Jenson (Wild Men Book 4)

by Melissa Belle

  Daphne cheers, but then her eyes grow big like she doesn’t know what to do next. Dad shifts awkwardly in his chair and looks around like he’s making sure there are no reporters around. And Vivian…she turns toward Ed and kisses him. His eyes widen, and he kisses her back with enthusiasm.

  Then Cybil starts to cry.

  At the sound of her shrill, insistent wails, everybody freaks out. I mean freaks out.

  Mom starts screaming at no one in particular, wondering how she didn’t uncover this love affair herself and then asking me why I couldn’t find someone outside of the family to date.

  Cindy begins to berate Jenson, asking him what he thinks he’s doing by betraying the Grahams’ trust this way.

  Cybil cries louder.

  Matilda worries out loud that our kids will be like the royals, “who we all know are inbred.”

  Dee catches wind of what Matilda says and tries to tell her that Jenson and I aren’t blood related, but then he turns on Jenson as well, telling him I’m family regardless.

  Cindy quiets down first, and I can see the blood absolutely drain from her face as she realizes that her secret would be treated with just as much judgment and horror as ours is. And Jenson could reveal his father’s identity right now, right this minute in order to save himself and turn the attention onto his mother. All he’d have to do is tell the truth about his birth, and in about two seconds flat, the whole room would turn on Cindy. And Dee would turn on Cindy. Her world would come crashing down around her feet, and she knows it.

  But of course, Jenson keeps his mouth closed. So does Cindy. And the rest of the room keeps shouting. And criticizing. It’s painful, but I realize that I’m strong enough to take it now.

  “Hey!” Jenson whistles, and the room goes eerily quiet.

  All eyes shift to us as we stand with our backs to the window. I have half a mind to turn and use the window as my escape from the unwanted attention, but Jenson puts his arm around me firmly.

  “Are you okay?” he asks me softly.

  His green eyes shower me with love. His flushed cheeks tell me all I need to know: he’s going to fight for us. Even though he doesn’t need to because we’ve already made our decision, Jenson’s going to speak his mind, anyway.

  I nod. “I’m good.”

  He presses a kiss to my temple before turning to face our irate audience.

  “I’m in love with Olivia Graham.” Jenson’s admission is met with gasps, but his expression is calm and resolved. “I’ve loved her for as long as I can remember.”

  “Shit.” Sheldon’s stunned reaction breaks the tension in the room, and I nearly smile.

  “Olivia’s in love with me, too. We’re together, and we’re not blood related.”

  “But you’re family!” Matilda cries out.

  “There are a lot of different ways to define family,” Jenson says. “My mom and I were incredibly lucky to be invited into yours. But my feelings for Olivia were always different and ran deeper than what you all thought and understood us to be. We aren’t actually cousins, and we aren’t going to deny our own happiness by pretending to be something we’re not. I love her more than life, and to be without her anymore—it’s just not an option. I hope you all have a good meal.”

  Jenson nods his head, signaling that the “conversation,” if you can call it that, has come to an end.

  I don’t add anything to what Jenson already said so perfectly. But as I stand in front of my family, it’s absolutely liberating to finally face what I’ve always feared. I thought my family’s negative reaction would literally crush the life out of me. But I’m okay. I’m more than okay. And that is so freeing.

  Jenson doesn’t say anything else. He just reaches over, takes my hand in his, and we turn and walk out of Cybil’s house. We get into his truck and drive away.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  We drive out of town and keep going for over an hour until we’re at the Delaware border. Jenson pulls off at a gas station and shifts to face me. His eyes shine with emotion, and his mouth turns up in a lopsided grin.

  “That didn’t happen the way we’d planned it,” he says.

  “Not exactly.” I unbuckle my seat belt, and he pulls me onto his lap. “Okay, not at all. But I don’t care.”

