by Lori Ryan
“I forget sometimes, you know. Until days like this and then it hits me that this probably hurts like hell for you.” Kelly reached out and held Jennie’s hand, squeezing. Her voice was lowered now, maintaining the private nature of the topic she’d just broached.
Jennie appreciated Kelly’s commitment to keeping her secrets. She shrugged and plastered her standard smile on her face. This wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have. “It is what it is. I can’t change it so why dwell?”
She could tell her friend didn’t buy her act and if Kelly was thinking Jennie’s smile was just for show, she was right. Some days, it was all an act.
But, for the most part, she’d found happiness with her friends and her life at Sutton Capital. They were really good friends she treasured. And, she loved her work. After feeling like she was floating around untethered, with no real goals for years, she finally had a job she loved.
Good friends and a good job. That was all Jennie could hope for.
Kelly reached over and put her hand on her friend’s arm. “I’m sorry, honey. I wish things were different. It isn’t fair.”
Jennie just nodded and swallowed. Hard. Her chest tightened and she willed away the lump caught in her throat and the tears that threatened to fall. Four years later and she still had a hard time talking about it.
She and her husband, Kyle, had been more than just high school sweethearts. They grew up next door to each other, were best friends through junior high, dated in high school, and managed to keep their relationship strong through four years of college.
The year they graduated from college, they married. By the following year, Kyle was gone – he’d lost his fight with cancer a few short months after his diagnosis and just two days after their first anniversary.
Jennie still couldn’t stomach vanilla cupcakes – the memory of the vanilla cupcake her mother-in-law brought her and Kyle in the hospital for their anniversary was too strong and painful.
Jennie and Kelly had only been friends for two years, and it had been awhile before Jennie told Kelly about her husband. The rest of the group had no idea she had ever been married.
“I’m okay. Honestly, it’s harder sometimes with my friends who knew Kyle and me. They never forget. Kyle was like a part of my identity with them. With you, I get to forget. Or, at least pretend for a while. But, I’m good. I’m happy for you guys. For all of you.”
She looked out over the lawn at Andrew and Jill, and at Jesse and Zach, then glanced to where Jack watched Kelly as only a man waiting for the arrival of his first child does. His look seemed to encompass so many emotions: everything from sheer joy to excitement to fear of the unknown.
Neither said anything else. There wasn’t really anything left to say. The two friends sat quietly as Kelly’s kick-off-to-motherhood party wound down.
Chad watched his mother as she walked around the pool to approach him. Until recently, he and his mother had a tumultuous relationship. For several years she’d been so angry over his father leaving her, she’d lashed out at all of the people around her.
Oddly enough, Kelly’s marriage to Jack had helped her get over that and Chad was glad to have his mom back to her old self—overbearing and pushy, but now full of love instead of hate and spite.
Chad looked down as he scrubbed at the grill in Jack’s outdoor kitchen with a wire brush. The party had dwindled to close friends and family, and the cleanup had begun.
Mabry Thompson sidled up to her son and sipped her wine as she looked out over the few remaining family members and friends. She ran a hand up and down his back as if he were still five years old and she could soothe him that way.
“Is it hard to watch Jack and Andrew starting their own families?”
Chad knew his mother left off the part of the question she really wanted to ask. She wanted to ask if it bothered him to be left behind as his best friend and cousin moved forward.
He shrugged a shoulder at her. “It’s not like they’re leaving me, Mom. We still work together, hang out together, see each other everyday.”
Chad cringed as he felt his eyes travel to Jennie before he could school himself.
He’d been out of the military too long. His guard was slipping. Damn. I should know better.
Mabry didn’t miss the glance and she didn’t bother to pull punches with her son. “Do you ever wonder if you do it on purpose, Chad?”
Now his gaze shot to his mother and his hand stilled for a minute as he studied her. “Do what on purpose?”
“Choose women you can’t have. It’s safer that way. Lord knows, I get that. But, you won’t ever be happy if you continue to make the choices you do. Do you wonder sometimes if you’re sabotaging yourself on purpose? If you’ve made sure you haven’t found love and happiness and a family because if you do that, you’ll really have to deal with the guilt of coming home safe? Of being here when others aren’t?”
Chad stopped cleaning the grill and looked down at his mother. How this woman who was five feet, two inches had given birth to large man like him remained a mystery. “Clearly you do. What makes you think I would sabotage my own happiness, Mom?”
She looked at her son for a long time. Long enough to irritate the tar out of him, but he didn’t let her see that. He met her stare and waited, not speaking. Not squirming under her gaze.
Finally his mother spoke. “I know you think you don’t have the baggage that a lot of your friends came back with, but sometimes I wonder if that’s really true.”
Chad considered himself lucky. Damn lucky. He’d come home from three tours of duty with a few scars and, yes, with horrifying memories and dreams that sometimes haunted him. But, he hadn’t been seriously injured.
He didn’t suffer from post-traumatic stress, where the dreams followed you into the daylight, making you edgy and anxious and irritable. He was able to function normally most of the time.
And, most of all, he had his life. He had lived. That was more than a lot of the men he served with had.
