Chapter 2
T here was no way she didn’t have to run her little butt to the gate, but Jenna wouldn’t have to rush now that she was officially on vacation. I’d finally convinced her to leave her early mornings behind for four full days of R&R.
A feat I thought might be too much, even for me. The last time I dragged her away for a few days she worried the whole time.
But through some careful planning, I managed to implement a backup plan so robust there was nothing left for her to argue over. No way she could talk herself out of it once she’d said yes—even though she tried to.
With the plane now firmly on the ground, I made my way to arrivals and propped myself up against the wall out of the way. She didn’t check any baggage so it wouldn’t be too long a wait.
I hadn’t seen her in four days, and it was crazy how much you could miss a person. Miss all the little ways they filled up your life. If I didn’t see her for breakfast, I saw her for lunch, and if not for lunch, I saw her for dinner or in the evening. If I was on shift, I’d find a way to see her face, even if it was just for ten minutes. And absolutely no one on the truck moaned about a pit stop at the local bakery.
Blake, my closest friend in the house, who mainly went by his nickname, Rambo, promised to make a list of all the things that needed fixing while he was there keeping an eye on the place for me.
Jenna didn’t need to do it all on her own, however determined she might have been.
I shot off a text just checking in as it’d been a few hours since Jenna had left Cupcake and then stored my phone in my back pocket. I didn’t want to miss her entering this part of the terminal.
One of my favorite things to do was to watch her when she didn’t know I was looking. It was the only time I’d let myself be affected by her.
I loved to watch all the nuances of her face when she was unguarded.
Study her.
Feel for her.
The rest of the time I was just hiding in plain sight.
No one could ever know.
She could never know how I truly felt about her. How deep this thing really went, because we could never work. I’d fuck it all up for sure, just by being me.
And no, I wasn’t some asshole narcissist, just a plain old asshole with a hero complex, and Jenna certainly didn’t need saving. She was perfect and thriving and . . .
The doors opened with a mechanical swoosh and a second later my Jenna walked through, or rather marched. She was on a mission, her eyes laser-focused, and wearing the enormous coat I’d gifted her a few Christmases ago.
Sure, it wasn’t the most exciting gift, but all I ever wanted was for her to be safe, and warm, and happy, and healthy, so marshmallow coat it was.
New York winters did not fuck around.
She stood out, considering her destination, but she didn’t seem bothered by the few odd looks she was getting. It took her another minute to spot me, although I was purposely out of the way so I could capture this unfiltered glance at her.
With me in her sights, her whole face lit up and my gut gave itself a punch for being such a dumbass as she ran toward me.
“Mine!” my heart screamed. “S hut it! ” my head barked.
“Scott, Scott, Scott, get this off me, pleeease. Help me get this off.”
Now up close, her cheeks were flaming red and there was a sheen of sweat across her brow.
With best friend deflectors engaged, I slipped straight into my role and laughed my ass off at her as she flung her bag at me and wrestled with the zipper of the downy duvet she was currently overheating in.
“Why didn’t you carry this? Or better yet, get yourself a cart?”
“Only assholes get a cart for a carry-on,” she sniped, but I couldn’t form another sentence when my tongue was lodged in my throat.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t toned, fake-tanned-to-perfection skin.
She must’ve changed on the short flight into what had become my kryptonite. The jean shorts and cute little Nikes would always be enough to set me off, but it was my T-shirt tied at the side and showing off a sliver of her flat stomach that had me swelling in my boardshorts.
Jesus Christ, her body was insane for a chef, but give me a fucking break, she looked like a fucking Victoria’s Secret model, and it was only going to get worse as the day went on.
Or better, depending on which way you looked at it.
“Okay, come on then. You promised me a long weekend of dancing, debauchery, booze, and men. So, let’s get cracking!”
My brow tightened. “Uh, no, I didn’t.”
“Oh, that’s right, it was Lexie, but still! Let’s go.” She smiled a great big smile and pointed both left and right in a silent question.
“Left.” I gestured toward the doors I’d come through and lifted her forgotten bag and coat into my arms.
“I got a taxi in because?—”
“You tracked my flight. I’d say you’re predictable, but as my greeting party it makes sense.”
I rolled my eyes. What type of idiot didn’t check the arrival time of a plane they were waiting on?
“Okay,” I said and fell into step with her. “Tell me how it really went. Do you feel okay?”
“I feel really good. Had a little black cherry seltzer on the way here. Loosened me up a bit.”
I cocked an eyebrow her way.
“Fine, I had three. But it was so hard leaving, Scotty.”
My lungs overexpanded when she said my name like that. I was always Scott. Always, always , Scott. Sometimes I got full named, but then there were these rare occasions, so brief I could count them, a Scotty would fall out of her mouth, and I lived for it.
She was still talking but it didn’t take a genius to know the small part I’d missed.
“And it’s not like I don’t trust her, or the guys on your crew. It just felt irresponsible or something. Now I feel like, why the hell haven’t we done this sooner? We should go to your parents’ beach house more, don’t you think?”
Yeah, she’d definitely had three seltzers. Like getting her to come on this trip hadn’t been hard enough.
I guided her toward the taxi line—no point in hiring a car for only two hours—and just as we approached, a mother with a screaming toddler joined behind us. I instantly pulled Jenna gently to the side and motioned for her to cut in front of us.
