Want You Back

by Karen Whiddon

  Monica greeted Jenny with a big grin. “All done?” she asked cheerfully.

  “Yes.” Jenny sank gratefully into a chair and kicked off her heels. “All morning long everyone kept congratulating me. I had no idea what they were talking about.”

  “I told you to read the paper.”

  “I did, I did.” Closing her eyes, Jenny pushed away any thoughts of Jake. “After I delivered the payroll.” All interest, Monica leaned forward. “So what are you going to do?”

  “I can’t go to the picnic with him.”

  Monica actually looked disappointed. “That’s what everyone who called this morning wanted to know. If you really were going to the picnic with Jake.” Horrified, Jenny snapped open her eyes. She’d been right, the town gossips were at it again. “What did you tell them?”

  “That I didn’t know.”

  Jenny let out a sigh of relief. “Good. No harm done then.” She glanced at her watch, weighing the possibility of telling Monica about her plan now. She decided to wait until later. Her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten all day. “It’s lunchtime. Have you eaten yeti’”

  With a grimace, Monica indicated the now quiet

  phones. “I could barely get to the ladies’ room. I haven’t had a chance.”

  After lunch. She’d tell Monica after lunch. “Let’s eat, then. All this weirdness has made me hungry.” “What about the flowers?”

  In all of the activity, Jenny had forgotten about the flowers. “What about them?” She shrugged. “They’re beautiful, but there are too many. I can’t work with my office full of them, so maybe I’ll donate them to the nursing home.”

  “Don’t forget that Donald was here.”

  Donald. The photographer for the paper. “I’ll call him after lunch and ask him not to print anything about them.”

  Satisfied, she dug her wallet out of her purse and handed Monica a twenty. “Lunch is on me. Go pick something up and bring it back.”

  A gleam in her eyes, Monica grabbed the money. “Even Chinese?” she asked with an innocent expression. Monica loved Chinese food. Ever since the new Chinese restaurant had opened in town, she’d been bugging Jenny to go with her. Never having had Chinese food, Jenny had never been able to bring herself to try it.

  About to decline, Jenny eyed the hopeful look on Monica’s face and sighed. She couldn’t disappoint her, not after the morning she’d had. “Even Chinese,” Jenny agreed reluctantly. “Just get me something simple, okay?”

  “Sweet and sour chicken,” Monica whooped. “You’ll love it, I promise.” She hurried out the door before Jenny could change her mind.

  Left alone, Jenny savored the blissful quiet. She sat at the reception desk, oddly reluctant to go back to her office. She wasn’t up to facing the room full of flowers. She also needed to call Jake—something she dreaded.

  Before she had time to chicken out, she looked up his number in the paperwork he’d filled out and picked up the phone and dialed. Crossing her fingers and closing her eyes, she prayed his answering machine would pick up. She’d much rather talk to a machine than Jake. Machines didn’t talk back.

  She wasn’t so lucky. Jake answered on the second ring.

  Evidently he’d been waiting for her call. As prim and proper as Jenny had become, he knew she would feel obligated to call and thank him for the flowers. Even unwanted flowers.

  He’d seen the newspaper. One of the painters brought it in to him, grinning from ear to ear. Living in a third world country for the past two years, Jake had forgotten how fast gossip traveled in a small American town. He wondered how Jenny was taking it. He even wondered how Howard was taking it.

  When the phone finally rang, Jake leapt for it. He was gratified to hear Jenny’s husky voice as she briskly thanked him for the flowers.

  “You’re welcome, pumpkin.” He tossed in the endearment simply to ruffle her. Even an affronted Jenny was better than the perfectly businesslike persona she affected most of the time when she spoke to him.

  To his disappointment, she didn’t react.

  “However, these flowers are not appropriate. First, I did nothing to warrant a thank-you on such an elaborate scale.”

  She sounded like somebody’s elderly maiden aunt. And still, he wanted her. Disgusted, Jake ran a hand through his hair. He wondered if she’d be brave enough to mention the potential for gossip the flowers created.

