Chapter 43
Chapter Forty-Three
I n the light of the day, I regretted all my choices. Every single choice I had ever made in my life up until the moment of getting dressed in a cute sundress and walking out my door felt like the worst possible mistake.
Jenna: Going to meet a stranger on the boardwalk. If you don’t hear from me in an hour, send search and rescue.
I sent the text to Cat. She had been texting me for a week asking if I was okay and what had happened with Jared, and I had ignored her. I felt kind of bad springing this insane news on her, but it couldn’t be helped. Someone had to know.
I walked to the beach like I was walking to my own funeral. I should have been excited, but I just felt anxious. Anxious that he was a creep. That I would fall for him, but he wouldn’t have feelings for me. Anxious that if Jared saw us, he would be up set—which was the whole point but also somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I didn’t want to see him upset. Too late now. I was on my way. There was a chance Jared didn’t show up at all, which also upset me.
I got to the boardwalk early. It occurred to me as I climbed the steps that he might get there early too, and then I wouldn’t have the extra time I wanted to wrap my head around meeting this absolute stranger who wasn’t a stranger at all. People dated online all the time. I was overthinking this—like everything.
I got to the fudge shop and spun in a circle like an idiot but didn’t see anyone that looked like they were looking for someone. So, I sat on the bench out front and waited, watching the people passing by in their happy little vacation bubbles and wishing I could switch places with them.
I looked at my phone. Five past twelve. Oh my God, was he going to stand me up? I took a deep breath and told myself to stop being crazy. I sat with my leg bouncing up and down, checking my phone every few minutes. When he was fifteen minutes late, I felt like an idiot. He wasn’t going to show.
What was wrong with me? Was I so awful that no one wanted me?
When Jared materialized out of the crowd, interrupting my self-loathing, tears burned my eyes. My brilliant plan of making Jared jealous had backfired tremendously. Now, I found myself heartbroken and vulnerable all over again. I looked down at my flip flops, hoping he would get the hint and k eep walking. Of course, my luck wouldn’t be that good. I felt his arm brush mine as he sat down beside me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, grasping desperately at anger rather than heartbreak.
“Walking to the bakery,” he said with a shrug.
“Well, you can keep walking,” I said. “I’m waiting for someone.”
“Who?” he asked.
“None of your business.” I turned away so I could more discretely wipe away an errant tear.
“Listen, I know you hate me with the fiery passion of a million suns and all that, but could you walk with me for just a second?” he asked.
“I just said I am waiting for someone,” I said.
“It will only take a second. Your friend can wait,” he said.
I looked up and down the boardwalk to see if any men were walking with purpose toward the bench we sat on. I didn’t want to go with Jared, but I also couldn’t bear the thought of waiting like a fool.
“Fine,” I said. “But just because I am coming with you, doesn’t mean I forgive you.”
“Of course not,” he said.
He started walking toward the bakery and I had no choice but to follow. I couldn’t even begin to guess what the hell he wanted me to see. But as soon as the bakery came into sight I gasped, stopping dead in my tracks as my stomach fell down to my feet. I blinked several times. There on the bakery, below the awning, a wooden sign read: The Baking Chick. My heart raced in my chest as my mind struggled to keep up .
“I don’t understand,” I whispered.
“Do you like it?” he asked.
I turned to him, eyes wide, really seeing him for the first time as all of the coincidences I was too blind to see over the last week clicked into place. Jared always knowing where I was, making me chocolate chip scones, knowing all the horror movie references, his dog's name, calling me a rock star. Now that I saw it, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it before.
Tears turned in my eyes. “You,” I said, my voice shaking with emotion.
“Me,” he said with a nod as he lifted his hand to cup my cheek and wipe my tears with his thumb.
“I feel so stupid,” I said.
He laughed, “You have never been stupid. I have been an absolute idiot though.”
“That’s an understatement.”
“I appreciate you keeping me humble,” he said.
I shook my head, still trying to catch up to the reality that my best friend online was the man standing in front of me. They had been the same person all along. Waves of emotions crashed through me so quickly that I couldn’t catch up.
“Jenna, I have been a fool. I fell in love with you online. You were unlike anyone I had ever met: smart, funny, driven, creative, kind, grounded. You have so much passion. You have more passion in your pinky toe than most people have in their whole bodies. I looked forward to our conversations every day. So much so, that I felt like I couldn’t possibly live without knowing mo re of you. I came to Cape Shores for you. But then, you couldn’t stand me. You had talked so much about a bakery by the ocean, so I thought I could win you over with it, but then you hated me. I mean really, really hated me. And I didn’t know what to do,” he shook his head. “I didn’t want to compete with you. I would have gifted you the damn bakery from day one, but you are so goddamn stubborn. I thought if I showed up here, I could make you see that. I could confess my love, and we could live happily ever after in our bakery by the beach.”
“Love?” I whispered, new tears clogging my throat as my heart stuttered in my chest.
He sighed. “Yes, Jenna, I know you hate romance and think it can’t possibly exist in real life, but I am desperately, hopelessly in love with you. I defied my whole family to buy a defunct bakery. For you.”
My brain couldn’t catch up with my heart as it fluttered, giddy at his touch. “Wait,” I said. “You still rigged the preview because you didn’t believe in me.”
“That was stupid, but not because I didn’t believe in you. It was because I just wanted to hand you the bakery. I know, I sound absolutely insane. I probably am.”
“It’s all those horror movies,” I said.
“Maybe it’s the romcoms,” he said.
I still didn’t think I had fully meshed the two men in my mind, PotatoBake888 and Jared, but his warm hands against my neck, his thumb rubbing along my jaw, and his lips inches from my own, made it hard to think. This man had bought a bakery for me. If that wasn’t commitment, I didn’t know what was. Then all thoughts fell out of my brain as he kissed me, pulling me hard and tight against him, his lips hungry and forceful.
“Plot twist,” Cat shouted.