Jesse's Girl (Bishop Family Book 2)

by Brooke St. James

  Max shook his head. "Don't let Jesse scare you off," he said. "I don't know why he's even acting like that. He's gonna be gone soon, anyway. He usually doesn’t come in on Saturday." Max lifted his chin to yell across the room. "What are you doing here, Jesse?"

  "I'm meeting Pa," Jesse yelled back without turning around. "Were going fishin'."

  Max looked at me with a shrug. "I guess they're going up to the cabin."

  I took the bandana off of my head, and shook out my hair, running a hand through it as I leaned down to check myself in the motorcycle's rearview mirror. Max was right. There were black smears on my face. Maybe it just made me look grimy, but I told myself I looked cute that way, and Jesse had been testy because he was overwhelmed with desire. I smiled at myself for wishing such a thing. I wiped at the grease with my fingertips before Max handed me a paper napkin from his lunch box.

  Elvis had a better view of the door than we did because he announced that someone was coming in before we could see them. Jesse had only been there for a minute before I heard Elvis start squawking again.

  "Glory, hallelujah!" the bird said. "Glory, hallelujah!"

  I glanced at Max, who gave me a satisfied smile. "Your grandpa's here," he said, looking real proud of himself.

  "Does he say that to everybody who comes in here?" Pa asked as he came into the room.

  Out of respect or maybe just because of the fact that Pa didn't have the loudest voice anymore, Max reached over and turned off the radio completely.

  "Hey, Mr. Lewis!" Max said. "Nope, he just says that for you and Jacob since y'all are preachers.

  This caused my grandfather to smile in amazement as he regarded the bird. Then he looked at us. I could see when he caught sight of me for the first time and surprise sank in.

  "Hey there Rose, baby. You're here, too! I thought you might go to that game tonight in North Carolina."

  "No sir," I said, walking toward him to give him a hug. "I stayed here to catch up on some work."

  "I didn't know y'all would be in here," he said, hugging me.

  "I've been really busy with work and school, and then I started doing this project here at Bishop. I've been staring at nothing but numbers all week. I see them when I close my eyes. Mr. Max asked if I wanted to help him take apart this old bike, and I'm really thankful I did."

  "Jesse and I are going out to the cabin to do some sunrise fishing in the morning," he said. "We'll be back by tomorrow afternoon if you want to come with us, sweetie. It might be just the thing if you've had a long week."

  My grandpa and Jesse had always been close and I knew they went fishing at the cabin on a regular basis. Seeing as how I did my best to limit my exposure to Jesse over the years, I had never gone with them.

  "What do you think?" Pa asked Jesse as he walked toward us.

  "Think about what?" Jesse asked, having no idea what we were talking about. "Rose working here? I'm good with it as long as it's in the math department." He smiled at me as he came to stand next to us, and I squinted at him, which entertained him even further.

  "Math is exactly what she needs a break from," Pa said. "I was talking about her coming fishing with us. What do you think about that?"

  Jesse glanced at me. Both of us were taken aback by Pa's suggestion, but we tried not to let it show.

  "You mean tonight?" he asked.

  "Why not?" Pa asked. "If she wants to. She said she sees math when she closes her eyes. I thought maybe fishing would do her some good—maybe it'd be just the thing."

  "I think you're right," Jesse said, smiling at me like he knew I'd never agree to it.

  I nodded. "I think you're right, too," I said, calling his bluff.

  Pa clapped his hands together. "Great," he said. "So you want to come?"

  "I might," I said, nodding.

  "It's pretty rustic," Pa warned. "I don't know if you remember it, but it's—"

  "They did put in running water," Max interjected, teasing me.

  "There's an air-conditioner," Jesse said.

  "We did put in a couple of new window units last year," Pa said. "But it's still pretty cool at night this time of year. I don't know that we'll even need them."

  "You coming?" Jesse asked.

  "What do you think?" Pa asked.

  I shrugged. "What do you think?" I asked. I looked directly at Jesse when I said it.

  "I think you should come if you want to," he said.