  “Ah, but you’re forgetting about our kiss,” he said, pitching his voice low and using the tone he’d once used to say sweet nothings in her ear.

  Silence. He pictured Jenny flushing red and felt an irrational surge of desire.

  “I’d prefer to forget about that.” Her tone was icy. “Monica will be handling your account from now on. Of course I’ll still do the actual bookkeeping, but your contact with my office will be through Monica.” He’d see about that. For now though, he decided to let it go. But only for now. “That’s okay, Jen. Since we’re going to the picnic together, I can live with that.”

  Her gasp of outrage sounded like the Jenny he remembered. “Are you the one who started that rumor?”

  Jake nearly laughed. “Rumor?” He pretended a little outrage himself. “It’s no rumor, it’s a fact. The paper printed it and when they called me to confirm, I told them they were correct.”

  “Call them back,” she ordered. He could hear the desperation under the bossy tone. “Tell them they were wrong.”

  Some devil drove him on. “Jenny, you promised to help me in any way you could. You’re well known and well liked in this town and me being seen with you will help strengthen my image. If you back out now, it will only make us both look bad.”

  Jake could imagine the wheels turning inside her head. If there was one thing that would bother this new Jenny, it would be looking bad in front of the town. Sadly, he wished it were different. Once, Jenny had been a free spirit, answering to no one and doing what she pleased, when she pleased. While some of the more conservative members of town might have gossiped about her, she hadn’t cared. She helped out people when they needed it and was well liked despite the fact that she was different.

  “No one has to look bad,” she finally said, her voice sounding weak.

  He said nothing. He didn’t have to.

  “Fine.” Grudgingly, she conceded the point. “I’ll go with you to the picnic. But it will be strictly business, do you understand? No more of this—” She choked up.

  Gleefully, he could picture her blush. “Kissing?” he offered innocently.

  Another silence, this one making him wonder what thoughts were going through her head.

  “Monica will be handling your account,” she said once more.

  Again he chose to ignore this statement. “Jenny, I only want to be your friend.”

  She snorted—actually snorted. Exactly like she used to when she thought someone was spreading a pile of manure. Heart soaring, Jake took this as a promising sign.

  “Seriously,” he pressed on. “I am sorry I hurt you so badly. I’m sorry that you seem to hate me so much.”

  “Face it, Jake.” A trace of dry amusement came through in her voice. “You’re just plain sorry.”

  Then she laughed. It was not the polite little laughter she’d used the night before at the restaurant. It was the full, from-the-belly, smoky, husky laughter than had made him fall in love with her in the first place.

  Hearing it, Jake closed his eyes and swayed. She sounded so much like the old Jenny. Vital, full of life.

  The force of the emotion that hit him wrenched his gut.

  Somehow, he had to find the right words. “You may just be right,” he managed, knowing his voice sounded like he’d swallowed rusty nails and wondering if she remembered enough about him to know what that mean t. “ But I really want to be your friend. ”

  Another silence. He could hear his heart pumping, guessing hers was doing the same.

  “I think it’s too late for that.” she finally said, “you were every
thing to me, Jake, once.”

  It hurt hearing her say that, even though her words mirrored exactly what she’d meant to him. Past tense, he reminded himself. It had to be; even if he were free to tell her the truth, he could never allow himself to be anything to her but a friend. Not now. She deserved so much more than he could ever give.

  Jake bowed his head, wishing desperately he could touch her, knowing he must not. For the first time since he’d come here, he wondered if he had made a colossal mistake. Maybe it would have been better to find some other town, some place where he was anonymous, and make a brand new life for himself.

  But he hadn’t been able to live without seeing Jenny one more time. Without making sure she was safe.

  “Jenny, please.” Jake put his heart in that quiet plea, and all the pent-up longing and need and sorrow that he had inside. He knew she would recognize it, knew, too, she would sympathize, however reluctantly. The Jenny he had known had never been able to resist a wounded being, be it animal or human.

  “I’ll think about it.”

  There was a quiet click as she hung up the phone.

