Plain Jayne (13 page)

“Since kindergarten.” The smile came easily and without warning as the mental image of Nick sitting on Jeff Goodsen floated across her brain.

“That’s a long time.”

Jayne nodded. Every event in her life, big, small, happy, or sad, had included Nick. Even after she moved across the country they stayed in contact. She couldn’t remember a day when she hadn’t thought of him at least a dozen times. Usually more. Okay, always more, but Lisa sure
as hell didn’t need to know that. No one did.

What Jayne felt for Nick was her business, and no one else’s.

“Obviously,” Lisa continued, her voice as soft as air, “I don’t know you, but I know Nick and he’s not a cheater. It’s unfortunate his wife didn’t trust him enough to see that, but I do, and I’m not the least bit worried that he’d do anything … inappropriate … with you, or any other woman, while he and I are together.”

There was a brief pause as Lisa took a breath and glanced down at her shoes. Jayne tried to swallow past the sudden dryness in her throat. Whatever was coming couldn’t make this any more awkward than it already was, could it?

“The other thing I know about Nick is that he’s not one to sit around and wait. When he sees something he wants, he goes after it.” She licked her glossed lips again. “Given how long you’ve been friends with him, if he had wanted you, he would have had you by now.”

Jayne tried to catch her jaw before it fell open, but it was too late, and it took a long couple of seconds before she could jerk it back into place. Awkward just shot to a whole new level.

“I-I’m sorry,” Lisa stammered, clutching her bag a little tighter. “That came out wrong. Of course Nick likes you; goodness, he probably even loves you, but you’re … you’re like a sister to him, that’s all I meant. If he felt anything else for you … anything more … he would have acted on it by now, don’t you think?”

Wow
. If Jayne hadn’t been leaning against the wall, she would have landed flat on her ass. Carter had said she was like his sister, and she’d thought that was sweet, but this … this wasn’t sweet at all. It felt like a piece of Jayne’s heart had just been sliced away.

Why was Lisa frowning at her like that? Oh, right, it was Jayne’s turn to speak.

“Yeah.”
Blink. Breathe. Nod
. “Of course.”

“You’re an important part of Nick’s life, and I like to think I am, too. So long as we both respect each other’s place with him, I’m sure we’ll all be fine.”

“Yes, right. Of course.” Push down the hurt; squash it down tight. There. Good. Now breathe. Good. And smile, be breezy.
Smile, damn it
. “I’m glad we got that sorted out. And while you’re here, I should probably apologize in advance for something. I have some kind of mental block about your name. Carter says I had the same problem years ago with a girl named Linda who I kept calling Lisa, so if I ever call you Linda, it’s nothing personal …”

“You already did.” Lisa’s expression smoothed into a small smile. “At the Stomp the other night.”

“I did?” Then it hit her. The Tylenols, the Coronas, the song. She closed her eyes, sighed, then squinted out a grimace. “Not one of my more stellar moments.”

“It’s fine.” With a brief lift of her bag, Lisa pointed toward the door. “I should get going. I have things to do before I meet Nick for lunch.”

“Right. Okay.” Jayne nodded and stepped aside to let her pass. “I appreciate you stopping by.”

A hint of a smile, then Lisa was gone, leaving Jayne to stare after her.
If he had wanted you, he would have had you by now
. Is that how Nick felt—that Jayne was like his sister? He’d never said so to Jayne, but where else would Lisa have gotten the idea?

Given the women Nick had been with over the years, there was no doubt Jayne was about as far from his type as a woman could get, but that didn’t mean she wanted him to think of her as his sister. God knew, the feelings she had for him were nothing like what a woman feels for her brother.

Loud music; that’s what she needed. Experience had taught her loud music could drown out anything her heart or mind might be trying to tell her. The fact that today she had to crank it up louder than usual didn’t mean anything; she was almost sure of it.

By the time she stopped for a break, the only room left to go through was the tiny bedroom. She folded the flaps in on the box she’d been going through, then stood for a second, stretching her back as far as she could and channeling her best Steven Tyler.

“That … uh … that … uh …” She bent forward, reaching for her toes, but not quite making it that far. “Dude looks like a lady—”

Nick stood in the doorway, a take-out bag in hand, grinning like a fool. “Nice.”