  He was so sincere yet nonchalant that I had mixed feelings about it. The bottom line was that I really wanted to go. I loved both of those men and wanted to spend the day with them fishing at the cabin.

  I smiled. "Are you sure there's room?"

  Chapter 7

  "What's going on?" Rebecca asked.

  She had been in the bathroom when I came into my apartment in a hurry. I glanced up to see that she was dressed to the nines for her date.

  "You look so good," I said.

  She smiled. "Thanks. We're going to see that Chevy Chase movie."

  "That should be funny," I said, throwing some pajamas into my overnight bag.

  "Where are you going?"

  "To the cabin," I said. "Pa and Nana have a little cabin. It's out past Dyersburg, about an hour-and-a-half from here. We used to go out there more when I was little. I haven't been in a long time."

  "And that's where you're going right now?"

  I nodded.

  "Who's going?" she asked.

  "Just me, Pa, and Jesse, I think. It was gonna be just Pa and Jesse, but they came by the garage on their way out of town, and Pa invited me to go with them."

  "What about his girlfriend?" she asked.

  She was just doing it in an effort to get a rise out of me, and I squinted at her. "She's at the game," I said. "Same as my boyfriend."

  "They should be playing soon," she said.

  I nodded. "I'm sure we'll listen to it on the trip as long as we can pick up the station. Pa follows Memphis basketball."

  "Are you spending the night up there?" she asked.

  "Yep," I said, tossing my duffle bag over my shoulder. I knew the guys were waiting outside, so I had been in a hurry. I sighed as I reached out to give her a hug. "I'm stopping by the bathroom to wipe a washcloth over my sweaty-self and pack my shampoo and stuff. I really could use a shower before we go, but they're waiting downstairs."

  "I was just gonna tell you how cute you looked."

  I stared down at the lightweight button-down blouse I had just put on in place of my dirty tank top. "Thank you. I've been sweating, but I'm already holding them up. I have to go."

  "Go," she said with a smile.

  ***

  "I wanted to get you a chocolate milk shake, but Jesse said you wanted strawberry." Pa said when I got to the truck a few minutes later.

  Jesse was driving, and Pa got out so that I could climb into the middle seat. I tossed my bag onto the floorboard before settling in. I peered at the cups, trying to see through the lids so I knew what kind of shake they settled on. It looked like there were two vanillas and a strawberry, and I had no idea which was one was supposed to be for me.

  "I like both," I said. "Either would be great."

  "But you really wanted strawberry," Jesse said. "Tell him."

  "I hope he's right," Pa said, settling in next to me with a groan. "Because that's what we got you."

  "Strawberry is my number one favorite," I said. I smiled at my grandpa. "But vanilla is a close second. Chocolate's good too, actually. You can't go wrong with any milkshake, really. I'll even be happy with something weird, like mint or coffee. I've never met a milkshake I didn't like."

  I put a straw into the one that looked pink and took a sip out of it. "Thank you," I said.

  Jesse had the bag of food in his lap while we were getting on the road, but he handed it to me, and I distributed everyone's burgers. We ate fast food burgers and fries in the front seat of Jesse's truck. We shared the fries, and Jesse was eating without taking his eyes off the road, so at one
point, our hands accidently made contact when we were both reaching into the little paper sleeve. We clumsily tried to get out of each other's way.

  "Go ahead," I said, holding the fries in front of him. "Actually, no," I said, pulling them away. "Let me…"

  I took one of the fries and dipped it into his milkshake. There was a popped-open, vanilla milkshake just sitting there, waiting to be used as a dip, so I dipped it. Jesse thought I was just helping him out so he could drive. He opened his mouth, thinking he was just getting a standard French fry, and he made a face when he realized it wasn't what he was expecting.

  "What in the world did I just eat?" he asked, taking his eyes off the road for a split second to look at me as he chewed.

  I laughed at his facial expression as it changed from skeptical to curious. "I'll try one more of those," he said.

  "You made a face like you didn't like it," I said.

  "Because I wasn't expecting that."

