Jenson (Wild Men Book 4)

by Melissa Belle

  Sheldon and his group of seven are the only people here. The bartender looks up in surprise as I come through the door, but Sheldon calls out, “Hey, Olive! Come on, and get a beer!”

  His face is flushed from the alcohol, but his blue eyes are mirthful. He gives me a drunken hug as soon as I reach him and makes sure I know everybody. Darryl, Finn, and Boo, his three best friends from high school; Cara’s brother, Seth; and Daphne’s husband, Todd, who can barely stand up straight. Darryl, who I’ve known since the third grade, immediately brings me into a conversation they’re all having on politics.

  “Oh, God,” I say. “Politics and drinking are not a good mix.”

  But I get drawn in for over a half hour while I nurse a beer Sheldon throws into my hand. I come to my senses when I see Todd beginning a game of quarters.

  I try to get Todd to quit drinking, but he won’t hear of it. Then Sheldon calls me over to a table. “I’m getting hitched in less than twenty-four hours,” he says to me, clinking his beer to mine. “Awesome, isn’t it?”

  I smile at him. “It is awesome. I’m happy for you.”

  I take a big sip of my beer and look out again at Todd and Seth playing quarters. I think of Jenson and of the conversation I had with him earlier that’s caused me such a sleepless night. “So, you haven’t run into any reporters tonight, have you?”

  Sheldon clinks his beer to mine again. “Nope. I think they’re all sleeping so they’re well-rested for my wedding tomorrow. Not because of me but because the mayor’s only son is getting married.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” I say slowly, hoping he’s onto something and the media will be more focused on Sheldon than any sort of potential scandal.

  “Of course I’m right. I’m brilliant when I’m drunk,” he says.

  I roll my eyes. “On that note, I think I’m going to go home.”

  “I’ll come with you to your house!” Sheldon says.

  I hear the panic in my voice even as I try to sound calm. “I’ll drop you at your place, sure.”

  “No, let me stay on your couch.”

  “Won’t Cara worry?”

  “She’s not home. She’s at her mom’s. Wedding tradition to sleep apart on the night before the big event.”

  “God, wedding traditions make no sense,” I say. “You guys have lived together for two years, and now she pretends she’s a virgin so you can ‘deflower’ her tomorrow night?”

  “You’re so cynical, Olive.” Sheldon pulls playfully at the messy bun in my hair. “Let me come over. Like old times. We can sober up with black coffee on your front porch.”

  I don’t have the heart to tell him I don’t need sobering up. I’m plenty sober and have been all evening.

  But as long as I can keep him on the porch or in the living room, and out of my bedroom, this should be okay. I agree because I can’t think of a good reason to say no, and I know Cara will be relieved to hear Sheldon left with me rather than stayed out drinking until dawn.

  I text Jenson as we’re walking out of the bar, hoping against hope his phone will wake him and he’ll read my warning to stay in the bedroom.

  The television’s on when we walk in the door, but Jenson’s nowhere in sight. Panicked, I grab the dog leash and tell Sheldon to take a barking Bernie out to the porch.

  “You left the TV on?” Sheldon says to me. “You’re usually so anal.”

  Yes, I am usually. I look at him and shrug. “You caught me.” I shove him and Bernie outside and tell him I’ll be out with coffee.

  Sheldon pokes his head back in the door. “Hey, I forgot you got a dog.”

  “Yep,” I say, trying to sound casual. “His name is Bernie, after the coffee house.”

  “Cool,” he says, but I know he won’t stop there, and he doesn’t. “You know, this is a very good sign, Olive.”

  I try to cut him off. “Uh-huh. Sure.”

  But Sheldon can’t be stopped. “Usually when you get a dog, a partner isn’t far behind. A dog can help you pick up a good guy this time, Olive.”

  “Great.” I go to shut the door on him again, but he stops it with his foot.

  “A lot of people get dogs to own with their partner,” he continues. “But I guess you’re one step ahead of the game, huh? You got the dog in place early.”

  “That I did.” I push his foot out of the way. “Be out in five minutes.”

  I shut the door and then grab the spare set of sheets out of the linen closet and start to make up the large couch before I go find Jenson.

