Chapter 6
Nate
I certainly did not start today out thinking that I was going to be going out to eat with Jenna this evening. I pull into a spot in front of her store and shut my truck off. We agreed to meet back here in thirty minutes after we left her aunt’s room.
Memories came flooding back as I stood in the store, and while I had never been upstairs, seeing her and Aunt Janet made me feel like I was eighteen again. Although, hearing the news about Uncle Tim was hard.
I’ve been back in town for two years, and I guess I’m a little bit behind in the local gossip, since I did not realize he’d passed.
I get out of my truck, unsure as to whether I should try to see if the store door is unlocked or...walk around? She said she had a room at the back of the shop, and I think I know where she means. Back in the day, Aunt Janet used it to cook treats and other things and offer them to the teenagers who hung out in their store.
They really didn’t mind having people gather, and looking back, I appreciate it. Maybe it did keep some people from walking into their store and shopping, but it enabled us to make good memories. Not everyone is so generous and giving. Jenna’s Aunt Janet and Uncle Tim were two of the best.
It’s funny how you don’t always see things the way they really are until you have the benefit of hindsight.
Like the way I see Jenna.
I walk around the front of my truck and see her walk out the shop door. She turns around and tries the doorknob to double-check that it’s locked. And I just admire her.
She’s not dressed up, just wearing jeans and a white flowing blouse that is loose around the sleeves and bottom and gives her a free, easygoing appearance.
It’s chilly, and she has a coat over her arm and a scarf wrapped around her neck. She looks casual and classy.
“Hey there,” I say, walking to my truck and putting my hand on the latch. I can at least open the door for her.
My gentlemanly manners make her smile, and she murmurs a thank you as she gets in the truck.
“My pleasure,” I say, and she has no idea how much I mean that. It truly is my pleasure. I can’t believe I have her back in my vehicle. I really thought after the way I ended things that I would never see her again, and considering that it had been eight years, I thought someone else would have snatched her up.
I guess I could have asked around town, but I didn’t want to be too obvious.
“Is that Jenna getting in your truck?” a voice calls, and I turn my head to see who it is since it sounds familiar.
Abby. She’s walking in front of her store, directly beside Jenna’s, and looking over at me.
“It is,” I say, continuing to walk around my truck. I do not want to stop and talk to her, although I don’t want to be rude either.
I groan inside as she walks toward me.
My feet slow, but my brain tells my body that I can’t stop. I’m trying to win Jenna back, not court Abby. It shouldn’t matter to me whether or not Abby is upset, but... There’s just a part of me that is ingrained to be polite no matter what.
“I can’t believe after the way you dumped her in high school, that she would even give you the time of day,” Abby says, laughing. “I heard she cried for a month and didn’t leave her house until she had to move away for college. Poor girl.”
That was the second person who told me what a hard time Jenna had had. Honestly, I mourned the loss of our relationship too, but I moved out to California early, getting a job and settling into the apartment that I shared with three other guys, and was very busy that summer. Too busy to think about what I had lost. Or what I had thrown away.
Every time I hear about how badly Jenna was hurt, it makes me feel like more of a heel.
“Jenna is a class act,” I say, my hand on the latch, my eyes on Jenna. She’s staring straight ahead in the truck, not looking at me, and she doesn’t acknowledge that Abby is there either. Although Abby hasn’t even glanced at her since she climbed in the truck.
“Well, I guess we both know who you preferred in high school,” she says with another tinkling laugh. “Good luck tonight,” she says, waving her hand in a dismissive way and walking on down the sidewalk.
I’m grateful I don’t have to stand and talk, but I’m also annoyed at her condescending manner. Maybe that’s just the way she needs to act in order to make herself feel better, or I don’t know. Maybe some people just aren’t nice. I don’t know what I ever saw in her, to even take her to prom. I think about the picture in our yearbook and wish that someone would have given me decent advice, instead of telling me to let go of the best thing that ever happened to me. I guess it just goes to show that teenage boys really are as stupid as everyone says they are. At least I was.
I open the truck and get in, not completely oblivious to the fact that Jenna is sitting there, silent. Surely she’s not mad at me because Abby came out just as I was getting in the truck? It wasn’t like I stopped to talk to her.
I know Jenna isn’t going to hold that against me. She’s just not that kinda girl, but I do know I can hurt her, and I have. Hopefully, I didn’t tonight.