Chapter 8 – Jensen
Chapter Eight
Jensen
Kenzie spent the rest of the day meeting half the town of Garnet Bend here in my garage. I lost count of how many times she told her story as each of the Resting Warrior guys came by.
She needed to know all of them so she wouldn’t get spooked if there was a lookout in front of her apartment. Charlie helped supervise the process, and by midafternoon, we had a schedule for looking after her.
The guys’ wives and girlfriends came by too, introducing themselves to Kenzie and just letting her know she wasn’t alone. And God knew all of them had lived through things that allowed them to speak credibly about facing danger.
They understood what it was to live with crippling fear and wanted to make sure Kenzie knew they were available to talk to if she needed it.
I wasn’t sure there was anywhere else on the planet where a group of women would have no problem with their men helping safeguard another beautiful woman.
The Resting Warrior women were completely secure in the love of their men .
“Ready for me to take you home?” I asked as I walked into the office after closing up the bays.
Kenzie was sitting in a chair, looking a little ragged. “I know I shouldn’t feel this exhausted since I didn’t do anything all day.”
“I don’t know about that. Retelling your story over and over takes a lot out of you.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “You sound like you know that from firsthand experience.”
I shrugged. “A little from when I was a kid. My parents were addicts, so I constantly had to explain what had happened to me to different social workers once they lost custody of me.”
Her brown eyes widened. “I’m so sorry.”
“It was a long time ago.” And definitely wasn’t something I wanted to talk about right now. “We didn’t get much lunch. Want to get some food with me before you go back to your apartment?”
“Um.”
Shit. I was pushing too far.
“Sure, but I didn’t bring my wallet.”
That, I could handle. “How about it’s my treat for having your car and leaving you stranded for so long.”
She held up her hand. “You don’t have to do that. I understand why you have it.”
I nodded. “I know you do, but I’d still like to treat you. Call it a welcome to town, if you’d rather.”
“I feel like I’ve gotten a very warm welcome here today, but I’ll take you up on it. I’m starving.”
Draper’s Tavern, the local bar and grill, would be perfect for this occasion. It was a favorite in town and usually stayed busy, especially this time of the year when it was getting colder and people wanted a place to socialize inside.
There’d be music and conversations and games going on in the background, so we wouldn’t have to sit and eat in silence, and I wouldn’t have to struggle to find something to talk about.
It was part of why I didn’t date very much. Conversation wasn’t my thing.
I walked her out to my truck and drove the short way across town. I found a parking spot right near the front door, and I guided her inside. It wasn’t too crowded, and Clive, the owner, saw me right away.
“Jensen! I didn’t see a to-go order come in for you.” He smiled at us as we walked in.
“No to-go for me today. I’m eating in with my friend.”
Clive’s eyes widened. “Okay, then. Right this way.”
Clive seated us at a table, then Patti, his girlfriend, came up behind him at the bar and waved in our direction. She also owned one of the hair salons in town, but she helped Clive out when she wasn’t busy with customers of her own.
“Hey, Jensen. And a date!” She beamed at Kenzie.
Damn it, Patti. The woman widened her eyes, gave a sheepish grin at my scowl, and retreated to the kitchen.
“Sorry about that,” I said to Kenzie.
“No problem. I take it you don’t usually eat here?” She tilted her head, waiting for my answer.
I studied the menu I pretty much already knew by heart. “I don’t like to eat in restaurants. I prefer to take food home so I don’t have to make conversation.”
She looked like she was trying to hold back a smile. “I have noticed you’re not much of a conversationalist.”
“The only time I tend to eat with other people is during family night at the ranch. We all get together and catch up, rib one another, eat good food.”
I looked up to find her studying me. “That actually sounds amazing.”
“There are parts of small-town life that are pretty amazing, City. And the food here’s great, even if I normally do takeout.”
“Thank you for making an exception for me.” She bit into her bottom lip while she looked at the menu, and I had to swallow back a groan at the sight. What I wouldn’t give to be the one doing the biting…and licking and sucking.
Fuck . Now, I had another problem.
