.

  Dejectedly, I swiped open the book when I heard a knock on my door.

  “Come in.”

  “Hey,” Max’s voice rumbled as the door swung open. “Kari picked me up after her shift at the hospital this morning for breakfast and we ended up over here. She’s now passed out and I don’t want to wake her.”

  “I can take you home, if that’s what you need. Or I’m sure you can take Kari’s car.”

  “She has to be at work again tonight, so I don’t want to put her in a bind. And it’s a mess out there right now,” he said, looking out my bedroom window.

  He shoved his hands in his pockets as he looked cautiously at me. “Look, Cane called me a few minutes ago and he’s in the area. He said he could swing by and pick me up …” His voice trailed off as he watched my reaction. “Would it bother you if he came to get me?”

  I swallowed. “Why would I mind?”

  “I don’t know what’s going on with the two of you, so I thought I should ask.”

  “There is nothing going on with us.” I blew out a breath in exasperation. “I promise you that.”

  “I don’t care one way or the other. It’s none of my business.”

  “It’s fine, Max.”

  He held his hands out. “Just tryin’ to be respectful.”

  “I know and I appreciate that. But it really is fine. If you are going to be hanging around my sister and plan on continuing to be Cane’s friend, I’m going to assume our paths will cross sometimes.” I shrugged with a fake nonchalance. “I’ll just stay up here and read, so it won’t matter anyway.”

  “Jada,” Max said, leaning against the doorway, “you’re mowing the sidewalk here.”

  I laughed hard. “I have absolutely no idea what that means!”

  “What I’m saying is that you are doing something that isn’t necessary. You are sitting up here avoiding Cane—hell, you’re avoiding life because your ex-husband was a dick.”

  I began to respond, but Max waved me off.

  “Look, I haven’t known you all that long and I sure as hell am not a psychiatrist. But not all guys are like the one you married. Take Cane, for example. My man is clearly not a saint. Hell, he could start an argument in an empty house, for cryin’ out loud. But you know what—he isn’t a complete asshole either. If nothing else, he’s a good guy to have in your corner.” He turned on his heel and shut the door behind him.

  I considered his words until I remembered the part about Cane dropping by. I darted into the bathroom, a burst of excitement coursing through me.

  He’s coming here! I look like a mess!

  I brushed my teeth, pulled a brush through my hair, and changed into a pair of yoga pants and a soft pink long-sleeved shirt.

  He’s going to pull to the curb and leave. He won’t come in here. Why would he?

  I coated my lips with a thin pink gloss and swiped on some mascara.

  It never hurts to look cute. Just in case.

  I headed back into the bedroom just as my phone rang on my bedside table.

  Maybe it’s Cane, calling to see if he can come in.

  I rolled my eyes at mysel
f as I looked at the number. BLOCKED was flashing on the phone, so I clicked it to voicemail. I picked up the phone and held it, waiting for a voicemail notification. After a few minutes, it was obvious that there would be no message.

  My attention was drawn back to the situation at hand as the doorbell chimed. My chest constricted.

  I’m like a damn junkie. I rolled my eyes at myself, sitting on the bed. He got the memo. This can’t happen and he knows it now, too. Obviously.

  The door opened and shut. I held my breath, straining to hear the murmured voices downstairs.

  Everything went quiet, except the pounding of my heart, until I heard footsteps on the staircase. With each step, my heart picked up its pace. As the footsteps reached the top of the flight, a knock sounded on my door.

  I froze.

  There were two more loud knocks.

  “Max said you were up here, Jada. Can I come in?” Cane asked softly.

  Goose bumps broke out across my skin at the sound of the voice I had been playing on repeat through my mind for days. I really wanted to see him but I really needed not to. I was screwed either way.

  In typical Cane fashion, he didn’t give me an option.

  He opened the door slowly and poked his head around the corner. “Hey,” he said, smiling sweetly at me, causing me to melt a little on the spot.

  “Hey,” I said, giving him a small grin.

  “Can I come in?”

  “Does it matter what I say?”

  “Good point. I am coming in regardless.” He walked confidently into my room, closing the door behind him. Dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a grey t-shirt, he looked even better than I remembered.

  “You okay?” he asked, watching me intently.

  I realized I was still holding my Kindle against me and I sat it down. “Yeah, I’m good. How are you?”

  “Been better, been worse,” he shrugged.

  “I know the feeling.”

  I looked out the window as the silence between us hung thick in the air. The rain was coming in one way and then switching to the other.

  “You don’t mind that I came inside, do you? Because if you do, I can go.” His hands were in his pockets, water droplets evident on his t-shirt. He looked so relaxed. So gorgeous.