Jade's Spirit (Blue Collar Boyfriends Book 2) Read Free

smiled, a perfect blend of innocence and mischief.
    The wind went out of her sails. It was too good to see her grandmother to stay annoyed at her for keeping a secret of this magnitude. Going to the bed, she took her grandmother’s outstretched hand. Nails painted a shimmery opal. It was nice to see her attending to the details she could while she was stuck in bed.
    “Why didn’t you tell me you needed help?” she asked, hitching a hip on the bed. The lip of the rail made it uncomfortable, but she needed to be close. She’d missed her grandmother. “I could have come up after the fall. It’s not like I had anything going on. Even if I did, family comes first. You didn’t have to check yourself into this place.” She looked around the room, noting the soft carpet, mauve-painted walls, crown molding, and flat-screen TV on the wall. She’d been expecting something sterile and institutional.
    “ This place has round-the-clock nursing staff, a whole wing for PT, three square meals a day that I don’t have to cook or clean up after, premium cable, and a shower with a seat in it. I don’t got any of that at the house.” She set her tablet on the bedside table and held out her free arm. “Now come give your crippled Grandma a hug.”
    She folded into her grandmother’s embrace, breathing in her familiar scent of pressed rose soap. “I missed you.”
    “You too, sweetie.” Her grandmother patted her on the back.
    Jade curled up beside her in the bed. “Can you afford all this?” All those amenities sounded great, but it had to cost a fortune.
    “Don’t you worry about that. Your Grandpa Earl knew how to invest. If the old dog could see me now, he’d be so jealous.” She chuckled and squeezed Jade’s knee before taking her hand again. Her grandmother had always been affectionate with her. She was like a one-stop oasis of love and acceptance. “Maybe if he’d stuck around, he’d be living the high life with me.”
    Jade studied their hands, one tan and smooth, the other pale and wrinkled. Why did good people have to get old? “How long you going to stay here?”
    “Long as I can, that’s how long. I like it here. And it’s not all intermediate care and assisted living, either. There are apartments across the parking lot for us independent folks. Right on a golf course and everything. Did I mention the Jacuzzi? Or Fred Beltlinker? Now that’s a hunk of man if I ever saw one. I don’t mind that he’s only got the one leg. He’s got everything else that counts, and some of his own teeth, too. Moved out of intermediate yesterday and stopped in this morning to tell me his son brought him a new floaty thing for the pool. Personally, I wouldn’t mind a midnight skinny dip with that man.”
    After scrubbing that image from her brain, Jade asked, “What about the house?” And what the heck would she do with herself now? She’d come up believing Grandma Nina was laid up at home, needing help to do every little thing. She’d made the trip with a purpose. Now she felt useless. Grandma Nina was better than fine. She was in senior heaven.
    “Figured the smart thing would be to look for a renter.” She waved her hand to indicate the room. “Help offset the cost of this place. It’s a good house. Paid for, too. Don’t want to sell it. It’ll be yours after I go, you know.”
    Jade sat up in her chair. “What?”
    “It’s going to you. In my will. Jillian’s getting the money. You’re getting the house. With your mom gone, rest her soul, it’s just you girls I’ve got left, and don’t think I’m going to blow everything on pampering myself. There’ll be plenty left for each of you to have a little something. Why, the house was worth a good three-hundred G s at the last appraisal. And property value only goes up. Land is where it’s at. Land and gold. You never go wrong with either.”
    Jade groaned. “I don’t care about the house, Grandma. I mean, why are you talking about dying? This is