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I sighed and agreed with that sentiment. Life had been complicated when I was in Jericho before because I was so worried about getting out of here. I’d gone out into the big world and got chewed up and spit out and now I was back home. In that moment though, driving down Main Street with Jeff in his truck, feeling the heat coming off of him, it felt like all of it was for a reason. I was back here in Jericho for a reason. How could I not think that Jeff had something to do with it?
* * *
We saton his truck bed, after we decided that we were probably drinking too much to go on the pier. We started off talking about the past, but quickly turned into the future. Jeff had plans to move up and teach new methods of firefighting that he and Lester had been working on. Jeff got into the details about things that I had known nothing about the night before, but he just had a way of explaining even the smallest minute details to make me pay attention. It was hard not to listen to his velvety voice just to hear it. Jeff had this tone and quality to his voice that I could listen to for hours.
“How was your date with Barry?” Jeff asked out of the blue. I gave him a dirty look because I guessed we were now to the present and Barry wasn’t what I wanted to talk about. He was nice and everything, but it certainly wasn't a love match.
“He's a nice guy,” I started.
“You don't need a nice guy though, do you?”
I scoffed and then looked at him. “What do you think it is that I need, Jeff?”
“I don't know, but it is going to be hard for a guy to give it to you, if you don’t even know yourself.”
That made me smile. He was probably a bit more accurate than I cared to admit.
“I will know it when I find it,” I explained.
“You thought you were going to find it with Barry?”
I pressed my lips together; he was purposely being obtuse because he wanted me to say out loud how there was no way it would work out with Barry because he wasn’t my type. That was a given though. Barry was very different than me and even though he was a nice guy, Jeff was right. I didn't need a nice guy. I needed something more.
We probably drank too much because the bottle was gone, and he was rummaging in the back for more beers. It was obvious that we couldn't drive back home. My mom wasn’t going to be down for two drunk people in her house, especially not Jeff. She did have a personal issue with him, though I had never understood it. She just said that Jeff was bad news. I tended to agree with her at the moment.
There was talk of walking, but we'd both kind of looked at each other and decided that it wasn't an option. It was a couple of miles and we both had a pretty good buzz at this point.
“Why don't we just sleep here?” I suggested. I was looking at the bed of the truck and thinking that there were a couple of his jackets in the back seat that would work just fine. I was trying to make the best of it or maybe I wanted to be next to Jeff while I slept. Even though it was impossible for the two of us to be together, it didn’t mean that there wasn't a very large part of me that still didn't want to feel him next to me.
Jeff laid down next to me and pulled me into his arms. I could feel his breath on my neck and his need in my back. I waited for him to do something, anything, but he never did. I couldn’t believe it, but quickly I was asleep like nothing was going on. Even though he had me all riled up, he also made me feel safe and I fell asleep in his arms.
For once I had no dreams. There was no need to dream about Jeff. He was right next to me.
14
Jeff
“What the fuck is going on!”
That's the exact words that I woke up to and it took me a minute to focus on the sound. I was just waking up and my eyes were hard to open to the bright light. I saw Beatrice next to me first, the night before crashing into my mind, and then the voice and the words made perfect sense. Damn.
“Chill out, man,” I told Lester. I was still half-asleep, and his tone and aggression weren’t sitting well. I knew what it looked like, but we’d been friends for a long time, and he should trust me more than that.
“Chill out? What the hell are you doing with my sister! Why are you sleeping in the bed of your truck with my fucking sister!”
Eyes finally opened, I looked up at my very good friend for many years. He didn't look like my friend anymore. Lester’s whole neck and half of his face had turned red from anger, and I really didn't know what to say to him. We were in worst-case scenario, and I needed to wake up.
He was looking at me like I had defiled her and although I wanted him to trust me, it was pretty damn clear that he did not. We both still had our clothes on, so I'm not sure why he was jumping to so many wild conclusions. I told him that he was being ridiculous, and I thought for a minute that he was going to hit me. Lester had always been very protective of his sister, which was part of the reason that I had told her no before. I told her that she was too young and that I didn't want bad feelings between me and him. I still didn't want that, but I wondered now if I would be able to avoid it. At the moment, it sure didn’t look like it.
I started to get up and out of the truck bed, thankful that all my clothes were still on. Beatrice was scowling at her brother and telling him that he had no right to say anything. She was her own woman.
“No right?” Lester asked his sister hotly.
“No, you don’t. I’m not your baby sister anymore. You can’t chase guys away from me if you don’t like it.”
“Chase guys away? He isn't aguy; he's my best fucking friend, Beatrice, and you know it. How could you do this? You are acting like you have a right to be mad. You haven’t changed a bit. It was better here before you came back. I wish you would have stayed away!”
I told him that he couldn't talk to her that way and he didn’t take that well at all. There's no way that I wanted to get into it with Lester, but he wasn't going to take his anger out on Beatrice either. She didn't deserve it. I told him that we saw each other at the fair and had a couple of drinks afterward. She went out with Barry and had a bad date. I made up someone that I went out with, and I think he wanted to believe me.
