Plain Jayne (7 page)

“Hello? Yeah … hi, Nick. Hang on. Whoa … No, I’m just … whoa … hang on … no, I’m fine.” She tucked her phone in the crook of her neck and tried to steady the box above her, but as she stepped back, her foot landed on something wiggly … something that squealed and squirmed.

Shrieking, Jayne jumped in the air then crashed backward, sending her phone skidding across the floor and bringing the big box down on top of her. Her tailbone hit the floor first, followed immediately by the back of her head.

Slicing pain ripped through Jayne’s skull as her teeth slammed together and her neck creaked like an old porch swing, but worse was the God-awful little girl scream she let loose as she fell.

“Jayne? Jayne!”

She shoved the box off her chest, pressed a cautious finger to her head (no blood, thankfully), and crawled over to the phone just as Nick let loose another bellow.

“I’m right here,” she muttered. “Stop yelling.”

“What the hell was that? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” The growing lump on the back of her head was proof of that lie, but it wasn’t like she’d broken anything. “What’s up?”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes,” she ground out. “Or I will be once you stop yelling in my ear.”

“Where are you?” It wasn’t so much a yell as it was just plain anger.

Using the wall for support, she got to her feet, scanned the floor for more movement, then leaned back against the wall, one hand wrapped around the phone and the other moving gently over the rest of her head, looking for any other damage.

“I’m at the store. Why?”

By the sounds of the growl that vibrated from his end, he was no doubt gripping his phone even harder than she was gripping hers. “Because it’s nine fifteen”

She pulled the phone away from her ear, glanced at the time, and cringed.
Oops
.

Fifteen minutes late and she still needed to clean up. The last thing she wanted to do now was go somewhere with loud music and hundreds of people; she’d be so much happier lying in bed with a bag of frozen peas on her head, but that would mean telling Nick she’d hurt herself and that would probably give him a massive coronary.

She could manage a few hours at the Stomp.

“Jayne? Are you there?” His voice was getting louder again.

“Sorry, I’m just … I lost track of time.” She took a slow step away from the wall, relieved to find she still had some semblance of balance. “Why don’t you go on ahead without me?”

“No.”

“But I’ll need to clean up first.”

And maybe have a CAT scan.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You sound weird. I’m coming to get you.”

“No, I’m leaving right now,” she said. “If I’m not at your house in five minutes, you can send out Search and Rescue, okay?”

Six and a half minutes later, she pulled into his driveway just as he stepped out the front door. Even with the tight jaw and cranky frown, Nick was a sight standing there in his faded jeans and button-down chambray shirt. His sleeves were rolled halfway to his elbows, which made it easy for him to tap his watch.

“You said five minutes.”

“Yes, Mother, I know.” Jayne tried not to roll her eyes. “I got stopped at all three lights—traffic was a mess.”

When he didn’t so much as smirk, she held her hands up and shrugged. “Are you going to stand out here and lecture me or can I go inside and shower?”

His jaw flexed, but after a second he stuffed his fists into his pockets and stepped aside to let her in.

“Give me ten minutes.” She scooted past him and made her way to her room hoping she could outrun the pounding in her head. No such luck. In fact, each step seemed to make it pound harder until she had to close her eyes to find her balance.

Good thing Nick the Boy Scout had a fully stocked medicine cabinet. “Advil, aspirin … oooh, what do we have here?”

She lifted the bottle and turned to read the prescription label. She’d never had anything stronger than extra strength Tylenol and that was after they yanked all four wisdom teeth. If memory served, those worked pretty well, so surely Tylenol 3s would make short work of her headache.

“One every four hours? How about one right now and we’ll take a few more with us, just
in case?”

She was only five minutes late, but Nick was tapping his fingers on the island when she finally emerged. Her head still pounded, and any quick movements were instantly regretted. Easy to fix; she’d just move slower. She’d be fine.

“Are we picking up …” Jayne hesitated. Linda or Lisa? And why the hell couldn’t she remember? It’s not as if it was a weird name or anything.

“No,” he muttered as they climbed into the truck. “I dropped her and Carter there already so they could save a table.”