  Replacing the receiver, Jake wondered what that meant. At least she had promised him that much. And there was the Fourth of July picnic, in a few day’s time. She had agreed to go with him. He felt like celebrating because finally he would have a chance to spend some real time with Jenny. Time in which they might get to know each other again, time in which he might be able to find out what made her tick and why she pretended to be someone she was not

  As a friend, of course. Strictly as a friend.

  Thinking of this brought Howard to mind. What would Jenny tell him? Surely he would expect to go to the picnic with her? Or would he?

  Jake decided he didn’t much care.

  The morning of the annual Fourth of July picnic dawned bright and sunny with a promise of heat For two days the Ater city council and assorted volunteers had been getting things ready, building floats for the parade, hanging red, white, and blue streamers and bows from the freshly painted bandstand in the center of the park.

  All of the businesses, including the bank, were closed for the day. Everyone would have a great time while Eddie Brentworth’s band played marches until the sky grew dark. Then the firework display would light up the night to the delight of all the children and most of the adults.

  The entire town was in a festive mood.

  Jenny had been to the picnic every year as long as she could remember. When she was a little girl her mother had made a basket full of fried chicken, potato salad, macaroni salad, and homemade bread. They’d always brought along a cooler full of lemonade and for dessert, a container of homemade vanilla ice cream.

  The first few years after her parents had been killed, Jenny had been too sad to make the familiar foods, choosing to bring sandwiches and chips instead.

  The first year with Jake, she’d restored the old tradition, finding comfort in the familiar foods. Howard had praised her fried chicken, claiming it was the best in town. She would make the same meal to share tonight with Jake, again.

  Jenny frowned. Howard hadn’t seemed to mind that she intended to go the celebration with Jake. He’d listened with his usual careful silence, then allowed as to how it would be a good public relations move on her part. As for him, he’d been unusually vague, telling Jenny he would make some kind of plans and not to worry about him.

  So she battered the chicken, fried it up in hot vegetable oil, and tried to ignore the knot of anticipation that coiled in her stomach.

  Chapter Six

  After she’d prepared their lunch, Jenny took a good look at herself in the mirror. What to wear, that was another decision she found herself confronted with. Never before had she been concerned about her clothing—most people wore shorts and T-shirts to the picnic, normal summer attire. Howard even wore a preppy pair of khaki shorts and a golf shirt.

  But this year Jenny found herself wishing she’d taken time to go shopping. Jean shorts and a T-shirt didn’t seem businesslike enough. And she didn’t want to wear anything that might make Jake think she would relax her firm rules.

  In the end she settled on a denim jumper. It came to mid-calf, hiding her legs, and the straight lines of it hid her shape. Underneath she wore a baggy, white T-shirt.

  Regarding herself in the mirror with satisfaction, Jenny twisted her hair up into a neat bun. There.

  Now even Jake would realize she meant what she’d said, despite her momentary lapse when talking to him on the phone. Mortified, she remembered how she’d teased him, joked with him, exactly the way she used to when they’d been lovers. Her cheeks flaming, she prayed he hadn’t read too much into that one slip.

  Jake claimed he wanted to be friends. In a moment of supreme weakness, swayed perhaps by the very real emotion she’d thought she heard in his voice, she’d promised to think about it. Well, she had thought about it. She could never be friends with the man who’d broken her heart. There could be nothing but a professional relationship between them. Ever.

  Resisting the impulse to put on lipstick and mascara, Jenny grabbed her sunglasses and the picnic hamper and went out on the front porch to wait. The temperature hovered just below one hundred degrees at three o’clock in the afternoon. Because of the heat, the parade started at four. Most people got there early, staking their spots along the route, and Jenny was no different.

  A silver Jeep with dark tinted windows cruised to a stop in front of her house. Because she didn’t know what Jake drove, Jenny peered uncertainly at it until the passenger window opened.

  “Are you ready?” One arm looped casually over the back of the seat, he looked incredibly handsome and boyish in his faded jean shorts and black T-shirt.

  Her mouth went dry. Somehow she managed to nod, lugging her hamper down the porch steps.

