AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The sound of Eric’s voice made a thousand tiny butterflies beat their wings against her skin. “Hi,” she answered on a breath. “How are you?”
“A little achy, I finished Ina’s roof today.”
A vision of him sprang instantly in her head—tool belt low on his hips and jeans snug against his thighs. Sunshine highlighted the flaxen streaks in his hair, and his eyes were, as always, a rich sea of blues and greens. “It’s a really nice thing you’re doing for her,” she said eons after he’d asked.
“I’m glad you see it that way. I can’t leave until it’s all finished. Hope that isn’t still a problem for you.”
Jenna retreated to a corner and spoke quietly into the receiver so Janie wouldn’t hear. “No. In fact, I’ve been thinking about things. Maybe it is best if you stick around for a while. I have some things I need to say also.”
“Babes, I’ll stay around forever if you want me to.”
For Janie. He would stay for his daughter. But his feelings for her might be less than kind once he knew how long she’d kept the truth from him.
“How about dinner tomorrow night?” he asked.
Jenna stretched her neck to see into the living room where Janie was busy amid scattered papers and textbooks. “Not on a school-night. The weekend?”
“Okay.”
Jenna Welles and Eric Laine made plans for Friday night. Two people, who had in another lifetime been consumed with love for one another, were in a new life, going on a first date.
Chapter Twenty-One
Randi arrived back in Cromline with enough clothes for a month, though she insisted she’d be going home again for the weekend. Jenna told her about the concert, purposely leaving out the intimate moments she’d spent with Eric. Her friend had very little objectivity where movie star Eric Laine was concerned and rightfully so. Too many of Jenna’s tears had rained down on Randi’s shoulders because of him. Jenna cleared her throat and moved on to her friend’s second least favorite subject, their high school nemesis Annabelle Walker.
“I…um made plans for us to have coffee at Anne’s later today.”
Randi thrust her arms in front of her body like a cop unhappily demoted to traffic detail. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. We’re doing what? Going where, later today?”
“To Anne’s. I have a girl coming in to cover for me at the store. It’ll be fun.”
Randi’s lips dipped into a petulant frown, and she scrunched her nose like an angry five-year-old. “Are you sure she’ll be serving coffee or pouringvenominto the cups.”
Jenna laughed and slung her arm around her friend. “You should have been the actress, Ran. You have a real flair for drama.”
Later, after lunch, and under much protest, Randi sat in Jenna’s car with her arms tightly folded. “I still don’t believe she’s suddenly Mrs. Nice Guy and not the same bitchy princess she was in school.”
“She’s been through some stuff, and it changed her.”
“I’m sure whateverstuffshe went through, she deserved.”
Jenna leveled a final cautioning glower before getting out of the car. “Be nice. She’s the only friend I have in this town.”
At the door Anne greeted both of her former classmates with a wide smile. She grasped Randi’s hand. “Randi Freed, my God you haven’t changed a bit.”
Jenna remained close enough for a pinch if it became necessary, but Randi smiled and gave Anne a cordial greeting in return.
“I won’t bore you with a tour of the house. C’mon in the kitchen and sit. I have a pot of French Roast and homemade beignets. Who would have guessed I’d learn to bake.” She hustled to the counter for the coffee and pastry.
“See,” Jenna whispered. “She’s nice.”
“Hmm.” Randi’s eyes were still reptilian thin. “So, Annabelle…”
“Ugh, call me Anne, please. Annabelle sounds like I should be wearing a hoop skirt and big floppy hat.”
“All right,Anne.” Randi simpered and once again wrinkled her nose. “Your house is lovely.”
Jenna couldn’t help but notice how the compliment scraped grudgingly past Randi’s lips. Anne’s home was a showcase, clean and bright as if fingerprints or dust were magnetically repelled. Randi, on the other hand, had never mastered the fine art of neat and tidy.
