CHAPTER 7
“You’re gonna blind someone with that thing!” Jess jokingly covered her eyes as Ali joined them. She and Brynn had been vegging out on their beach towels on the lake shore after spending the day on the water.
“I know, right?” Ali stared down at the sparkler on her left ring finger.
Brynn lifted onto her elbows, reached over and tilted Ali’s hand to get a better look. “It’s so beautiful.”
“Thanks. And thanks for talking Ryder into volunteering today with the boys. He was such a huge help.”
Brynn’s son was Ali’s nephews’ best friend, and all three boys had worked at the rental shop Ali owned to help with the busy Memorial Day crowd.
“He loves helping out at the shop.” Brynn insisted.
Ali smiled and clapped her hands together. “Hey, did you guys hear that the Battle of the Badges is going to be a talent show this year? I bought a table for Whisper Rentals, and you are both welcome to join me.”
A visible shudder ran through Brynn, “I will, because it’s for charity, but I think it’s going to give me flashbacks.”
Brynn had been in pageants growing up and even made it to the Miss Teen USA competition. Jess had always secretly wanted to compete in them, but she’d been sick, so it was a nonstarter. Although, she’s not sure her parents would’ve been into it even if she had been healthy.
“What was your go-to talent?” Jess asked. That had always been where she thought she would’ve shined.
“Well, thankfully, the talent portion of my pageant days was over by the time I was ten since Miss USA doesn’t have that category. When I did have to compete in them, I was at a serious disadvantage since I don’t sing, play an instrument, or twirl a baton, so I usually just went with dancing.”
“Really?” Jess’s interest was piqued. She loved dancing. “I didn’t know you could dance.”
“I can’t,” Brynn said flatly.
“I’m so bummed I didn’t get to hang out with you guys on the boat.” Ali looked longingly out onto the water, where boats and inner tubes bobbed in place.
“Kade offered to man the shop so you could hang out.”
Ali grinned at the mention of her fiancé. “I know, but I would’ve felt bad if I was out on the water relaxing and he and the boys were working,” she explained. “How long are Kingston and Miko in town? I’d love for them to meet Kade.”
Kingston and his husband Miko were two of Jess’s favorite people. She’d met Kingston in cosmetology school when they were both babes out of high school. He’d been one of the only students that hadn’t treated her any differently just because of her illness. His brother had been born with a congenital heart condition. The two had bonded instantly. He worked in an upscale shop in Chicago but was up visiting for the holiday weekend. The men had a boat and invited Jess and her friends to spend the day out on the lake with them.
“They are heading back to the city tonight, but they’ll be back up for the fourth of July.”
“Oh, good. Kingston promised to show me how to make his lasagna. I messaged him on Facebook and asked for the recipe, but he told me that he didn’t trust the recipe to be delivered online. He wanted to give it to me in person.”
“You should see if you can get him to show you how to make his Cajun rice and beans.” Jess’s mouth watered at the thought.
“I will.” All three women’s eyes naturally drifted out to the boat that Miko and Kingston were laying out on. “I don’t understand how they keep those bodies when he cooks all that fatty food.”
Both men were near perfect male specimens. Kingston had a lean frame where Miko was a little bit beefier. Neither had an ounce of fat to pinch and the hours a day they spent in the gym was evident in the contoured musculature of their bodies. Still, neither of them had anything on Ethan.
“I asked Kingston about that, and he said that it was just good genes and fast metabolisms.” Brynn rolled on her back. “But I don’t know how serious I can take him since he also said that I needed to let my freak flag fly.”
The ladies chuckled.
“I told him that I hung that up thirteen years ago.” Brynn stretched her arms over her head. “Today was exactly what I needed. Kingston made me feel like Chaka Khan, like I was every woman.”
“He’s the best.” Jess wasn’t just saying that because Kingston was her self-esteem cheerleader, always making comments like she had a body that would stop traffic in Times Square. Though that was nice to hear. She was saying it because he was hilarious and always had her back. No matter what was going on in his life he somehow always remembered when she had doctors’ appointments or tests and called to check in on her.
Just like Ethan. That thought hit her out of the blue, and it took her a moment to process that it was true. When Kingston checked in, she thought it was sweet, but when Ethan did the same thing, it frustrated her.
She glanced down at the dock where Ethan was working with the kids in his program. Logically, she knew why things he did irritated her while one of her other friends doing the same thing didn’t. She didn’t want him to see her as weak or fragile.
She wanted him to look at her the way he had when she’d climbed into his truck and he’d told her she was beautiful. When she closed her eyes, she could still feel the way his stare had made her entire body come to life.
“Oh look, Daisy’s back in town.” Ali’s voice interrupted her memory.
Jess opened her eyes and saw Ethan’s grandma walking toward them. She couldn’t help but smile as she took in and appreciated the woman’s choice of bright pink capri pants with matching floppy hat and tiger print button-up shirt. “How was your cruise Mrs. Steele?”
“I told you, it’s Daisy.” The woman pointed her finger at Jess. “Mrs. Steele was my mother-in-law. And my cruise was heavenly. I’ve never seen so much food in my entire life. Morning, noon, and night there was food as far as the eye could see. I gained ten pounds just looking at it.”
Daisy was a slip of a woman, and Jess doubted that she’d gained an ounce on the cruise.
The brim of her floppy hat bounced as she excitedly announced, “And I met someone.”
“Oh?” Jess, Ali, and Brynn all chorused, their interest piqued.
“She’s perfect for Ethan,” Daisy completed her thought, and her words deflated Jess’s interest.
“Dr. Susie is smart, funny, and I just know that if Ethan would give her a chance the two of them would hit it off. He’s a good boy and just needs to find the right woman to settle down with.”
Jess could feel both Ali and Brynn’s attention turn toward her, and she hoped that Ethan’s grandma didn’t notice.
“Speaking of settling down, I hear congratulations are in order, dear.” Daisy reached out and examined the ring on Ali’s hand. “Kade did good.”
Ali beamed. “Yes, he did.”
She held Ali’s hand between hers. “Patrick would’ve been so happy for you both.”
A layer of sheen glossed Ali’s eyes as she teared up. “I know.”
“What about you two? Any young men that might be getting down on one knee?”
Brynn and Jess both looked at one another and then laughed.
“Nope. I’ve been there and done that.” Brynn had been what she described as happily divorced for a decade. She’d been a teen mom before the MTV show made it popular and then divorced before she could legally drink.
“So has that one.” Daisy motioned down toward the pier. Laura had arrived and was standing beside Ethan, her hand resting on his shoulder. “And you don’t see her throwing in the towel.”
Throughout the day, Jess had noticed that Laura took every opportunity to brush her hand against Ethan’s arm, his shoulder, his leg. It wasn’t that she’d been spying on them, but she’d noticed that Laura didn’t let five minutes pass without touching him. Though the fact that Jess had noticed that probably meant she technically had been spying on them.
“She’s a braver woman than I am,” Brynn said sincerely. “I think I’ll concentrate on trying to raise a man, not marry one.”
Daisy accepted that response before turning to Jess. “What about you? Any man, or woman, of your dreams?”
It was sad that Jess’s love life was so inactive that a woman that had known her her entire life didn’t even know what her sexual preference would be.
“Nope,” she lied.
Her eyes drifted back down toward the pier as the conversation around her shifted to talk of the twins and Ryder starting high school this year. There was absolutely a man of Jess’s dreams. She was just too stubborn or scared, or both, to do anything about it.
But maybe it was time to change that.