21. Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-One
This wasn’t good.
In fact, it was terrible.
The next day Simon was miserable. He’d barely gotten any sleep the night before. All he could think about was Jenna and how he needed to fix things with her.
He blamed himself. If he hadn’t mistakenly thought that she was the one who sold information about him to the tabloids, he would have gone to her right after Gwen left.
He would have clarified things with her.
Instead, the thoughts had festered in Jenna’s mind, and it was going to take something special to convince her to hear him out.
He’d heard her leave for work extra early that morning. Now he had until she got home to come up with a way to convince her to give him another chance. Was that even possible?
It had to be. He refused to accept any other answer. But first he had to get her to understand that he hadn’t been cheating on her.
And so, he started to plan his way of winning Jenna back. It didn’t take him long to realize he was going to need some help with this plan.
He reached for his phone. He had Myra’s number from when she watched Gus while he went to the ER after his fall.
His finger hovered over the keypad. Would she even talk to him? After all, he’d seen how close she was with Jenna.
Feeling like he was backed into a corner, he didn’t have much choice. He would do whatever it took to win back Jenna—even if it meant groveling.
Myra’s phone rang and rang. He wondered if she was busy or if she was ignoring him. Just when he thought it was going to switch to voicemail, he heard: “What do you want?”
Simon swallowed hard. “Myra, it’s Simon.”
“I know who it is. What do you want?”
“I need your help with your sister.”
The sound of a huff came across the phone. “And why do you think that I’m going to help you?”
He knew convincing her to help him wasn’t going to be easy, but he was starting to get a little warm under the collar. “Because you want your sister to be happy.”
Then he heard the most unexpected thing. Myra laughed at him. “You want me to believe that you make her happy?”
“Yes.” He said it confidently because it was the truth. “When she isn’t mad at me, we’re very happy together. I don’t think she wants to lose what we’ve found any more than I do.”
Somewhere in his explanation the laughing had ceased. He could only hope it was progress.
“It sure didn’t look like you cared about my sister when you were kissing that blonde.”
“You saw that?”
“You aren’t even going to try and deny it?”
“No. It happened. But I didn’t kiss her. She kissed me, and I quickly ended it. It was unprovoked and unwanted.”
“Uh-huh.” Disbelief rang out in her voice.
“It’s the truth. I love Jenna.” He couldn’t believe those words had crossed his lips, but now that they were out there, he had no intention of taking them back. “If she would just give me another chance, I swear I won’t mess it up.”
“Now you’re talking. Does Jenna know any of this?”
“No. That’s why I need your help.”
There was a slight pause. “What do you need me to do?”
He filled her in on his plan, and Myra once more surprised him when she gave him some tips of her own. It seemed as though he’d won over one of Jenna’s sisters. He could only hope his plan would win over the woman of his dreams.
She was nervous.
Jenna had arrived at the market early that morning. She’d used her key to get in through the back door, just like her father had done when she’d gone to work with him as a little girl. She still struggled with him being gone. She couldn’t believe she’d never hear his voice again.
She pushed aside the wave of grief that had come over her. She focused fully on her presentation. Neil’s eyes momentarily widened when she set up her visual presentation on the computer.
She walked him through the plan, step by step. He’d had some comments here and there. She noted them to work into her plan later.
At the end of her presentation, her brother turned to her and said, “You know that I walked in here ready to turn you down.”
At that moment, she felt totally deflated.
But at least she had an answer. Her future wasn’t on Bluestar Island.
It was time to move to the mainland. The decision weighed heavily on her.
It wouldn’t be easy to leave the place that she’d called home her entire life.
And then there was the part about moving away from her family.
As much as they could get on her nerves, she loved them.
“Jenna, did you hear me?” Neil’s voice drew her from her thoughts.
“What?”
“I said that I was impressed with your presentation. You made some valid points. And as long as you’re willing to make a few adjustments here and there, I think we can make this work.”
“Wait. What?” She couldn’t believe what he’d just said. “You like the plan?”
He smiled and nodded. “Dad would be proud of you. I better watch out, or you’ll be taking over my job next.”
She smiled. “Not yet,” she teased. “I have the front of the store to remodel. When do you want to get started?”
“It’ll have to be done after hours. The front of the store will be a mess for a while. How long do you think it’ll take you to order the new stuff?”
“At least a few weeks.”
