Chapter 8
“ H ey, I need to head out to Casey’s house, you wanna come with me?”
Jenna had her back to me as I entered the kitchen, but she didn’t have to turn around for me to know she’d have flour or sugar smudged somewhere on her face.
She always wore cute aprons when she was by herself. During opening hours, she had a couple of branded ones that she was always so proud to wear, but here in the back, she’d swap them out for cute and colorful ones.
This one made me think of a fifty’s housewife, with its frills and the enormous bow tied at the back. It framed her ass in such a delectable way I didn’t know if I was salivating over the smell of freshly baked cookies or her squeezable butt. I was hardening behind my zipper and was glad for the workbench between us.
She did turn to answer, but her shoulders sagged. “I’d love to, but I really need to get this done if I have any hope of getting those wedding favors finished.”
She pointed to three enormous cooling racks filled with beige cookies. They were weird shapes but as soon as she started piping they’d be works of art. She’d emboss little sheets of parchment paper to press onto the fondant to add texture and depth. She’d hand paint the little details, and how she could write so neatly using a piping bag I’d never know.
Whoever she was making them for would be blown away by her talent.
I always was.
“How many was it in the end?” I asked, placing my hands on the cool metal prep station between us.
“Two hundred. I think I’ve got the designs worked out; it’ll be okay,” she muttered, waving me off.
“So, you just going over to Casey’s because you wanna, or because something’s up?”
“Actually. Wren’s back.”
She whipped around, her mouth agape. “She actually did it?”
I nodded. “Yep, she’s fucking crazy.”
I went to take one of the still-warm cookies off the rack, but she whipped my hand with a spatula.
“Oww,” I said, cradling it in my other hand.
“Want one?” she asked in a teasing voice.
“I’ll love you forever . . .”
She rolled her eyes and handed me a cookie. She was the main reason I was in that fucking gym every day.
“Wow. Gotta hand it to her, you gave her the out and she took it. Was it really as bad as you say?”
I gave her another nod and swallowed. Fuck, these things were so good.
“I think it was worse. Casey brought her back to his place. Knox didn’t take it so well.”
She bit her lip. “Oh, shit.”
“Yeah, shit.”
“I mean, I’m not surprised. Although it never made a lick of sense, she was so gone for him. It never tracked for me.”
“Yep,” I agreed. “That’s why I’m all for getting to the bottom of it.”
“I wonder how long she’ll stay. Might be nice to catch up.”
“We’ll see,” I replied, but this time my mouth was full, and it came out muffled.
“Okay so I’ll be holed up here all night, but maybe I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yep. You got your keys on your hip?”
I’d given her a keychain that she said was more fitting for a grandma, but I’d explained that seconds meant everything in smoke and fire.
Better to have them attached to you than scrambling around trying to find the keys and then locating the door. One less thing to worry about. I’d also trained her to search for the lock blindfolded as an added precaution.
It was the little things that mattered, and she worked in a wooden bakery for Christ’s sake.
“Yes, Scott. Here on my pully key chain.”
Her eyes couldn’t have rolled any harder.
“Good girl, I’ll lock you in then. Catch ya later, cupcake.”
I ignored the way my cock had jumped when I’d said good girl and made a swift exit.
Oh man, how much did I want to whisper words like that in her ear?
A whole fucking lot. That was for damn sure.
I let my mind sit in that fantasy for a little longer than usual. I was alone in my car, and it wasn’t hurting anyone. Although the more I thought about it the deeper the ache went, and not just to my balls.
My heart was a bottomless cavern when it came to my feelings for Jenna.
I was gonna have to fill the damn thing with concrete if I had any hope of sticking to my plan.
It was late when we headed back into the city. And by we, I meant me and Wren because somehow along the way it had been decided she was going to come and stay with me. In my apartment. With me.
I didn’t want to say yes but I couldn’t very well say no either. So, for the foreseeable future, my brother’s ex-girlfriend would be living here.
Imagine how well that was going to go down when Knox eventually found out.
I opened the door and stepped inside, turning on the lights and placing her luggage carefully on the breakfast bar.
She giggled as she took in my apartment, and I became self-conscious.
“What’s so funny over there?” I asked.
