CHAPTER EIGHT
Derek was right. Jenny didn’t have business in town. As she was already there, and getting there in the first place had been quite the challenge, Jenny decided a triple chocolate muffin and a gallon of coffee were well-deserved. It wasn’t too far to walk to Megan’s coffee shop—the very same Megan who had stolen Jenny’s lunch on their first day of elementary school—and once she was at the coffee shop, she’d be halfway to Lila’s office.
Once she’d cooled down and re-energized, she’d enjoy marching right on into that office and giving Lila hell for sending Derek to rescue her, as if he was a modern-day knight, making Jenny the loser damsel.
Then she’d thank Lila for helping Kate get to school on time.
After the yelling.
Sweating under the hot sun and the extra fifteen pounds of weight she couldn’t seem to shift, although in all honesty she hadn’t ever tried very hard, Jenny trudged on through the pretty tree-lined streets of Emerson.
At the coffee shop she added a bottle of water to her order, engaged in some trash talk with a busy Megan, and sagged at a corner table under the ceiling fan.
The Rivas family had been running Emerson’s premier coffee shop since before coffee shops became cool, or so Megan claimed, and when her grandmother died, Megan had taken over.
Megan was not a sentimental woman. She had stripped the old shop down to its bones and renovated it from the ground up. It was light and airy with pale wooden floors and creamy yellow walls, smelled divinely of sugar and coffee, and Megan didn’t mind if you sat at your table for hours.
A good thing, because Jenny was exhausted. She was starting to think that maybe she’d skip the yelling-at-Lila part of her day, and sit under the fan until it was time to collect Kate.
She had almost finished her coffee when, as if by magic, a muffin appeared on the table before her.
Jenny blinked at it.
“And also,” she said, in case the universe wanted to continue making amends for her disastrous morning, “I would like Chris Evans on rye, and a million dollars.”
“Who wouldn’t?” Megan said, pulling out a chair opposite.
Jenny tutted as Megan sat, and looked at her phone. “Slacking off already? It’s only ten a.m.”
“You want the muffin?”
“I want the muffin.”
“Then how about a ceasefire?” Megan’s dark eyes twinkled.
“We keep calling ceasefire on our legendary enmity, Meg, people are going to start talking and get the wrong idea about us. Think we’re friends or something.” Jenny bit into the muffin, and moaned. “Holy crap this is good. What is it?”
“White chocolate and cranberry.”
Jenny despised white chocolate, and yet the muffin was still delicious. “You have a gift.”
“I know.” Megan lifted a hand to her barista and pointed first at Jenny and then at herself, with all the nonchalance of a Wild West saloon hostess ordering a round of shots. The barista nodded.
Jenny watched with suspicion. “Why are you feeding me free muffins and topping up my coffee?”
“I want gossip.”
“I don’t gossip.”
“Hence the bribery.” Megan thanked the barista when he scuttled over and set a coffee in front of both of them.
“I can’t be bought.”
“But it seems you can be tempted.”
“I don’t follow.”
Megan sat back and raised her eyebrows. “Derek Tate,” was all she said.
A crumb went down the wrong way and Jenny took a slug of coffee. Shit, that was hot. “Derek Tate? Hmm. Gossip about Derek? I hear he’s a great mechanic.”
“I hear he’s great at a lot of things. I’m interested in whether or not he can breach the Finley defenses. Lay siege to your citadel. Storm your castle.”
“What makes you think Derek is interested in breaching my defenses? What makes you think Derek is interested in breaching my anything?”
“Because he was in line behind Lila when she got your distress call, and I saw that man run out of here like his very fine ass was on fire. Finley, why are you still driving that piece of shit car?”
“Because up until today, it was a reliable piece of shit.”
“You had it in high school.”
And it had lived in her dad’s garage while she was off in the land of the oblivious with Dean, driving around in a flashy Mercedes she’d had no idea they couldn’t afford, and had the thrill of watching get loaded up on a flat-bed and taken away. Lucky for Jenny, the Honda had still been in her father’s garage when she and Elle had moved back home.
“I’m saving up for a truck,” she said to Megan.
“Right.” Megan wasn’t interested. “So. You and Tate.”
“No. There is no me and Tate.”
“This is not what I’ve heard. Five different conversations I’ve had already, all about how you and Derek took Kate to her first day of school together.”
“We didn’t do it together. Derek happened to be there. He gave us a ride.”
Megan looked skeptical. “Apparently the three of you make a nice little family. Very photogenic.”
“Ugh. Elle was the one who wanted photos. I told her it was dorky.”
“Photogenic as in you looked good together. You were taking photos? Dork.”
“Elle said everyone would be doing it!”
Megan shrugged. “Eh. That could be normal. What would I know? I’m not a mom, thank God. Not my scene.”
“I can assure you that despite whatever these misguided gossips are saying, there is no me and Derek. We are not a family. I’ve been there, done that, and I am not even approaching dumb enough to go for round two. I am crushing it as a single mother. I don’t need anything or anyone getting in my way. Especially Derek Tate.”
“Well, that’s boring. Hardly worth the bribe. You should pay for the muffin.”
Jenny crammed the last of it in with one enormous bite. “Nope.”
Megan headed back to her kitchen, leaving Jenny to finish her coffee and ponder her next move.
The tender skin at the back of her heels had started to throb in a threatening manner, suggesting that she’d developed blisters during her trek from the elementary school. Wasn’t she supposed to be crushing it as a single mother? Hard to believe in that statement if she began her day being rescued by Derek, and by lunchtime she was blistered and limping into the doctor’s clinic where Elle worked, to borrow her big sister’s car and once again make her problems Elle’s.
That reminded her. Photos. Jenny picked up her phone, navigated to the pictures she’d taken earlier, selected the best ones and sent them over to Elle.
She shot a guilty look around to check no one was paying attention, then sat back and gazed at the last photo she’d snapped.
She had no idea why she’d taken it. It hadn’t even been deliberate.
The photo was of Derek and Kate. Her daughter had surprised him, but Derek hadn’t been uncomfortable with her show of affection.
Of course he hadn’t. Derek was one of the most easily affectionate people Jenny knew. It was one of the things about him that drove her nuts. He was so at ease in his own skin, so laid-back, that he could hug people and express himself like it was no big deal.
Kate was the same. She had her skinny noodle arms around Derek’s waist, her head tipped back, smiling big. Derek’s head was tipped down, he was smiling equally big, and they looked like they were modeling in a catalog or lifestyle magazine for some sort of father-daughter—
Realizing what had just passed through her mind, Jenny poked at the screen.
Delete photo? the phone asked.
She hit OK before she could change her mind, and the moment disappeared for ever.
Blowing out a short breath, she navigated to her contact list and called a cab.
By the time Frank picked her up from where she was loitering outside Megan’s, Jenny had a solid plan.
Because she didn’t know how much her car repairs would cost, fifty dollars or five hundred, she couldn’t risk splurging on a rental to tide her over.
If the job was quick and cheap, she’d be left paying for a car she didn’t need.
If it was slow and expensive, she’d need to be careful with money, and swanning around town in a rental would be living beyond her means.
Instead, she decided to hope it was a simple job, and went ahead and booked Frank for the mornings and afternoons to get Kate to school and Jenny to work for the rest of the week. After some haggling, Frank agreed to a frequent flyer discount.
Problem solved.
Except she’d soon have to face Derek, and have that uncomfortable conversation about Gabe and the impending Sterling baby. But that was another problem, and she’d successfully put it off until the end of the week at the earliest.
She’d take a win wherever she could find one.