  In a flash he came out of the Jeep and took the hamper from her. When he swung it easily into the back, Jenny couldn’t help but watch the ripple of his well-developed muscles. Jake hadn’t been so .. . well, buff before. He’d been fit, but much more lean and lanky than he was now. She found herself wondering what exactly he’d been up to in the two years he’d been gone. Whatever it had been had put shadows in his eyes and meat on his body.

  She didn’t like the first, but honey, she was human—she loved the second.

  But she couldn’t. Wouldn’t. Reminding herself sternly that Jake was a business associate only, Jenny looked away, standing back and waiting for him to open the door for her out of long habit.

  When he did, she realized that perhaps her denim jumper had been a poor choice. Clambering up into the Jeep with it on would require her to show a fair amount of leg. The jumper was too form fitting for her to climb without yanking up the material and bunching it in her hand.

  As usual, her face began to flame as she pondered this new development

  “Jenny?”

  She heard the question in his voice. Not wanting to explain, she had just about decided to be brave and go for it when Jake solved her problem for her. With a smoothness of movement that belied his size, he scooped her up in his arms and deposited her in the front seat. He did this so quickly that she barely had time to catch her breath before he shut the door and went around to the driver’s side.

  Closing her eyes, Jenny tried not to dwell on the way his firm chest had felt, or how sensual it had been to have those big arms around her.

  Sexy. Her eyes popped open and she stared at him in horror. She had just felt sexy for the first time in two years! That aching need inside of her, that he could cause it with so brief a touch—she was shocked and intrigued and, despite herself, so aroused that she felt her nipples harden under the thick denim of her jumper.

  Luckily, Jake seemed too busy navigating through the crowded streets to notice.

  Jenny breathed a sigh of relief and forced herself to scan the throngs of people for familiar faces, knowing this would distract her. She tried not to notice how sexy his long, tanned fingers looked o
n the steering wheel, or how close his bare thigh was to hers.

  After ten minutes of driving around the town square, Jake pulled into a parking spot behind the drugstore. This time, she didn’t wait for him to come around and help her out; she pushed open the door and slid to the ground before he could. Yanking down the jumper, she fixed a bright smile on her face and turned to face Jake.

  “Are you all right?” He cocked his head and studied her.

  Good night, even his gaze made her feel warm and liquid. Jenny nodded quickly, too quickly, then made a pretense of recognizing someone in the crowd. “Fine,” she mumbled. “I thought I saw Howard, but I was wrong.”

  “Come on. ’ ’ He gave her a gentle, devastating smile and then tucked her arm in his. “Let’s go find our spot.”

  Though her first reaction had been to pull away, Jenny let him lead her along. Normally, she staked out a spot around Third and Main. This year, since Jake had been made Master of Ceremonies, she would have the best spot in the house. They were to sit with the mayor and city councilmen up on the raised platform in front of City Hall.

  As a member of the city council, Howard would be there too. Wondering if he had come alone or had found a date, Jenny realized she really didn’t care. No matter what happened with Jake, it had become plain that Howard wasn’t the one for her.

  Seeing him a moment later with a petite little blonde on his arm gave her a tremendous sense of relief.

  “Who’s that with Howard?” Jake looked concerned, wearing that wary expression males get when worried that a woman might begin to cry.

  “Pauline from the bank’s lending department,” Jenny answered thoughtfully.

  Jake squeezed her arm in misguided sympathy.

  1 m sorry.

  “Don’t be,” she replied without thinking. “Howard and I are just friends.”

  “I thought you were engaged.”

  She kept her chin up and her eyes on hers. “I lied.”

  His grin hit her like a punch in the stomach. One thing Jenny had always prided herself on was her strength of will. But being around Jake sorely tested her resolve. If she’d been the Jenny she used to be, the one who’d been secure in his love, she would have grabbed his head and pulled him down for a deep, soul-satisfying kiss. Jake’s kisses had always made her forget everything but the man who held her. Jake—damn, she was doing it again. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to remember that people were watching. She had a business now, a reputation to uphold. No longer was she some love-struck young girl.