  Looking back, I don’t know why I made the decision I did. Obviously I should have found out where Jenson was first, and perhaps all that happened could have been avoided. But I was intent on making up the couch, and it ends up taking me a few minutes longer than I planned.

  When I hear Sheldon call out, “Jenson Beau! What the hell are you doing peeing in my sister’s toilet?” I cringe.

  I hear the toilet flush. I don’t want to walk around the corner to the guest bathroom. But I do it. Jenson’s in his boxers, thank God, but nothing else.

  Shit.

  “Jenson!” Sheldon’s so drunk he doesn’t seem phased by Jenson’s underwear-only attire. “What are you doing here?”

  Jenson’s eyes flash with panic, and he turns to me.

  “Jenson’s drunk, too. Wasted,” I say quickly, the lie coming off my tongue a little too easily. “He locked himself out of his house and can’t find his keys. So I told him to take a cab over here.”

  Sheldon looks from Jenson to me and back to Jenson. For one horrifying second, I’m certain he’s going to guess the truth. And if I’m truly honest with myself, a tiny piece of me is relieved that the secret will finally be out.

  But Sheldon breaks into a laugh. “I was wondering why you left my party early. Did those rum shots go straight to your head?”

  “Straight to it,” Jenson gets out. “Great party, though, Sheldon.”

  Sheldon grins. Then he says, “But where were you sleeping?”

  “In my bed,” I say quickly. “He was sick. I was on the couch.”

  I point to the bed I just made on the couch, hoping Sheldon won’t remember it wasn’t there five minutes ago.

  He doesn’t, and the secret continues.

  “See, you’re the cousin, so you get special treatment,” Sheldon teases Jenson. “I’m just the brother, and I always get the couch.”

  “Ha, ha,” I say. “I’ll make up the smaller couch for you, Sheldon. Go use the bathroom.”

  I drag Jenson into the bedroom. While he throws on his jeans and t-shirt, I whisper into his ear, “Didn’t you get my note and text?”

  “I got your note,” he whispers back as he kisses my neck. “But no text.”

  We walk quietly out to the porch to check on Bernie, who’s sleeping through this whole charade. I close the door behind us so Jenson and I can talk privately.

  “I woke up, got your note, and decided to wait up for you in the living room,” Jenson explains in a low voice. “That’s why the TV was on, and I was using the main bathroom.”

  “Didn’t you hear Sheldon when we walked inside?”

  “No,” he says. “I must have been in the bedroom at that point. I went in there to grab my shirt. Which I obviously didn’t quite get on,” he adds as I throw up my hands.

  Sheldon opens the door and nearly dances out to us. “This is so cool! I get to spend the wee hours before my wedding with my favorite sister and cousin. And you’re ‘friend-dating’ to my wedding! You guys make the perfect pair.”

  I know my face must be bright red, so I turn for the door, saying I’ll be out with coffee.

  The three of us go to sleep eventually with my brother and me on the living room couches and Jenson in my bed. I don’t want to even try dissecting that little fucked-up triangle, and I fall into a fitful sleep.

  The next morning, Jenson leaves early to go see Kyle and Connor. I wake up Sheldon a couple hours later and send him home to shower and eat so he’ll be ready for t
onight.

  I get dressed in a cream strapless slinky dress that I pair with a matching silk scarf. I hadn’t planned to wear the scarf, but Jenson and I got a little carried away last night, and he gave me quite a love bite on my neck. Since my family thinks I’m as single as I’ve ever been, I don’t think advertising a hickey at Sheldon’s wedding is the way to tell them about my love life. So, scarf it is. I pin my hair up into a twisted bun and wear pearl-drop earrings to match my dress color.

  And then before I know it, Jenson and I are at my brother’s wedding. I watch Sheldon and Cara exchange rings at the altar, and I put my arm around Mom when she cries. Daphne cries too, on my other side, and whispers to me, “Our only brother’s all grown up now.”

  I smile at her and nod, but I don’t get it. It’s just a legal exchange, for goodness sake. Sheldon’s been “grown up” for a while now.

