Broken(32)

What the hell was she doing here?

He threw a glance over his shoulder at Ridge’s face to gauge his reaction. Ridge wouldn’t meet his eyes. As a matter of fact, he was bright red. Cade turned to face him then. “Did you know she’d be here?” he hissed.

“Uh, I have to run. I promised Jack I’d help him fix the hole in the bull pen.” Ridge took off before Cade could utter another word.

Cade was tempted to chase after him and beat the hell out of his brother for participating in this fraud but realized, by the gasp that met his ears, that Jocelyn was now aware of his presence. Taking a breath to calm his frazzled nerves, he slowly turned to face the wide-eyed beauty. It was apparent by the shock radiating from her and the stiffening of her body; she was just as surprised as he was by this ambush.

Stone grinned, not bothering to hide his duplicity. “I think I need to go check on Magic and see how she’s doing. I’ll catch you later, Jossy. I’m sure you two kids have a lot to talk about.” At least the bastard could have tried to make it less obvious.

Cade was tempted to trip his brother as he walked past him, but suppressed the urge—just barely. Smug sonofabitch.

This was a confrontation he’d wanted to put off for as long as he possibly could, but now that it was here, there was no backing down. Besides, he wanted to show Jocelyn he didn’t give a damn about her or anything concerning her.

She wrung her hands in front of her, eyeing the exit. “I-I think I should leave. You probably have something to do,” she murmured before sidestepping him. As she was about to walk away, he caught a whiff of her sweet perfume. It was the same scent that used to drive him wild years ago.

It surprised him that it was still her scent of choice. After all, she’d chosen a different life. Why wasn’t she wearing some designer French concoction? She had no right to wear that particular brand of fragrance and she had no right to look so good he wanted to throw her on the ground and f*ck her bowlegged. It angered him. Furthermore, why was she acting so skittish around him when she was the one who’d done him wrong?

“What’s the rush, Jos Song? Looks like Stone and Ridge did a great deal of plotting to set up this meeting, we may as well get this over with.”

She stiffened and ran her tongue over her lips. Cade knew she’d done it more from nerves than to entice him, but the subtle motion still created a hornet’s nest of desire, and he didn’t like it one single bit. Why after all this time was he so affected by her? It would be a testament to his will to get through this conversation without making a fool of himself.

The flash of red tinting her cheeks told him she wasn’t so indifferent to him either. Perhaps he was no longer good enough for her, but the chemistry flowing between the two of them was stronger than ever.

“I-I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” she denied, yanking her arm from his grasp.

He quirked his lips to a half smile. “I realize you don’t. Seems like we’re the victims of a rather nasty prank.”

She frowned, still looking over his shoulder toward the door. “What do you mean?”

“My brothers have been trying to get me to talk to you since you’ve been back. Looks like they’re willing to resort to trickery to make that happen.”

Jocelyn wouldn’t meet his gaze. She bowed her head as though whatever was on the ground that she was looking at was fascinating. “Why would they do that?”

He scratched the back of his head, his gaze never leaving her face. Whoever said the hardest words to say were “I’m sorry” wasn’t kidding. “They seem to think I owe you an apology.”