“Fuck them. Since when do you back down from people?” I asked, wishing she would find her old backbone and put it to use.
“Watch your language, Josh,” Mom muttered.
“It’s not backing down,” Jenny argued. “They don’t want to be around me, and I don’t want to be around them. I work. I don’t have time for their childish games and gossip.”
She was bothered. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have called them childish.
“You should go just to spite them.”
She grinned a little, and a spark I hadn’t felt in three long years slid through me. I missed this. I missed her. Going out for the night wasn’t giving in to her. It didn’t mean I hated her any less. It just meant I felt bad that every person in town had taken my side. Sure, I wasn’t the one who had gone and slept my way through Texas, but I was positive no one knew how badly I had ripped through Jenny when I was broken and bruised and pushing her away.
“No thanks,” she said before standing and gathering her things. “Come on, Caleb, we need to get home, baby.”
I didn’t respond.
If she didn’t want to go, then that was her business. Maybe it was a good thing. I didn’t want her thinking I was growing soft toward her. I still needed to stick to my guns and stay away from Jenny. And that was exactly what I would do.
Player’s Place looked the same. Not a picture frame had been moved. Once inside, I looked around the place until I saw the group in the corner laughing and drinking. I started toward them, and Vaughn was the first one to notice me.
“It’s about fucking time you showed your ugly mug,” he said, standing and pulling me into a half hug.
If it was possible, Vaughn had gotten even bigger. He hadn’t stuck around Walterboro. Instead, he bombed out of college before moving to Charleston where he owned an expensive boat shop, courtesy of his daddy’s money. Apparently, he also married well, moved into a million-dollar Charleston Battery house, and spent his days lounging on a yacht.
JJ stood then, pulling me in for a hug. “Dude, it’s been too fucking long. We’re glad to have you back.”
I sat at the table, my eyes bouncing around familiar faces I hadn’t seen in three years.
“I’m glad to be back.”
“Hell, man, I was sorry to hear about your dad. He was a good man,” Tony said, setting a fresh beer in front of me when Maggie, the same old waitress, set some on the table.
“Thanks. It’s been rough.”
We drank beer and laughed about old times. It was as if we hadn’t been separated, and things were rolling along smoothly until JJ mentioned Jenny.
“It’s weird all of us being here together like this without Scrappy,” he slurred, his wall coming down courtesy of the nine beers he had put down.
“Man, fuck her. She was never one of us,” Tony said, making my skin itch and crawl.
I wanted to defend her. Jenny had always been one of us. But I downed my beer instead of opening my mouth.
“You’re just mad she wouldn’t fuck you,” Vaughn said, chuckling around the mouth of his beer bottle.
My muscles grew tighter, but still, I kept my mouth shut.
“Well, hell, I figured I had a shot since she was fucking everyone else.” Tony laughed, and a few of the guys joined in.
I wasn’t happy with Jenny. She had broken my heart in more ways than one, but I had spent most of my life having her back, and my tongue burned to curse them out. My fists ached to feel their faces. Still, I remained quiet and hoped they would stop talking about Jenny and move onto a new subject.
“She’s so different now,” JJ said. “Have you run into her yet?” he turned my way and asked.
I nodded but didn’t add to the conversation.
“Yeah and wider.” Tony laughed, and this time I gave him a look that told him to shut his fucking mouth.
He stopped laughing.
“Not wider. Thicker,” JJ said, grinning. “She’s got curves for days, and you know what they say about women with them childbearing hips.”
“Shut the fuck up, JJ, you don’t know shit about childbearing hips.” Vaughn laughed, pushing JJ’s shoulder.
When Maggie came by, I asked for another beer. I’d had enough, but with the conversation turning toward Jenny, I needed more.
“My mom said Jenny almost died giving birth,” Vaughn said casually.
Vaughn’s mom was a doctor at the local hospital and was always telling Vaughn things that could get her fired.
“What do you mean?” I asked, finally speaking up.
He shrugged. “Her blood pressure shot up, and they had to rush her in for surgery. An emergency c-section. You know where they cut the baby out or some shit like that. Anyway, Mom said she passed out on the table and almost died.”
My heart fluttered in my chest.
She had almost died giving birth.
“So yeah, she’s like single mom untouchable these days. A total MILF. The entire town talks about how she slept around when she was in Texas, but the funny thing is, she hasn’t touched a single soul in this town in the three years since she’s been back. At least as far as I know. Makes you wonder.” JJ shrugged, taking a swig from his beer and sending my mind tumbling into even more questions.
Leave it to JJ to still have Jenny’s back. Out of the entire group, he gave her the hardest time growing up, but I had always known they were secretly friends who liked to give each other shit.
“And we all know you’ve tried,” Vaughn chuckled.
“Hell yeah, I’ve tried,” JJ admitted. “She’s hot.”
I had about all I could take when it came to Jenny, so I steered the conversation in another direction and brought up the new football team at West Ridge High School. The guys jumped all over the subject, complaining about the new defensive line, and I was relieved. I had gotten close to giving my friends hell for talking shit about my girl even though Jenny hadn’t been mine for a very long time.