Flames scorched her neck and cheeks, but what could she do besides laugh? At least she wasn’t drumming this time. She hit the volume, laughed stupidly, and shrugged.

Still grinning, he led the way outside to his truck, handed her the bag, and lowered the tailgate for her to sit on. “Figured you probably hadn’t eaten. How’d it go with Lisa?”

“She didn’t tell you?”

Another shrug. “I want to hear your version.”

Her version? Did he mean the part where Lisa assured her everything was fine, or the part
where the same Lisa unknowingly reached inside Jayne’s chest and ripped her heart out with five perfectly manicured fingers?

No matter how hard she tried, Jayne couldn’t squash it down as far as before, so she reverted to what worked best for her; she smirked.

“For starters.” She swallowed a couple fries and shrugged. “She’s obviously under some misguided delusion that you’re the hallmark against which all men should be judged. Other than that, she seems really sweet.”

Nick didn’t appear to be the least bit amused. “What’d she say?”

Between bites of her burger, Jayne repeated the brief conversation she’d had with Lisa, almost verbatim, frowning at his frown.

“My sister?” His voice was quiet as he leaned his butt against the tailgate. “Why the hell would she say that?”

“I assumed she got it from you, how you explained …” she waved her hand between them. “This.”

Ooh, those were new eyes he pulled out. Not angry, not worried, but sure as hell not happy, either. Jayne had never seen this look before; almost like his eyes had frozen in their sockets.

“Forget about it.” She balled up her garbage and tossed it in the dumpster, then hopped off the tailgate. “How was lunch, anyway?”

He pulled open the door and held it as she ducked under his arm. “Good.”

If he averted his gaze any faster, his eyeballs would have spun completely around in their sockets.

“You didn’t make her eat fast food, did you? Oh, Nick, that’s just mean.”

“No.” He took his sweet time answering, and even when he did, he started off with a heavy sigh. “We went for sushi, okay?”

“You?”
she choked. “Sushi?”

“Yes, Jayne. I had sushi. I actually don’t mind the avocado rolls.” His mouth curved in one of those crooked little smiles of his. “But then I grabbed an extra burger when I picked up yours.”

“Must be love.” Jayne laughed and led the way upstairs.

“Love’s got nothing to do with it.”

“Oh, please,” she snorted. “Why else would
you
eat sushi—and don’t tell me it’s because she’s good in bed or I’ll throw up on you.”

Nick stopped at the top of the stairs and shrugged. “Because she likes it, and with all the time I’m spending here, I figured I owed her at least that much.”

“Oh.” Jayne’s smile dropped to her toes. “That’s actually kind of sweet.”

“Yeah,” he muttered as he lifted one of the waiting boxes. “Whatever. Let’s see if we can get the rest of this crap out of here today.”

The afternoon hummed by between songs, Nick’s footsteps up and down the stairs, and the regular buzzing of his phone. At least four times, he turned Jayne around when she headed to the stairs with a box.

“I’m fully capable of carrying a box down the stairs, Nick.” She was hot, tired, and getting crankier with every box she opened and then resealed.

“I know.” He eased the box out of her grip and set it on top of the To-Go pile. “But we’ll just be tripping on each other, and you need to be the one to go through the stuff.”

She huffed out a breath and scuffed back to the bathroom where the final dozen boxes waited. Extension cords, Duo-Tangs, old
TV Guides
, and a case of Lysol cleaner.

Finally something Jayne could use. She set the Lysol aside, then lifted one of the boxes and followed Nick down the stairs to the nearly full truck. He’d already taken a full load down to the city, and now he’d have to do it again. Up and down they went five more times.

When they’d set those boxes in the truck, Nick took her hand and walked her up the stairs for the last two boxes. Without a word, they picked them up, stored them on the passenger side of the truck, then stood at the bottom of the stairs staring into the empty space.

“We did it,” Nick murmured. “With twelve hours to spare.”

Jayne laughed as she pulled off her gear, but it sounded forced even to her own ears. All that stuff and not a single book, not a thing to hint that perhaps Gran had a change of heart, that maybe, just maybe, she thought of Jayne as something more than just an unwanted bastard child.

Instead, all Jayne found were walls in desperate need of repair, loose railings, plumbing that leaked, and half a dozen light fixtures that didn’t work.

