We Were Us (11 page)

If he was, it was driving me crazy. I sat on my knees, leaned forward, and placed both hands on either side of his face, watching him watch me the whole time. I know he had to know what I was doing.

“Kiss me,” I whispered, giving him one last chance. He breathed heavily and smiled but still did not move. He was teasing me.

I leaned in, kissed him once on his full lips, and pulled away. I moved in again and captured his lips in mine, sucking his bottom lip gently when I pulled away. Again, I pressed my lips to his, this time he responded. He pushed his tongue against my lips and I let him in. My tongue met his and it was heaven. Shots of want and desire coursed through me. I rose up and pulled Josh closer to me, sliding my hands down his neck and over his shoulders. His arms wrapped around my waist and he held me too him, kissing me hard, his tongue passing over mine.

“Jenna,” Josh breathed. His body was tense and I could tell he wanted me as much as I wanted him. The way he said my name, as if it was the last name he would ever say, sent me over the edge. I leaned into him further, my hands in his hair, his hands in mine. He pushed me to the ground and climbed on top of me. He straddled me and I could feel what I was doing to him.

“I want you Jenna.”

“I was--” was all I managed before his mouth claimed mine again.

I wrapped my arms and legs around him and pressed my hips to his. I wanted him to keep kissing me as he did last night. I wanted his body close to mine. I doubted we would go any further than this out here, but we both wanted more, I felt it in the way he touched me.

“Jenna, stop.” Josh breathed into my mouth, mirroring my thoughts.

“Why?” I asked and continued to kiss him. Just because I was thinking about stopping didn’t mean I wanted to. And we were so close, I just didn’t want to lose it.

“We shouldn’t.”

“Why?” I asked again. Still kissing him. I wanted him to say it.

“I don’t know. Not here. Not now. Not yet.” He breathed again

“Okay,” I said against my better judgment. “Eventually we’re going to have to do it you know?” I wanted to keep going. I wanted Josh. Who cared if we were outside in the dirt in a cornfield? It was a warm night, the stars were gorgeous, and they were falling--like I was falling for him.

Josh lifted himself off me and extended his hand to me. He pulled me up to standing then turned around quickly and opened the cooler.

“What’s in the cooler?” I asked.

“I actually brought cake,” he said.

“Cake?”

“Yeah. I know it was your birthday earlier this month before you came here.”

“You remembered my birthday?”

“Yeah. I’ll always remember your birthday.”

Josh leaned over and kissed me softly at the corner of my eye. I shivered at his touch.

“You cold?” he asked

“No. I just do that when you touch me.”

After our cake, we sat for a while longer, just gazing up at the stars. Every so often Josh would kiss the side of my face, or the top of my head. I felt like I could stay this way forever. Eventually though, Josh said it was time to go so we packed up and climbed back into the truck. I checked my phone and it was almost three in the morning.

“Do I have to be blindfolded on the way home?” I teased.

“Not unless you want to be.” The way he said that made me want him to blindfold me just to see what he would do to me. Instead, I sat in the center seat so I could be touching him the whole ride home.

Josh drove me back to my house in silence. We didn’t take near as many turns on the way back as we did on the way there. He parked the truck in front of my house and turned off the engine.

“Do you want to come inside?” I asked not looking at him.

“No, Jenna. I have to work all day tomorrow.”

“If you didn’t have to work, would you come in?”

“Yes,” he said quickly.

“Okay.” I opened the door and the dome light illuminated his face. He looked sad. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” He laughed and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m good. I’ll see you later Jen.”

“Bye.”

Josh slid his hand behind my neck and pulled me into a deep kiss. His tongue wrapped around mine then slid back leaving me wanting more. But he released his grip on me and I hopped out of the cab of the truck.

The house was quiet and empty. I stripped my clothes on my way back to my room. I curled up under the patchwork quilt I had dug out of the hallway linen closet and replayed the night. I was falling for Josh, that was a no brainer, and I felt like he was into me too. Why was my summer becoming so complicated? I slammed my hands down into the bed in mock frustration.

CHAPTER TWELVE

I was going to disconnect my phone. Andrew had called twice, Stefanie as well. It wasn’t even eight in the morning. It was the Tuesday after my starry night date with Josh. He had had to work all weekend from sun up to sun down. Farmers were not kidding when they said they worked long hours. He’d texted me all weekend though, to remind me about our kisses and to tell me I was beautiful. But I guess there were some water lines that needed fixed so he had to work extra to get it done quickly. It hadn’t rained in weeks so I knew the farmers were hurting for water.

The phone rang again and I ignored it. It immediately rang again so I picked up and answered exasperatedly. Not that I was busy doing anything, but I just was not in the mood to talk.

“Hello?” I huffed.

“Jenna.”

Oh God. It was my mom. What the heck did she want?

“Hi Mom,” I said cautiously.

“How’s everything going?” She sounded too cheery and not like my mom.

“Fine, Mom.”

