by Piper Rayne
Greg nodded. “I have some news,” he said.
Nate looked at him questioningly.
“I heard a rumor that Jenna is back in town.”
Nate laughed, shaking his head, and punched Greg in the shoulder.
5
Jenna
Why the hell was this affecting her so much? Jenna was pretty damn sure it was the alcohol, it had to be the reason why she was such an emotional mess. She sat at the table in the corner with Naomi drinking a cocktail—Jenna didn’t even know what cocktail it was anymore. Or how many she’d had.
“I think we need to get you home,” Naomi said.
“For what?” Jenna asked. “I’m just going to lie in the bed I used to sleep in as a teenager and stare at my ceiling, feeling like my whole world is crashing down on me.”
Naomi rolled her eyes and groaned. The singer had already switched off his mic, the lights had come on, and the patrons were starting to trickle out of the restaurant and bar area. Everyone was leaving. The singer was packing up. Essentially, the night had come to a close.
But Jenna didn’t want to go home. She didn’t want to be here at all, in fact. Because, as if it wasn’t hard enough to deal with all the memories that had come rushing back when she walked into her childhood room, it was a hundred times worse now that she’d seen Nate.
And worse still, because Jenna was probably drunk.
“You know what?” Naomi said. “We need food.”
“We’re in a restaurant,” Jenna pointed out. She glanced at the double doors with their porthole windows that led to the kitchen.
“Yeah, but the kitchen closes at ten here. Nate isn’t going to force his shift to stay up until past midnight.”
“How damn noble,” Jenna said sarcastically.
Naomi shook her head. “But there is the twenty-four-hour burger joint just down the road. They pick up the pieces when Nate closes.”
“Clever,” Jenna said. She could imagine they were making a killing if Nate was doing events like this every now and then. She didn’t want to admit it, but having something like a club in a tiny town was a great idea. It was working.
“Come on, let’s go,” Naomi said, lifting her arm through Jenna’s and pulling her up.
Her knees were jelly, and the world spun when she walked. It felt like she was walking on a mattress.
“Slow down, I’m on heels,” Jenna said.
Naomi giggled. “You’re really not. You’ve been wearing flats all night.”
Jenna glanced down at her shoes and wondered why the hell she was feeling so unbalanced.
But it was just the alcohol. Jenna glanced toward the bar. She couldn’t see Nate, but she knew he was there somewhere. And she knew it was his fault that she felt like she was going to fall on her face at any moment.
The burger joint really was just down the road. Naomi and Jenna walked the short distance with Naomi holding onto her all the time.
“You’re such a good friend,” Jenna said to her. “I left you behind, too. I know that. And you’re still so nice to me. And now you’re looking after me when I am nothing but a nuisance.”
Naomi shook her head. “You’re not a nuisance, just drunk. And I know you left me behind. But at least I had a heads up.”
Her words stung. Because Jenna hadn’t told Nate that she was leaving before she got the hell out of Dodge.
“He deserved better than me,” Jenna complained.
Naomi shook her head and dragged Jenna into the burger joint. They sat down and she grabbed a menu, deciding what she wanted.
“He didn’t deserve better than you, Jen,” she finally said. “He just deserved for you to be honest with him.”
Jenna pressed her head down on the table and wondered if it would leave a red mark if she lifted her head again.
“What are you having?” Naomi asked.
“Whatever you’re having,” Jenna answered.
A waitress came and Naomi ordered two burgers and two waters.
“Alcohol would be better,” Jenna said to the waitress.
The waitress raised her eyebrows. Naomi shook her head and the waitress nodded, making a note before walking away.
“Come on, all in all, seeing Nate again wasn’t so bad. Was it?” Naomi looked at Jenna. Jenna lifted her head from the table and rubbed the bit that had pressed against the Formica table.
“No, it could have been worse,” Jenna said. “I could have been in a space where I wasn’t allowed to drink at all. Then how the hell would I have been able to deal with it?”
Naomi chuckled. “Come on, I know it wasn’t that bad. You were terrified of seeing him. And now that it’s out of the way, you can breathe again.”
Jenna shook her head. “I don’t think it’s that easy.” She looked around the burger joint where they were sitting. It was a cheap kind of place, with plastic chairs and tables and linoleum floor. Turned out the small town had some new places after all. Jenna was glad that this place was still open. Otherwise, she would have raided her mom’s fridge. And Carol didn’t have much by way of junk food. At least she was trying to be healthy.
“Do you think the two of you could make it work again?” Naomi asked.
Jenna looked at her and narrowed her eyes. “Make what work again?”
Naomi rolled her eyes. “Quit playing dumb, you know what I’m talking about.”
Jenna sighed and shook her head. “I don’t think so. He’s angry with me. And with good reason, too. Besides, who says I want to make it work again?”
“You didn’t leave him because he was the problem,” Naomi pointed out. “You just left him because he wouldn’t leave this town with you.”
Jenna pulled up her shoulders.
“Although it might have been different if you had asked him directly.”
She shook her head. It made the room spin and she regretted it.
“We both know what he would have said.”
