AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Shawna
I can’t believe Jarred’s here in my bar. As soon as he walks in the door, I turn around and quickly walk back to the kitchen before he sees me. From there, I can peek through the serving window to see where he sits. He’s obviously here to see me. Why else would he come into the bar he knows my family owns? But why is he here?
I notice he takes a seat at the bar, right where I was working before. Did he see me before I hid from him? I don’t know what to do. Should I call the police? According to Nate, he’s a wanted man. However, if I do that, I won’t have much of a chance to talk to him and find out where he’s been for the past seven years and what he’s doing here in my bar. As much as I don’t want to talk to him, my curiosity gets the best of me, and I want answers.
“Hey, boss,” Mick, one of my cooks, says as he sets a plate in the window and hits the bell, signaling to the waitstaff that an order is ready.
“Oh, hi,” I stammer. “I was about to leave, but I just noticed an old high school friend sitting at the bar. I’m going to talk to him first before I go.”
“All right,” Mick says before going back to his work.
Straightening my posture, I take a deep breath and head back out to the bar. Here goes nothing.
Of course, I try to act as if I don’t know Jarred’s there already. I want this to seem natural, not like I was hiding from him in the back. I grab a bar rag and start wiping the bar down, moving toward where he’s sitting.
“Shawna.” He says my name, and for some reason, the sound of his voice sends a chill up my spine.
I look at him and pretend to act surprised. Although, I am still shocked he’s here, so it’s not hard to do so. “Jarred?”
His mouth lifts into a smile. He basically looks the same as he did the last time I saw him, but his hair is a little longer, and he looks older as if he’s aged a lot more than seven years. Maybe that’s due to stress, considering he’s allegedly done some pretty bad things. Domestic terrorism. I wonder what he’s done?
“How are you?” he asks. “How’s our son?”
I set the rag down and cross my arms. “What are you doing here?” I ask, ignoring his questions and cutting right to the chase. I don’t want to tell him anything about our son. He hasn’t shown interest in being a father since he was born.
Jarred chuckles, hanging his head low and shaking it a couple of times before looking back at me. “My mom died. I came home to take care of some business surrounding her estate.”
“I heard. Sorry for your loss.”
Jarred smirks and shrugs his shoulders. “Eh, you knew her. She wasn’t exactly the most loveable person on the planet. We hadn’t spoken to each other in years, either, so, you know. I’m okay.”
Rolling my eyes at his lack of humanity for his mother dying, I lean my hip against the bar and hope to get some answers from him. “So you’re in Port Townsend to deal with your mom’s estate. What are you doing here, in my bar?”
Jarred leans back in his barstool and crosses his arms over his chest. “I wanted to see you. I wondered if you still worked here or not. I guess your dad’s business is doing well. Tell him I said hello.”
“He passed away,” I say, bluntly. “Why, after seven years, did you care to see me all of a sudden?”
“Because I want to know how you and our son are doing.”
“Do you even remember his name? You keep referring to him as ‘our son.’”
Jarred shakes his head and chuckles again. “Of course I do. It’s Noah. I’ve thought about him every day since I left.”
Nothing good is going to come from this conversation. Jarred is just pissing me off the more he talks. “Yeah, about that … why did you leave us?”
Jarred leans forward, resting his elbows on the bar. I can tell I touched a nerve with him as he chews on the inside of his cheek. “Look, I was young and stupid. I didn’t know how to be a father. I decided to leave and actually go find my father. I thought, maybe if I could find him and settle the issues I have with him, I could come back here and be a father myself.”
Well, this is surprising news. He left town to find his dad? Why didn’t he just tell me that he felt the need to find him in order to be a better father back then? “Did you find him?” I ask, wondering if he ever did, and if so, how that turned out.
He nods. “Yep. He was living in Montana. He had a whole other life—wife, kids—but he welcomed me with open arms. Told me he left because of my mom, not me, which wasn’t a surprise. Then he convinced me to stay so we could make up for lost time, so I did.”
“Wow. I’m glad you had that opportunity,” I say, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “Meanwhile, you abandoned your own son back home.”
Jarred rubs his chin. “You’re right. I did. But now I’m back, and I’d like to make it up to him.”
What the fuck is he thinking? “Make it up to him? You haven’t seen him since he was a newborn, and you think you can just make that up to him now?”
“I’d like to see Noah. Get to know him while I’m here.”
