by Rachel Hanna
"Jenna, you'll have plenty of chances to build memories with her even if they are without her father. I'm sure you’ll meet someone one day who will be your real soul mate, and he can be a father to her." It pained Kyle to say "soul mate" as they had talked so many times about how they were meant to be together forever.
"I had a soul mate," she whispered just loud enough for him to hear. Kyle's phone started ringing just in time to break the tension in the room.
"Sorry, I've got to take this," he said as he pushed the answer button. "Hello? Yeah. Tell him I want the holes patched on the main floor and that damaged wall in the guest room needs to be sheet-rocked again. Right. I'll see you guys in about an hour."
"You seem to be in high demand these days," Jenna said smiling as she watched him type something into his phone.
"I guess so."
"How's business?"
"Good. You know Mom has the real estate company. I worked as an agent with her for quite awhile before venturing out on my own a couple of years ago."
"I used to see your signs when I would pass through January Cove."
"You did?"
"Yes. I’m embarrassed to say that I dialed the number on the sign many times, but never hit send."
"You wanted to call me?"
"Of course. I've missed you. You were my best friend in the world, and now I'm your least favorite person on the planet. That's hard to digest," she said just as Kaitlyn came bounding down the stairs again.
"Mommy, can we get a puppy?" she asked out of the blue.
"No, sweetie. We're moving soon, and we can't have a puppy where we're going."
"We're moving? But I don't want to move out of my house, Mommy!" she said as her eyes welled with tears.
"We will talk about this later, Kaitlyn." The little girl stomped back upstairs yelling the whole way about how she didn't want to move. Kyle felt horrible and realized he had to do something.
"Listen, Jenna, I don't want you guys to have to rush out of here. You've got enough stress on you as it is. There's not much that has to be done to get it ready for sale, so why don't you stay here for another week or two while my guys do the work?"
"Seriously? You would do that for me?"
"I would do it for Kaitlyn. She seems like a nice kid, and she's already had one man disappoint her. I'm not going to be the second one."
"Thanks," she said softly as she looked down at her feet. "I appreciate it more than you will ever know." Their eyes met for a long moment as the tension built between them, and Kyle knew that was his cue to leave.
"I've got to get back to work, but I'll have my guys get in touch to coordinate what they need to do for me."
"Oh... Okay..." she stammered as he walked toward the door. Kyle turned around.
"I meant what I said, Jenna. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy."
"I know," she said. He walked down the stairs to his Jeep and sped away as Jenna closed the door.
Jenna walked across the room and sat down on the sofa trying to catch her breath from the shock of seeing Kyle again. He looked good, better than good. He looked strong and sexy and successful. He looked like everything she'd known he would be one day until her parents talked her out of being with him.
How could it have been a coincidence that the very person who bought her foreclosed home was Kyle? And yet she believed him when he said that he had nothing to do with it. After all, how could he have known that she was J.A. Watson?
A knock at her door startled her out of her dreamy thoughts. Had he come back? Would he sweep her into his arms, cover her with warm kisses and take her away from all of her problems?
"Hey, girl. How's Kaitlyn?" Becca said as Jenna swung the door open.
"Oh, it's you..." she said sounding let down.
"Gee, thanks," Becca said laughing.
"No, it's not what you think. Come on in. Kaitlyn is feeling much better. Back to her old self it seems."
"I just wanted to come by and check on you. See how you're doing after getting that note last night. Why haven't you started moving?" she asked as she looked around at the non-packed house.
"Well, that's quite a story," Jenna said with a slight smile. For the next few minutes, she recounted the shocking visit from Kyle.
"Wait. Are we talking about soul mate Kyle? The Kyle that I've heard about for years?"
"The very same one. Only he hates me. He said I'm his least favorite person on the planet, but he will let me stay another week for Kaitlyn." Jenna frowned and stood to get a glass from the cabinet. "Care for some sweet tea?"
"No, thanks. So, let me get this straight. He's going to let you stay a week, but then you're getting the boot?"
"Yep. But at least it buys me some time. Maybe I can find a decent place that will take Kaitlyn and me. I don't make much at the diner, but surely I can find a studio apartment."
"Well, it is the busy season around here," Becca reminded her. The whole area was busy from spring through summer, and a lot of people came to the shore for months at a time, which made rental properties hard to come by.
"True. I just don't want to have to take Kaitlyn out of her school. She's had enough change and turmoil in the last few months."
"Still no word from Nick?"
"No. He doesn't care, Becca. It makes me sad. I just don't understand how a father, especially a financially stable one, could do this to his daughter. He's mad at me, but she doesn't deserve any of this."
"He's the one who cheated, Jenna."
"I know. But he blames that on me. I wasn't blameless in our marriage, and he says what I did was the same as cheating."
"Oh, please, what a cop out. You didn't cheat. That was..."
"Stupid dreaming, apparently," Jenna said finishing her sentence. She didn't like to talk about what she had done to contribute to wrecking her marriage, and she didn't like to admit that she never loved Nick in the first place.
"Well, I'd better get back. Let me know if you need help packing," she said hugging Jenna.
"Thanks."
