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Reanna ended the call. He wanted to protect her, keep her safe, but he couldn’t. Reanna was doing her job, and all he could do was hope nothing happened to her.
Jerry knew he wasn’t going to get any sleep. His mind was racing. He got up off the bed and grabbed some clothes. Clark was right. The gym is a good place to work out one’s frustrations. Thankfully his was open 24/7.
When he pulled into the parking lot, he expected it to be vacant. Instead, there were quite a few vehicles there. He scanned to make sure Clark’s wasn’t one of them. Tonight wasn’t the night for dodging his questions. This was a time for him to do some thinking. Grabbing his bag from the trunk, he headed inside. An hour on the treadmill should be enough. If not, he knew he was in trouble.
Even increasing the speed on the treadmill wasn’t helping any. The facts didn’t change. He’d met Reanna less than a week ago and yet was seeing her more frequently than any woman he’d dated. Jerry could tell himself they weren’t dating, but what else could it be? He called her, asked her to dinner. Sounds very much like dating. Now she was cooking for him. Crazy, but that felt more intimate than actually having sex with someone. At least in his head it was.
He’d set the ground rules with Reanna as he had with other women. Probably because he’d never had any intention of seeing her again. Yet she’d become a daily habit, one he wasn’t ready to break. The facts were, eventually he needed to. Reanna was right, he couldn’t spend two hours going from Boston to Hope Valley every day. It hadn’t, but would eventually interfere with his business. Jerry never let anything or anyone do that. Reanna had the potential of being the first. He needed to put a stop to it before that occurred.
He’d meant to talk to her about it before, but something else always came up. Or was that his excuse because he knew once they had the conversation, this, whatever it was, would end? The timing wasn’t right now. Reanna was going to his family home. There was no way they would be able to hide the fact that they know each other. And if any of them even suspected that they might be lovers, well, it’d be like opening Pandora’s Box and there wouldn’t be any going back. Jerry couldn’t risk that. It sucked, but the after-dinner conversation wasn’t going to be light and fun. He knew what he had to do. I shouldn’t have started something I wasn’t willing to finish. It fucking isn’t fair to Reanna, but life rarely is.
Jerry didn’t make bad business decisions, but letting himself get involved with Reanna sure as hell was a bad personal one. Thankfully, he had time to plan what to say so she didn’t get hurt.
If such words even exist. The word sorry wasn’t part of his normal vocabulary. He knew that word needed to be highlighted in the talk he was going to have with Reanna. Even that wasn’t going to reflect how he felt.
Jerry stopped the treadmill. Fuck. How could he express it when he wasn’t sure himself? I’m going to need a sparring partner at this rate. Running ain’t doing shit.
Reanna loved cooking.It was her escape when she was stressed. So why was it that her kitchen was filled with black smoke from baking her spaghetti squash? Jerry was going to be here any minute and right now, it looked like they would be eating grilled cheese sandwiches.
It wouldn’t have been so bad, but she had just got done bragging to him and now this happens. Why my first meal? Hopefully this wasn’t setting the tone for the evening. Reanna opened the window, grabbed a towel, and tried blowing out the remaining smoke. “Come on,” she coughed.
“Are you okay?” Jerry’s voice shot out from behind her.
She spun around and choked out the words, “When did you get here?”
“Shortly after you decided to burn your house down, apparently,” he said as he started opening up a few more windows. “What were you trying to cook that smells this bad?” he asked.
“Spaghetti squash. It’s only a vegetable. It shouldn’t smell like this.” The smoke was still coming out of the oven even though she’d turned it off. “You might want to go in the other room before I open the oven. The smoke is only going to get worse.”
Jerry said, “I’m not leaving you alone in here. Tell you what, you open and I’ll take it out.”
“Fine.” She tossed him the oven mitts. Once he had them slipped on she said, “Ready?” He nodded. When she opened the door, he reached out and pulled out the tray holding the squash and held it up.
“Where do you want it?” he asked.
“The sink,” she said and followed him. When he put it down she added, “It doesn’t look burnt. I don’t get it…”
Jerry headed back to the oven and said, “I think from now on, we eat out.” His voice was filled with disgust.
“It’s just one mishap,” she said. Reanna couldn’t believe he was being such a baby about a little burnt squash. “I’ll cook us something different.”
“You mean besides baked mice?” Jerry said.
“What?” No way had she heard him correctly. “My cooking might not have been the best tonight, but that’s a bit cruel, don’t you think?”
“Ask them,” he said pointing to the oven, which was still open.
Now that the smoke had cleared, she could see the cause of the odor. Oh my God. “I’ve cooked a nest of baby mice!”
“Like I said, eating out,” Jerry stated just staring at the oven.
Reanna covered her mouth and ran out of the room. She was going to hurl. Flinging the bathroom door open, she dropped to her knees and held the toilet bowl while she vomited out the entire contents of her stomach. If that wasn’t bad enough, Jerry had followed her.
Handing her a cool, wet face cloth he said, “I disposed of the mice. How are you doing?”
Reanna slumped onto the floor and said, “I think I’ve had better nights.” Jerry extended a hand to help her up. “And I agree with you. Eating out sounds good.” Truthfully, she didn’t even want to think about food right now.
“You look like you might want to just sit on your porch and relax tonight. Would you like me to go and pick something up for us to eat instead?” Jerry offered.
