Twenty #2
“Well…” she said after a moment. “Teddy told me they won’t be filing any charges against you or Jude now.”
“Yeah.”
“If the police give you any trouble, he said to call.”
“Thanks, Tammy,” Mom said. “And thank you for intervening yesterday. We’re lucky you did.”
Tammy beamed, then looked at me. “So. Will you admit Lake Sanguis isn’t that bad, now is it?”
I had to admit Russo’s critical mistake was not understanding the nosiness of neighbors in small-town Wisconsin.
“Knock, knock,” said Jude, cracking open the front door.
He was wearing his best black zip-up sweater and a bow tie, his arm in a sling.
“Lake Sanguis isn’t that bad,” I agreed as Jude lifted his good arm in greeting.
“You know, I have a son who’s single and…” Tammy glanced again at my swollen, bruised face. “Well, maybe we want to let you heal a few days before I set you up?”
I wasn’t even listening at this point.
“Jude!” cried Mom, seeing him for the first time. She trotted over and gave him a big hug as he winced. “I made scones! Have one!”
Jude eyed the burnt balls of dough. “Thanks, Mama Jenny. I just ate.”
I limped over to him and gave him a hug, too.
“Ow,” he complained.
“Want me to stop?” I asked, loosening my grasp.
“No,” he said, and hugged me with his one arm. I inhaled the smell of him: spicy, sweet, warm. “It’s just a broken collarbone.”
“How did you manage to drive with that?” Olivia asked.
“Must be painful,” Mom agreed.
“My neighbor broke his collarbone slipping on some ice. Painful injury, no, yeah,” Tammy said. “Yet, you managed to drive all the way to the airport yesterday!”
Jude seemed uneasy with all the attention.
“It hurt, but I wasn’t going to let Russo kidnap Ella.”
“You know he’s serious because he even broke the speed limit.” I raised my eyebrows. “Must mean you really care.”
“I’ll only break the law for you,” he said and grinned at me. “The Volvo didn’t like it.”
“I bet it didn’t.” That car was fussier than Jude.
“Well then, you two seem to be friendly now, no, yeah?” Tammy noted as she sauntered back to the front door.
“Maybe I won’t need to set you up with my baby boy after all.
Ophelia, you should go lie down and rest that leg.
You want to put ointment on that scar so it doesn’t scare off your future husband. ”
“If I ever get married, which is doubtful, my future husband will admire the scar as a badge of honor,” I said.
Tammy frowned. “But boys like pretty girls.”
I was about to retort when Mom but a cautionary hand on my forearm.
“I’ll make sure she rests,” Mom promised Tammy.
“Okay then, we’ll see you next season!”
Mom closed the door behind Tammy.
“You should’ve let me tell that old bag off,” I said.
“She saved your life and brought you a hot dish,” Mom scolded. “Can we be polite for once?” Mom sent me a look. “It doesn’t cost us anything to be nice.”
“Just my dignity and core moral values,” I grumbled.
Mom exhaled a frustrated sigh and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Jude? A little help?”
“Sorry, Mama Jenny. Nobody tells Ella what to do.”
I flashed Jude a grateful smile.
Mom exhaled again, but then she just shrugged off her defeat. “Olivia,” Mom said, glancing from me to Jude and back again. “Can you help me strip the bed upstairs? We need to wash those sheets.”
“But, Mom…” Olivia hesitated. Mom shot her a look, and Olivia trailed up the stairs after her.
“Mom’s playing matchmaker,” I told Jude.
“Does she know we already matched on Spark?” Jude joked.
“No, and don’t ever tell her that, or she’ll start thinking you’re a serial killer.”
Jude laughed.
“So…” I toyed with the zipper on my hoodie. “I’ve been thinking about what Oscar said.”
“Oh, no.” Jude groaned. “Listen, we don’t have to talk about it. We don’t. Let’s just pretend Oscar never said anything.”
“Yeah, but he mentioned your grandmother’s ring? I do want to know about that.”
Jude sighed and sank onto the stool near the breakfast bar. I perched on one next to him.
“Kenzie wanted my grandmother’s ring. It’s a nice ring, big diamond in a platinum setting.
But I only wanted to give that to… well…
to someone special.” He cleared his throat.
“After a few beers, I told Oscar I couldn’t give it to Kenzie because I realized I didn’t love her. And… well, I admitted I… liked you.”
“Like?” I protested. “I thought I was your living, breathing love thing!”
“You are.”
“Prove it,” I said and crossed my arms.
Jude exhaled. “I don’t think you’re ready. I think you’re going to freak out.” He studied me with concern.
“I’m not going to freak out.”
“You will, though.” Jude cradled his arm in a sling. “You freak out whenever anyone talks seriously about their feelings. You run for the door. Anytime anyone even so much as says ‘we,’ you have a panic attack.”
“I’m not going to this time.”
Jude still looked skeptical.
“I’m calling time-out on freaking out,” I said.
“I don’t think you can just do that.”
“Why not? I just did. Russo nearly killed you. And… the more my brother says I can’t have you, the more I want you.
” But it was more than that. I remembered when I had Russo in a headlock.
When I could have killed him. When I might have, too, except for Jude.
“You make me want to be a better person. One who”—I couldn’t believe I was about to say this—“follows the rules. Who does the…” I wrinkled my nose because I was starting to sound very cheesy. “Right thing.”
I might be impulsive like Mateo and sometimes vengeful like Russo, but at the end of the day, the truth was, I just wanted to be more like Jude.
“Really?” Jude looked brazenly hopeful. The bright puppy-dog hope in Jude’s eyes did weird things to my stomach. “Because I’ve been in love—in like—with you forever. There’s no person on earth who knows me as well as you do, Ella, who makes me feel as seen as you do.”