Good thing, too, because the hockey-rink-turned-dance-hall was already packed when Jayne and Nick arrived. The Stetson-wearing DJ was set up in front of the penalty boxes blasting Charlie Daniels loud enough to wake the dead. A line of wooden tables marked off floor space for the bar and dozens of tables and chairs had been scattered along the sides of the boards, leaving plenty of room on the concrete floor for dancing. Decorations had, as usual, been kept to a minimum; hay bales stacked here and there, a giant blow-up beer can beside the bar, and a couple disco balls glinting light from the ceiling.

Yup, the Stomp was nothing if not sophisticated entertainment.

“Do you mind?” Jayne didn’t wait for Carter to answer, just lifted his beer and chugged almost a third of it.

“Didn’t think you liked beer, Jay.”

“Hate it, but it’s the Stomp, and when in Rome … Besides, I’ve got something stuck in my throat.” No one needed to know it was one of Nick’s Tylenols. The pill hadn’t looked so big inside the bottle, but given the way it had lodged itself in her esophagus, it must have doubled in size at the first hint of saliva.

One more sip. There, that was better. She forced a smile, and turned to Nick’s girlfriend, yelling to be heard over the music.

“It’s good to see you again.”
Whatever your name is
.

“You too.” She turned her soft green eyes to Nick. “We were getting worried.”

“She was. I wasn’t,” Carter corrected with a soft grunt. “It’s Jay, after all.”

“Sorry.” Nick kissed his girlfriend’s cheek, then thumbed toward the bar. “I’ll be back.”

“Want me to come with you?” LindaLisa was on her feet so fast, Jayne had to blink to refocus.

Nick just shook his head, made a motion toward her chair, then pointed between LindaLisa and Carter, who nodded. Scott family sign language; I’ll take care of the drinks, you take care of LindaLisa.

A second later, the crowd swallowed Nick, leaving the three of them at the table alone.

It wasn’t until LindaLisa sat down that Jayne realized what she’d seen. LindaLisa was wearing a dress. No, not just a dress. A
pink
dress, summery and sleeveless with wide straps over her shoulders and an oversized decorative button pinned to her neckline. It was cute and girly and completely out of place here.

Hell, she looked like she was going to an after-church picnic, not sitting in what could only be considered a makeshift honky-tonk, where at some point in the evening that pink dress was going to be covered in at least one person’s beer.

Nick should have warned her.

“So.” If Jayne looked straight at the other woman, maybe she wouldn’t have to remember her name. “Nick tells me you’re a party planner.”

“An event organizer, yes.”

“Here in town or do you work in the city?”

“Both.”

Jayne waited for her to offer more, but all she did was sip her wine and search the crowd for Nick.

“So you do things like weddings, birthdays, that kind of thing?” Having to yell was not helping Jayne’s head at all.

“Yes, as well as coordinating conferences, board meetings, whatever the client needs.”

“Nick says you get to travel, too.”

“Sometimes.”

Again, Jayne waited for more. Again there was nothing.
Wow
. Maybe Nick lied; maybe his girlfriend wasn’t so thrilled with Jayne staying at his house. Why else would she be so short with her answers?

Jayne shot Carter a questioning look, but he just grinned behind his bottle and shrugged. What the hell was that supposed to mean? And why was he smiling? This wasn’t funny. Jayne and Abby had never liked each other, and it had caused nothing but problems for Nick. So if Jayne was going to be living here again, and Nick was going to go out with Party Planning
Perfection, then Jayne was going to do everything she could to be friends with her.

Even if LindaLisa didn’t seem the least bit interested.

“I’m a copy editor.” Jayne leaned across the table to be sure LindaLisa heard her. “Or I was, anyway.”

“Yes, Nick told me.” At least this time she stopped craning her neck to find Nick and actually smiled at Jayne.

Jayne wiped her palms across her jeans and smiled back before continuing with her mindless chatter. It took awhile, but she finally managed to learn LindaLisa would be in Vancouver at a trade show for the next few days, she wasn’t a big fan of dogs (allergies), and this was her first Loggers Sports weekend.

Shocking.

Carter was of no help whatsoever, especially after a long-legged blonde walked by in shorts that would make Daisy Duke look like a nun. With a resigned sigh, Jayne sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. It wasn’t that LindaLisa was giving off hostile vibes or anything; she just didn’t seem the least bit interested in talking. The only thing she did seem interested in was Nick and how long it was taking him to get their drinks.

