Chapter Fifteen
T he encounter with Wes in the early hours haunted Jenna the rest of the day as she prepped for the book group meeting.
She had been looking forward to the meeting with her friends all week, but now she wasn’t certain she would be able to get through it.
She was exhausted, for one thing, after returning to her house to toss and turn again in her bed until she had finally fallen into a fitful sleep.
She also wasn’t in a cheerful mood. She had snapped at Addie when she complained about having to do her chores, then had to apologize. She explained that she was having a cranky morning and shouldn’t have snapped...but that Addie still had to do her chores.
The rest of the day was busy as she cleaned her apartment, went to the grocery store and had Addie help her make cookies.
She didn’t see Wes all day and tried to tell herself she was relieved, not disappointed.
Finally, an hour before the party, as she was covering the tables with linen cloths, she spotted his pickup truck pulling into its usual parking spot.
He climbed out, paused a moment as if trying to make up his mind, then approached her.
“Hi.”
“Hello.” She tried a smile, even as she felt a sharp pang of longing. “Did Brielle go back to her mom’s?”
He nodded. “Yes. I took her there this afternoon. We went to a matinee this morning of a movie she’s been wanting to see. Sort of our last hurrah together.”
“It must have been tough to say goodbye.”
“I won’t say dropping her off with her mother becomes any easier with practice. But I’m slowly beginning to accept that I can see her anytime I want and she’ll be here again in a week, not every few months when Lacey could arrange a prison visit.”
“You’re a good father, Wes.”
He made a face as if he disagreed but didn’t argue with her. “What time does your party start?”
She glanced at her watch. “Another hour. People should be arriving around seven. I’ve got a babysitter coming for Addie in about a half hour. Rosa’s niece Bella is great with her and Rosa’s stepson is coming to play, too.”
He glanced out to sea, where she could see a rim of dark clouds on the horizon. “Forecasters are saying the storm should hold off until later. Maybe ten or eleven.”
“We should be done by then.”
“Good to know. I’ll be sure to stay out of your way. I might take my bike for a drive down the coast.”
She knew that was one of his outlets when he was particularly restless. Was she the cause of his current tumult? She didn’t like thinking it.
“You don’t have to stay away. In fact, you’re welcome to join us at book group, if you’d like.”
“I don’t think I would quite fit in with your crowd.”
She thought of her group, mostly women but a few men, too. “You might. We’re open to everyone willing to read the featured book and offer insight.”
He gestured to the tables and chairs. “Can I help you set things up? It can’t be comfortable, with your injured hand.”
She didn’t want to feel beholden to him for even one more thing, especially with these currents seething between them. But she had to admit she had been struggling all day to work around her stupid bandage.
“Would you mind carrying out some of the folding chairs from the shed? That would be very helpful.”
“No problem. How many?”
“All of them. I think there are about a dozen there. That should give us enough, with the furniture you fixed last night.”
As soon as she said the words, conjuring up memories that hadn’t been far from her mind all day, her face felt hot. He gazed at her for a long moment, and she knew he was remembering their intense embrace as well.
“Sure. No problem.”
He headed toward the shed at the bottom of the garden and returned with three chairs in each hand. He set them up, then returned to the shed for the rest, finishing in about two minutes when the job would have taken her at least ten.
He set them up where she indicated, at the folding tables she had already brought out with Addie’s help.
“They’re pretty dusty. I gather they haven’t been used much lately.”
She nodded. “When Rosa still lived here, she liked to have gatherings, but I’m afraid I’m not as social as she is. The Andersons do often have friends over to grill, but a few at a time, not enough that would require them to pull out the extra chairs.”
“I can clean them off for you.”
She started to protest that he didn’t need to do that, then swallowed her words. She was running out of time and still needed to bring down a few more items for the party from her apartment. This was also a good test as to whether they could set aside their feelings and be friendly enough to both stay here at the house.
“I’ve got a few cleaning supplies stored under the serving table there.”
He nodded and went to work without another word. For some reason, his simple thoughtfulness made her eyes burn with tears.
Wes was a good man. Any woman smart enough to build a relationship with him should consider herself very lucky.
