The Tycoon's Defiant Southern Belle Page 0,27

he gritted his teeth. “This isn’t what it looks like,” he growled, furious beyond words. “Molly means nothing to me!”

It was unfortunate that Molly chose that point to step onto the deck. With Dave’s fervent words carrying over the whole crowd, all eyes turned to face Molly, their curiosity piqued.

“Excuse me?” Molly demanded, her crazy curls going every which way as she flipped her copper hair behind her head. With hands fisted on her hips, she glared right back at Dave, unconcerned that she was now the center of everyone’s attention. “What the hell do you mean, I mean nothing to you?” She took several steps forward and slapped her open palm against his cheek, causing his skin to go from pink to white and then right back to that painful red once again. But this time, the red was mostly in the shape of Molly’s hand and he cursed under his breath, causing several of the older ladies to gasp in horror.

“Excuse me,” he said as politely as possible. His eyes frantically went from Jade to Molly, then back again, obviously trying to decide who to appease first. He tried to take Jade’s hand, causing Molly to gasp in anger. But Jade was having none of that and she quickly pulled her hand free of his grasp, refusing to take a step away from the party to hear his explanations.

“I think you owe Molly an apology,” she said softly and with as much dignity as possible. “And I think maybe you should leave so that Patricia’s party can continue without further incident.”

Dave hesitated, but when there was complete silence he accepted that he was persona non grata at the moment. “I apologize for the disruption of the party,” he said with what little dignity he had left. With that, he walked away.

Molly didn’t like that one little bit. Apparently, her anger over his disrespect vanished and she rushed after Dave, hoping to appease his anger and embarrassment.

Jade watched it all, wondering why she wasn’t feeling more betrayed. She’d been with Dave for years. They’d gone through so much together, but at this particular moment, she couldn’t work up any indignation for what had just happened. Perhaps because of her own ambivalent feelings towards Dave over the past several weeks. All of which were caused by none other than Angelo Donati. She turned around, her eyes scanning the group once again until her gaze collided with his. Those dark eyebrows went up as if he were trying to tell her “I told you so”.

Jade sighed heavily, wondering why she’d missed something so obvious. How long had Dave been having an affair? She had no clue. Thankfully, the crowd was eager to pretend that nothing had just occurred among their group. Everyone immediately started chatting away, either coming up with a new topic of conversation or resuming the one that had been aborted by the scene with Dave. No one dared to come up and ask Jade if she were okay. That wouldn’t be the proper, southern thing to do. But Jade suspected that every woman standing around was working out in their mind what sort of baked goods she would be bringing by to Jade’s house tomorrow morning. It was just how things were done, she knew. When someone “passed” or a major event occurred in someone’s life, baking was a southern woman’s way of showing their solidarity and support. It might happen in other areas of the world, but Jade knew that it was a southern tradition that would continue to be passed down from one generation of women to the next. She actually smiled at the thought, feeling connected and included. That was the thing about traditions, even the crazy ones. They might not make sense, but they “felt” right and gave a tangible show of support.

Chapter 6

Jade sighed as her doorbell rang once again. She’d known last night that this would happen but she hadn’t considered the scope of everyone’s reaction. There wasn’t a surface in her kitchen that wasn’t covered by some sort of cake, cupcake, chocolate torte, chocolate tart or chocolate truffle. It seemed that every woman who had been at the party last night had immediately gone home and baked or cooked something for Jade, almost all of it in chocolate and definitely everything in high calories and carbs.

Jade had nothing against carbs. They were a major food group in her life. And chocolate? That was a no brainer.

But she really wasn’t devastated and