Authors: Laura Drewry
“When you’re ready,” she said to Jayne. “Not when he’s ready.”
Somehow during her night as Jayne’s personal bodyguard, Maya still managed to field calls from her soon-to-be ex. Apparently Will hadn’t gone home at lunch that day like he usually did, and by the time he finally got there, things were more than just a little soggy.
The previous voice messages he’d left for Maya stopped just shy of threatening, but Maya didn’t seem worried. And after watching her wield that golf club, Jayne was fairly confident Maya could hold her own against anyone, but still, it was worrisome.
Well, it was only worrisome until he called back the next morning as Jayne and Maya were getting ready to leave.
“Talk to my lawyer, asshole. Yeah? Well, screw you. I don’t want that piece of crap house anyway—it was a piece of crap when you bought it and it’s a bigger piece of crap now. What the hell do you care where I live?”
Jayne froze in midstep, but Maya just grinned.
“That golf club was mine. Yours are all Titleist, remember? The TV? Mine, too, dickhead … oh really? A gift for you? Who bought it? Oh, that’s right, I did! … No, I don’t recall ever giving it to you for Christmas. Nope, I think you’re wrong. Good, go ahead and prove it. Find a card that says ‘Merry Christmas, Dickhead, here’s a big-ass TV for you.’ What, you mean you don’t have one? Oh, that’s too bad because I have a Visa statement that shows I purchased it. That’s right. My personal Visa, not the joint one. Just me. And the computer, too. My stuff, my money. I can do whatever the hell I want with it. In fact, if memory serves, I’m pretty sure I have a statement here somewhere that shows I paid for—” Her grin widened. “Hello? Hello?”
She clicked the phone off and set it on the counter. “Hope he doesn’t take this out on those poor kids in class today.”
“Wow.” Jayne snorted with appreciation. “You are one scary chick, you know that?”
They were halfway down the stairs when the knocking started again.
“It can’t be Nick,” Jayne muttered. “They left this morning.”
“Let me.” Maya pushed by her and wedged the back door open a crack while Jayne stood rooted where she was, her back pressed against the handrail. “Oh, hi, Katie. Um, I don’t know. Hang on.”
The door closed and Maya stood at the bottom of the stairs. “Do you want to see her?”
“That depends.”
“Right.” Maya nodded and marched straight back to the door. “Do you have the baby with you? Come on in then.”
“Are you on your way out?” Katie asked.
Jayne could feel Katie staring at her, but she kept her eyes fixed on Sophia sleeping in her car seat. “I found Gran’s books in storage—”
“Yes, I heard.”
“So I need to haul them all over here today and get them out on the shelves.” She smiled as brightly as she could. “Opening day tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Maya said slowly. “I’ll just head down to the flower shop and see what I can keep myself busy with. Call me if you need me.”
The awkward silence was broken only by the sound of the baby sucking on her pacifier. After a few seconds of chewing her cheek hard enough to draw blood, Jayne sighed.
“Want some coffee?”
“Only if you’ve got some Baileys to put in it.” When Jayne frowned, Katie shrugged. “Carter says a little drink once in a while is fine so long as I’m not chuggin’ hard bar.”
Jayne couldn’t help but grin. That sounded like something Carter would say. She took the doctored coffees out to the living room, then ignored hers as she cuddled and fussed over Sophia.
“You have to do something, Jayne; just talk to him.”
“Oh no. No way.” She snorted softly so as not to scare the baby. “I’ve screwed things up quite enough already. The best thing I can do now is stay as far away from him and Lisa as I can. Besides, they should be thirty-five thousand feet up by now, so any talking will have to wait until they get back, and even then …”
“Get back?” Katie gaped. “Oh, for the love of God. When was the last time you talked to Nick?”
A fresh wave of shame, combined with the heat of her memories, washed over her. “Yesterday at the storage locker.”
“From what he told me, there wasn’t a whole lot of talking going on.” Katie’s laughter did nothing to ease Jayne’s shame.
“He told you?” Could this get any more humiliating?
“Besides the point. When was the last time you actually had a conversation before that?”
“I don’t know.” Jayne frowned, tried to think back. “He was here the other night, but we just ended up fighting.”
“You and Nick?” Katie’s mouth fell open. “What did you fight about?”
