She sat back and he saw her teeth clench before she hissed, “Now you’re making assumptions about me.”
“I’m not the one who sat there and calmly described my efforts to pimp out my best friend,” he returned.
“I didn’t pimp her out!” Jenny snapped.
“No?” Cash replied.
She was shifting in her chair, not with discomfort but with anger. “You’ve known her, what? Two weeks? You’ve no idea what she’s gone through, what she was going through. Completely no idea.”
“No, Jenny. I have every idea,” Cash responded evenly.
“You can’t, I’ve known her for decades. I lived through all of this with her!”
“It wasn’t you she threw her arms around tonight,” Cash retorted.
“No, Cash,” she snapped, “it was me who stood behind her when she sat by her mother’s bed, her head on her mother’s hand, when Mom Deux took her last breath. It was me Ben called when Abby lost it when her Dad died. It was me Abby called after the police left when they gave Abby the news that Ben had been crushed to death in his own f**king car. It was me who had to phone Abby when her grandmother died. And it’ll be me who picks up the pieces after you’re through with her.”
Cash sat back and took in a breath through his nose, trying to find patience then he said, “All right, Jenny, then you’ve earned the right to know that, now, it’s me who’s restoring her treasured family home. It’s me who’s going to sort her latest financial disaster. And, for the foreseeable future, it’ll be my house you come to if you want to see your friend. Further, it’ll be me who gives Abby the life she deserves and it’ll be me who makes certain she carries on with that life even if I’m not in it. To make certain I’m clear, there will be no pieces to pick up. I’ll take care of her while she’s in my life and I’ll be certain she’s taken care of when she’s no longer in it.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I haven’t gotten through to you at all, have I?”
“No, what’s gotten through is you’re intent on enabling the fear that’s keeping Abby from living her life,” Cash answered.
“Right,” she stood and glared down at him, “and I should encourage her to fall head over heels for some guy who’d pay for sex and who calmly sits there and tells me he’s going to keep doing it but in a nicer way, of course.”
Rage shot through him at her words but with some effort Cash remained seated and held her angry gaze. “Actually, what I’m telling you is that you shouldn’t stand in my way.”
“Is that a threat?” she snapped.
“No,” Cash replied truthfully and it wasn’t. Cash didn’t believe in threats. He felt strongly that you never threatened anything you had no intention of doing.
The truth was, if Jenny stood in his way with Abby, best friend or not, he’d show no remorse in getting what he wanted or in this case keeping what he had.
Jenny stared at him, her chest rising and falling quickly with her breathing.
Cash stared back coolly but he was still very angry.
Finally, she clipped, “Fine,” then she walked to the door but turned to him and declared, “I’d prefer Abby didn’t know we had this little chat.”
“I’ll not lie to Abby,” he told her, watched as she pulled her lips between her teeth and relented, “However, I also won’t tell her unless she asks.”
She nodded jerkily and put her hand on the doorknob and something Cash couldn’t control or explain made him ask, “Why don’t you want her to be happy?”
Jenny turned back to him, her face the picture of stunned, hurt surprise, and she whispered, “Of course I want her to be happy.”
Cash’s voice gentled when he assured her, “Jenny, I can make her happy.”
Jenny’s expression melted to one of thoughtful concern. “Yes, Cash. You already are” Cash felt her words hit him like strangely pleasant, velvet-gloved blows, but she went on. “But for how long? You want to give her the life she deserves? That isn’t a life filled with cashmere robes and diamond bracelets. That’s a life filled with happiness. If you take a part of her life, she might be missing out on someone who doesn’t start his relationship with her talking about when he’ll no longer be in it. And, that also means, however long you two last, somewhere along the line she has to start again.” Her voice pitched lower as her verbal blows became far less pleasant, in fact, they felt like jabbing knifepoints piercing his skin. “She’s had to start again enough, Cash. Don’t you think?”
With that, she opened the door and was gone.
And Cash stared at the door long after she’d gone, knowing and hating the knowledge that she was right.
Some time later, another knock came at the door and he tensed but this time it was Abby telling him their guests were leaving.
He’d walked to the front door with her to bid their guests goodnight. Jenny did well, giving him a cheek touch and a squeeze of the arm, indicating to those who might be watching that all was well between Abby’s best friend and her boyfriend.
He closed and locked the door and by the time he turned around, Abby had wandered down the hall. He followed her and found her in the spotless kitchen, getting a glass.
He stood at the end of the counter watching her fill the glass with water then she walked to him and grabbed her purse that was sitting on the counter by his hip.
“Abby,” he called, not certain what he meant to say, just knowing something needed to be said, but she was rooting through her purse.
“Mm?” she mumbled, pulling a small, thin, gold case out of her purse and opening it.
“Did you have a good night?” he asked softly and watched with rising unease as she selected four identical pills from the case, flipped the case shut and dropped it into her bag.
“Yes,” she answered distractedly and picked up her water.
“What’s that?” he enquired as her fingers closed around the pills.
“Ibuprofen,” she replied and started to lift her hand to her mouth but his own shot out and caught hers firmly at the wrist.
Her eyes flew to his and her brows drew together. “Cash.”
“The usual dose of ibuprofen is two tablets,” he told her.
“I know, but –”
His thumb moved along her palm, forcing her fist open. “Then take two.”