“Maybe he would have said yes.”
Jenna squeezed her eyes shut and scrubbed her face with her hands, makeup to hell. “Don’t do this to me.”
“Do what?”
“Don’t introduce a ‘what if’ I don’t think I’ll be able to handle.”
Naomi pulled up her shoulders. “I’m just saying.”
The burgers arrived and Jenna tucked into hers. It was the best food she’d ever tasted. She wasn’t sure if it was because the greasy, cheap food was the best or if it was because she was really drunk.
Slowly, though, as the food settled in her stomach, Jenna started feeling better. The room stopped spinning so badly and she felt more in control.
“You know what?” she said, looking up at Naomi.
“What?”
“I am going to talk to him.”
Naomi lowered her burger to her plate. “Good for you.”
“Now,” Jenna added.
“What? Now?”
Jenna nodded and stood, her burger only half eaten. “I think he deserves to know that I am allowed to do whatever the hell I want. I am an adult, and this is my life.”
Naomi shook her head. “Don’t talk to him now. Sober up, first.”
“No,” Jenna said. “I’m talking to him now. It’s the only time I’ll have the courage to do it.”
Without waiting for Naomi to say anything else, Jenna stormed out of the burger place and hurried back down the road the way they had come. Naomi couldn’t run after her because she was trapped with the bill. Yeah, so, Jenna felt like a bitch for leaving her with it. But she had to get this off her chest. She suddenly felt like if she didn’t get this out, she wouldn’t be able to sleep at all tonight.
The restaurant was completely empty by the time Jenna arrived. The doors were already closed, but when she pushed against them, they were unlocked and they opened easily. Jenna marched across the wooden floor with pieces of broken glass sticking to her shoes.
She looked around, trying to find Nate. Greg stood in the corner with a broom, sweeping up a pile
of broken glass.
“Where is he?” Jenna demanded.
Greg looked at her, surprised. “Nate?” he asked.
“Yeah, Nate, who else?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I was just asking. He’s in the office. I’m sure he’ll be back any minute.”
“I think it’s about time for you to leave, don’t you?” Jenna said. She didn’t want Greg alone. She knew he would get involved, he and Nate had been friends for the longest time. Greg never minded his own business.
Greg raised his eyebrows. “I’m still on duty.”
“Give me that,” Jenna said, taking the broom from him. “I’ll sweep until he comes out. There, now you can go off duty. I’ll do the rest.”
Greg frowned. “Are you serious? Maybe you should just go home and deal with this tomorrow.”
Jenna groaned. “Why is everyone telling me that?”
“Maybe because it’s a wise decision, considering that you clearly had a bit to drink,” Greg pointed out.
Jenna shook her head. “Then let me do the physical labor and it might help me sober up.”
Without him being able to say anything else, Jenna started sweeping, turning her back on him. For a moment, he watched Jenna. She felt his eyes on her back. But, instead of arguing or insisting to take back the broom, he walked past her with his hands in his pockets and let himself out.
Was he going to get in trouble for this? Was Jenna? She wasn’t even sure. All she knew was that she needed to talk to Nate. The sooner he came out of wherever he was hiding, the better.
Jenna thought to earlier when she had seen Nate for the first time. He had stood behind that bar, laughing, bantering back and forth with Greg. He hadn’t changed one bit since she had seen them last. And yet, in a way, he had changed completely. He had grown up, his face had become more angular, his body more sure, sharper around the edges. And when he had looked at her, his dark eyes had grown darker. The way they always did when he was angry.
He hadn’t wanted to talk to her. And Jenna didn’t blame him; at least, she hadn’t then.
Now, she did. Because they had been together long enough for him to have to do this. Six years meant something. At first, high school, which was all about figuring out what it was to be together at all. But then the years after had been serious. The “forever” kind of serious. Sure, they had only been kids. But it had been a lot of years that had meant something to her.
Although, he could probably argue.
Jenna swept the pieces of glass together, listening to how they jingled across the floor. The floor was sticky in patches where alcohol had been spilled, and it made her shoes cling to the floor.
Was she going to have to mop after this, too?
Jenna thought about Nate losing his father. She hadn’t been here for that. She hadn’t seen Bernie since she had left town. She regretted that now. Bernie had been such a great guy. And this had been his place.
Which meant that it was Nate’s place now. He owned it. And he had made such a success of it.
In loving memory of his father? Or as a way to deal with what Jenna had done to him?
Because she wasn’t an idiot. It had taken her a long time to get over him, to move on. It had taken her a very long time to stop thinking about him the moment she woke up, and to not dream about him when she closed her eyes.
Had it been the same for him? A part of her wished it had. A part of her wished that he had moved on without blinking an eye, because that would have meant that her decisions had only hurt her and not him, too.
But a part of her wished that he had suffered, that he had missed her so much, that he had been pining away for her all this time. So that their love would have been real.
But they had only been kids then. It probably hadn’t been that serious for him. And maybe it was better that way, too. If Jenna was the only one that had gotten hurt, it would have been the best outcome given the situation.
