Chapter 18 #3
Jenna felt her face heat, and she knew her cheeks were most likely matching her dress at this point. How did he do that? How did he manage to compliment her in the most creative and flattering way to catch her completely off guard? It was unnerving and unfair. How was she going to survive tonight?
“Funny,” she said dryly.
His eyes lifted to hers, and all the oxygen left her lungs at the intensity in them, even as his lips curled in a playful grin.
“I’m serious. I need to go tell Niko they should put down some of those yellow plastic A-frames that say ‘Caution: Wet Floor’ in case anyone slips from all the drool.
” He started to walk away as if he was going to do exactly that, but she grabbed his arm.
Her cheeks flared with even more heat as she warned, “Stop.”
“Why?”
“Because,” she gritted out.
He stepped closer. “Because why?”
“Because it’s ridiculous.”
“It’s not ridiculous. It’s fun. Do you remember that? Fun?”
She did remember that. Fun was what ended up with her pregnant and married to a good man who loved her till he didn’t. Then fun ended up with her in bed with her neighbor, who then cheated on her with her best friend, which she deserved because karma…
Actually, James was never fun, scratch that.
“Yes, I do remember fun. I had my fun. If fun is what you are looking for, you should go look somewhere else.”
He shook his head. “Oh no. That’s where you’re wrong. You are exactly what I am looking for.”
Warning. Liar. Warning. Liar.
Those were the alarm bells going off in her head. So why was her heart melting? Why was her inner Scarlett O’Hara going full swoon?
The whys don’t matter, she told herself. The swoons and the heartmelts don’t matter. Nothing mattered but raising Blake to be the strongest, badass young woman exposed to the least amount of trauma possible. Jenna had already fucked that up big time.
First, by cheating with the neighbor. Then, by marrying the cheater, trusting the cheater, building a life with the cheater on cheating sand, and exposing her daughter to being traumatized once again when she walked in on her stepdad cheating with her “aunt,” a year before Jenna found out and her having to make the decision of whether or not to tell her mom.
It had weighed so heavily on Blake, which is why she’d started acting out, she went joyriding in a car drunk, and began flunking her classes.
It nearly destroyed her. It all turned out okay.
Asher ended up back in her life. They were all in Hope Falls, but Jenna put them in that situation. She’d exposed Blake to that.
Unaware of the internal turmoil going on in Jenna’s head, Deacon offered her his arm. “Shall we?”
She looked at him and bit the inside of her lip.
He leaned down and whispered in her ear, “I would tell you I don’t bite, but you know better.”
“Stop,” she warned him again but took his arm. Mainly because she rarely wore heels, and seeing Deacon in his tux had the effect she’d been worried about.
Her fingers wrapped around his bicep, and he guided them to table 45. She was surprised that she wasn’t familiar with the people at the table, then she realized it was because they were people from his world.
She met St. Claire’s co-CEO Mikayla Parsons, who looked exactly like Blake’s favorite actress Lauren London, who then introduced her to the rest of the table, the men all sounded like very important people with very important titles.
After she was introduced, she leaned over and asked Deacon how he knew them.
He said, “I don’t. It’s a fundraiser, I told Mikayla to invite people with deep pockets that got loose when they drank.”
Right. That made sense. If she had bought a table, she would have invited her friends. That showed how much she knew about his world.
Jenna was sure as soon as she sat down, Deacon was going to bombard her with questions, starting with why she hadn’t responded to him sending her the dress, or he would be giving her more…instructions. Neither of those things happened. Instead, he was just normal.
He asked her about her day at the salon, figuring it must have been busy.
He showed her, then sent her, a really cute video of the girls doing a cheer.
He asked Mikayla to tell Jenna about her green initiatives, childcare, maternal/paternal leave, higher education for employees, and the four-day work-weeks that she wanted to model after Scandinavian companies.
She was so passionate when she spoke, it was inspiring.
“Sorry to interrupt.” A man’s voice sounded behind them.
Jenna looked up and saw Liam. He glanced apologetically between Jenna and Deacon. “Can I borrow you a second? We’re taking off soon, and Frankie and Zion want to grab a few shots. I’m so sorry, I would never ask. It’ll just take one minute.”
“Sure.” Deacon stood and offered his hand to Jenna. “Do you want to co—”
“No, I’m good, thanks.”
For one thing, she didn’t want to intrude on a family photo, and two, Zion Ash might be Frankie’s best friend, but he was also a world-famous photographer, on the off chance he offered to take a shot of Deacon and Jenna, she would die. She hated photos of herself.
As soon as Deacon left, Jenna felt the energy at the table shift, but she did her best to ignore it. Out of the five men Deacon didn’t know, only two had brought dates. She’d felt them looking at her before, but now she felt their attentions zero in.
“Sorry if I’ve been talking your ear off,” Mikayla apologized, leaning over Deacon’s now vacant chair.
“No, are you kidding?” Jenna shook her head. “I’ve been loving it. Your ideas are amazing. As a single mom, the things you were talking about would have been life- changing for me. Free childcare. Paying for college. Are you kidding me?”
Mikayla looked surprised. “How old are your kids?”
“Just one, Blake, she’s fifteen.”
“Seriously?!” Mikayla’s eyes widened. “Sorry! Oh my gosh, that was rude. I just, I thought you were like twenty-four at the most.”