“Please, take this one,” I insisted as the next cab rolled forward.
“Oh no, it’s fine.” But she was gifted a good left hook from the unhappy little girl in her arms, and I stepped forward to open the door for her.
“Here you go.”
“Thank you,” the flustered woman said, and I grabbed the portable booster seat and her luggage from the cart she had been trying to steer.
She got the baby and everything situated, and then once they were all buckled up and safe, we hopped into the next one.
“You’re a good man,” Jenna sighed, placing her head on my shoulder.
I shook my head. I didn’t feel like a good man, especially with the thoughts that had been playing through my mind only moments ago. But she continued as we pulled away from the curb.
“You saw that woman needed help and just stepped right up. You’re a real-life hero.”
Internally I cringed at the word. Hated it really. I was no hero. To be selfless was to be selfish, and even though I knew I was both those things, calling me a hero was like a knife to the chest.
Because yeah, I’d give my life for another. Die for anyone I loved, anyone in trouble. But I’d leave a whole lot of devastation and destruction in my wake, and that’s what kept me up at night.
The second we rounded the corner onto the pool deck, Jenna was almost tackled to the ground by my nephew, Jack.
“Hi, Auntie Jenn, Uncle Scott. I missed you.” He wore a pair of red Ray-Bans, and his shorts were red too. His blond hair, similar to mine, was sticking up in all directions after drying off poolside, and he’d shot up about a foot in the three weeks since I’d last seen him. Or at least it felt like he’d grown that much.
“Hey, handsome. We missed you too.”
“Hi Buddy,” I said, pulling him into my side.
“We’re just about to start a game of Marco Polo. You wanna play?”
“Yeah, okay, we’ll play.” Jenna’s enthusiasm for anything Jack wanted to do always got me.
“Cool. And don’t worry, the main rule this time is we’re not allowed to get any girls’ hair wet.”
“That’s very gentlemanly of you, but I’m fair game because this ball of grease needs washing before we hit the town, so knock yourself out.”
I smiled at the two of them laughing and caught my mother’s eye. She waved me over and I went, so glad she and my dad had arrived safe and sound.
“My brave boy, oh how I’ve missed you.” She could really ham a greeting up.
“Missed me? I saw you ten days ago, Mama.”
“It’s too long. Far too long.”
I faked a sigh and pulled her in, kissing the top of her head as she squeezed me tight.
“So, you finally got her to leave that cute little bakery. Good for you,” she quipped with a smile.
“She needed the rest.” I shrugged. “This seemed like the perfect opportunity.”
“Plus, it’s not the same when we’re all together like this and she’s missing, huh?”
We definitely agreed on that. “No, it’s not.”
She turned and called out, “Oh, Miss Jenna, come sit with me for a while. We need to catch up.”
“Will do Mrs. M. Right after I sink this one.” She nudged Jack.
The game was exactly as you would imagine, although I guess if you didn’t know us you wouldn’t think this simple pool game could turn so competitive.
An hour in and it was an all-out war with all the girls giving up, except for my Jenna, who was “it.”
The problem was, I could barely keep my focus. Being around her every day was a special kind of torture but Jenna in a bikini took extra effort.
Instead of a swimsuit held together with string like the other girls around the pool, the one Jenna had on this afternoon was sexy and retro. A white polka dot top that tied in a bow at the front and black polka dot high-waisted shorts had me fighting the urge to haul her out of the pool and drag her back to our adjoining rooms like some horny caveman.
Jenna’s curves were insane.
“That’s some swimsuit, huh?”
Knox didn’t see the jab to the gut coming even though he should’ve.
“Shut the fuck up,” I growled.
Jenna yelled “Marco” and then braced for a “Polo,” even closing her eyes to hone her senses.
It was ridiculous and adorable all at once.
I shouted “Polo,” and then froze.
With an enormous dive I didn’t see coming, she arched out of the water like a fucking dolphin and captured me with her entire body.
Her gorgeous, warm, water-slicked body, and I nearly toppled over at the sheer sensory overload.
“Gotcha!” she shouted in victory, while my brothers doubled over in hysterics.
“Sorry, am I heavy?” She squirmed, trying to pull away, but I held on tight.
“Not even a bit,” I told her as I walked her through to the shallow end and deposited her on the side of the pool.
“How did you know where I was?” I asked, my voice low.
She grinned. “I can feel you.”
With that, she hopped up and declared herself the winner, leaving me reeling from her words.
She could feel me.
“Scott!” Jack yelled, interrupting my daze. “Mom says it’s chill-out time now. Naps and showers and stuff, so I’ll see you in Theo’s room for the pregame drinks, yeah?”
I nodded as seriously as I could muster at his double thumbs up.
“Yep, see you there, big guy.”
“Cool.”
We were trying to include Jack in the celebrations, and Theo wanted to host a little pre-drink before we all headed out for his bachelor party tonight.
He and his fiancé, Lexie, had both decided to take over one of the nights we were away for a double, but not joint, bachelor/bachelorette, and we’d be kicking off the night with Jack.
My dad was staying in with him for a few hours until the mamas—my mom and Theo’s mom—swapped over with him.
“I’m out too. Feelin’ real tired.” Knox, my younger brother, fake yawned and winked as he swaggered over to the girl he’d been eye fucking for the past hour.