“Good. I just wanted to check on you. See what you’ve been doing. Have you had any visitors?”

I knew then that she wanted to see if her buddy had stopped by for the drugs. “Why do you care, Mom?” Two could play at this game.

“I’m just wondering Sweetie. Just wondering who’s traipsing through my house.” She gave a laugh like she didn’t care, but I knew her too well.

“I’m pretty sure this is Dad’s house.”

“Whatever.” Her voice was clipped and the concern had changed to truth. “Well, has anyone stopped by?”

“Josh Riley comes by every day.”

“Anyone else?”

She was obviously not concerned about me having boys over.

“Mom. Get to the point” I was way past annoyed with this conversation.

“I sent a friend. It wasn’t obvious when he came over?” She sounded genuinely confused.

“Some random guy in a business suit shows up on my doorstep sweaty and trying to sell me vacuums! He forced his way in and attacked me Mom! That’s who you sent to the house.”

“Oh.” She didn’t seem surprised, just a little confused.

I waited a beat before realizing that she wasn’t going to say anything more.

“Really! All you have to say is ‘oh’. You are unbelievable. You sent some random guy to the house where I am staying alone to get drugs you left behind and you don’t even care that your daughter could have died?”

“I didn’t send a random person over there. I sent a very specific person over, but he sent someone else. And you’re not dead so I don’t have to worry.”

I hung up the phone. She could care less if I died. I didn’t want to hear anything else she had to say. She deliberately called someone to come over to this house and collect her drugs. She knew I was here alone. Who the hell did she call? It wasn’t the sweaty vacuum man. I slid the screen over on my phone, unlocked it, and sent a text to Josh.

Hey, you busy

Nope. Just waiting for cows to move. What’s up

My mom called

Oh yeah

She called someone about the drugs, but it wasn’t the man who came to my door

What do you mean
, he responded.

I mean she just asked me if I’d had any visitors at the house and when I mentioned the sweaty vacuum guy she said she didn’t send him

Then who

She said she sent a specific person over but that he sent someone else

There was a short pause before he responded. I racked my brain for possibilities, but I just could not think straight. I was so mad at my mom.

The mayor?
He finally pinged back to me.

Of course! She had called Mayor Banks and he had sent the poor guy to do his dirty work. Knowing my mother though; she was probably supplying him too. This sucked so badly!

Yes, it was him. I know it

How do you know

Because he doesn’t want to be involved in this stuff again, but he wants his drugs

You want to tell the police?

Tell them what? We have no proof that he has any hand in this

I don’t know Jen. I gotta go, the cows are moving

I sat angrily on the couch for over an hour and tried to think of a ways to get the mayor in trouble. Nothing. I’d come up with nothing. Other than the evidence from fifteen months ago, there was nothing to connect him to the drugs my mom still had at the house. And there was zero evidence connecting him to the man who showed up at my door and attacked me.

I could not be in the house anymore. Just thinking about the sweaty man made me paranoid. I kept looking over at the door expecting him to be there. I didn’t even know what to do though. I thought about going to the river, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to be by myself right now. I would just dwell on the whole situation and make myself feel worse. I looked at my phone as if it was going to tell me what to do. It told me everything else in the world. I slid the screen across to open it and noticed I had a text message. It was from Andrew.

call me

I really did not want to talk to Andrew. I was so confused about everything right now. Michelle was MIA and didn’t seem to even want to see me. She was half the reason I’d come back. Josh and I were doing well, but I was leaving at the end of August. I needed direction. I needed someone to tell me what to do next. The only thing I was sure of was that I was done with my mother. She was erased from my memories starting now. She’d been nothing but trouble my whole life. I wasn’t like her and I didn’t want to be.

The phone chimed at me to notify me of a new text. It wasn’t Andrew this time though. It was Josh.

I’m going to be late. Meet me at my house

Well there you go. My phone had just told me what to do next.

I drove down to the Riley’s house instead of walk. My rationale behind that was I’d stay cool in my car and not be in the heat for long. Good thoughts, except my car was boiling hot and didn’t cool off before I got to their house despite having the air conditioning on full blast. I was sweating buckets before I reached their door. We needed some rain to get rid of this humidity.

Mrs. Riley answered the door with a smile.

“Jenna, what are you doing here?”

“I don’t want to be at my house right now.”

“Is everything okay?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Come in,” she said.

She moved aside so I could enter. Her house smelled amazing. Either she was burning a very convincing candle or she was baking. I guessed the latter when she walked passed me into the kitchen.

“What are you making?” I asked. I followed her into the kitchen and taken a seat at the table facing her while she moved around the kitchen.

“Apple pie,” she responded.

“Smells good Mrs. Riley”

“It’s Josh’s favorite.”

“I remember.”

“Do you?”

“Yeah. You used to make apple pie every Sunday. He’d always invite me over for dinner because he said you made the best apple pie in the state, possibly the country.”

“He said that?”

“Yeah.”

She gathered more apples and brought them to the table. She handed me a knife and a few apples as she sat down and we sliced them together.

