Plain Jayne (12 page)

“I did try to contact her, but she never answered her phone, never once called me back, and I don’t know what she did with the letters I sent. I assume she threw them out.”

“You could have gone to see her.”

“Yeah,” Jayne snorted softly. “I could have, but she slammed that door pretty hard when she kicked me out, and after eighteen years of listening to her tell me how happy she’d be when I was gone, can you blame me for not wanting to hear her say it again?”

Nick wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze, but Jayne didn’t even look at him. She just swallowed hard and licked her lips.

“I’m not asking you or anyone else to think badly about Gran, Mrs. Scott. All I know is she flat-out told me she didn’t want anything more to do with me and she meant it. So you think
you’re
surprised she left everything to me?” Jayne snorted and rolled her eyes. “Welcome to the club.”

“You mean to tell me all of this was going on while you and Nicky were growing up, and I never knew?” Debra rubbed her locket and cleared her throat. She might have lost a bit of her bluster, but not all of it. “You should have told someone.”

“I did. I told Nick and swore him to secrecy.”

“Why?”

Nick watched as clouds built in Jayne’s eyes. He didn’t want her to say it out loud, didn’t want to hear her heart break like he knew it would. Again. But Jayne just inhaled slowly and blinked slowly.

“When I was little, I remember watching the kids in town and wondering how they got their moms and dads to love them. What did they do that made their parents play with them at the park, hold their hands, or even smile at them? They all seemed to have that, and I didn’t, so what was I supposed to think other than I’d obviously done something
really
wrong?

“All I knew was that if my own grandmother didn’t want me, there was no way in hell a stranger would want a kid who was unlovable, so I just kept my head down and tried to stay out of her way.”

This time when she looked at Nick, there was a softness in her eyes. “Nick was the only person I ever talked to about it, and apparently he took his vow of secrecy to heart.”

“Damn right.”

“Yes,” his mom said tightly. “Well. Apparently he’s still keeping things to himself, like what’s going on down at Tilly’s store. Carter said you’d started work down there, so I assume you’ve settled into her apartment then? Will you be opening soon?”

“Oh my God, Nick.” Jayne’s groan was muffled as she covered her face with her hands and lowered them to the table. “Seriously?”

“Okay.” Nick all but fell off his stool as he stumbled toward his mother. He’d managed to dodge most of his mother’s questions at dinner the other night, but he wasn’t about to let her loose on Jayne about this right now. “I think that’s enough questions for one inquisition, Mom. Can I call you later?”

“I’m sure you
can
, Nicky.” His mom patted his cheek as though he was eight, and turned on her heel. “The question is
will
you?”

He all but pushed her to the door where she continued to fire questions at him, but at least she tried to keep her voice down. She wasn’t doing a very good job, but at least she was trying.

“What is she doing here?”

“Eating chili.”

“Don’t sass me, young man. Does Lisa know she’s here?”

“Yes.”

“She better. And why did you rush me out of there so fast—I never got an answer to my question. Has she moved into the apartment?”

“Uh, no. Not yet.” This train was picking up speed and heading for a curve it couldn’t possibly make without derailing. “It needs a little work.”

“Then where is she staying? At a hotel?”

“No.” Train wreck be damned, Nick couldn’t help but grin. “She’s staying here.”

“Here?”
His mother’s brown eyes had never been so huge. “Nicholas Warren Scott—what are you thinking? What about Lisa?”

“She knows.”

“She
knows
? And she’s okay with it? Does she know how many relationships that one’s ruined?” She jabbed her thumb back toward the kitchen. “Isn’t she worried there’s something going on between the two of you? Honestly, Nicky, if you’re having sex with that one—”

“Whoa, Ma, hold up there,” Nick choked, staggering back a step. He’d always been tight with his mom, but that didn’t mean he was going to start discussing his sex life with her. “First of all, wow—what does it say when my own mother thinks I’m a dog? And second, this is Jayne we’re talking about.”

He took a second to catch his breath. “She has her own room, doors stay closed, and
pajamas stay on.”

“Unless something’s changed since you were eight, your pajamas are nothing more than boxer shorts, so—”

“Mom,” he cried over a strangled laugh. “I’m begging you, please leave. I promise to fill you in on everything later.”