  I was still smiling as I opened up his milkshake even more and set it where he could easily reach it. "There. All you have to do is dip it in your milkshake," I said.

  He glanced at me. "That's all right," he said with a shrug. "Maybe it was a one-time thing." He took a few fries and popped them into his mouth without dipping them in the milkshake, and I regretted not doing it for him.

  We drove for another hour after we finished eating. We tuned into the game some (because Pa and Jesse thought I would want to), but mostly we turned the radio off and caught up with each other.

  Being a preacher, my granddad was a seasoned communicator, so there was never a lack of conversation. We had talked the whole time, but hadn't yet mentioned Tammy. The very first thing Jesse said when her name got brought up was, "We broke up."

  We were almost to the cabin when this happened. I was thankful it was dark out, because it helped hide my reaction. My head whipped around to look at Jesse, but I looked away as quickly as I turned. I didn't want him to think the news had an affect on me. I did my best to play it cool. I wanted to ask him to repeat what he said, but I waited patiently for Pa to do it instead.

  "Those things happen," Pa said simply.

  "Yep," Jesse agreed.

  "Are you still dating that basketball player?" Pa asked despite the fact that we had already talked about Barrett.

  "Yes sir," I said, even though I was sorely tempted to deny it.

  We drove down back roads on our way to the cabin and completely dropped the subject of boyfriends or breakups. Jesse told a story about a past cabin experience where he brought some of his friends, and one guy dressed up in a bear costume to scare someone else. The guy was so overcome with fear that he threw a small table at the bear. It missed and instead hit a taxidermy deer head that was hanging on the wall. The head then fell onto Jesse who was standing nearby, watching his buddy get scared. The antler cut a gash at the top part of his arm near his shoulder.

  "I still have a scar from that," Jesse said, reaching over with his left hand to prod at the back of his right arm. "We stitched it up ourselves with a piece of fishing line because we were all too afraid to take me to the doctor. We had to glue back one of those antlers."

  "How old were you when that happened? "I asked.

  "High school."

  "Stitching yourself with fishing line," Pa said. "I'm sure I don't want to know half of the stuff that's gone on at this cabin."

  Jesse pulled into the driveway and parked the truck.

  "I'm sure that's the worst of it," I said.

  "Oh, yeah, that's the worst of it," Jesse agreed in a way that clearly said he was lying. "Nobody ever jumped into Everett Lake when they couldn’t swim and had to be rescued or anything."

  "Lord God, thank you for protecting these precious children," Pa said in an impromptu prayer as we climbed out of the truck.

  He reached into the back of the truck and retrieved his bag. It was dark out, but the moon was bright, and we could see each other even though the cabin was empty and dark. Jesse came around the back of the truck, carrying his bag and two fishing rods. I was staring at him when he came to stand next to us.

  "There are other rods in the shed," he said, assuming that I was worried about the number of fishing poles he was carrying.

  I shrugged. "I just assumed you would catch them and let me reel them in."

  He smiled as he shifted to walk past me. "Oh, you did?" He glanced at me, and I nodded, which made him smile even more.

  The cabin had two bedrooms and a foldout couch in the living room. I had only been out there when there were far too many people crammed inside of it, so this would actually be the first time I got a bed at all. All my memories of the cabin involved sleeping on a pallet on the floor.

  I volunteered to sleep on the couch, but Jesse insisted that he wanted to, so I put my things in the back bedroom before heading to the bathroom to take a shower. The accommodations were simple and fairly rustic, but the cabin was clean, and it had a working shower, which at the moment was all I cared about. I was truly dirty after helping Max at the shop and was so looking forward to a shower. I let the guys worry about getting the cabin situated while I went straight to the back. It was still early, so I didn't put on my pajamas, but I did get the grime off of me, which felt amazing.

  By the time I came back to the living room, the guys were sitting around with their shoes off, looking cozy. Jesse was sprawled out on the couch, watching the television, and Pa was sitting at the dining table, smiling at me.

