Chapter 11 #2
Which was why she needed to figure out how she was getting home.
She’d enjoyed the little bit of light flirting, but this wasn’t going anywhere, and she wasn’t willing to entertain the notion that it might.
Ten years on, you’d think she’d be able to risk her heart again, and she thought she might be, but not with a self-assured city slicker like Jack Wexler.
What did they say the definition of insanity was?
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Once was enough for her. It had to be.
She could hear Jack moving around in the kitchen, and she knew it was time to go back in and face the music. She just wished she had a plan.
Taking a deep breath to steel herself, Jenna slipped her phone back in her bag and rounded the corner. Jack smiled as she came in, but she saw a question in his eyes and knew he must be wondering why she was acting so weird.
“Hey, sorry about that,” she said.
“Everything all right?” He gestured to the table, on which he’d set two dishes of what looked like raspberry mousse, garnished with a sprig of mint and a single, jewel-like raspberry. “Full disclosure, I did buy these in Litchfield.”
“I’ll forgive you,” Jenna teased as she sat down, and Jack joined her at the table.
“So did you find a ride?” he asked, and Jenna managed a wry smile.
“Um, no. That is, not yet. Annie’s with her mom and I forgot Maggie and Zach are out at the movies tonight.
Laurie doesn’t have a car.” She paused as she picked up her spoon.
“There are other people I could ask, but… let’s just say they’d be a little nosier about it all than I’m comfortable with.
” She didn’t want Liz Cranbury or Zoe Wilkinson peppering her with questions or rubbernecking to get a good look at Jack’s house.
But it was looking like she might have to put up with that, if she wanted to get home.
Jack’s eyes glinted with humor. “Understood. I’d drive you myself, but I had as much wine as you did.”
“I know.” She smiled at him, abashed. “This is a problem of living in the country.”
“It’s certainly not an issue I encountered in New York.” He paused, his gaze on his untouched mousse before offering in a cautious kind of voice, “You know, there is a solution to this problem that doesn’t mean involving the whole town with all the ensuing gossip?”
Intrigued, Jenna laid down her spoon. “And that is?”
Jack lifted his gaze to hers. He looked as cautious as his tone had been, but with a gleam in his eyes that made Jenna’s stomach give a little flip.
“You could stay the night,” he said, and her stomach flipped again, like she’d just crested a rollercoaster.
“In one of the guest bedrooms,” he continued hurriedly. “Obviously.”
Obviously? Jenna didn’t know if she was offended or relieved.
Jack must have sensed how that sounded because he continued quickly, “I just meant… I have the space. Unless you have a burning need to sleep in your own bed, you’re welcome to choose any one of the five spare bedrooms.”
“Wow, five ?” She raised her eyebrows as she smiled teasingly, and he gave a good-natured grimace.
“I bought this house as an investment.”
“You do realize that everyone in Starr’s Fall will collectively lose their minds once they’ve realized I spent the night here?” she said, feeling compelled to point out the obvious. “And they’ll jump to all sorts of conclusions.”
Jack raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t actually see any binoculars in the bushes, and the house is on a private drive. How will they know?”
“Because they’ll see my car is missing from my own driveway.”
He laughed in soft disbelief. “Do they have your house watched?”
“Basically. Liz Cranbury will be doing regular drive-bys all evening, I’m sure.” That might have been a slight overexaggeration, Jenna acknowledged, but not much. Not enough.
“It must be nice to feel so important to people,” Jack mused. “But like you said a while ago… sometimes a little suffocating.”
“Yes to both,” Jenna agreed. “But I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
” After her years in the big city, it had been a powerful balm to come back to a place where people loved and, more importantly, accepted her for who she was.
They weren’t asking her to change; they didn’t want her to.
It was a conundrum that had frustrated her brother Zach, who had wanted to change but felt like Starr’s Fall wouldn’t let him.
Jenna had been the opposite… but maybe she needed to take a page out of her brother’s book and change a little bit. At least change the store.
And, who knew, maybe herself too.
As for tonight… there would definitely be gossip.
Did she care? There would, Jenna realized, be gossip no matter what she did.
Kindly meant gossip, but gossip all the same.
And yet there was something dangerously tempting about spending the night here, even in a guest bedroom.
Something seriously awkward about it, too.
What was the morning going to look like? Feel like?
She thought of Jack’s hand on her wrist, the low thrum of his voice as he’d said I don’t want you to go.
She didn’t want to go, either. She wasn’t sure what she wanted, but at least she knew that.
Jack was still waiting for her answer. Outside the night looked dark and cold, and the thought of calling more people at nine-thirty on a Wednesday night to figure out a way home was… unappealing. To say the least.
“Okay,” she said at last.
Jack smiled, and Jenna saw—something—flare in his eyes. Heat? No, she wasn’t going to think that way. Not yet, and maybe not ever.
“In that case,” he said, “let me put the fire on.”
He rose from the table and went to the adjacent family room, which had a deep L-shaped sofa in taupe leather facing a massive stone fireplace.
Jenna cleared their dessert dishes and then followed him over to where he was crouched in front of the fireplace, touching a match to kindling.
A few tasteful pieces of modern art decorated the walls and tables, including an interesting sculpture made of driftwood.
One entire wall was made up of a floor-to-ceiling picture window, overlooking a deck that extended right over the lake.
Stepping out on it must feel as if you were walking on water.
It really was, Jenna reflected, an amazing house.
Maybe she’d get a photo for Liz after all. She didn’t think Jack would mind.
Soon the fire was crackling away, with a cheery blaze and a comforting smell of pine, and Jack made them both coffee and brought it over, setting their cups on the coffee table.
Jenna curled up in one corner of the sumptuous sofa, feeling remarkably content.
Now that she knew she was staying, a sense of relaxation and even peace was stealing through her bones, turning everything inside her molten and deliciously sleepy.
No more decisions to make. For a little while she didn’t want to have to think about the store or Starr’s Fall or the limitations of her life or anything .
Jack settled on the same sofa a few spaces away from her, but close enough that if she stretched out her legs, her toes would brush his thigh.
He’d stretched one arm along the back of the sofa, and Jenna could almost imagine herself curling into that inviting space, resting her head on his broad chest. She thought about how nice it would feel, comforting and exciting all at once.
Why she was thinking that way she had no idea… but she was.
For a few minutes, neither of them spoke.
Jenna leaned her head back against the soft, sumptuous leather and let her eyes flutter closed, the molten sense of relaxation stealing even further into her bones.
The sound of the logs shifting and settling in the grate was a lovely, sleepy kind of sound, and she enjoyed the warmth of the firelight dancing across her skin.
She could hear Jack breathing, steadily in and out, and she found that was a nice sound, too.
She thought she should probably say something, but she was so relaxed and still feeling muzzy-headed from the wine, and really, silence was golden.
She felt as if she could happily stay like this forever.
A soft sigh slipped out from her, and she settled deeper into the sofa, the leather as soft as butter against her cheek, the room warm and cozy, firelight dancing across her closed eyelids, the presence of Jack, silent and steady, like an anchor. She liked knowing he was there.
And somehow, like that, she fell asleep.