  “Are you sure?” His hand rubs my back gently. “I know we said we were going to wait. But our moms were driving me so damn crazy with their set-up plans. I finally lost it. And God, it felt good to just be open and honest about our relationship.”

  I lean my head on his shoulder. “For me too. When you kissed me, it was like we were the only two people in the room for that moment.”

  “I felt that too,” he says. “I care so much more about you than their verdict, Olivia. I’m sorry we didn’t figure that out when we were younger. But maybe we just weren’t ready.”

  I bite my lip. “I don’t think we were. I look at Daphne and how she and Todd were so young when they got together, and they didn’t have to go through the outside pressures like we have. And it’s still hard for them. For me, having gone through all the stuff I did on my own first, it makes being with you now even better. We’re stronger together.”

  “Nothing can come between us now,” he says to me. “Nothing.”

  “Are you okay keeping the story of your father a secret still?” I study his expression as it turns from calm to stormy.

  Jenson clears his throat. “It’s my mother’s story, Olive. But mine is in there, too. My birth father lives twenty minutes away in a high-rise in Philly, and the man who raised me is on Elm Street in Liberty Falls. And they used to be friends, but Dee has no idea about my mom’s night with Donald. What if I want my sons to meet Donald? Am I going to keep the truth from them forever? Or from Dee?”

  I shake my head. “I don’t know.”

  He takes my face in his hands and kisses me hard and urgently. “But you and me—this—is ours. No one can touch it, okay?”

  I nod and rest my forehead against his. “We did it.”

  Jenson slips his hand underneath my shirt and I shiver. “We did. And we’re going to celebrate all night long. Sound good?”

  Sounds perfect.

  We go to my house and make love all night long. And it’s…intense. Some of it’s a reaction to death, I think, to try to feel as alive as we can for as long as we can. I hold him in my arms and tell him how much I love him, and he kisses my face as he drives into me over and over again.

  I moan at the intensity of him inside me as his thrusts touch me deeper than I’ve ever been touched before.

  We come together, something we’ve been making into an art lately. And it’s bliss.

  His sexy sounds drive me wild, and I come one more time as he finishes moving.

  “J. I love you.”

  When I arrive at Union Bank the next morning, Vivian immediately calls me into her office.

  I walk in, trying hard to act casual, but inside, my heart is pounding.

  But she surprises me when she immediately says, “I’m so happy you’re happy.”

  I exhale in relief. “Well, you’re in the minority. My mother’s left me three voicemails explaining that it’s urgent I get back to her so she can talk to me about ‘the kiss’ she witnessed and can’t get out of her head.”

  “Even when love should be easy,” Vivian says, “we make it hard. Or the people around us do.”

  Mom shows up at the bank at lunchtime, and I can no longer avoid her. But I still try. I run behind the teller cages, but Mom calls out, “Olivia, I saw you run back there. Come out because your mother needs to talk to you now!”

  I stand up straight and lift my head as high as I can before stepping out from behind the teller cages and looking right into the eyes of my mother. Her gaze is bright but guarded, and I know what she’s feeling. She’s happy I’m in love but hurt I never told her.

  I take her arm and lead her outside the bank and down to the patch of grass by the gazebo. We take seats on the bench before I turn to her
. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way. I wanted to tell you a thousand times, and I chickened out. But this isn’t some little fling, Mom. Jenson and I are in love with each other and have been for years.”

  “That’s what’s so astounding about all of this…” she begins. “For—years?”

  “Yes, years,” I repeat firmly.

  “But your marriage…”

  “Was forced,” I say. “I wanted Nate to be right, but he wasn’t. You all wanted Jenson and me to be cousins so much, with the best intentions, of course. But we always had that spark between us. As a teenager, I was too young, and when Meghan got pregnant…the timing was just never right. And I never wanted him to lose the Grahams as family.”

  Mom leans her head against the bench. She looks spent. “Of course he won’t lose us. Don’t worry about that. So you and Jenson have always had a thing for one another?”