She wanted to be that woman, suddenly, with a fierce intensity that brought a lump to her throat.
She swallowed it down quickly. “I’ve got to run upstairs for a few more things. Thank you so much for your help. I’ll save you some cookies.”
“This is the kind of thing friends do for each other, right?”
Was that a shadow of bitterness in his voice? She couldn’t quite tell...and her daughter’s excited shriek distracted her from trying to figure it out.
“Hi, Logan! You’re here!”
She looked up to see Rosa walking toward them, along with Bella and Rosa’s stepson, Logan, who had become fast friends with Addie when he and his father temporarily lived in Brambleberry House after a fire at their own home.
“Hi, Addie.” Logan beamed at her. “Where’s your dog? I can’t wait to meet him! I wanted to bring Hank, but my dad said he should stay home since a book party might not be the best time to see if he and your new puppy get along.”
“Theo likes everybody,” Addie said. “Don’t you, buddy?”
In answer, their new puppy licked at Logan, who giggled.
Rosa gave Wes a curious look as he continued wiping off the chairs. “I do hope you’re joining us for book group.”
“Not me. Sorry. I don’t even know what book you’re reading.”
She told him and he shook his head. “Haven’t read that one, thought I did read the author’s last book.”
“You should come next month,” she said with a warm smile.
“By then, we’ll have a new baby.” Wyatt’s teenage niece Bella beamed at Rosa.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay with these three?” Jenna asked, pointing to the children and the dog, who were chasing each other around the part of the yard not currently set up with tables.
“We’ll be great,” Bella answered. “We’ll go for a long walk on the beach and build sandcastles and tire everybody out, then come back and watch a movie. I can’t wait to hang with them.”
Bella was a sweet girl who looked enough like Rosa to be her sister.
Another car pulled in behind Rosa’s. Kim, Jenna saw, with the food.
She hurried over to help carry the catering trays to the tables. By the time she returned to the pergola, Wes had disappeared.
“It was nice of Wes to help you set up for the party,” Rosa said sometime later, after the book club gathering was in full swing.
Jenna knew she shouldn’t feel this little pang in her heart just at the mention of his name. “Yes. He’s been very kind.”
“I wish he had stayed for the book group. He could have made more friends.”
“Too bad he didn’t,” Kim said. “Maybe we can talk him into helping us move some tables or something later. All those muscles. Mmm. ”
Jenna fought down a little spurt of annoyance with her friend, which she knew was completely unreasonable. Kim was extremely happily married and was only teasing about Wes. That didn’t stop Jenna from feeling protective of him.
She had no right to feel that way. He wasn’t hers. She had made sure of that.
She forced a smile. “I think Wes is making himself scarce on purpose tonight. He said doesn’t want to get in the way of our fun.”
“Are you talking about Wes Calhoun? I heard from Lacey that her ex was living here.”
Jenna looked over at Erin Lawson, a yoga instructor who always recommended motivational self-improvement books when it was her turn to host book group.
“Yes. He lives in the third-floor apartment,” Jenna said, her tone guarded. “Do you know him?”
“Not personally, no.” Erin looked at the house. “My friend Jewel is friends with Lacey and she told her about him. I just think you’re really brave to live in this big house alone with an ex-con, especially with the Andersons still out of town.”
Jenna frowned. “Wes is an excellent neighbor. And he was cleared of all charges.”
Erin shrugged. “Innocent or not. Prison changes people. My sister’s husband went away for a white-collar thing. He spent a year inside and came out a completely different man. And not in a good way, either. I just don’t know if I could do it. I admire you.”
Jenna had to bite down a sharp retort. First, she was the least brave woman she knew. Second, she had absolutely no reason to be afraid of Wes.
He would never hurt her. He would rather go back to prison than do that. She suddenly knew that with absolute conviction.
How horrible for him, that some people would always judge him for circumstances completely beyond his control.
She opened her mouth to say as much, but Erin had turned away to talk to someone else and the conversation turned away from Wes, much to her relief.
She tried to focus on the conversation and her friends instead of Wes, though she noted she was not the only woman who watched him when he came out of the house sometime later, started up his bike and rode off into the evening sun.