“You better!” She stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Don’t eat all the cookies tonight and be careful, Nicky. Don’t let Jayne get between what you have with Lisa. And don’t look at me like that—you know it’s happened before.”

“Thanks for stopping by, Mom.” He pulled the door open and grinned through gritted teeth. “Always a pleasure.”

He watched her car disappear down the street, then let his chin fall to his chest for a minute before heading back inside. Jayne was rinsing the dishcloth when he got back to the kitchen. She didn’t say anything, but going by the half smile and the way she was chewing the inside of her cheek, it was an effort. She’d wiped most of the table before Nick managed to yank the cloth away from her.

“Okay,” he surrendered. “So she’s a little over the top.”

“A little?” She grabbed the cloth back and snapped it at him with a wink. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she moved in here to chaperone us.”

“Yeah, me neither.” He pulled a beer out of the fridge, popped the cap, and took a long swig. “So I was thinking I’d take tomorrow off and help you get the rest of the store cleaned out.”

Jayne finished wiping up, folded the cloth over the tap, and turned to face him. “No.”

“Why not?”

“Because, Nick. You have a job. You have employees who depend on you for their paychecks, and you have people waiting to move into their new house.”

“And all of that can still happen if I take a couple days off.”

“A couple days?” she choked. “A second ago, you said one day.”

“Whatever.”

“No, it’s not
whatever
.” It was hard not to laugh when she got cranky, but Nick knew better than to even grin at her when she got like this. “I appreciate the offer, Nick, but you’re
not
going to start rearranging your life for me.”

“What are you talking about? It’s a couple days.”

“Uh-huh,” she grunted. “And when Hague gives me the inspection report? How many days will you take off to look after that?”

Nick didn’t hesitate. “However many it takes.”

“And what about the house you’re building? What are you going to tell those people?”

“Jayne.” He tipped his head and stared straight back at her. “I’ve never been late on a job, and I won’t be late on this one.”

Even if Jayne got the place cleaned out, the city wasn’t going to give her very long to bring the building up to code, so whether she liked it or not, Nick was going to be spending a lot of time down there over the next few weeks.

Jayne flopped down on one of the bar stools and sipped her glass of water before offering him a weak smile. “Thank you, really, but I can’t ask you to drop everything for this, Nick.”

Nick’s fingers seemed to move on their own accord as they tucked her hair back behind her ear, then eased the piece of grass out and held it up for her to see. “You’re not asking. I’m offering.”

She took the piece of grass from his fingers, her smile slowly dissolving. “It’s too much.”

“Too much?” Nick took a swig of his beer and flashed her a grin. “For a lesser man, maybe.”

She could argue all she liked, but when it came down to it, what was she going to do when he showed up at the store with his tools? There was work to do, and he was going to do it for her. Sure, it might mean juggling work on the Schwanns’ house and Jayne’s place, but that wasn’t a big deal, it was … oh, right. Jayne wasn’t just talking about construction.
Lisa
.

“She’ll be fine with it, Jayne.”

“Uh-huh. I’m sure.” She refilled her glass and took a long sip. “I don’t know how much work the building’s going to need, but it’s probably safe to say it won’t be anything we can fix in an afternoon.”

She said “we.” It was all he needed.

“No,” he chuckled. “Probably not.”

“Then if you’re going to be spending that much time away from your girlfriend so that you can spend that much time helping your
girl friend
, you might want to run it past her first.”

“I don’t need her permission, Jayne.”

“Nick—”

“Fine.” He held up his hands in surrender. “I’ll talk to her.”

“And in the meantime,” she said with a grin, “I’ll give Tony Cooke a call and see if he’s available.”

“That guy couldn’t find his own ass using both hands.”

Jayne just shrugged and headed out of the room. “G’night, Nick.”

“But it’s early!”

“Yup. And your phone almost vibrated its way out of your pocket three times in the last twenty minutes.”

Damn it. He’d hoped she hadn’t noticed.

Jayne’s voice faded as her door closed. “Call her back before we both get into trouble.”

Lisa. Right. He pulled his phone out but didn’t dial. Instead, he sat in the kitchen staring after Jayne. His fingertips tingled where they’d touched her hair and he could still smell her strawberry shampoo.

