Plain Jayne (27 page)

There was a slight hesitation before he answered, which could well have been because he was working while they talked, but somehow it seemed different; awkward.

“Aren’t you meeting your friends for drinks tonight?”

“We could meet there after that. Say seven?”

Another hesitation. “Um, yeah, sure. Okay.”

Jayne shot a glance at Delmar, hoping he would take his stilts and go somewhere else, so she could ask Nick what was up, but no such luck. Delmar secured the last buckle around his calf and got to work on the opposite side of the room, without so much as a glance at either Jayne or Nick.

Something was definitely off. Delmar, who’d been friendly and chatty the last time she’d stopped by, now seemed intent on avoiding eye contact, and Nick was just … weird. The only thing Jayne could figure was that somehow she had outstayed her welcome and now needed to remove herself without making the silence in the room any more awkward.

“Great,” she finally managed. “I’ll see you later.”

Todd was coming in the door as she left, but she was too focused on getting away as fast as she could, so she missed what he said. In her car, she glanced back through the living room window and saw Nick pointing his sander toward Todd, who’d just walked into the room, and though she couldn’t make out what was being said, Nick was clearly furious. Delmar stood between the two, blocking Nick from moving forward.

Nick shoved Delmar’s arm away, but the other man held it up again, and when Nick moved to the left, Delmar moved with him, shaking his head.

Ooh, boy. Maybe dinner wasn’t such a great idea tonight. She’d give him a while to cool down, then suggest via text, because she was that much of a coward, they do it another time.

She drove to Nick’s house and started loading her stuff back into the car. Whatever that had been between Nick and Delmar, she couldn’t shake the feeling she was somehow involved, and she’d already been more than enough of a problem for him.

A thin stream of anxiety worked its way up Jayne’s spine, dragging with it every insecurity she’d spent her whole life trying to run from. Growing up, she’d been nothing but a pain in Gran’s butt, a burden the old woman neither wanted nor deserved. Had Jayne become that to Nick now, too? Had she been so caught up in her own stupid self that she hadn’t noticed before?

With her trunk and backseat full, Jayne drove to her place and started unloading. Six trips up and down the stairs and she was done; guess it was a good thing her whole life fit in the back of her car—it made for easy moving. She was just setting down the last box when her phone
buzzed with a text from Nick.

Sorry about before. See you @ 7

Jayne read it twice before she tucked the phone back in her pocket. Typical Nick. She’d obviously caused some kind of weirdness between him and his workers, and he was the one apologizing.

She pulled open the flaps on one of the large boxes and lifted out the shorter flat box inside. Very carefully, she eased out the top layer of packing paper and there it was: the dandelion necklace Nick made her so many years ago. She’d worn it every day until it started to fall apart, then she’d pressed it between sheets of wax paper in the biggest book she could find in the store.

When she left town, Gran wouldn’t let her take the book, so she’d gone to the dollar store and found the nicest frame she could afford. Looking at it now, so many years later, it might seem ragged and faded to anyone else, but to Jayne, it was just as beautiful as the day Nick gave it to her.

She smoothed her fingers over the glass, proud that she let only one tear fall.

With the frame in one hand and her tool belt in the other, she wandered upstairs and down, searching for the perfect place. Above the front door? Across from the sales desk? In the living room? Pros and cons to each spot but after a while, she gave up and left it on the kitchen counter while she went to unpack other things.

The closet had room to spare, even with her entire wardrobe hanging in it, and when the dishes had been stacked in the kitchen, she still had empty cupboard space.

A few minutes before six, she locked up and walked down to Chalker’s. Ellie and Maya were just sitting down when Jayne arrived, so she flagged the waitress. “I’m buying.”

“Oooh, I like that,” Ellie said. “What’s up?”

Jayne slid into the seat next to her. “Passed inspection today so we’re go for launch.”

“That’s great!” Maya said, her smile much less forced than last week.

“With all the people you’ve had in and out of there this week,” Ellie said, “you could have rebuilt the entire place from the ground up.” She smiled a little guiltily. “Yes, I was watching.”

Jayne blew out a relieved breath. “Yeah,” she said. “Nick and his crew were amazing.”

The waitress set their glasses down, which they immediately raised and clinked.

“Then here’s to having a builder as your roommate slash friend slash not-boyfriend slash whatever-he-really-is!”