“About your brother being an ass.” She kissed an apology to the baby’s cheek. “He seems to think he can decide what I should and shouldn’t do with my own life, and he got all pissy because I told Brett I’d go out with him.”
“You what?” Why was Katie smirking? There was nothing funny about any of this. “Did he even mention Lisa?”
Had he? She replayed their conversation over in her head but couldn’t recall Lisa’s name coming up even once.
“No. He wanted to talk about something, but I’d had enough of his crap so I kicked him out.”
“Well, that explains it.” Her smirk had blown up into a full-on grin. “Almost makes me feel sorry for him.”
“Why would you feel sorry for him? He’s got no right to march in here and tell me what I can and cannot do. I mean, who the hell does he think he is?”
When Sophia started fussing, Jayne pulled her up to her shoulder and moved around the room, bouncing slowly and patting the baby’s back.
“Seriously, Jayne, if you’d answer your phone—or your door—you’d know all this by now.”
“Know what?”
“Nick and Lisa broke up.”
Jayne froze in midbounce, her hand a couple inches from Sophia’s back, her inhale stuck halfway down her throat. When she finally managed to force the question from her mouth, it was nothing more than a squeak.
“When?”
Katie was on her feet, escorting Jayne to the nearest couch cushion. “Better you sit than fall, especially when you’re holding my baby!”
Jayne sat, swallowed, and repeated. “When?”
“Can I take her from you?”
“Katie!”
“The night of your birthday,” she said, her voice more than a little anxious as she reached over and eased Sophia from Jayne’s arms. “He said it had been coming for a long time, he just didn’t know how to tell her.”
“So when he came over the other night … and Brett called … and then I …” Jayne covered her face with her hands and groaned. “Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because between finding out you’d made a date with his best friend, Maya’s crisis, and you kicking his sorry ass out of here, I guess he didn’t get a chance.”
“I did that. I kicked him out.”
“Yeah,” Katie laughed. “You did. He must’ve been some pissed.”
None of this was making sense. “But at the locker yesterday … why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because it’s hard to talk when he’s got his tongue down your throat.”
“Katie!” Jayne shook her head, hoping maybe the pieces would all fall into place and she’d be able to grasp everything, but there was one piece hanging out there, needing to be sorted. “If they broke up, why did they go away together?”
“They didn’t. Well, Lisa went, but Nick didn’t.”
“Yes he did. I was there.” The words came out in spurts, just as fast as she could form them. “Yesterday. At the locker. They were going; he said he’d pick her up.”
“To take her to the airport, sure.” Katie laughed quietly. “I’m telling you, if you’d call off your guard dog for two seconds …”
“Katie.”
“He drove her to the airport so she wouldn’t have to leave her car.” The grin on Katie’s face spread. “Said it was the least he could do for her.”
Jayne leaned over so her head hung between her knees. “Oh, Katie. I’m such an idiot.”
“I know. That’s why you make such a good pair.”
Even as she snorted out a choked laugh, Jayne remained where she was, hanging half upside down.
Every day, every night, for as long as she could remember, she’d held out a gossamer thread of hope that one day Nick Scott would believe all the bullshit he fed her; that she was beautiful, smart, and his very best friend in the whole world. Oh yes, she’d clung to that fragile hope right up to the minute he walked out of that church with Abby on his arm, both of them smiling, laughing, so obviously in love.
In that heart-shattering moment, Jayne knew it could never happen because Abby was the beautiful one, Abby was the smart one, and Abby was the one sharing his life. Was it possible for Jayne to be all of that for him now? In twenty-five years, the answer to that question had always been no. And it was too much to hope that that answer would ever change. But that was the thing about hope; it didn’t always make sense.
* * *
His dad’s car was in the driveway when Nick got back from the airport. After spending most of the night parked outside Jayne’s apartment, the rest of it moping at Katie’s, and then wasting more than three hours fighting his way through city traffic, the only thing Nick wanted was a nap and a beer. Or six.
Pop was in the backyard with the hood up on the riding mower when Nick walked through the house. One look at his old man’s face and Nick knew he hadn’t come over to fix a
perfectly good tractor.
“Hey, Pop. What’s going on?” He squeezed his shoulder as he walked by but Pop didn’t give him the usual greeting back. He didn’t even smile, and Pop always smiled. Said it was good for business.
“Why don’t you grab us a couple beers?”
