Chapter 35
Rowan Rafferty drops a truth bomb
Jesse tossed me a light beer with more water than taste, and he must have clocked the face I made. “Sorry, it’s not Fosters or whatever else you Aussies drink.”
“It’s fine. I’m only half-Australian.”
Jesse walked to a recliner in the living area and plopped into the seat, throwing his legs over the arm. “Where’d you grow up, then?”
I took a seat on the couch. “In Tampa.”
“No shit?” He sipped his beer and gave me an appraising look. “Did you ever play any sports?”
“Football. American football.”
“How about that! I played football for our high school. But I don’t remember playing against any Rafferty,” Jesse said.
“Rafferty is my mother’s name,” I said. “In high school, I went by Seeger. My dad’s name.”
“Ah,” Jesse took a swig of beer and then pointed the bottle toward the room. “Did you know Ken used to live here?”
“I didn’t, but that makes sense,” I said.
“Lived here for two years while she fixed up her charter boat,” Jesse added. “I’m real proud of her.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Proud implies that you’re in a superior position to her. Do you feel superior to her?”
Jesse raised his bottle to his mouth but missed, poking himself in the cheek. “Uh, no.”
“Why didn’t you go into business with her?” I asked.
“Why would I go into business with her?”
“Because you both talked about starting a charter boat business.”
Jesse threw his head back and laughed. “Oh my god. That was a joke! Something we talked about when we were bored. It wasn’t serious.”
“Wasn’t serious? Did it ever strike you as funny that one day you were joking about starting a charter business, and the next day, Kendra bought a boat?” I sat my bottle on a coaster beside the couch. “What did you think that was?”
He picked at the label on his beer. “I thought that was her following her dream.”
“Your dream. Plural.”
Jesse frowned at me. “Listen, my guy, I don’t know why you’re busting my balls, but this is between me and Kendra.”
“Let’s talk about you and Kendra, shall we?”
“Why are you so jealous of our friendship?” He countered.
I huffed. “Is that what you call it?”
Jesse’s chin jutted out in defiance. “Yeah. That’s what I call it. We’ve been friends since middle school. What do you think it is?”
“I think she’s your backup plan.”
His head jerked back as if I had punched him, and I knew at that moment I was right.
All the signs were there - picking women who looked like her, telling a random stranger that he was her first, and getting jealous when that random stranger turned out to be her fiancé, as far as he knew.
I would put good money on the fact that they never had sex and probably hadn’t even kissed. That thought made me smile.
Jesse slammed his beer bottle onto the side table and scrambled to his feet. “That’s about enough. You need to leave.”
“Tell me I’m wrong.” I squared up to him. “And I’ll leave.”
“You’re wrong.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Jesse poked me in the shoulder, but I didn’t budge.
“Whatever, my guy.”
I poked him back in his shoulder. “Stop calling me that.”
“Why do you care that she was my backup plan? It doesn’t matter. She’s getting married to you. Remember?” He poked me in the shoulder.
I stepped away from him, my hands balled into fists. I wanted to punch this smug son of a bitch for his lying and cheating and stringing Kendra along for years. When I was done with him, his mother wouldn’t recognize him.
The only thing that stopped me was how Kendra would react.
I released my fists and shook out my hands. I considered many things I could have said to him, but in the end, I knew it would fall on deaf ears.
So, I left and returned to Kendra’s houseboat to tell her the truth about her best friend Jesse, who’d been stringing her along for decades.