“Just how very Scott this apartment is.”
I looked around and didn’t see all that much. I mean, I wasn’t totally inept. It was clean and I liked the brickwork, and I loved my entertainment unit. I had my bike hanging in the entryway and some department stuff here and there. The couch was comfy, too, and Jenna had added a few touches to make it a bit more like a home.
She’d hung the three framed Wolves Jerseys—all my brothers’—and a photo of them on the ice together along with my first-ever FDNY jersey on the far wall.
I’d just gotten home from an especially brutal shift at work one evening and she was standing here, proud as punch.
“Surprise!” she’d shouted, and I’d wanted to fall to my knees in front of her and beg her to be mine.
My Jenna was so inherently kind. It was a simple word, but she embodied everything it stood for, and it was those little things that had me wishing for a life I didn’t deserve and couldn’t have.
She was everything I had ever needed. Everything I had ever wanted, and still, that voice inside my head won out.
“As I said, it’s tiny,” I muttered when I opened the guest bedroom door. When I looked at the bed, I couldn’t remember the last time anyone had stayed over.
Having her living with me was going to be an adjustment.
“Just about fits a twin and is only used by Jack or my brothers. Jenna sometimes if she drinks too much here.” But I was drawing a blank at the last time that had happened.
Her head snapped to mine. “Do you see her often? God, you two were inseparable at one point.”
“Most days.”
I threw a thumb over my shoulder in the general direction of Jenna’s bakery and apartment.
“Her bakery is a block over and she lives above it.”
“Wow, that is close,” she murmured.
I went and fetched her stuff from the counter, placing it on the bed for her to unpack, and then I headed for the bathroom to take stock of what didn’t need to be kept in there. In the end, I managed to free it up as best I could and then went on the hunt for extra towels.
I found a few in one of the drawers in my room that weren’t ratty or holey and then took them to her.
She was staring at the pile like she expected me to only give her one, but she was a girl and I thought she’d need more.
“You’ll need an extra one for all that hair, right?” I shrugged and then took her back out into the kitchen to show her how my coffee machine worked.
But it was really getting late, and I needed to sleep. I wasn’t as rigid with my routine as Jason, but it was close.
“You’ll be okay here tomorrow while I’m working? If you need anything, just turn left out of the building and walk two blocks and you won’t miss the firehouse. To get to Jenna’s, turn right and it’s up on the corner.”
“Scott, honestly, I’ll be fine. I’m really grateful for you letting me stay here as it is. But maybe I could get a key if it wasn’t too much trouble?”
“Right, shit, of course.” I opened a drawer in the kitchen and gave her the spare I kept in there.
“How long will you be at work tomorrow?”
“It’s a twenty-four-hour shift and I start at 7 a.m.”
She blanched. Sometimes I forgot how strange it must seem to work the hours I did.
“Well, night then, Wren,” I bid as I made my way to the bathroom. I needed to take a shower and brush my teeth before I could get into bed.
“Night, Scott,” she echoed as she went back into the spare room.
I sat on the edge of my bed and pulled out my phone.
Me: Wren’s staying here.
My phone lit up immediately and I answered it before it even made a noise.
“This is so not the way I thought your trip out to your brother’s was gonna go,” she snickered.
“Well, I couldn’t say no, could I?”
“Scott, you do nothing you don’t want to do.”
“That’s not tr?—”
“You know what I mean. You wouldn’t go along with this if you didn’t think it was the right thing to do.”
“She has nowhere to go,” I lowered my voice. “I don’t think she has any money. She doesn’t have much of anything.”
“Oh, Wren.”
“I’ve told her where to find you, no doubt she’ll appear over the next few days.”
“Okay. Are you okay?”
“Fine,” I yawned.
“I’ll let you go, you sound about ready to crash.”
“No, I’m okay.”
“You know she could come stay here, don’t you? She could have my couch. Are you sure you’re okay with someone in your space like that?”
“Yeah, it’ll be fine, and hopefully not too long.”
“I know this is going to be an adjustment for you, but I bet it means the world to Wren. You’re a good man, Scott.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, I am gonna go now.”
She sighed. “Night, SAM.”
I smiled. “Night, JAM.”