  “I can’t remember a day when I didn’t love him.” I’m surprised how raw my voice sounds and how laced with emotion.

  “Was it the same for him?”

  “Yes. We were each other’s everything. We always will be.”

  “Olivia.” Mom’s voice is hushed. “This is…big. Big love.”

  “Yes.”

  Silence.

  “Mom,” I finally say. “How are you feeling?”

  Mom starts. “Oh, pardon me, Olivia. Of course I’m happy you’re in love. I adore Jenson. And you two have always been so attached to one another even though I missed the fact that it was romantic attachment. You know we always wanted him to feel like a member of the family. So the circumstances…”

  “I’ve let circumstances hold me back for years,” I say. “I’ll hurt too many feelings; I’m too young; he’s too old; it’s not the right time; I need to wait a while; I need to wait forever; I need to marry the wrong man and stay far away from the right one…” I brush the tears off my cheeks as Mom reaches hastily into her purse for a tissue. I didn’t even realize I was crying until I feel the wetness on my face.

  “Oh, sweetheart.” Mom reaches over to hug me. “Dad told me you two talked about love and life the other day. I didn’t realize what you were hinting at. I mean, your words were clearly a cry for help.” She gasps.

  “Mom, you weren’t even there.”

  “Oh, honey, I’m always there,” she says knowingly. “Dad and I are like one soul, honey. He spoke to you, felt your issues peeking out from the surface, and he came to me. He said he thought you might be on the edge.”

  “The edge of what?” I say to her. “He did not say that, Mom! You’re speaking reflectively now that you know about Jenson.”

  “Well.” Mom doesn’t know how to argue her way out of that comment, so she hands me another tissue and begins to talk about her undying love for Dad.

  “That’s great, Mom,” I finally get out. “I’m glad you and Dad still stoke the fires as you say.”

  She fixes her attention on me. “I’m happy for you, Olivia. And your father and I both support this union. We may have been taken off-guard, and some members of the family may not be as comfortable with your relationship as they could be…”

  “I know that Cybil and Matilda and others may always judge us. They literally seem to think Jenson is blood-related. Not to mention the town.”

  “All you can do is be happy. Don’t pay the haters any mind, okay? Listen, Bea is excited to talk to you about Jenson. She’s on my side of the family, and we’ve always been more open-minded. You two can chat tonight. She found the perfect Adult Ed. class.”

  “Mom, I’m not sure…”

  “It’s some extreme form of yoga, supposedly to open up your sex chakra. They say everybody stays clothed, but it may entail a little disrobing of outerwear…”

  Oh, sweet Lord. “I can’t possibly do that right now. Sex yoga is not the right match for my mood today.”

  Mom nods solemnly and then gasps so loudly that I jump.

  “What?” I ask.

  “I have an even better idea,” she says so enthusiastically I think she’s going to suggest she, Bea, and I climb into our own spacecraft and orbit the moon. “I saw this class at the center, and I didn’t say anything to you or Bea because I thought it might be too extreme.”

  “Oh, no. More extreme than sex yoga?”

  Mom nods and looks like she may burst with excitement. “It’s called HypnoFantasy.”

  “That sounds frightening,” I say.

  “It’s a class where each student undergoes a short period of hypnosis in order to unlock her deepest sexual fantasies.”

  “No,” I say immediately.

  But Mom thinks I’m saying it in enthusiastic disbelief.

  “Yes,” Mom says. “I didn’t believe you could find a class like that in Liberty Falls, either. Although this town has always been a bit quirky. Which may be a good thing for you and Jenson,” she adds with a knowing look.

  “Mom, please.”

  “I’m just saying. This class sounds fascinating, don’t you think? I confess to having lots of fantasies lurking inside me, as must you, Olivia. And we could do it together.”

  My mother has hit a whole new level of liberation. I take a deep breath. “Mom, I really don’t think I can handle something so…” I search for a word. “Intense right now. I fully support you and Bea attending, though. It sounds like it could be very therapeutic.”

