Chapter 13 #3
Well, that was unexpected. Jenna hadn’t thought they were talking about her , or her parents.
“I’m fine with the way things are,” she stated, even though she knew she wasn’t, not entirely.
Zach had reached out to their parents recently, and now they had regular video calls.
He’d encouraged Jenna to join in, but so far she hadn’t.
She hadn’t even been tempted, not really, and now she wondered why not.
Was it just about protecting herself—or was she angry at them for the indifference they’d shown her when she’d been growing up, simply because they’d been so wrapped up in each other?
It was both, she supposed, although she was cordial when she spoke to them.
But sometimes it was better not to mess with the status quo.
“Let me know how it goes,” she told Laurie, who smiled wryly in understanding, thankfully getting the memo; they were not talking about Jenna’s mom, just Laurie’s.
“I will.”
They didn’t have a chance to say anything more, because someone was coming up the stairs, and moments later Joshua came in, waving cheerily at Jenna before greeting Laurie with a kiss.
Laurie smiled up at him, slipping her arm around his waist, and they looked so blissed-out with each other that Jenna felt an uncomfortable pang of envy.
She longed for that with someone, even if she’d long ago given up hope, or at least told herself she had.
Spending time with Jack had shifted something inside her, chipped away at her hardened cynicism and made her remember how exciting it was to like someone.
To feel that flutter, to have someone give you that sparkle in your eye and spring in your step…
and more than that, to really get someone, and have them get you.
But none of that mattered, because for the last three weeks Jack really hadn’t seemed interested.
At least, he’d seemed far more interested in the store than in her, which was just as well, because like she’d told Laurie, she was fine as she was. Really.
Zach and Maggie came in then, looking as loved up as Joshua and Laurie did, and Jenna had to keep telling herself she didn’t mind all the laughing looks, the casual arms slung over the shoulders, the way Maggie leaned into Zach, or Joshua dropped an unthinking kiss on Laurie’s forehead.
She kind of wished Laurie had invited someone else to this dinner, so she didn’t feel like such a fifth wheel, but that could have been awkward too, if it had turned into some sort of semi-date situation.
She was good on her own. She really, really was.
“I thought maybe you would have invited Jack tonight,” Zach remarked when they were all seated for dinner and Laurie was dishing out the chicken casserole. Jenna couldn’t tell if he was addressing her or Laurie, and so she stayed silent.
“I thought about it,” Laurie replied easily, “but I thought maybe he and Jenna needed a little break from each other.” She gave Jenna a teasing look. “Considering they’re spending twenty-four-seven together as it is.”
Twenty-four-seven? Where was that coming from?
“We are not,” Jenna said in as dignified a tone as she could muster, “spending that much time together.” In fact, Jack hadn’t been to the store in several days; he’d said he had some other stuff to catch up on, and in any case, Jenna knew she was perfectly capable of managing the work on her own.
It had just been nice to have someone to do it with.
“No?” Zach raised his eyebrows. “I see Jack’s Porsche parked outside the store most days.”
Which meant, Jenna knew, that most other people did too.
Well, she’d already known that everyone in Starr’s Fall was talking about her and Jack.
It didn’t mean anything was actually happening…
or even that she wanted it to. There was a big difference between enjoying a little light flirting and wanting a relationship.
“Because he’s helping me in the store,” she told him. “And he hasn’t been there most days,” she added. Some was more like it. Maybe quite a few , but not most .
Zach gave Maggie a laughing look before he nodded slowly at Jenna. “Whatever you say, sis,” he told her. “Whatever you say.”
Jenna decided silence might be the best policy, and she focused on cutting a piece of chicken, giving it far more focus than she would normally.
She wasn’t going to convince her brother or anyone else that there was nothing going on between her and Jack, so she might as well not try.
It was just particularly aggravating that everyone seemed to think she was the one who was in denial when they so clearly were.
For whatever reason, Jack Wexler had decided he was not interested in her, no matter what sparks she’d felt between them during their one and only sort-of date. And that was fine, because she wasn’t interested in him.
Really. End of.
Jenna looked up to see four people all giving her knowing smirks, as if they’d all been party to her entire thought process—and didn’t believe it.
And then Jenna wondered if maybe she just didn’t believe herself.