“I’m thirty-four.”
“Wow, you look amazing. My mom always looked really young, too.” Mikayla pulled out her phone and showed Jenna her screensaver of a photo that honestly looked like a picture of her and her sister, and they could have been twins. “She was a single mom, too.”
“Oh good.” Jenna smiled with relief as she touched her chest.
Mikayla smiled widely, revealing dimples, exactly like the actress that she was a doppleganger for. “What’s good?”
“You turned out amazing! I love meeting women who had single moms who turn out amazing.”
“Awe, thank you.” Mikayla blinked as she looked at her. “I still can’t get over the fact that you’re thirty-four, but yeah, that makes way more sense.”
“More sense?” Jenna’s brow furrowed.
“For Deacon. He would never date someone that young.” She laughed a little. “Not that he ever dates anyone. You being here tonight is… yeah, that’s a big deal for him. Huge.”
“Oh, it’s not…we’re not…”
“So, Jana!” A loud voice yelled in her ear.
Jenna flinched then turned to her left to find the balding man who had been across the table was now in the seat next to her where another man had been seated, a man who was there with a date.
“What do you do?” Baldy asked as he put his arm around her chair.
“I’m a hair—”
“Miss Thomas is a beauty industry professional and salon owner.” Mikayla was on her feet, pulling Jenna to her feet as well.
“Where are you two going?” Baldy stood.
“To the restroom.” Mikayla’s smile was friendly as she positioned herself between Baldy and Jenna, and now that they were standing, Jenna realized the man was at least six-foot-four, maybe five. He was a big man.
“St. Claire’s been hogging Red all night, I just wanted to say hi.”
The man reached around Mikayla, and Jenna saw his fat, sweaty paw reaching for her when suddenly she felt herself being pulled backwards, and then she was looking at the back of someone as a deep voice said, more like growled, “Sit down.”
She realized it was Deacon’s voice. His back was to her as he told the man to sit down, not her.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, I was just saying hi, no need to get testy.” Baldy’s hands lifted in mock surrender.
Jenna didn’t know what happened next, and she couldn’t see Deacon’s face, but the man walked back to his seat, hands still in the air as if he were being held at gunpoint, laughing, sort of, trying to make light of the whole thing.
When Deacon turned around and she saw the look in his eyes, then she understood. He looked like he was going to murder, kill, and maim. He was controlled, but that made it worse, his chest was rising and falling.
He asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” She glanced around and noticed that people at the tables, at least half of which were filled with Hope Falls residents, had become aware of the exchange.
“Mikayla, can you grab—”
Mikayla was already handing Jenna’s purse to her.
“It was so good meeting you.” Jenna gave Mikayla a hug, genuinely hoping she could keep in contact with her.
“I’ll Instagram you,” Mikayla said as she wrapped her in a quick embrace.
“Oh, good, okay.” Jenna was relieved they’d stay in touch as she turned and walked as quickly as her red bottoms would carry her to the first door she saw out of the ballroom. It was a side door, but she just needed to be away from the people.
She was embarrassed. She hated scenes. Her mom made scenes. She made scenes at her school when she’d show up drunk, or on the back of boyfriends’ motorcycles, or in Daisy Dukes and tube tops.
Jenna did not make scenes. Ever. She pushed through the doors and felt tears forming in her eyes.
As soon as she realized she was at the end of a long, empty hall, she turned and saw another door, one that looked like it led outside, she pushed it and saw that it was just a cement slab and fence, maybe a smoking area.
“Shit.” She turned and stepped back inside and nearly face-planted into Deacon’s chest. Her hands flew up. “Ahh!” she gasped in start. She hadn’t even realized he followed her. "What are you doing? Go back in there.”
“No,” he answered calmly. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Go back. It’s your table.”
He looked at her like she was crazy. “I’m not going back. I don’t give a shit about that table.”
“Mikayla’s in there.”
“Mikayla can handle herself.”
“Oh, and you don’t think I can?” she snapped defensively. “You think I need you to protect me?”
“I didn’t say that.” He didn’t bite back. He responded calmly.
Her arms gestured wildly towards the door they’d exited from the ballroom. “So what was that about in there?”
“That was about a man who was my guest deciding it was okay to put his hands on the CEO of my company while trying to grab my date.”
“Oh.” Jenna hadn’t even realized that he’d touched Mikayla. But it made sense because she was in front of her.
Jenna looked down, ran her hands down her dress, and more to herself than anyone mumbled, “I shouldn’t have worn this.”
“Don’t fucking say that.” Deacon didn’t say that in a sweet way. He was no longer calm. In fact, he sounded…angry.
Jenna looked up. Yep, he looked angry.
“First of all, you look insanely beautiful. Secondly, what you are wearing is entirely appropriate for the event. And lastly, and most importantly, that man is responsible for his behavior. I never want to hear you take responsibility for the bad behavior of a man again.”
Holy shit. That might be the hottest thing any man had ever said to her. Her inner walls were clenching with need. The beacon was back, and it was definitely calling his name.
Without saying another word, Deacon stepped past her and pushed the door that she’d just pushed and walked outside. She just stood there staring at him.
“Are you coming?” he asked.
Um, yes and yes.