  “That’s exactly what I thought!” Mom says. “See, it’s like one mind, honey.”

  I walk home from work slowly. I’ve just rounded the corner into my driveway when I notice somebody on my front step. I can’t make out who it is because the big bush in front of my walkway blocks the view quite well. As I get closer, Sheldon’s profile comes into focus. He’s fidgeting with his hands and pacing back and forth in front of my front door.

  “Hey,” I call out.

  Sheldon waves and waits for me to reach him. I invite him inside, and he follows me. Bernie’s barking like crazy, so I take him out and then get his dinner ready for him while Sheldon takes a seat on my couch. Once Bernie starts to eat, I sit down on the other end of the couch from Sheldon and wait for him to speak.

  “I just want you to know that when the assholes come shouting, because you know they will, Olivia, I am here for you. And for Jenson.”

  I let out a long breath. “I appreciate that more than you can ever know.”

  “So you guys can be together now. You are together now.” Sheldon watches my eyes. “What do you think of that?”

  “I’ve been in love with him since I was a kid, and nothing has changed that. No matter how hard I’ve tried, no matter how many other men I’ve hoped to love, nothing’s worked.”

  His eyes go wide. “At Cybil’s, when Jenson said you two had loved each other forever…”

  I nod. “Dead serious. And it’s the same for him.”

  “So your marriages…” Sheldon starts to say but then stops himself.

  “Yes,” I say. “We tried to be normal like everybody else. The problem is, we’re not like everybody else, and we never were. We’re freaks, I guess.”

  Sheldon’s blue eyes narrow. “So you’ve been in love with him forever. I mean, it must have been…”

  “Torture,” I say, using the word Jenson and I use to describe it. “Yeah, it’s been pretty much torture.”

  Sheldon runs his hand through his hair and tugs at the short strands. “Olive. Shit. I can’t believe you kept this from me. Not because I’m a narcissistic asshole and I wanted to be in on a secret but because I can’t imagine having to hide from you something that means that much to me.” More hair tugging. “I feel like such an ass. All those times I teased you for your bad luck with men, and the things I said…”

  I raise an eyebrow at him playfully. “Are you actually apologizing to me, Sheldon Graham?”

  He nods seriously. “I am. And I can’t believe I never saw the crazy-ass chemistry between the two of you. Because once I started thinking about it, I realized it’s always been obvio
us. Jenson’s always looked at you like you’re a goddess. And he treats you that way, too. Which makes me so damn happy to see my little sister finally be with a man she deserves.”

  I touch his leg. “Thank you for that.”

  “So what made you finally decide to go for it?”

  “Last chances and all that. We were both finally single at the same time and both still wanted the exact same thing: each other. I guess we decided to stop worrying so much about everybody else and do what makes us happy. I have to follow my heart, no matter what Liberty Falls thinks.” I make a face. “To be honest, I’m still working on that part.”

  Sheldon clears his throat. “You don’t have to answer this, but when Jenson got married? I’m assuming the reason you skipped out was because…”

  I nod. “Too painful.” I look away from him and out the window. Summer’s nearly over, and I feel nostalgic for a moment, the way I always do when a season’s coming to a close. My secret with Jenson is coming to a close. No more private rendezvous, no more nights out with Sheldon and Cara where Sheldon thinks we’re just friends. That chapter is done and over with. And even though I called it torturous, it was such a part of my identity that I actually feel a sense of emptiness for the end. I’m so excited to turn the page, though, and I know it’s beyond time.

  Sheldon taps my leg, and I look back at him. “I’m happy for you, Olive. More than happy. I’m super stoked. Not that you need me to be, not that it matters…”

  “It matters.” I smile at him. “It does.”

  “Love you, baby sister,” he says.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  When Jenson pulls into my driveway later that night, my stomach lurches as he gets out of the truck and I see his face.