  Jenson and I follow the group of guests down Main Street to the reception. We take the elevator to the rooftop of The Lounge and clap when Sheldon and Cara are introduced as husband and wife for their first dance.

  I spend some time chatting to Auntie Sue, who looks paler than usual. When I ask Matilda about it, she says the doctors cleared her mother to come tonight and that she wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

  Auntie Sue turns to look at me, and for a moment, I swear she sees into my heart. She knows who I want to marry and what my wedding would look like if I could have one right now. And she nearly smiles.

  I give her a big hug before Dad beckons me onto the dance floor.

  I dance with Dad and then Sheldon, and finally Jenson pulls me over for a dance.

  “You look fucking gorgeous,” he says into my hair.

  “Thank you.” I tilt my head at his black tie. “So do you.”

  We talk and laugh while we’re on the dance floor, but I feel a million miles away from him. I feel the hundreds of pairs of eyes around me even though nobody’s paying a bit of attention to us. Jenson squeezes my hand to get me to look at him, and I force a smile. But he keeps grinning at me until I laugh, and the tension breaks.

  And keeping the secret ends up being fun, in a way. It feels illicit and daring to make out behind the tree in the pavilion and then walk back into the hall like nothing’s happened.

  Sheldon and Cara are hanging out at an empty table, and he calls us over.

  “Hey, you two,” he says as we sit down. “How’s the friend-date working out?”

  “Fine,” I say with a casual shrug. “With two divorces between us, we couldn’t be expected to find decent dates last minute.”

  When I realize that Sheldon’s mind is currently nowhere near me and my dating issues, I relax. My brother is one hundred percent distracted by his other sister’s love life. “Have you seen Daphne and Todd? They were fighting on the dance floor in front of all the cameras.”

  Jenson tries to urge him to lower his voice, but Sheldon can’t be contained.

  “I feel bad,” he says. “It’s like Daphne went to a wedding and got lonely.”

  I stop fiddling with my hair to stare at him. He’s right. I turn to scour the crowd for Daphne. I don’t see her anywhere. Sheldon’s still rambling on about weddings, about how much pain they can cover up and that, if you’re not careful, you’ll soon find yourself lost in the middle of a reality you didn’t want to be lost in. I excuse myself and walk toward the dance floor, hoping to catch a better view of the crowd.

  I finally spot Daphne. She’s off in the corner, talking to Mom. I head over and insert myself into their conversation.

  Mom’s talking about the weather, never a good sign. “…slight potential of thunderstorms next week. It would mean loads of lightning and tons of water. There could be flooding off Main Street if Mother Nature plays it just right.”

  I nod politely as Mom turns to me. “Olivia, you need to keep your eyes open for that rain,” she says soberly. “Your house is off Main, after all.”

  “It is off Main,” I agree as I glance at Daphne. Her mouth is set in a thin line, and her hands are clenched at her sides; one more weather comment from Mom, and Daphne may very well slug her. “Mom, I think Dad’s calling for you.”

  “Oh…” Mom turns to where I’m pointing and sees my father. He doesn’t exactly look like he’s calling for her, but when he turns to see us all staring at him, he waves and smiles. Mom gasps. “Thank you, Olivia,” she says. “I don’t know where my hearing’s gone lately.” She walks away, and I turn back to Daphne.

  “Thanks for the save, Olive.” She releases her fisted hands and exhales. “Mom was making me lose it.”

  “The ceremony was very nice. How are you doing?” I say to her.

  “Great.” She bites her lip so hard it bleeds. “Couldn’t be better.”

  I take her arm. “Let’s get some air. You know how I hate crowds.”

  When we reach the edge of the rooftop, in the back where there are no people, I reach over and hug my sister. “You look beautiful, Daph.”

  She makes a face as I step back and lean my elbow on the guardrail. “No, I don’t,” she says. “And you know it. You must have seen Todd and me fighting. I’m so embarrassed to do that to Dad during his campaign year.”

  “It’s okay. Honestly, I didn’t notice. I’m telling you the truth.”

  “What has you so preoccupied?”

  I fidget with the scarf around my neck, accidentally pulling it down just enough that Daphne gasps.