Jayne and Maya both laughed and drank.

“Is Regan coming?”

“So far as I know,” Maya said. “But I haven’t talked to her much this week.”

“Me neither.” Ellie leaned over the table a little and lowered her voice. “Don’t look now, but those guys are here again and it looks like Blondie on the end is about to make his move.”

“What?” Jayne looked around until she spied the table of guys Ellie must have meant. They were the same four who’d been cheering so loud during the ball game last week.

Ellie jabbed her elbow into Jayne’s ribs. “I said don’t look!”

“But”—Jayne laughed—“who’s Blondie and what move is he making?”

Maya twisted in her chair to look, but she at least had the foresight to make it seem like she wasn’t gawking. She did a complete swivel as though looking for the waitress, then pointed at her for no particular reason.

“He’s cute,” Maya grinned. “I mean, he’s no Nick Scott, but he’s cute.”

The fun they’d had last week teasing her about Nick didn’t seem quite so funny this week, and Jayne didn’t even want to consider the reasons why. She’d barely taken a breath when the waitress stopped at their table and set another Cosmo in front of Jayne.

“From the gentleman at the table over there.” She pointed toward Blondie, smiled, and ducked away.

Ellie and Maya snorted and laughed, but Jayne’s mouth dried up like a cork. She’d never had anyone do that before and she had no freakin’ idea what she was supposed to do now. Thankfully, Ellie did.

“God’s sake, Jayne, at least give him a wave or a smile.”

Her face flaming, her hand shaking, Jayne somehow managed to lift the glass and curved her mouth in what she hoped was a smile, then immediately turned so she sat at an angle, facing more toward Ellie beside her.

“Jeez,” Ellie snickered behind her glass. “You’d think you never had a guy hit on you before.”

Jayne widened her eyes as much as she could until Ellie finally clued in.

“Shut up,” she breathed. “Really? Never?”

“Uh, no,” Jayne whispered. “I’m not the kind of girl guys hit on.”

“Are you kidding?” Maya asked, staring back at her. “Guys don’t need a type. They just need someone with boobs.”

“Yeah, well, my 34Cs aren’t anything worth writing home about.”

“Looks like Blondie disagrees.” She glanced over her shoulder, not even trying to be nonchalant this time. “You should go for it, see what happens.”

Jayne tipped her head to the side a little and whispered hoarsely. “I’m not going to
go for it
, Maya—I don’t even know who he is!”

“Well, you’re about to,” Ellie grinned. “ ’Cause here he comes.”

Panic swelled in Jayne until she thought she’d choke. “What do I say?”

“Maybe start with hello.” She cleared her throat and sat back, barely bobbing her head in the direction of the approaching Blondie.

“Sorry to interrupt, ladies.” He stood at the end of their table, grinning down at Jayne. Okay, he was cute-ish, with his finger-tousled blond hair and deep dimples. “I just wanted to come over and introduce myself.”

Jayne clenched the stem of her glass so tight she thought it might snap.

“I’m Ellie.” She reached across Jayne to shake his hand. “That’s Maya and this is Jayne.”

Blondie nodded a hello to both of them, then waited for Jayne to shake his hand. “Nice to meet you, Jayne. I’m Troy.”

Jayne almost laughed right out loud. Of course he was Troy. He
looked
like a Troy.

“Th-thank you for the drink,” she squeaked. “It was very sweet.”

“No problem.” He flashed those dimples again and Jayne had to wonder how old he was. “Maybe we could grab some dinner later?”

Jayne could feel Ellie’s stare, but didn’t dare look at her. “Oh, um, yeah, sorry, but I’m meeting someone in a little while.”

“Boyfriend?” he asked with a slight wince.

“Friend friend.”

“Cool,” he beamed. “Another time maybe?”

“We’re here every Tuesday,” Maya blurted out.

“Then I guess I’ll see you next Tuesday.” He didn’t wait for a reply, but instead backed up slowly toward his buddies, who were all watching from their table.

She smiled back at him, resisting the overwhelming urge to kick Maya under the table. She didn’t want to have dinner with him! She didn’t even want to have a drink with him!

“Thanks a lot,” she muttered through gritted teeth.

“You’re welcome.” Maya and Ellie clinked their glasses again, but Jayne refused. This wasn’t anything to cheer about. “That’s what you get for not telling us you had a date with Nick tonight.”

