Like now.
He wasn’t listening to a word the man was saying. “What was the woman’s name?” he interrupted.
“Jade Nolan.”
Upon hearing her name, Harley felt as if someone had reached out and punched him in the gut. Jade. Of all the women in Charleston, it had to be her case that dropped in his lap. Against his better judgment, he knew in that moment that his company would take the case. He also knew that for the first time in several years, he was going to handle it personally.
It might not be the healthiest thing to do, emotionally, but he had to see her again. It had been almost twelve years since she’d broken up with him and run off with that insipid little weasel, Lance Rhodes. He’d heard that she’d married him. Maybe she was still married to him. He’d seemed to be everything she wanted. Everything Harley wasn’t.
Call it morbid curiosity. Call it a reason to get out of this office with the walls closing in on him like a Star Wars trash compactor. But he was driving to Charleston in the morning.
“Mr. Dalton?”
Harley again realized he’d been sitting silently on the line for too long. “I’m sorry, Mr. Jeffries. We’ll take the case. Someone will be calling you back to get more details, but I will be down in Charleston within the week.”
“You’re going to handle it personally?”
“In this situation, yes.”
“Thank you so much, Mr. Dalton. I look forward to speaking to you when you come into town.”
The call ended and Harley sat back in his chair to consider the ramifications of what he’d just done. Taking the case on wasn’t the problem. He had no doubt that his team would uncover the truth of what had happened, if anything had happened at all. Going down personally was another matter. He could tell himself it was a good excuse to visit his mother and see his old stomping grounds, but anyone who knew him back then would know that he was going down there to see Jade.
She wasn’t the right kind of girl for him. He’d known that back in high school. He’d spent a lot of time in detention, while she was the treasurer of the National Honor Society. They ran in completely different social circles—Jade with the smart kids and him with the juvenile delinquents. And yet the first moment he’d laid eyes on her in their French class, he knew he was done for.
Maybe it was those big Bambi eyes that stood out against her pale skin and ice-blond hair. Even now, he remembered what it felt like to rub those silky strands between his fingers. She’d always looked at him with a touch of curiosity and anxiety hidden beneath thick lashes. The anxiety he was used to; he’d had quite the reputation around their high school. It was the curiosity that intrigued him.
Although he was doing fine in French, he’d pretended he wasn’t and had approached her about tutoring him after school for some extra cash. He knew her family didn’t have a lot of money. Neither did he, but he was willing to part with what little he had to spend some time with her.
Harley had paid her ten dollars a week for the rest of the semester to sit with him and practice French. He’d ended up getting an A in the class, which wasn’t his goal, but it hadn’t hurt. He’d just wanted to spend time with Jade, and he didn’t think she would do it otherwise. He was wrong. One sultry summer night in Charleston, he’d worked up the nerve to kiss her, and everything had changed. Including him.
He had spent most of his youth running wild. His mother, a single mom, had worked two jobs to keep them afloat, so he’d spent most of his time without adult supervision. When he was with Jade, his usual pastimes didn’t seem as exciting anymore. He’d found he much preferred the rush of kissing her, or nearly being caught by her parents when he’d sneak in through her bedroom window at night. She was everything he hadn’t thought he would want. His previous romantic experiences had involved girls with too much makeup and too much time on their hands.
Jade thought about nothing but the future. She’d been so desperate to avoid the struggles of her parents that she was constantly worried about her grades, which college she might get into and what she was going to do with her life. He had no doubt that one day she would be Dr. Jade Nolan.
What Harley wasn’t so sure about was how he might fit into Jade’s future. Apparently, she had the same concerns. Not long after she’d started college, she broke things off with him. He knew as well as anybody that they weren’t right for each other—or more accurately, that he wasn’t good enough for her. So he hadn’t fought to keep her. That was one of his biggest regrets, if he admitted to any at all. He preferred to look forward. And that’s what he’d done.
A week later, he’d walked into the navy recruiting office and never looked back. He hadn’t seen Jade since that day they broke up, despite her being on his mind all the time.
Glancing down now at the information he’d copied into his notebook during the call, he figured that was all about to change.
* * *
The doorbell rang.
Jade knew the investigator the hospital had hired was coming to interview her today, so she leaped up from the couch when she heard the chime ring through the house. Someone from St. Francis had called to make sure she would be home. She wasn’t entirely sure what she would tell the investigator, since she’d been literally just born at the time the incident took place, but at the very least, she could get an idea of who this person was and how he or she would handle things.
The company had been hired by the hospital, after all. Her best friend and pro bono attorney, Sophie, had given her sound advice. She’d suggested they go to the local media when the hospital had tried to brush her off. Within twenty-four hours of her interview with the press, the hospital’s legal team had phoned and told her they were hiring a third-party investigator to determine what had happened. Apparently they’d gotten a lot of flak, especially when the news station contacted them and they refused to comment.
That was a week ago. Things had changed quickly.
Jade went to answer the door, flinging it open in a rush, and then stopping short as she recognized the man standing on her porch. In an instant, her heart stuttered, her body stiffened. It was like she’d run straight into a brick wall she hadn’t seen coming.
“Hello, Jade.”
There was no way she could’ve seen this coming. Her mouth dropped open, the words dying on her lips. She couldn’t even manage to say hello. Not with her ex-boyfriend Harley Dalton standing on her front porch.
It had been forever since she’d seen him—her first semester of college, to be precise. A lot had changed about Harley since then. He was bigger now. Brawny, almost. She’d heard that he went into the navy after they’d broken up, and it showed as his broad shoulders strained against his expensive, tailored gray suit coat. He’d dwarfed her in high school and there was an even more pronounced size difference between them now.
A lot of things were still the same, however. The dark blue eyes with the wicked glint. The broken nose. The devilish smile that promised more than she could handle, then or now...
The way he looked at her was different, though. The heat in his eyes wasn’t stoked by desire today. It felt more like animosity. And close scrutiny. It was startling to see that, although Jade supposed he might still be mad at her for breaking up with him all those years ago.
“Jade?” He arched a brow, a questioning look on his face.
She clamped her jaw shut and nodded. “Hello, Harley,” she finally managed to say. “Sorry.”
“So you do remember me,” he said with a smirk.
As though she was ever likely to forget. He’d been her first love. Maybe her only real love, if she was honest with herself. She wasn’t about to let