Kyle drove his Jeep into January Cove and then pulled off the side of the road next to the beach. He remembered this place well. It was the first time he and Jenna kissed, on the big rock at Emerald Cove. The carnival had been set up in the square and they'd walked to get ice cream at The Big Dip before walking down the beach.
He remembered that she wore a red and white floral sundress with cowboy boots. She always wore pink tinted lip-gloss, and when he kissed her she tasted like cotton candy. Ever since their breakup, he’d had a hard time seeing cotton candy as it always conjured up images of her. Of them. Of what he'd lost. And the worst part was that he seemed to have no control over her leaving him that day so long ago. He'd struggled with maintaining control over his life since then.
He watched from his car as seagulls dove down and picked up random scraps of food left behind by tourists. The sights and sounds of the ocean were in his blood, and he could never imagine living anywhere else but January Cove. Of course, a few years ago he could've never imagined living his life without Jenna. But he had, and he would continue to do so. This was just a blip on the radar screen of life. He wouldn't get diverted off his path now. He wouldn't get sucked back in. No matter how incredibly sexy she still looked or how adorably cute her daughter was, he wasn't making that mistake again.
"Jenna? Are you serious?" Kyle had called his oldest brother, Jackson, for some guidance on what to do about the situation with Jenna. Of course, Jackson probably wasn't the best person to ask. He'd been so livid with Jenna's parents back then that he'd confronted her father about how they had treated Kyle.
"Yep. It was a shock to go to the door and see her standing there."
"How'd she look?"
"Beautiful, as always. Puffy red eyes from crying, but still gorgeous."
"Damn."
"I know. Not what I was hoping for. Why couldn't she be three-hundred pounds heavier and covered in acne?" Kyle asked laughing.
"Because
you would’ve still loved her," Jackson said, which was the truth and Kyle knew it. "Man, you know how I feel about love, but you could never get over her."
"I'm over her," Kyle insisted.
"No, you're not."
"Shut up. You're not even here, Jackson. What do you know? You're all the way in Atlanta making the big bucks, Mr. Multi-Million Dollar Real Estate Agent," Kyle loved to jab at his brother.
"You know as well as I do that I might sell millions of dollars in houses every year, but I sure as hell don't make millions," Jackson said laughing.
"If you did, I'd expect a cut of that since I taught you everything you know."
"Whatever," Jackson said snorting. The two brothers were close, always competitive and continually arguing about something.
Being from such a large family, and not having a father for most of their lives, the Parker kids had learned to be close. They protected each other and their mother with a ferocity that wasn't seen in many families. When Jenna had left him standing at the end of their family's driveway, it had been his brother Jackson who'd helped him nurse his emotional wounds and get back to work. Although just a little older than Kyle, Jackson had been the man of the family.
"Man, I've gotta go. One of my sellers is calling and bitching about something," Jackson said gruffly. He owned a real estate company in Atlanta, and he won awards every year for his high sales volume. Jackson was hard driven and a staunch competitor to every agent in town. No one wanted to go up against him, and the agents in January Cove were probably happy to see him leave a few years ago when he went off in search of riches in the big city. No longer tied to January Cove out of the obligation of helping to raise kids, Jackson had finally gone to pursue his dreams.
Kyle hung up the phone and went back to his own paperwork, trying desperately to put the thought of Jenna, sitting in her bathrobe, out of his mind.
Jenna had spent all morning dialing numbers over and over. Her fingers were starting to ache from all the dialing. Every rental listing she called about was either already gone, too expensive or way outside of Kaitlyn's school district. Already three days into her week long extension from Kyle, and she was no closer to moving out than she had been the day he came by.
Her job at the diner was also dicey at the moment. Word had gotten around that she was foreclosed, and her boss was starting to act a little strange. Small town life could sure be a challenge sometimes, and gossip was the language most people spoke. She often longed for January Cove where everyone knew her, and she could feel like she belonged.
As she looked through the newspaper, she heard a noise coming from the kitchen. It got louder and louder as she approached the door, and that's when she realized that her dishwasher had somehow malfunctioned and there was water all over the hardwood floors.
"Oh, my gosh!" she yelled as she attempted to get over to the dishwasher. Water was filling up the kitchen floor fast. She slid across the floor trying to find the water shutoff, but to no avail.
"Jenna?" she heard Kyle's voice behind her.
"Kyle, help!" she yelped as she tried to get up. He slid across the floor on his feet, somehow not falling until he got right over to the cabinet door where the shutoff was. He fell onto his butt, yelled, “ouch,” and managed to get the water shut off and the dishwasher door open.
Covered in water from head to toe, Jenna sat up and hung her head. Before he could say anything, she started laughing and crying at the same time.
"What on Earth?" he said.
"I don't know. This is my life," she said throwing her hands in the air as he sat across from her in the same puddle of water. "How did you get in?"
"I heard you scream when I was at the door, so I, um..." he pointed behind them where she could see the door had been busted open.
"Sorry," she said. "I swear I've never had problems with the house before."
"Murphy's Law," he said with a quirk of a smile. "I'm used to it. Looks like we have a plumbing leak to fix... and a front door."