“It’s not a date. It’s just dinner.”

“A rose by any other name,” Maya muttered, grinning over her glass at Ellie.

Regan arrived about half an hour later and slumped into the chair next to Maya.

“Who peed in your Corn Flakes?” Ellie teased. “Cheer up, Jayne passed inspection and she’s buying.”

“Of course she passed.” Regan grabbed the waitress’s arm as she walked by and all but begged for a beer. “Her boyfriend had everyone waiting by the phone all weekend in case he needed something, even though they’d already put in sixty hours last week and even though
some of them
had plans for the weekend.”

Not some, Jayne mused. Todd. And Regan.

“First full weekend we’ve both had off all year, and then bam!
Nick Scott
wants his girlfriend’s building done so everything else comes to a grinding halt. Doesn’t matter what we had planned, no, just so long as
Nick Scott
gets what he wants.”

Jayne sat in stunned silence for a second, as did Maya and Ellie.

“Nick told me they weren’t going to have anything to do for a few days while he and Delmar boarded the house, so I hired them to do the work at my place.” She paused only long enough to inhale. “They weren’t working for him; they were working for me.”

“Like there’s a difference.” Regan accepted the bottle of beer from the waitress and chugged great gulps of it.

“Wow.” Ellie’s eyes rounded over the rim of her glass, but Regan wasn’t done.

“And if that’s not bad enough, Nick goes and fires Todd’s sorry ass, so I’ve spent all afternoon listening to him go off about it.”

“He
what
?” Jayne cried. “What happened?”

“Oh, please,” Regan muttered. “Like you don’t know.”

Maya and Ellie, sitting diagonally across from each other, sat with mouths agape, staring
between Jayne and Regan.

“Look,” Jayne said, lowering her voice a little. “When I left the site today, all four of them were there, so if something happened after that, it had nothing to do with me.”

“Oh my God, Jayne,” Regan cried, her fingers flexed straight as she punctuated every word. “Everything Nick does these days has something to do with you!”

Jayne pushed her glass toward Maya so she could lean in more. The last thing she needed was everyone in the bar hearing this, but before she could speak, Ellie wrapped her hand around Jayne’s arm.

“Hold on,” she said. “What happened, Regan?”

“He fired Todd, that’s what happened!”

“Yes, we got that,” Ellie sighed. “Why?”

A great gust of anger blew out between Regan’s tight lips. “Things have been said, and then Nick found out Todd almost blew Jayne’s inspection today because he forgot to take the inspection report to City Hall when he should have.”

“What’s being said?” Maya and Ellie both looked at Jayne, but she kept her eyes on Regan. If she wanted to tell this story, she could tell it. As far as Jayne was concerned, this was between Nick and Todd, and had nothing to do with anyone else.

“It’s so stupid.” Regan took another swig and slumped back in her chair. “Ever since Jayne showed up, Nick’s been ditching the guys, leaving most of the work on the house to Delmar instead of doing it himself. Todd says he spends more time with Jayne than he does with Lisa, and that it seemed like Jayne’s been leading him around by his—”

“Nick!” Maya exclaimed, looking over Jayne’s shoulder toward the door as she poked Regan in the arm. “Look who’s here.”

Jayne spun around in her chair, and there he was, dressed in faded jeans and a black twill button-up shirt, looking as good as he ever had. Maybe better. But did he have to bring such a big bouquet with him?

“Maya,” she mumbled. “You could’ve given a heads-up.”

“I didn’t know they were for you,” she whispered. “I just assumed they were for Lisa.”

Silence greeted Nick as he strode toward them. He nodded to the table in general, then looked directly at Regan.

“You okay?”

“Great.” Without moving her head, she slid her glare up to Nick. “The dumb shit never saved a freakin’ cent his whole life, so now he thinks we should move in together.”

“Oy,” Ellie squeaked. “I hope you said no.”

“Of course I said no! I barely make enough to support myself, I’m sure as hell not going to start paying his bills, too.”

“I’m sorry,” Nick said quietly. “I can’t have guys working for me if I don’t trust them, and we all know this isn’t the first time Todd’s screwed up.” He pressed his free hand against Jayne’s back. “You ready?”

“Yeah.” Jayne pushed back from the table and tried her very best to smile. “I’m sorry, Regan.”