“I’m happy to be here. Thank you for making me seem more personable to the rest of the town, rather than the grumpy mechanic.”
She smiled. “We’ll make a people person out of you yet.”
I doubted that, but I decided not to argue.
We turned back to our menus until Patti came over a few minutes later to take our orders—thankfully without mentioning my normal lack of dates.
Kenzie wasn’t shy when it came to food, which I absolutely loved. She ordered a burger with everything on it, a side of fries, coleslaw, and a chocolate milkshake.
I was glad that she had a hearty appetite. Maybe she’d meant it, that she let those comments slide and not bother her when trolls made rude remarks about her looks and her weight.
Kenzie had the kind of curves a man like me wanted to hold on to and?—
I slapped my menu down, wishing I could turn off my not-quite-clean thoughts just as quickly. “I’ll have the same.”
Patti wrote down our orders. “Coming right up. Glad to have you hanging out here for a change, Jensen.”
I nodded then turned back to Kenzie, to find her watching me with one eyebrow raised. “Really, you don’t eat in here very often?”
“Nah. By the time I’m done working for the day, I’ve generally had my fill of people.”
“Don’t you work mostly with cars or wood?”
I shrugged one shoulder. “Yeah, but the one or two people I talk to for a total of five minutes really does this introvert in.”
She laughed, and damned if it wasn’t the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard.
“Have you lived here your whole life?”
“I was actually raised in Iowa.”
“How’d you end up in Montana?”
I didn’t like to talk about myself, but after the number of times she’d had to tell her own hard story today, I could force myself to tell mine once. “Lucas and I met when we were kids. I didn’t have the best of childhoods, so I was in the foster care system for a while.”
Her brown eyes clouded over. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Addict parents. They lost custody of me when I was ten, which was honestly a relief, seeing how they’d done a shitty job providing for me up to that point anyway.” That was putting it mildly, but no need to spoil our appetites before the food even got here. “I bounced around a few foster homes, then finally was placed with a permanent family when I was fifteen. The Everetts—Lucas—lived next door. He invited me to play basketball the day I moved in, and we were thick as thieves from that point on.”
Patti came back with our milkshakes. I was glad for a little bit of a reprieve as we both enjoyed those first icy sips.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it. I totally get that.”
I shrugged. “Lucas has been a wonderful friend to me. He joined the Navy and became a SEAL. I was just a grunt in the Army for a few years, no active combat or anything. Then I went into security for a while—but it was just a job, not something I saw as a longtime career. I came out to visit a few years ago and really respected what Lucas and the guys had built here.”
“The respect you guys have for one another is evident in everything. Even in how you harass and joke with one another.”
I grinned. “Yeah, that’s bro love-talk—sparring with one another and calling one another dickwads. ”
She laughed, and once again, the pure sound of it struck me. Damned if I didn’t want to hear it as much as possible.
“The garage came up for sale about a year ago, and I bought it. Wanted to be close by here and help out whenever I can.”
I never dreamed that would involve a situation like safeguarding Kenzie, but now that I thought about it, that was exactly the sort of thing I’d wanted to be around for.
“You love it here.” She took another sip of her milkshake, and I had to force myself not to stare at her lips sucking on the straw. “Despite doing takeout all the time, you love it here.”
“I do. I don’t think I’ll ever want to live anywhere else.”
She looked around again. “I was pretty resentful of having to come to Garnet Bend a few days ago when I first arrived, but it’s definitely growing on me. How could it not, when you guys are going way above and beyond to help me out? That’s more than law enforcement did for me back in my hometown.”
“I’m glad we can help.”
A few minutes later, Patti and Clive both walked our plates out to us. They chatted a minute with Kenzie, who didn’t mind a bit. Unlike me, she was definitely a people person. Finally, they left, and we dug into our food.
“Do you miss Denver?” I asked after a bite of my hamburger.
“Mostly, I just miss being busy. It’s hard when you lose your work, your friends, and all your activities at one time. Especially for someone like me who doesn’t do great at sitting around doing nothing.”
“How is your business surviving without you?”
