Chapter Six #3
Back in the kitchen, she made herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, poured a glass of sparkling water, and took it all out onto the porch.
It was cool and crisp but lovely out, and she knew she wouldn’t get a whole lot more days when she could sit outside, so she found the gate, set it up at the stairs, let Arnold in from the back, and stopped to give Wallace and Gromit kisses as she passed their cat tree where they lounged in the evening sunlight coming through the window.
Then she grabbed a blanket off the couch, Arnold’s soft and cozy bed, and her book, and headed out to the porch.
Her intention had been to read, but she found herself simply watching the neighborhood go by as she ate her sandwich.
The house across the street was the home of a young couple and their newborn.
They’d only just taken the It’s a Girl! sign down a couple weeks ago, and Jenna watched as they maneuvered the stroller down the front steps.
They waved to her as they headed out for a walk, leaves crunching under the wheels.
Next door, Mr. Sullivan was raking his front yard.
He was elderly but kept himself in good shape by constantly moving, even if he was slow.
She glanced at her own front yard and wondered if Uncle David was planning to have the leaves taken care of.
She’d be willing to rake if he wanted her to.
There weren’t a ton of leaves, but she knew in the next few weeks, they’d all come down.
She was about to pop the last bite of her sandwich into her mouth when she saw the big, brown, hopeful eyes watching her, and she chuckled softly. Biting it in two, she ate one piece and gave the other to Arnold, then scratched the top of his head as he chewed. “Good?”
She picked up her book and opened it when her phone buzzed an incoming text. Ronni.
Hey, bitch. How was biz? Ronni almost always checked in on Sunday nights, just to say hi and see how her day was. It always warmed Jenna a bit, the routine of it.
Great, she typed back. No complaints. How was your weekend?
The dots bounced. Then, Had an emergency with a client, but all ended up okay. A little stressful. On my second glass of wine. That was followed by a gif of a woman drinking out of a comically large wine glass.
Jenna laughed, then typed, Glad it ended up okay.
Then she let go of a little gasp when she realized she had news.
OMG, you’ll never guess what happened to me today.
She typed up a paragraph about running into Sawyer and her mom at the market and how she’d been invited to dinner tomorrow night. How crazy is that?
The next thing she knew, her entire paragraph had been cut and pasted into the group thread, because apparently, Ronni thought Dakota needed to be in on this conversation.
WHAT??? came Dakota’s immediate response, and Jenna couldn’t help but sit there laughing on her porch swing.
Yeah, and I think S is a little freaked, she typed. The second I got home, she popped her head out and told me I was free to “bow out” if I wanted.
This is amazing, better than reality TV, Dakota said. And there will be no bowing.
I want to be a fly on the wall, came Ronni’s next comment.
Jenna typed, At the very least, I’ll get some insight into my neighbor. Who better than to give me all the info than her MOM?
I’m really going to need you to start referring to her as your HOT neighbor, please. That was Ronni, and it was followed up with a flame emoji. For specificity.
Because I have so many neighbors? Jenna typed back with a grin.
You could be talking about the old guy next door, Ronni typed. How would I know?
They went back and forth a few more times before signing off for the night.
That’s when Jenna finally picked up her book and opened it, but her focus wasn’t there.
Between the wonderful scent of fall in the air—crushed leaves, fresh grass, wet earth—and the conversation she’d just had with her friends, focusing on the book in her lap seemed harder than it should be.
She put the bookmark back in it, set it on the table next to her empty plate, and pulled the blanket up around her.
The air had a crisp evening chill to it, but the blanket kept her toasty as she put her feet up on the railing and exhaled a slow breath.
Arnold was curled up in his dog bed, but his head was up and his nose twitched as he sniffed the world from his little zone of comfort.
She reached down and rubbed his ears as they watched the world go by.
She spent a little time pretending that she didn’t feel like reading—side note: she always felt like reading—because of how much she loved fall and how busy the shop had been and how she wanted to spend time with Arnold, but none of that was it, and deep down, she knew it.
No, the reason she couldn’t concentrate was about twenty feet to her left, living in the other side of the duplex.
She was having dinner with Sawyer Hall tomorrow night. Sawyer Hall and her mother. And while she wasn’t quite sure why—and also had zero desire to try and figure that out—she was nervous. She was also excited, and she really wasn’t sure what to do with that part of it.
Like, what the actual fuck was happening?