  “Where’d you get that love bite?” she says suddenly, pointing at my neck.

  I immediately cover it up again with my scarf. “Nowhere.”

  “Nowhere? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  I sigh. “It means it’s private. For now. No offense.”

  Like Sheldon earlier, Daphne’s too caught up in her own issues to push me about mine.

  “You and your new lover, whoever he is, have these romantic secrets, and my husband doesn’t even want to be with me. He sleeps in the guest room all the time now.”

  I stare at her. “The guest room? Why?”

  She frowns. “It started when Amy was born. She needed to be fed all the time, of course, and so she stayed in our room at first. Todd was tired, and he had to be up early for work, so he started sleeping in the spare room to get his rest. But after Amy left our bedroom, he never came back to me.”

  She reaches into her purse and pulls out a cigarette. I haven’t seen her smoke since she and Todd got married.

  “You’re smoking again?”

  She lights up and blows smoke over the railing before speaking. “I hate to smoke. But I miss having something to do with my mouth. I miss having someone to kiss, to talk to, to fight with even. I miss being in a relationship.”

  My eyes fill with tears. At a loss for what to say, I look across the rooftop and see Jenson at the other end. He’s at the bar, ordering a beer. He turns in that moment and spots me. He smiles that smile I adore and holds up his beer to me. I wave and turn back to Daphne as I feel the words come.

  “It’s too much pressure,” I say to her. “Your whole life is too much pressure, Daph.”

  Her eyes water, and she takes the tissue I offer her.

  “You’ve always felt like you had to be perfect, you know?” I say. “The happiest girl in high school, the top cheerleader with the best boyfriend, but also the girl who had the most fun and who loved to be a rebel. You can’t be happy when you’re trying too hard to be happy. It just doesn’t work.”

  She dabs at her eyes, and dark mascara comes off onto the white tissue. I hand her another tissue. “You and Todd are both stressed out,” I say. “He was slamming shots at Sheldon’s bachelor party like he was still eighteen.”

  “You were there?”

  I don’t want her to get jealous that Sheldon didn’t invite her. “Accidentally. And for about five minutes. Just long enough to drag Sheldon out of there.”

  “Can you drag me out of here?” Daphne says with a half-smile.

  “Do you want to
be dragged out?” I ask her seriously. “Because yes, I will help you leave discreetly if that’s what you need.”

  She takes another puff of her cigarette and stares out over the deck. “I don’t know. I’m just upset tonight. It reminded me of my wedding. Todd and I met too young. We never learned how to be adults together. We just had kids and thought that would be enough to teach us how to grow up. And the thing is, they’re two separate subjects—there’s being husband and wife, and there’s being parents.”

  As she’s talking, Todd rounds the corner.

  “Everything okay?” He looks first at my face and then at Daphne’s.

  I nod encouragingly at Daphne, who hesitates before saying, “No, not really.”

  Todd’s eyes flash with concern, and he puts his hand on Daphne’s arm. I excuse myself just as Todd says, “Can we talk about it, Daph?”

  I walk over to the bar and order a beer. While I’m standing there, Sheldon comes up to me.

  “Awesome. Two full beers!” He holds up his bottle.

  I follow suit, and as I do, the scarf I was using to hide my neck slides off me and down to the ground.

  And that’s when Sheldon notices my hickey.

  “Who’s the guy?”

  I flush so hot that even Sheldon can’t miss it. His eyes bug out of his head, and he leans in close to my ear. “Why didn’t you bring him tonight?”

  Tears sting my eyes, and I surprise both of us when I reach out and put my arms around him.

  “Hey.” He holds me close. “Are you okay?”

  I can’t answer him because I truly don’t know. I’ve risked more in the last month than I ever have in my life, and I’m not sure how my heart is holding up. Keeping Jenson a secret from my family has never proved harder than right now. I excuse myself from Sheldon and tell him we’ll talk later.

  On my way to find Jenson, I get waylaid by Mom and Veronica, Todd’s mother.

  “Olivia, don’t you look lovely tonight,” Veronica says as she gives me a hug.

  “Thank you, so do you,” I say. “If you’ll excuse me…”