Weird.

*  *  *

By Thursday, the store had been emptied out of everything but the shelves they’d discovered dismantled and buried near the front window. Nick had removed anything even slightly disgusting from the apartment, but there were still boxes and furniture for Jayne to deal with.

She hit the top step just as her phone rang; Nick’s number, different tone.

“Did you hack my ringtones?” She tried to sound angry, but it was impossible now that she had “Friends in Low Places” stuck in her head.

“Damn right I did!” he laughed. “I didn’t want the same ringtone as everyone else—it’s boring.”

“You’re such an idiot.” She grinned into the phone, even as the sight of the box-filled apartment swam in front of her. “What’s up?”

“I talked to Lisa.”

A hard lump formed in the pit of Jayne’s stomach. This was it. This is where it would all begin again. “And?”

“Nothing. She’s good.”

Jayne pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it for a second. “Really? She’s just going to let you ditch her so you can work here every chance you can?”

“Let me?”
He made a sound, sort of impatient, sort of tired. “I told her what was going on and that I’d need to be here a lot for the next few weeks.”

“And what did she say?”

“She’s fine with it.” He didn’t sound terribly concerned, but Jayne was. Once bitten, twice shy and all that.

“Send me her number, I’ll talk to her myself.”

“She said she’d stop by to see you today.” His sigh was still hanging in her left ear when the sound of the back door opening sounded in her right.

“Jayne?”

“Jeez,” Jayne hissed. “That’s creepy.”

“What?”

She ignored him and waved to Lisa at the bottom of the stairs.

“I’ll be right down.” Jayne ducked inside the apartment again and whispered into the phone. “She’s here. If you don’t hear from me by tomorrow, it means she’s chopped me up into little bits and stuffed me in the dumpster.”

Nick’s grunting laughter was the last thing she heard before she ended the call and headed downstairs where Lisa was waiting.

Did the woman ever have an ugly day? Did she even own sweats? Her dark waves were pinned up in a soft pile at the back of her head, and her makeup looked … well … like it wasn’t even there. Dressed in slim tan capris, a fuchsia off-the-shoulder chiffon blouse, and the cutest cork wedge sandals Jayne had ever seen, Lisa obviously wasn’t there to help haul boxes down the stairs.

“Hey.” Jayne forced a smile she sure as hell didn’t feel and stuffed her phone in the back pocket of her Tyvek suit. “I’d ask you to sit down, but …”

She waved her hand around the now empty store and tried to laugh. Lisa’s smile looked as genuine as Jayne’s felt.

“That’s okay, I won’t keep you long, but I was hoping we could talk.”

“Sure—want to go grab a coffee?”

“No, this is fine.” Lisa stayed right where she was, feet together, hands folded over her cute little fuchsia clutch bag. “Nick says you’re worried about what I think.”

Nice. Okay. Straight to the point. Jayne wiped her hands on her already dirty suit, then wrapped them around her stomach as she leaned back against the wall and nodded.

“Yeah, well, it’s been my experience that most people have a difficult time believing Nick and I are just friends.” She stopped only long enough to catch a breath. “So I want to make sure there’s no question in your mind about what’s between us.”

“And what is that, exactly?”

“Nothing.” Jayne cringed; that was a stupid thing to say. “I mean, nothing
like that
, and most people find that hard to believe, given the way Nick is.”

“How do you mean?”

Jayne shrugged. “He’s an affectionate guy.”

“Right.” Lisa’s expression barely flickered. “What about you? Are you an ‘affectionate’ person, too?”

“Lord, no, not like that.” Jayne laughed, awkward as it was. “He and Carter like to annoy me, so whenever they get the chance …”

She lifted her shoulders in a halfhearted shrug and waited, but it took Lisa a while before she spoke.

“Can I be honest here?”

“Please.” Jayne stopped just shy of begging.

“Am I happy about you living with Nick?” Lisa’s left brow arched ever so slightly. “It wouldn’t be my first choice, no.”

“That’s what I thought,” Jayne sighed. “I’ll be out—”

“Let me finish.” She licked her lips and blinked slowly. “But from what I understand, you and Nick have been friends for a very long time, is that right?”