That made two of them.

Jayne all but grabbed the beer bottle out of Nick’s hand when he finally returned.

“Cheers.” She clinked bottles with Carter and Nick, but LindaLisa just leaned in and whispered something in Nick’s ear until he nodded.

“We’ll be back.”

Jayne tipped her bottle in response, then scooted her chair closer to Carter as Nick and LindaLisa wandered off. From this angle Jayne could watch the entire dance floor and not have to yell herself hoarse to talk.

“Okay, one more time,” she said. “Is it Linda or Lisa?”

“Lisa.”

“Right. Lisa.” Jayne expelled the breath she’d been holding, then took a long sip of beer. “Lisa Lisa Lisa. I don’t know why that’s so hard to remember.”

Carter snorted. “Because you’re an idiot. When he went out with Linda Williams in high school, you called her Lisa all the time.”

“I did?” Jayne frowned. All she remembered about Linda Williams was that she’d been
part of the “cool” crowd, which was why she and Jayne had never been friends. And now Nick was dating another girl who obviously didn’t run in the same crowds as Jayne. Another girl who, in fact, was nothing like Jayne at all.

And that in itself spoke volumes.

“So is … Lisa … pissed because we were late? Is that why she doesn’t want to talk to me?”

“Nah. She’s just kind of quiet.”

“Kind of?”
Jayne shook her head slowly, winced against the pounding, and took another sip of her drink to try and ease the pain.

“Dance with me.” Dickie Garner’s huge hand wrapped around Jayne’s arm and yanked her to her feet. A couple years older and a good hundred pounds heavier, Dickie towered over her by at least a foot, but that didn’t matter because he just lifted Jayne up, wrapped one arm around her back, took her hand in his free one, then waltzed her around the floor to whatever cowboy hick song the DJ was spinning.

“Lookin’ good, PJ.” His full red beard tickled her cheek as he nodded to the couple dancing past them. “How you been?”

As big as Dickie was, Nick would’ve clocked him for calling her that. It pissed him off enough when she called herself Plain Jayne, but when someone else did … look out.

“I’m good. You?” She had no idea what he said after that because it took all of her focus to keep her legs from swinging around and hitting the people around them.

By the time she returned to the table, Carter was nowhere to be seen, but his jacket hung on the back of his chair, so he couldn’t be far. Nick and his girlfriend were talking to a couple several tables down, so Jayne sat down and sipped her beer, slow and steady.

The combination of that first Tylenol and beer had managed to take the edge off her headache a little, but after being swung around like a rag doll for five minutes, the edge was back with a vengeance. She pulled out the Tic Tac container in her pocket, now home to three more Tylenols, and downed a second one.

Whoever thought mixing pain meds with alcohol was a bad idea had no idea what they were talking about. Neither one seemed to be helping her head at all.

For the next while, she wandered through the crowd, talking and laughing with people she hadn’t seen in years, including Regan Burke, who now owned a salon downtown.

“Are you living here again or just visiting?” Regan shrugged out of her date’s grasp, then held her palm up in front of his chest. “Just a minute.”

“I’m back. Gonna see if I can get Gran’s store reopened.”

“That’s great.” The guy was back, pulling on her arm. “Come by the salon next week, we’ll catch up.”

Jayne waved her off with a smile and was soon swallowed up by more people, some of whom insisted they’d been such good friends and it was such a shame they hadn’t kept in touch. Uh-huh. Terrible shame.

Brett Hale stood guard by the door, and as serious as he’d looked earlier, it was nothing compared to how he looked in full uniform with a 9mm strapped to his hip. They talked for a few minutes, but when Dickie tried to stumble past him, Brett quickly relieved him of his keys and helped him outside to a cab.

Every time Jayne caught sight of Carter, he was talking to a different girl, and whenever Nick’s gaze found hers, he’d raise his brow in his silent way of asking if she was okay. It was fun to see everyone, and she found if she didn’t move too fast, and if she wasn’t bumped too hard, she could almost control the pounding in her head.

“There’s my little Jaynie.”