An hour later, we were dragging our asses out of Player’s Place, and I was driving home entirely too drunk, which was the dumbest fucking thing I had done in a long time. I drove slower than the speed limit, over checking every turn and light until I found myself pulling into Jenny’s driveway instead of my own.
I put my truck in park and cut the engine. I wasn’t sure what I was doing. It was way too late to be showing up at someone’s house, but that didn’t stop me from going to her front door and pounding on it to wake the entire house.
The kitchen light flicked on, and soon, I was staring through the window in the door and straight into Jenny’s green eyes. She rolled her eyes and unlocked the door to let me in, but instead of stepping through the doorway, I fell into her house, the beer finally taking away my legs and making me laugh hysterically at my own drunkenness.
“What are you doing here, Josh?” she hissed in a whispered yell.
I chuckled from her kitchen floor, and she kicked me.
“Seriously, be quiet. You’re going to wake Caleb.”
I shushed myself and grinned from behind my finger.
“How much did you drink at Player’s?” she asked.
“I drank all of it. Everything in the building.”
I was only joking, but I had drunk too much.
“And then you drove? Are you fucking nuts?”
I climbed from the floor, grabbing onto the kitchen table to keep my balance. “Well, it’s not like I could call you to rescue me like old days, now could I?”
She crossed her arms, pushing her luscious tits up and into my face. She was annoyed with me, but I didn’t care. All I could think about was Vaughn saying she had almost died and what I would have done if something had happened to Jenny.
“You almost died,” I muttered, not making any sense.
“What?” she asked, confused.
“Vaughn said you almost died. Don’t die, Jenny,” I slurred.
I was definitely drunk because I couldn’t stop the words from flowing from my lips.
/> “I’m not going anywhere, Josh. Come on,” she said, pulling on my arm. “Let’s at least get you to the couch so you can pass out. I’ll call your momma and let her know you’re okay.”
“My mom loves you,” I said, letting her drag me to the old couch in her living room.
I fell back onto the couch and closed my eyes, and then I said something that I wished I could take back immediately.
27
Jenny
“I used to love you, too,” Josh slurred, his eyes closing as he slowly passed out on my couch. “I loved you so fucking much, Jenny.”
And then he was out, snoring louder than was normal and leaving my heart feeling as though it had a massive papercut.
I moved away from the couch and covered my mouth to keep the cry of anguish from sounding. Three years’ worth of hurt came rushing to the surface as I stared down at the man I’d loved for almost all of my life—the father of my son—the only man to every own me completely.
I collapsed in my dad’s chair and sat and watched him sleep for longer than I wanted to admit. When he slept, he looked like my Josh. My old friend and the boy I fell in love with. The softness around his lips reminded me of all the smiles he used to give me, and when his brows weren’t pulled down in anger, I could almost see him floating down the St. John’s River with his eyes closed and his face turned toward the sun.
God, I missed him.
Not the man lying in front of me on my couch, but the boy I loved so long ago and grieved for every day.
When I had my fill of looking at Josh, I called his mom and left her a message to let her know he was at my place and safe. Then I retrieved a blanket from the linen closet and covered him before I returned to my bed.
At first, I couldn’t sleep. All I could think about was that Josh was just a few feet away from me in my living room. So close yet so far away. I wasn’t sure how long I lay there wide-awake, but the next thing I knew, the sun was peeking through my curtains, and Caleb was coming into my room and jumping on my bed.
“Time to get up, Mommy!” he sang, jumping at my side and shaking my bed.
I rolled over and covered my face with the pillow. “Ten more minutes,” I whined, making Caleb drop to his knees laughing as he tried to pry the pillow away from my face.
I had almost forgotten that Josh was passed out on my couch, but by the time we got out of bed and went into the kitchen, my couch was empty, and the blanket I had covered Josh with the night before was folded neatly and resting on the back of the couch.
He had left, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he would remember everything he said the night before because I wasn’t going to forget it anytime soon.
Lilly picked Caleb up from the garage when she dropped Devin off, and while Daddy and Devin spent most of the day changing oil, I changed tires instead of sitting in the office and thinking. Turned out, thinking was terrible for me these days. All I could think about was Josh. His parents. The fact that he was Caleb’s father, and that the truth had to come out at some point.
The town would know. People would talk. There was no telling what kind of stories would be told about me, and honestly, I didn’t care. I just didn’t want things to affect my son. Caleb wasn’t handling Mr. Black’s death well, and I wasn’t sure what else he could take.
After I wrapped up at the garage and cleaned my office a bit, I got into my car and left for the day. Instead of heading straight to Lilly and Devin’s place to pick up Caleb, I started toward Josh’s house. Not that I wanted to see him. If anything, I was hoping he wouldn’t be there, but I did want to check in on Mrs. Black.
His truck wasn’t in the driveway when I pulled up, and I sighed in relief. I wasn’t in the mood for any of his shit. Even though the last time I had seen him, he was drunk and talking about love, and the time before that, he was being sweet to Caleb and had asked me to go with him to Player’s Place. More than likely, he had wanted to get me out of his mom’s house so he could torment me some more.