Oh boy. This week just kept getting better.
Nick sighed, grabbed the beers out of the fridge, and took them back outside. He passed one to Pop, then climbed into the seat of the tractor and waited. Each second dragged, each swig of beer less enjoyable than the last.
Finally, Pop wiped his hands on a dirty rag. “So what are you planning to do?”
Nick shrugged and tried to force a grin. “Well, it’s been a helluva week, so I was kinda thinking about ordering a pizza and hanging out on the couch.”
“Don’t be a smart-ass.” He took a long swallow from his bottle, then stuffed the rag in his back pocket. “What are you going to do about Jaynie?”
“Come on, Pop,” he sighed. “I’m tired.”
“You’ll have lots of time to sleep when you’re dead. You only get so much time to be in love with Jaynie.”
Nick sputtered beer down his chin and had to mop it up with his sleeve. “You know?”
“ ’Course I know,” Pop grunted. “I’ve always known. It’s in the way you look at her, the way you do everything for her, and God knows you can’t keep your hands off her.”
Nick didn’t even try to deny it. Every time he thought of Jayne in that locker, her lips so soft, her skin so hot beneath his touch …
Damn it!
“Just go talk to her.”
“Don’t you think I’ve tried?”
“Then try again!” Pop shook his head, slowly at first, and then with a tiny grin. “She’s not perfect, son, and despite what your mother thinks, neither are you. There’s no question you can make that girl smile—and cry—but you need to either shit or get off the pot. It’s not fair to leave her hanging anymore.”
“You’re wrong there, Pop. She and Brett—” God, he couldn’t even say it out loud.
“Are nothing,” Pop finished. “He doesn’t mean anything to her.”
“Gimme a break,” Nick grumbled. “I was standing right there when Brett said he’d take her out tonight and she didn’t say no.”
Yup, he’d been there all right; front and center, going crazy for wanting her back in his arms, back in the corner of that stupid locker or anywhere else he could get her, and she couldn’t get away from him fast enough.
“What the hell did you expect her to do?” Pop raised his brow and sighed. “You should’ve stepped up and told Brett what was what instead of leaving her standing there the way you did.”
“Oh my God.” Nick slumped over the steering wheel, his head resting on his folded hands. “I’d have been happy to lay it out there, believe me! But the night before, your precious little Jaynie kicked me out of her store and told me I didn’t get to make decisions for her or tell her who she could or couldn’t date, so what was I supposed to do?”
“Jaynie did that?” The old man’s mouth twitched. “Good for her.”
“Glad that amuses you, Pop.”
“It’s about time she stood up for herself.” Pop’s grin vanished. “Tell me something. Did you ever tell her you loved her while you were busy groping her in that locker?”
“Pop!”
“Don’t ‘Pop’ me,” he said, flashing Nick an all–too-familiar warning glare. “You didn’t, did you? Did you at least tell her you and Lisa were over?”
“We were a little busy.” Bad idea to try and make light of it, but they were, in fact, a little busy at the time.
“All that girl knows is she’s never been good enough; not for Tilly and not for you, and now you’ve got her so twisted, she doesn’t know which end’s up.” He downed the rest of his beer and handed the bottle back to Nick. “You and Jaynie belong together. You always have.”
“Wha—?” Nick sat up, but Pop talked over him.
“Don’t get me wrong. Abby was a nice girl and if she was still with us, I’d take my opinion to the grave.” His eyes held steady on Nick, not blinking. “But you and Jaynie are different. You’ve always been different, and I’ve said right from the start that you and her fit.”
Yeah, Nick mused. They fit all right. Perfectly. And not just the way Pop meant. Nick could still feel her soft curves pressed against him, could still hear her throaty sighs when he touched his mouth to her, and could still see the heat in her eyes when he slipped his hand under
her shirt.
“How do I fix it if she won’t talk to me?”
“Keep trying. She’s probably just scared.”
“And I’m not?” He shoved off the tractor and slammed his fist against the steering wheel.
“I’m sure you are.” Pop smiled, a slow grin that inched its way across his face. “Hell, your mother still scares the crap out of me. But she’s worth it, son. You do whatever it takes to make her believe she’s the only one for you.”
“She is.” She always had been, he’d just been too stupid to see it. But now … now he was going to do whatever it took to get her, and first thing he needed to do was straighten a few things out with Brett.