Jonquils for Jax (Blueberry Lane 3 - The Rousseaus #1) - Katy Regnery Page 0,75

the most intimate connection two people could possibly share. He loved her. She was certain of it.

So what was he doing in Louisiana, and why was he being so cagey about it? When she asked what he was up to, all he’d say is “family business” and change the conversation back to her. It was making her crazy.

And sad.

Well, she was sad anyway. On Tuesday, her mother had fired the domestic staff with generous severances, and saying good-bye to Mrs. Jefferson on Tuesday afternoon had not been easy for Jax. In fact, none of this was easy for Jax. She just wished that she could have Gard’s arms around her as she fell asleep for the final time at Le Chateau tonight. She just wished he could hold her as she said her good-byes to the house she loved and cried her eyes out on the drive to Mad’s house tomorrow morning.

After a lonely breakfast, the front doorbell rang, and Jax answered it to find two men from Million-Dollar Movers on her front step.

“Here to make a final assessment for tomorrow’s job,” said one of the men, and Jax’s eyes filled with tears as they stepped inside with clipboards. She was due to help decorate for the party next door at noon, but she wondered about going early.

She took her phone out of her pocket to text Skye but found a message waiting:

GARD: Business completed. Will be on the two o’clock flight. Home at six. Wait for me.

She took a deep, ragged breath and sighed, hot tears of relief brightening her eyes and making the words blur on the screen.

JAX: Party starts at six. Do you want to meet me there?

GARD: No. Meet me at home, cher. We need to talk.

Jax flinched at these words, which she’d only ever heard twice, in the context of boyfriends breaking up with her: once in high school when Cort Ambler had pulled the plug on their romance and once again in college.

She tried to stay calm.

JAX: About what?

GARD: It’s important. We’ll talk in person. See you later, Duchess.

Her heart plummeted, and she sat down on the grand staircase, letting the phone drop to the red carpet by her thigh as tears coursed down her cheeks. He was breaking up with her. She’d bet her life on it. She couldn’t offer him a job managing Le Chateau. She was temporarily moving in with her sister. Her life was at sixes and sevens. Hell, since the moment he’d met her, her life probably looked like a train wreck. It was a good time for a clean break, she thought pathetically. And he was taking it.

“Uh, miss?”

She looked up to see one of the Million-Dollar Movers standing in front of her, his clipboard by his side.

She sniffled, swiping her tears away. “Yes?”

“We’ll be going now.”

“You’re finished already?”

The man shook his head, holding up his cell phone. “Nope. Job was just canceled. I guess you got a buyer for your house. Congratulations!”

“A buyer?” she repeated.

He nodded. “Yep. We were told not to move the furniture.”

“Why not?”

He shrugged. “Don’t know. Best guess is that the buyer wants it all. You have a good day, miss.”

She watched in stunned disbelief as he and his partner headed to the front door, closing it firmly behind them.

Not only had someone purchased her childhood home, but they’d purchased everything in it. Which meant that all the things that reminded her of her father and siblings would belong to someone else. All her mother’s stupid Parisian knickknacks, the grandfather clock in the ballroom, the desk where her father wrote checks, the gym where she fell in love. It would all belong to someone else.

Everything was ending or falling apart, and even for Jax, who was a relatively strong woman, it was too much. Placing her hand over her heart, she looked around the foyer, holding back her sobs for as long as she could, then letting them break forth as she walked up the stairs to the fleeting sanctuary of her bedroom.

***

Air travel is not a simple task when you’re legally blind, thought Gard, who had no choice but to state his disability when he booked his tickets and arrange to have someone accompany him from the gate to the taxi stand at the Philadelphia International Airport. And while he still hated the feeling of being dependent on someone else, the reality was that with Jax’s help, he was coming to accept the hand he’d been dealt in life. She didn’t treat him