FIVE
BUT OF COURSE, Kade knew, those happy memories of renovation disaster had all happened before everything went south. After Jessica had discovered she was pregnant the first time, renovation had slammed to a halt.
Chemicals. Dust. The possibility of stirring up mouse poo.
Jessica took a sip of the water, watching him over the rim. “We need to make a decision about the house.”
“You can have it,” he said. “I don’t want it.”
“I don’t want you to give me a house, Kade,” she said with irritating patience, as if she was explaining the multiplication tables to a third grader. “I actually don’t want this house. I’d like to get my half out of it and move on.”
She didn’t want the house with the fireplace that didn’t work and laughter captured in the paint dribbles? She’d always loved this house, despite its many flaws.
There was something more going on that she was not telling him. He always knew. She was terrible at keeping secrets.
“I’ll just sign over my half to you,” he repeated.
“I don’t want you to give it to me.” Now she sounded mad. This was what their last weeks and months together had been like. There was always a minefield to be crossed between them. No matter what you said, it was wrong; the seeds were there for a bitter battle.
“That’s ridiculous. Who says no to being given a house?”
“Okay, then. I’ll give it to you.”
“Why are you being so difficult?”
He could not believe the words had come out of his mouth. Their favorite line from Beauty and the Beast. In the early days, one of them had always broken the fury of an argument by using it.
For a moment, something suspiciously like tears shone behind her eyes, but then the moment was gone, and her mouth was pressed together in that stubborn “there is no talking to her now” expression.
“Can’t we even get divorced normally?” she asked a little wearily, sinking back in her chair and closing her eyes.
“What does that mean?” he asked, but was sorry the minute the words were out of his mouth.
Of course, what it meant was that they hadn’t been able to make a baby normally.
But thankfully, Jessica did not go there. “Normal—we’re supposed to fight over the assets, not be trying to give them to each other.”
“Oh, forgive me,” he said sarcastically. “I haven’t read the rule book on divorce. This is my first one.”
Then he realized she was way too pale, and that she wasn’t up for this. “You’re not feeling very good, are you?”
“No,” she admitted.
“We need to talk about this another time.”
“Why do you always get to decide what we need?”
That stung, but he wasn’t going to get drawn into an argument. “Look, you’ve had a tough morning, and you are currently under the influence of some pretty potent painkillers.”
She sighed.
“You should probably avoid major decisions for forty-eight hours.”
“I’m perfectly capable of making some decisions.”
“There is ample evidence you aren’t thinking right. You’ve just refused the offer of a house.”
“Because I am not going to be your charity case! I have my pride, Kade. We’ll sell it. You take half. I take half.”
He shrugged, and glanced around. “Have you done any of the repairs that needed doing?”
Her mutinous expression said more than she wanted it to.
“Nothing is fixed,” he guessed softly. “You’re still jiggling the toilet handle and putting a bucket under the leak in the spare bedroom ceiling. You’re still getting slivers in your feet from the floor you refuse to rip out, even though it was going to cost more to refurbish it than it would to put in a new one.”
“That’s precisely why I need to sell it,” she said reasonably. “It’s not a suitable house for a woman on her own.”
Again, he heard something Jessica was not telling him.
“We’ll talk about selling the house,” he promised. “We’ll probably get more for it if we do some fixes.”
He noted his easy use of the word we, and backtracked rapidly. “How about if I come back later in the week? I’ll have a quick look through the house and make a list of what absolutely has to be done, and then I’ll hire a handyman to do it. My assistant is actually tracking one down to fix the door on your shop, so we’ll see how he does there.”
“I think the real estate agent can do the list of what needs to be done.”
She’d already talked to a real estate agent. He shrugged as if he didn’t feel smacked up the side of the head by her determination to rid herself of this reminder of all things them.
“Your real estate agent wants to make money off you. He is not necessarily a good choice as an adviser.”
“And you are?”
He deserved that, he supposed.
“Okay. Do it your way,” Jessica said. “I’ll pay half for the handyman. Do you think you could come in fairly quickly and make your list? Maybe tomorrow while I’m at work?”
He didn’t tell her he doubted she would be going back to work tomorrow. Her face was pale with exhaustion and she was slumped in her chair. No matter what she said, now was not the time for this discussion.
“I’m going to put you to bed,” Kade said. “You’re obviously done for today. We can talk about the house later.” He noticed he carefully avoided the word divorce.
“I am exhausted,” she admitted. “I do need to go to bed. However, you are not putting me to bed.” She folded her one arm up over her sling, but winced at the unexpected hardness of the cast hitting her in the chest.
“I doubt if you can even get your clothes off on your own.”
She contemplated that, looked down at her arm in the sling. He knew at that moment, the reality of the next four weeks was sinking in. In her mind, she was trying to think how she was going to accomplish the simple task of getting her clothes off and getting into pajamas.
“I’ll go to bed in my clothes,” she announced.
“Eventually,” he pointed out, “you’re going to have to figure out how to get out of them. You’re going to be in that cast for how long?”
“A month,” she said, horror in her features as her new reality dawned on her.
“I’ll just help you this first time.”
“You are not helping me get undressed,” she said, shocked.
He felt a little shock himself at the picture in his mind of that very shirt sliding off the slenderness of her shoulders. He blinked at the old stirring of pure fire he felt for Jessica. She was disabled, for God’s sake.
It took enormous strength to wrestle down the yearning the thought of touching her created in him, to force his voice to be patient and practical.
“Okay,” Kade said slowly, “so you don’t want me to help you get undressed, even though I’ve done it dozens of times before. What do you propose?”
Her face turned fiery with her blush. She glared at him, but then stared at her sleeve, bunched up above the cast, and the reality of trying to get the shirt off over the rather major obstacle of her cast-encased arm seemed