6
Nate
That night was a good night. It was easily one of the best nights they’d had in a while, and that was always good news. Nate put the cash in the safe in his office so that he could take it to the bank later.
After noting the amount he’d calculated in cash, he wrote it down in the ledger and closed the book, ready to lock up for the night.
It was almost 2 a.m. and he was exhausted. He loved working these late nights, seeing all the people coming and going, doing events. But it was starting to take a toll on him. He wasn’t twenty-one anymore.
At least, he would be able to sleep in tomorrow morning. The restaurant only opened late after a night like tonight.
“I think we should just get to the rest tomorrow,” Nate said, hearing Greg still sweeping. What a trooper, Nate would have left long ago if he were Greg.
When he pushed through the door and walked into the main dining room, Nate froze. It wasn’t Greg who stood in the middle of the dining room sweeping.
It was Jenna.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked. “And where is Greg?”
“I sent him home,” she said.
She looked a lot less drunk than she had when Naomi had escorted her out of the place. Nate had kept an eye on her all night. But there was still something about her, something a little off balance.
Or maybe it was just him.
“And what exactly gives you the right to do that?” Nate asked.
She pulled up her shoulders. “I wanted to talk to you.”
“Oh? And what makes you think I want to talk to you?”
Jenna shook her head, frowned a little, and pressed her fingers against her temple. Nate had the feeling she had a headache.
“I said I wanted to talk to you, not that you had to talk to me. You can just listen.”
Nate chuckled despite himself. He had forgotten how much fun she could be when she was full of shit.
“Fine,” he said, sliding onto a barstool and leaning one elbow against the bar. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
She shook her head. “Don’t make fun of me.”
Nate lifted a hand in self-defense for a moment but kept quiet so that she could speak.
“I just wanted to remind you that this is my life and I can do whatever the hell I want.”
Nate blinked at her. “That’s what you came back to tell me?” he asked.
Jenna nodded. “Exactly. So you don’t have any right to be mad at me for leaving.”
Okay, that was a whole different story. “Now, hold up. You can’t just talk about the past like that, like it’s no big deal. You leaving me behind isn’t the same as you doing whatever the hell you want with your life.”
“Of course it is,” she said. “I can feel your anger, even from here. It crackles all around me. You think I was wrong. But I wasn’t.”
He stood up from the barstool and moved a little closer to her. “What makes you think that you weren’t?” he asked. “You didn’t even say goodbye.”
“You wouldn’t have let me go!”
“You didn’t ask,” Nate said. “I didn’t even know that you were planning on leaving until after you were gone.”
Jenna shook her head. “I’m allowed to do that. I didn’t break any laws.”
“No,” Nate said, clenching his jaw. “You didn’t.”
Jenna squared herself and lifted her chin triumphantly. She thought she had won this argument.
“But considering that you are allowed to do whatever the hell you want,” he continued, “I am allowed to do the same thing.”
“Fair enough,” she said.
“Which means that if I want to be pissed off at you because you left without saying goodbye, I can.”
She gaped, sawing her jaw open and closed for a moment before she shook her head. “You can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
She didn’t have an answer. Because, even though she was standing here in front of him, bristling, trying to make some kind of point about who Nate was and wasn’
t supposed to be, she was still drunk and making no sense at all. And she was driving him crazy.
Because no matter how angry he was at her, no matter how hurt, he couldn’t resist her. He couldn’t help but think that she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Her hair was like spun gold and her eyes were sapphires. The freckles on her nose were exactly where they had been before, where Nate could draw constellations in them. And, somehow, they had ended up very close to each other, standing almost chest to chest.
She was so much shorter than Nate was, almost a whole head. But she glared up at him as if they were the same height, hands balled into fists as if they were going to fight. She stood on her toes as if, at any moment, she was going to take flight.
“I’m happy, you know,” she said. Nate could feel her anger dancing on her skin. What was she so angry about?
“I’m happy for you,” Nate said.
She shook her head. “No, you’re not. You’re not happy for me at all.”
Nate shook his head, too. “You can’t put words into my mouth, and you can’t decide how I feel. But that’s something you like to do, isn’t it? You like to make decisions for me, to assume that you know what I’m thinking and you know what I’m feeling. It’s why you decided that you didn’t even need to ask me about leaving, because you were sure you already knew what I was going to say. You’re still doing it.”
“I know you, Nate,” she said.
“Oh, honey, if you really knew me, you would never have left.”
Nate didn’t know why those words made her so angry, but she went from normal anger to quiet rage. She glared at him, fire boiling beneath her veins, and Nate could feel the atmosphere in the room shift, as if it was holding its breath, waiting for the storm.
She was going to lose her shit at him any moment. Because he knew her. He knew what she was like, and he knew what ticked her off. Most of the time, anyway. And he knew how she reacted when she was angry.
But, before she could do anything or say anything, the atmosphere between them shifted again. It became charged as she realized how close she was to Nate. She noticed a moment after Nate had realized it. Probably because she had been drinking. Nate had been drinking, too, of course. But he could handle alcohol a lot better.