“Why didn’t you ever come for dinner?” she asked.

“Um.” I wasn’t sure how to answer this. I knew my mother had slept with her husband and I knew that she knew it too. “I don’t know. I just never got around to it.”

“You and Josh have been friends for a long time.”

“Yes. Since like second grade I think.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t more welcoming to you.” Her face was set in a slight frown. Not a mad frown, a sad one.

“It’s okay. I knew why.”

“Did you?”

Mrs. Riley had stopped slicing apples and was staring intently at me, the knife still in her hand. I stared back at her until her face softened. She wasn’t angry just hurt but not by me.

“I’m sorry,” I said finally.

“Oh honey. Don’t say that. I should be the one who is sorry.” She stood up and walked around the table to me. I stood up too.

“Why?”

“Jenna,” she started and put her hands on my shoulders. “I let what happened between my husband and your mother determine how I felt about you. I didn’t want Josh around you because he was all I had left after his father left.”

I had no idea how to take this. Mrs. Riley was never directly rude to me, but I always got the feeling that she didn’t want me around. Now I knew why Josh had broken up with me. I always kind of assumed that was the reason, just another way my mom ruined my life here.

“It’s okay.”

“No honey, it’s not okay. The way I treated you is something that I have regretted for a long time. I knew Josh had strong feelings for you, but like I just said, I was afraid he’d leave me after he graduated from high school and I was jealous of what you two had. And to be honest, I was afraid you’d end up like your mom. I didn’t want that for Josh.”

Tears brimmed in her eyes. Her candid admission made me feel closer to her now for some reason.

“Mrs. Riley, I know what this town thought of me and my mother, I’m not like her in any capacity.”

“I know, but you didn’t deserve that life and you didn’t deserve the way I treated you.” Her tears had fallen now and she wiped them away with the heel of her hand.

She pulled me into a hug. I was ready for it but it still felt strange. My mom never hugged me affectionately; the only people who had were Michelle, Andrew, and Josh and none of them were parental figures. I hugged her back.

“What’s going on?”

Mrs. Riley and I ended our hug and looked over to Josh. He had walked in without us knowing and caught us in our strange embrace.

“Jenna and I were just having a heart to heart that’s all,” Mrs. Riley said and wiped away the rest of her tears.

“About what we talked about earlier?” Josh said and looked at me.

“No. I haven’t said anything about that.”

“About what?” Mrs. Riley asked.

“Jenna thinks the man who attacked her was sent by her mother.”

“I know he was sent by her. But I think she’s working through Mayor Banks,” I said completing Josh’s statement.

“Mayor Banks? Why do you think that?” she asked

“Because he the Mayor and a jackass.”

Josh snorted out a laugh at that.

“I don’t think that will convince the police,” Mrs. Riley said.

“It won’t. I sat for an hour on the couch trying to figure something out, but I haven’t thought of anything. Did I tell you I ran into him on the second day I was here? He was at Miller’s Market. He cornered me in the soap aisle and ranted about how awful of a person I was and how I ruined his family and that he hopes I leave soon. Oh, and to never try to contact his family. I hadn’t even said anything to him at all. He just went off on me.”

Josh and his mom exchanged knowing glances.

“Is there something going on that I should know about?” These glances that Josh keeps exchanging with people, namely Lauren and his mom, were annoying me. Was he keeping a secret from me? Was it about Mayor Banks and his family? Did it involve my mom, because if it did I should know?

They looked at each other again.

“No honey. Nothing you need to concern yourself with right now.”

I wasn’t satisfied with her answer, but I had more pressing matters to attend to than potential secrets. I’d grill Josh later when we were alone.

“We’ll figure this out,” Josh said.

Just then the over timer went off. Josh looked at me and smiled.

“Mom, I don’t want Jenna to go home tonight. Especially after the phone call with her mom. What if she’s called the mayor again?”

Mrs. Riley removed the pie from the oven and set it on a cooling rack. She pressed a knife to the top and steam billowed out.

“I think Jenna could stay here for a night,” she said then sprinkled sugar on top of the pie.

“Really?” Josh and I said in unison.

“Yes. I’m worried about her too. I want you to be safe. And now that we know your mother is still able to contact the people she’s done business with, who knows who else could show up.”

I knew Mrs. Riley was feeling guilty about how she’d treated me in the past. I wondered if I could sneak downstairs to be with Josh. I quickly dismissed that thought. How disrespectful would that be? She was opening her house to me a second time. She felt bad for me and my situation and she just wanted me to be safe. Now that we knew who was behind the attack and that he would doing anything he could to cover it up, my safety really could be at risk. Who knew what the mayor would do to me and even worse, what he’d do to cover it up.
 

“Don’t get all gooey eyed over there. Jenna sleeps on the pull out bed in the living room. Upstairs. You.” She pointed at Josh with the knife she was holding, “Stay in the basement.” She was smiling as she said this, but I knew she was serious. Josh was just flat out laughing.