I cut the engine to my car, grabbed my cell from the passenger seat in case I was there longer than I wanted to be, and I started toward the front door. Ralph, Mr. Black’s old dog, was lying on the porch, and his ears lifted when I stepped onto the wooden front porch. The plants on the porch had recently been watered, and some of the excess water was still dripping from the hanging plants beside the front door.
The wind blew a bit, making her windchimes sing, and I closed my eyes and enjoyed the sound. It had always been a favorite of mine. I reached up to knock, but before I could, I saw that the door was left a tiny bit ajar, which seemed weird to me.
“Mrs. Black?” I called out.
I hated walking into other people’s houses unannounced, but worry was simmering in the bottom of my stomach.
Using a single finger, I pushed on the door, and it opened a bit more, the hinges creaking and cracking slowly with its movement. It was then I saw Mrs. Black’s legs. She was wearing shorts and her pale legs seemed even lighter against the dark fabric of her clothes. Her flip-flops rested on the floor beside her feet as if they had fallen off when she fell.
I pushed the door open and ran inside to find her lying on her back in the middle of the living room. Her eyes were closed, her mouth slightly open. She was pale as if her soul had already escaped, and she was only a shell of the woman she used to be. My old CPR class came to mind, the information I had learned rushed into my brain, and I went to work without a second thought.
I checked for a pulse but didn’t feel anything. I grabbed my cell, and my fingers slid over the screen as I quickly dialed 911. Putting my cell on speaker, I set it to the side and went to work. I breathed for her, used my hands to press into her and made her heart beat for her. I did this as I spoke to the operator who picked up my call.
I gave her the address and began to tell her everything she needed to know.
“I found her on the floor. She’s not breathing, and she doesn’t have a pulse. I’m doing CPR now. Please send someone. Please hurry. Please!”
I continued to work, listening to the operator and responding between breaths and pumps. Sweat slid over my top lip, and I swiped it away. I could feel it also beading around my hairline, but I ignored it. All that mattered was trying to get Mrs. Black back. We couldn’t lose her too. We needed her. I needed her. Caleb would never make it through her loss especially so close to losing Mr. Black, and Josh … well, there was no telling what Josh would do. He was already jaded, slicing into me every chance he got. I worried if he lost his mother, as well, the boy he used to be would truly never return.
Minutes passed, my arms began to burn, and my knees throbbed from sitting on them. I thought I heard sirens in the distance, but no matter how exhausted I was, I didn’t stop. I kept pushing, breathing, and counting. Doing all the things I could think to do until I felt a hand on my shoulder.
“We’ll take it from here.”
I looked up to find an EMT smiling sadly down at me. He was holding a large black duffel bag in his hand, and another EMT was approached from behind him.
I slid to the side, my fingers numb, and my mind spinning as the EMTs took over. It wasn’t until then I realized I was crying, the tears dripping down my cheeks and dropping on the front of my shirt. I swiped at my tears and sniffled, and I didn’t feel like I was breathing again until I heard one of them say, “I have a pulse.”
Her eyes remained closed as they put her on the gurney and transported her from her house to the back of the ambulance. It was then I heard Josh’s truck pull up. His loud engine ripped through the afternoon, rumbling behind the ambulance, before he shut it off.
The driver’s side door flew open, and he jumped down without using the sidestep.
“Mom!” he called out, running toward the back of the ambulance just before they closed the doors. “What’s happening?”
He was panicked. His eyes wide, and his face pale. He ran his fingers through his hair, tugging on the ends while he waited for someone to tell
him what was going on.
“Who are you?” the EMT asked.
“I’m her son! Someone tell me what’s happening!”
And then he disappeared into the back of the ambulance just before the door slammed, and they pulled away with the sirens blaring.
I stood there, staring into the direction they had just went. I covered my face, capturing my tears as I tried to think of what do to next. My heart was screaming for me to follow them, but I knew Mrs. Black would want me to stay and take care of things at her house.
I went back inside and turned off any lights she had on before I locked up. Then I searched my contacts for Genie’s number and called her.
Her husband, Jimmy, answered so I quickly filled him in, in hopes that he would tell her what was going on. Once I was in my car, I started in the direction of the hospital, but when I was halfway there, I decided to pick up Caleb and just go home. Something told me Josh wouldn’t want me there, and if by some chance something happened to Mrs. Black, I didn’t want to be there around all those people when I broke down.
I was the stone maiden, and stone maidens never cried.
At least that was what everyone thought.
28
Josh
I had only been gone an hour, having to run to the local tractor supply store for a few things. I was just getting the hang of Daddy’s way of doing things again at the farm, and honestly, it felt good to work for myself. I was checking out when I saw an ambulance go flying by on the main road just outside the store, but I didn’t think of anything of it.
It wasn’t until I was pulling in my driveway that I saw the ambulance had been headed to my house. I threw my truck into park and jumped out, running toward the back of the ambulance just as they were about to close the doors with who looked like my mother inside.
I climbed in and took a seat next to my mother, and as the EMT closed the back door, I saw Jenny standing outside with her hands covering her mouth and tears flowing down her face.
She had been there.
Thick & Thin (Chubby Girl Chronicles Book 3) Page 19