  "I guess you won't be going night fishing with Jesse," Pa said gesturing to me.

  "Why not?" I asked plopping down on the other end of the couch where I could see them both.

  "Because you've already had your bath," Pa said. "Your hair's damp. You might catch a cold."

  "It's not that cold," I said. "Plus, I could just dry it." I looked at Jesse. "Are you going fishing tonight?"

  Jesse nodded. "Are you coming out there with me?"

  "No," I said.

  He smiled. "Then why did you bother saying you could dry your hair?" he asked.

  "Because I'm too stubborn to let Pa tell me I couldn't go," I said with a smile.

  They both knew I was kidding, and my grandpa reached out to tousle my hair when he walked by the couch on his way to the bathroom.

  "Why aren't you coming?" Jesse asked when I looked at him.

  "Because I already had my bath," I said. "My hair is damp."

  I looked at him, wishing he'd say something about what a shame it was for me to stay behind, but all he did was smile and shrug at me as if to say I was missing out.

  "I'm gonna call Nana and tell her we made a good trip," Pa said from over his shoulder on his way to the bedroom.

  I stared at the television. Jesse had it tuned to some random comedy sitcom. "Whatcha watchin'?" I asked.

  "There's only like two channels," he said. "If you adjust the bunny ears, just right, you might get TBS. There are a few movies in the cabinet, too."

  He tossed me the remote. "I don't care what you watch," he said. "I'm going out on the dock."

  "Are you really fishin'?" I asked.

  He nodded.

  "From the dock, or in the boat?"

  "The dock," he said. "I probably won't catch anything. I just like being out there at night."

  Chapter 8

  I fully intended to go out on the dock with Jesse, but he'd been out there for while, and I couldn’t work up the nerve. I think it was because I wanted something to play out that I knew wouldn't. I pictured the whole scene where I wrapped a blanket around my shoulders and sat next to him on the dock. He would catch fish, and we would laugh and talk the night away. I knew it was just a fantasy, though, since boys always wanted you to be quiet when they were trying to fish.

  The idea of it was tempting enough, however, that I took a blanket off of the foot of my bed and stashed it by the front door in case I decided to go out there. "Nana said to give you a hug," Pa said when he finally came out of his bedroom.

 
I had the television on, but I had just been staring blankly at a commercial, so I turned it down, smiling at my granddad in the process.

  "I didn't tell my parents I was coming out here," I said when it crossed my mind that I hadn't talked to them. "I guess Nana will tell my dad."

  Pa nodded. "I told her you came with us. She'll tell Jacob when she sees him tomorrow at church."

  He came to sit beside me on the couch, and I readjusted and glanced at the clock that was hanging on the wall behind him. "What time are y'all going fishing in the morning?" I asked.

  "We'll walk out there at about six-fifteen. I like to be out on the water before the sun comes up."

  "That way you're not missing church after all," I said.

  My granddad knew I was referring to the beauty of creation, and he smiled at me and nodded. "You're right about that. There's something about being in awe of nature that makes you love, even more, the One who made it. He's an artist." He reached over and patted my leg. He was smiling, and this light-hearted talk of God must have made me feel like I had an open door. I didn't plan on bringing it up, but it just sort of came out.

  "Do you ever want to do something so bad that you don't think is wrong but other people do?" I asked. "It's just that one minute, I feel guilty about something, but then I tell myself it's just other people who see it as wrong when it's really not."

  He looked at me with sweet curiosity. "Do you want to share with me what it is?" he asked. "That might help."

  I shook my head. "It's nothing really specific, I guess. It's just feelings and stuff. I mean, sometimes I just feel guilty for my own feelings—and then I go back and forth, thinking the feelings aren't wrong in the first place, so why waste time feeling guilty about them." I sighed. "Never mind. I don't really know what I'm saying."

  Pa leaned over and touched my head. "Guilt, sweetheart, is different from conviction. Conviction is useful, whereas guilt—well, guilt's perhaps one of the biggest time-wasters known to man. It comes in a close second to fear."

  "What's that mean?" I asked.