When he first came home, he tried to isolate himself, unable to face being back in a world that functioned so differently from the one he’d known overseas.
But, Jack and Andrew hadn’t let him hide himself away. They were there day after day, pulling him back into the world. He knew he wouldn’t have found his way back without their support.
So Chad had seen a counselor and he now worked with other veterans, helping them adjust to life at home. It was with this in mind, that he narrowed his gaze at his mother, and challenged her preposterous assessment.
“That's ridiculous, Mom. You came up with this theory because I happen to like a woman who I’m not willing to date, for obvious reasons. That happens.”
As far as he was concerned, as an employee he supervised, Jennie was off limits for dating. His friends and family all knew that. It was common knowledge Chad wouldn’t act on the chemistry that was evident to anyone who spent time around the pair.
“Way off base, Mom.”
Chad turned back to the grill and began to scrape again. He felt his mother’s eyes watching him but he was finished talking about this. She couldn’t be more wrong about him. So, he liked Jennie? He’d liked a lot of women. Some he’d dated and others he hadn’t.
Liking Jennie when he couldn’t date her didn’t mean he was damaged in some way. And it didn’t mean he wouldn’t date the next woman who came along and caught his eye.
Right?
His eyes found Jennie again, but he forced himself to look away. He really needed to make a point to start seeing someone. His mom might be overbearing at times, but she was right about one thing. It was high time for him to get the hell past Jennie Evans. He’d let this go on way too long already.
Chapter 4
Jack and Andrew listened as their friend, Peter Mihalik, described the resort property he wanted them to evaluate for him. He was looking to purchase the property from a friend of his family but wanted Jack’s and Andrew’s opinion of the property as an investmen
t.
“The owner, Jonathan, has carried his nephews for years.,” Peter explained as he cut into his steak. “Jonathan’s brother and sister-in-law were killed in a car accident when the brothers were twenty and twenty-one. They were a little wild and out of control. They partied a lot, got into a mess of trouble, and brought a lot of stress on the rest of the family. Jonathan had the resort, so he sent them there to run it. It’s never been entirely clear to me why he thought that would be a good idea. They’re not the brightest guys and I think they’re pretty damn lazy. I’m fairly sure the brothers let the managers run the place and they just party and live off their uncle,” Peter said with a shrug.
“Why is he looking to sell it now?” Jack asked.
“He’s getting older. He also owns Master Blend Winery so his focus has been on wine for years. He doesn’t get out to the resort at all anymore. Seems like he wants it out of his hair. Wants the brothers closer to home. I’m pretty sure he’ll set them up with a cushy job here. But, if I’m right about them not actually doing any work, despite drawing a salary, and living on the property, then the investment would be a good one. For anyone buying the property, the brothers’ salaries would become instant profit. If the general manager wanted to live on the property, she could take over the villa the brothers share,” Peter said.
Andrew took a sip of his drink before speaking. “And you want us to look into it for you. See if it’s the great buy it looks like it’ll be?”
Peter nodded. “If you can. I don’t expect you to send anyone out there like you do for your own investments. I was hoping you could look over the paperwork Jonathan sent over. See what you think.”
Jack grinned at Andrew and there was a hint of something in his eyes.
“What are you thinking?” Andrew asked Jack.
“That Chad and Jennie could use a vacation,” Jack answered before turning to Peter. “You said this resort is mostly for honeymooners and young couples? Can you give us a couple weeks to position ourselves and get back to you?”
Peter looked back and forth between the two of them. “What are you guys plotting?”
“We know a couple that could use a fake honeymoon. I think we’ll send two of our team members over there after all. Give us time to have our people take a look. We’ll get back to you. In the meantime, can you send me all the financials Jonathan gave you? I can fax a nondisclosure over to you this afternoon,” Jack said.
The men shared a few more drinks and caught up over the rest of their meal, but Jack was already scheming in the back of his mind.
He’d watched Jennie and Chad dance around each other for almost a year now. Even though they seemed happy on the outside, he knew they were both missing something in their lives. If he and Andrew could give them the push they needed, to see if there might be more between them than great chemistry, he’d do it. An undercover assignment as honeymooners for two weeks might be just the thing to push those two over the edge.
Chapter 5
“Getting too old for this, Jack?” Chad asked his cousin as he, Jack, and Andrew walked off the basketball court after three hours of pickup play.
“You do seem to be limping a little there, Jack,” said Andrew, earning a scowl.
“Shut it.” Jack lowered himself onto the bleachers beside the court. All three men pulled sweatshirts over damp T-shirts and began exchanging sweaty socks and gym sneakers for dry socks and clean shoes.
Despite the fact they could afford fancy club memberships, all three preferred the pickup games at the local community center gym. They were a lot more fun than the games at the fancy fitness center they’d tried years ago.
“Grab lunch?” Chad asked.
Jack and Andrew both shook their heads.
“I can’t. I’m meeting Jill for lunch in an hour. I need to run home and shower,” Andrew said.
“I promised Kelly I’d bring her chicken noodle soup from the Daily Grill. She’s been craving nothing but chicken noodle soup for a month now.” Kelly’s pregnancy had been uneventful, with the exception of the cravings that had plagued her—and consequently Jack—since early on.