She let out a sigh. “I have a team, so they’re able to handle things, especially face-to-face interactions. The stalker has seemed to target just me, not my actual business, so that works in my favor, at least.”
I made a mental note to let Jude know about that for when he started digging into the stalker electronically. Whatever it was, was personal solely to Kenzie.
“It’s good that your overall business isn’t suffering.”
She smeared a fry through ketchup. “Honestly, I can do a lot of my work remotely. I just don’t like to be out of the loop. And right now, I’m bored. I’ve taught my team too well, and now they don’t need me. I even miss the social media stuff, where I posted about my seminars and answered questions. But Detective Watters said that’s definitely a big no.”
“You like social media? I absolutely hate it.”
She laughed through another bite of food. “As a tool for promotion and communication? Absolutely.”
I ate a few more bites of my own meal while pondering a possible solution that might help both of us. I was so lost in my own thoughts—and hell, so used to being in only my own company—that I didn’t realize I’d been silent for too long.
“What’s going on in that head of yours?”
I looked up from my food to find Kenzie almost finished with hers. I appreciated that she hadn’t tried to force conversation out of me.
“I was wondering if maybe you’d like a temporary job.”
She blinked rapidly at me. “A job?”
“Susanna and I have been wanting to promote my woodworking, but both of us are shit at social media and have no interest in doing it. I was wondering if while you’re in Garnet Bend and can’t do your own work, you’d be interested in helping me start this side of mine.”
She sat up straighter in her chair, her eyes darting around like she was thinking hard. “Really?”
“I sort of think it would help us both out. Me getting my business off the ground, and you having something to do. Plus, you could do it at the garage, so that means less manpower needed to watch your apartment. ”
“I’ve already got cabin fever just from being stuck there for a couple days.” She winced. “Do you think Charlie will approve of this?”
“He said someone should be with you at all times. And as long as you’re not on your own social media, I don’t think there’s any harm. But we’ll run it by him.”
Her eyes lit up. “Oh, I love this idea!”
I couldn’t stop my own smile as I finished the last bite of my burger. “I will pay you. You don’t have to worry about that.”
“How about a small percentage of sales? That way, it’s nothing out of your pocket, plus more incentive for me to do my best work.”
“Somehow I don’t think you ever do anything less than your best work.”
She flushed a little and looked up at me shyly. “I try to give my best at everything. I do think that’s part of the reason my seminars are so successful.”
“Because people recognize your authenticity,” I finished for her. I wasn’t surprised.
“I was going to say my enthusiasm. But hopefully I’m authentic too.”
“You’re both. And now I get your skills to help me launch my passion project.”
We talked details as we finished dinner, and I paid for our meals. I got her out to my truck and drove her the short distance to her apartment.
“You don’t need to come up,” she started. “Stay in the warm truck. I’m sure?—”
I looked over at her with one eyebrow raised. “Do you know how many times I heard you tell that story where you came home by yourself and found blood on your walls? We are not taking a chance on something like that happening.”
She let out a little sigh of relief. “Okay. If you don’t mind, it would be great if you came up. I try not to get in my own head, but I have to admit, opening a front door is still a little traumatic for me. I’m always afraid of what I might find. That’s ridiculous, I know.”
“Not ridiculous at all. Back when I lived with my bio parents, I never knew what state they’d be in when I got home from school. It was always stressful. It takes a while to move past that.”
I jumped out of the truck and rushed around so I could open her door for her. I helped her down—glad she was wearing boots today instead of her high heels—and we made our way up to her apartment.
It didn’t take long for me to establish that everything was clear inside. The unit wasn’t big enough to have many places for someone to hide.
I turned to Kenzie. “Okay, looks like you’re all good. Nothing to worry about here except for how to use social media to promote woodworking.”
“I’m actually really looking forward to that.”
“Me too. I’ll see you in the morning, City.” I gave her a smile and nearly bolted out the door. If I didn’t, I was going to do something epically stupid like try to kiss her.
Opposites. We were opposites. I couldn’t forget that.
And I definitely couldn’t focus on the fact that opposites attracted.
Because every second I spent with her was proving that more true.