"You were worried about me?" she asked meeting his eyes with hers.
"Anytime I hear any woman scream, I try to help. No biggie."
It pained her to listen to him lump her in with "any woman." She used to be his only woman, the love of his life. Maybe he just didn't feel those things for her anymore. For a moment, she toyed with the idea of telling him how she was partially to blame for the ruin of her marriage and her small family, but there was no reason to. He hated her, or at least severely disliked her.
Kyle ambled up to his feet and held out a hand to her. She looked at it for a moment and remembered for a split second all those times in high school when she fell at the skating rink and that same hand hoisted her to her feet.
"Come on," he said, urging her to take his hand. He braced himself against the counter and she put her hand in his, but somehow his feet slipped from under him and he fell to the ground on his back. Jenna went with him and landed squarely on top of him, her ample breasts pressed against his rock solid chest muscles and her lips only inches from his. It was all she could do not to reach down and bite that full lower lip of his, as she had so many times before.
"Are you okay?" she whispered, worried that he'd hit his head or hurt his back. He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes as if he was willing away some memory.
"Yes. I'm okay," he said softly. For a moment in time, they both froze, neither of them attempting to move.
"Kyle, I..." she started to say, but he suddenly moved and started to sit up. The verdict was in — he wanted no part of her. And who could blame him? She'd left him high and dry without a reasonable explanation all those years ago. He'd be crazy to trust her again.
"Let's try this again," he said with a smile as he pulled her up and helped her into the living room. Jenna grabbed two towels so they could both dry off and then threw some across the kitchen floor, although it wasn't enough to clean up the water.
"I think I have one of those wet vac things in the garage," she said. "Will that work?"
"Yeah. Tell me where it is, and I'll get it," he said.
"Should be on the floor in the back right corner."
A few minutes later, Kyle was back in the house running the wet vac over the kitchen floor. She watched him in his form fitting jeans and his navy blue t-shirt and wondered if this is what being married to him would have been like. Mr. Fix It working on the house, making it into her dream home. Would they have had their own children? Would he have taken her on those much-promised picnics at the beach that Nick never took her on?
"I think it's all cleaned up. You got time for me to look at the leak?" he asked.
"Sure. My friend Becca is picking Kaitlyn up at school today, anyway. She lives next door, and Kaitlyn is spending the night. So, I've got all the time in the world." She was secretly hoping he would stay longer knowing that.
"Great. Let me go look in that toolbox in the garage and see if I have anything I need," he said walking past her.
When he came back inside, he stopped and looked at her.
"What?" she asked.
"Don't you want to change into dry clothes? You're drenched," he said laughing as he reached out and squeezed some excess water from the front of her shirt. She shivered as soon as he touched her, and she was sure he noticed because his breath caught and pulled his hand back quickly.
"Right. Yes. I'll be back," she said as she backed up toward the stairs.
Chapter 6
Kyle certainly hadn't expected this today. He was just stopping by to check on Jenna's progress of moving out so he could schedule his rehab guys. When he found her screaming and sprawled out on the wet kitchen floor, all he could think about was rescuing her. Hearing her scream was terrifying for him. What if someone was inside hurting her, taking advantage of her? What if her sorry ex-husband had come back to do her harm? Several scenarios had run through his head all at once, and the only reasonable answer he could come up with at the time was to bust the door down like some action movie he
ro.
But he wasn't her hero. He was her ex, too. And now he was her temporary landlord. He couldn't let this go any further, which was why he sat straight up when she landed on him on that wet kitchen floor. All he'd wanted to do at the time was scoop her into his arms and kiss her passionately to make up for all those years apart. He wondered how so many years could have passed yet it seemed like just an instant when he looked at her.
"All dry," she said softly as she reappeared in the kitchen where Kyle was working to fix the leak.
"Good," he said as he sat up and pulled his shirt over his head. "Mind running this through the dryer for me?"
He swore that he heard her breath hitch before she smiled and took the shirt from his hand. "S...Sure," she stammered. He didn't know why it made him happy to think that he was making her uncomfortable. Was it some kind of revenge? Was he hoping that she'd be sorry for leaving him all those years ago, looking like a fool at the end of his own driveway?
"So, how's the apartment hunting going?" he asked when she returned to the kitchen and sat down across the room at the breakfast table.
"Not very good. Every place I call on is either full for the season or too expensive. A couple were in horrible parts of town, and with Kaitlyn I just can't chance that."
"You've tried looking in Carter's Creek and Millhaven?" he asked, referring to two of the largest apartment complexes in the whole area. He knew they'd be the most likely places to find an apartment even in the busy season.
"Yes. Neither has an opening until at least late August."
"Yikes. That's almost four months from now..." Kyle said.
"Don't worry. I'll keep trying. I know you can't let us stay here forever," she said softly.
Kyle sat up and looked at her. "No, I can't. I have to pay some pretty hefty payments on this place because I used a short-term private loan. I need to flip it sooner rather than later. If I'd have known it was you and your daughter..."
"I understand, Kyle. It's not your fault. In fact, all of this is my fault."