Jack laughed at Chad’s frown. “Hey, get yourself a wife and you won’t miss us so much.”
“Funny.” Chad scowled as the men picked up their bags and started toward the exit.
Jack and Andrew got quiet and Chad groaned inside. He knew what was coming.
Can’t everyone drop the whole Jennie and Chad thing?
After picking Jennie up at the park, he had barely managed to get the image of her in a T-shirt with no bra out of his head, and now they had put it front and center again without even mentioning her name.
“Maybe it’s time you saw where this thing with Jennie might go. Have you even been on a date with anyone else since you met her?” Jack asked.
They crossed the parking lot toward their cars, but it was clear Jack and Andrew were going to stay until he gave them an answer. Chad didn’t want to tell Jack the answer to that question and he didn’t want to have this conversation again. As far as they knew, he didn’t want to date Jennie because he was her boss at Sutton Capital. And, that was part of it, but Chad hadn't actually told anyone the whole truth.
He opened the door to his truck and threw his gym bag on the passenger seat before turning to face his two best friends. The parking lot was almost empty now and no one was within hearing distance of them. He ran a hand over his jaw and tried to loosen the clenched muscles that had him grinding his teeth together. He didn’t succeed.
“Listen guys, I know you mean well, but it’s not gonna happen with me and Jennie. It’s not just the work thing.”
“What do you mean? What other reason could you have for staying away from a woman you’re so clearly attracted to? Everyone knows the feeling’s mutual,” Andrew said, with a glance at Jack, who nodded.
“Listen, I’ll tell you this once and then you guys need to drop it. Got it? Drop it for good. I don’t want to keep having this conversation.”
Jack and Andrew exchanged looks but then nodded at Chad.
“I did try to see where it would go once. I kissed her. And, it was...” He huffed out a harsh breath at the memory and plowed through his explanation. “It was amazing, just like I knew it would be. But, then I looked in her eyes and all I saw was sorrow. The kind of sorrow that rips you up inside. It killed me to see that look on her face, especially knowing I put it there. I walked away and we haven’t talked about it. And we won’t. Ever.”
He didn’t look at his friends. Just kept his eyes on the ground as he leaned on his truck and waited for Jack and Andrew to say something.
“That’s ridiculous. Jennie’s one of the happiest people I know,” Jack said.
Chad understood what Jack meant. They all saw Jennie the way she wanted them to see her. She was brash and saucy and didn’t take crap from anyone. She was also always there with a smile or a joke when you needed one.
He looked up to meet his cousin’s eyes. “I know how she acts, but I know what I saw. I don’t ever want to put that look on her face again and I’m not going to. So drop it, guys. It won’t ever happen with me and Jennie.”
The day he kissed Jennie, he had known. She wasn’t over her husband. She didn’t know he knew about the husband. Nobody knew at Sutton. But, he did. He ran the background checks for all of Sutton Capital employees before hiring. He’d been stunned when Jennie’s security check had shown she was a widow at such a young age.
He hadn’t ever asked her about it and he hadn’t shared that part of the report with Jack or Andrew—there hadn’t been any reason to. But he suspected the look in her eyes the day he kissed her had a lot to do with her late husband. And, it was a look he never wanted to see again.
“Yeah, okay,” Jack said, and then he surprised the hell out of Chad by pulling him into a hug. “I just want you to be happy.”
Chad wrapped an arm around Jack’s back and squeezed tight. He loved his cousin like a brother.
He p
ushed back after a minute and shook his head. “You’re sweaty and nasty, man. Don’t be lovin’ on me like that.”
Jack huffed out a laugh and shoved Chad back, pushing against his shoulder.
Andrew was shaking his head at them. Chad and Jack exchanged a look and then pulled Andrew into them, smothering him in a sweaty three-way hug. They might be in their thirties, but listening to Andrew fuss as he tried to squirm out from under their onslaught didn’t fail to bring a grin to Chad’s face.
Jack and Andrew watched Chad pull out of the lot and stood without speaking for a long, drawn out moment. It was Andrew who broke the silence first.
“I think we fucked up.”
Jack didn’t have to ask what Andrew was talking about. He knew.
He planned to spring the undercover resort job on Chad and Jennie on Monday morning, explaining that the two of them were set up to go undercover as newlyweds for two weeks.
Jack knew Andrew was wondering the same thing he was. Was it really smart to send those two into something like that given what Chad had told them?
“I’ll ask Kelly about it. She’ll know if it’s a good idea or not. We’ll leave it up to her. If we need to, I can cancel the plan and just go over the papers Peter sent to help him make a decision.”
Andrew nodded, but looked as though his gut were churning over what Chad had just told them, too. Jack wasn’t used to feeling unsure. He got the facts, made decisions, and acted. But right now, he was as unsure as he’d ever been. One thing his gut did tell him, though, was that if he made the wrong call here, he could hurt two people he cared about very much.
Chapter 6
Jennie hopped out of her car, grabbed Zeke’s leash, and cut across the lawn to her parents’ front door. Since she lived an hour and a half away from them now, she didn’t make the trip home every week, but she tried to get there once a month or so.