As if that wasn’t depressing enough, she had a bookstore without any books.

“Hey.” Nick wrapped an arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “You okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Liar.”

Without the strength to do anything else, she leaned her head against his shoulder and sighed. “Yeah.”

“Come on, I’ll buy you dinner.” Neither one of them moved.

“Nick?”

“Hmm?”

“I’d rather just go home … I mean, to your house.”

“Home it is.” He kissed the top of her head and squeezed a little tighter. “I’ll even cook.”

As Jayne locked up, Nick moved to the back of his truck, his phone pressed against his ear. She couldn’t hear what he was saying, and by the look on his face when he came back, it was probably just as well.

Any other time, she would have sent him off to whoever was on the other end of that call, and she was guessing it was Lisa. But tonight … tonight she didn’t care. It was selfish and unfair, and a huge part of her knew she’d regret it, but sitting in Nick’s kitchen eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with him was exactly what she needed.

She guzzled the last of her milk, wiped her mouth with a napkin, and pushed her plate back. “That was, without question, the best dinner I’ve had in a very long time.”

“Hey, I’m the full package, sweetheart.” Nick’s eyes warmed to pools of gold from across the table. “I cook, I hammer, and I make the best Cosmo this side of the Rockies. What more could a girl want?”

“I can’t imagine.” Jayne started to grin back at him, then let it fall when his phone vibrated on the table beside him. She gathered their dishes and mussed his hair with her hand as she walked by. “Tell her I’m sorry I ruined your plans tonight.”

She closed her bedroom door on her lie as Nick’s sigh floated after her.

“Hey, Lisa.”

She should be happy Hague gave them the thumbs-up, should be doing a little happy dance in the empty space they’d worked so hard to clear. Instead, Jayne slid down the wall and stared blindly at the list he’d handed her. Three pages of blue checkmarks and scribbled notes, and two weeks to fix everything.

Two weeks.

“Let’s see it.” Sitting beside her, Nick held his hand out, fingers wiggling, but Jayne didn’t move. “Come on, give it over.”

There was no choice; she had to accept his help or she’d never make Hague’s deadline. Hell, even with Nick’s help, she probably wouldn’t make it. There was too much to do. With a sigh, she held the pages up to him, then let her head fall back against the wall as he went over the pages one by one.

“It’s not good,” he said, giving her one of his half grins. “But it’d be a hell of a lot easier if you knew a good contractor.”

“There’s this one guy I know,” she chuckled wearily. “But his cousin tells me he’s the biggest idiot ever.”

“An idiot, sure.” He shrugged. “But I’m told he knows his way around a construction site and—this is where it gets good—he’ll work for food.”

“Probably cheaper to pay him outright.”

“Probably.” Nick grinned, but when he spoke again, he was dead serious. “It’s a lot of work, Jayne, but we can do it.”

“In two weeks?”

“Two and a half. He gave us a few extra days, remember, and yes. But first we need to agree on a couple things.” He crouched in front of her, rolled the sheets into tubes, and tapped them against her bent knee. “Number one, we’re not going to fight over cost. We’ll get it done
and settle up at the end.”

She started to protest, but Nick talked right over her.

“Number two, stop worrying about how much time this is going to take away from Lisa and me. It’s a couple weeks; we’ll be fine.”

Was it her imagination or did he hesitate there?

“So come on.” He helped her to her feet and started for the door. “I’ll make a copy of this list, and then we’ll sit down and prioritize everything, sort out what you can do on your own, and figure out what and who we’ll need for the rest.”

He was halfway to his truck before he realized she’d stopped walking.

“What?”

Jayne inhaled slowly, then smiled. How could she not when he got all serious and bossy like this?

“Thank you.”

She’d seen him grin like that thousands of times before, and every time she’d managed to quash the tingle it left in its wake, but this time … whew … maybe she was just too tired to try hard enough.

*  *  *

Nick left the bouquet—a bundle of wild pinky purple something-or-others with all sorts of green leafy things—on the end of Jayne’s bed, then went to shower off the day’s grime. He’d just pulled on clean jeans when he heard her come through the front door, and was in the middle of lathering his face when she came roaring through the living room to his side of the house.