“Okay. We’ll start remodeling next month.” Then he held out his hand to her. “Thank you for not giving up. I think I was just worried about changing things now that Dad’s gone. But you’re right. The business has to keep changing to meet the shoppers’ needs.”
After her shift was over, Jenna walked to the break room. She wanted to be excited about her brother approving her proposal for the front of the market, but she was still heartbroken about Simon.
She missed him. She knew she shouldn’t, but her heart didn’t care about logic. She wanted to be able to share this great news with him, but she couldn’t.
When she entered the break room, two of her siblings rushed up to her.
“What did he say?” Myra asked.
All Jenna had to do was smile.
“He agreed?” When Jenna nodded, Myra let out a delighted squeal. “Aw...Jenna, that’s great.” Myra hugged her.
Caleb clapped her on the back. “Good job.”
“Thanks.” She smiled proudly. “Caleb, what are you doing here?”
He arched a brow. “Why wouldn’t I be here?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be out fishing?”
“I just got back. We don’t set sail again for a few weeks.”
Caleb had been working on someone else’s boat for years. He was saving up to buy his own boat. Every time he went to sea, their mother was a nervous wreck. She hated it, but Caleb loved the sea too much to give it up.
“Well, don’t make yourself a stranger,” Jenna said.
“I know,” Myra said. “Let’s go throw some darts at High Tide Pub.”
“I don’t have any plans,” Caleb said. “Count me in.”
“Go ahead without me.” Jenna moved to her locker. “I’m going to head home.”
“You’re anxious to go see Simon, aren’t you?” Myra grinned at her.
“No. Definitely not.” Now what had she gone and added that last part for? Her sister was going to pounce on it.
“Trouble in paradise?” Myra leaned back against the arm of the old couch.
“We’re neighbors. Nothing more.” She wasn’t about to go into the details. Although, knowing the gossips in Bluestar, probably everyone knew about that kiss.
“All the more reason to go with us.” Myra walked over to her. She linked her arm with Jenna’s. “Let’s go.”
Jenna didn’t want to throw darts, but she also wasn’t anxious to go home. The last thing she wanted to do was run into Simon. That would come soon enough. She didn’t want to rush it.
“Okay,” Jenna said. “But I can’t stay long.”
Not even two hours later...
and she was headed home.
Jenna was utterly and completely distracted. Her game had been totally off. The darts she threw missed the board more than they hit it. One dart was so far off course it almost hit the board next to theirs. Oops!
As she drove home, clouds gathered overhead. It looked like they were in for more rain that evening. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be accompanied by another storm.
When she pulled up to the duplex, she was happy to find a spot right in front of the house. Of course, she ended up parking right behind Simon.
She wondered how he was doing—from a purely medical standpoint. She hoped he was taking care of himself. But none of that was her problem now. The blonde could worry over him—or not—either way he wasn’t her problem.
She made her way up the walk. It was surprisingly dark out for six o’clock on a summer evening. Fast-moving clouds gathered overhead. She refused to look in the direction of Simon’s place. He was no longer a part of her life.
At the top of the steps, Gus rushed over to greet her. She hadn’t even known that he was on the porch. She had missed him.
She bent over and petted him. “Who’s a good boy?” Gus lifted his head and licked her cheek. “That’s right. Gus is a good boy. I’ve missed you.”
“He’s missed you too.” Simon’s voice gave her a start.
She glanced to the side. She had to squint to see into the shadows to see Simon sitting there with his laptop.
She immediately straightened. “I should be going.”
“Jenna, wait.” She could hear him getting to his feet.
She moved to her door and slipped the key into the lock. In the background, she could hear Simon’s footsteps as he approached her.
“Please hear me out.” The pleading tone in his voice dug at her heart.
Her mind said to go inside and close the door. There was nothing he could say to fix the situation. It was all said and done.
But her heart pleaded with her to give him a chance—to hear him out. She wanted nothing more than to be wrong about him. But how could he explain away what she’d seen with her own eyes?
She crossed her arms. “Fine. Speak.”
“Jenna, I’m sorry but not for what you think. The woman you saw me with was my agent. I had no idea she was coming to the island. She just showed up.”
“And she fell into your arms?”
“No. She came because someone told the tabloids that I was here on Bluestar Island. She knew how much the sensationalized headlines had messed up my life in the past. She wanted to be here for me. At least that’s what she said.”