Chapter 11

Jenna

“Come guys. Every week, it’s the same thing, and every week you two act like I’m asking you to do something totally outrageous.”

“Jenna, you’re bossier than Mom is. Cool it a bit,” Jason said as we started to set up the produce booth for the farmer’s market.

Every Sunday, I helped the boys with the booth. It was all fruits and vegetables from our mother’s garden, and it was the money she counted on for savings and emergencies. She didn’t make very much at the farmer’s market, but something was better than nothing.

“I hate when Mom doesn’t come. Jenna takes over like she’s a World War II drill sergeant,” Jackson added.

“Give me one of the years that World War II happened during,” I said with a smile over to Jason. “I’ll let you sit out the rest of the set up if you can give me just one of the years.”

“Oh, come on, I’ll give …”Jason tried to butt in.

“Nope, not you. Mister smarty pants Jackson who didn’t think he needed to finish high school. Come on Jackson, you said it so tell me. Just one of the years. You know that war went on for a while. Your odds are pretty good. I mean they would be pretty good if you ever actually passed a high school history class.”

“World War II happened in 1902,” Jackson said with a firm bit of confidence.

“Wrong. Keep unloading.” I laughed. “Jason, do you think he’ll ever get his shit together and actually realize he needs to finish high school?”

“I doubt it. He’s not bright enough to realize he’s not very bright.”

“Guys, I’m right here. You know I can still hear everything you’re saying,” Jackson protested as he started to get upset with us. “I’m not a baby. I know I’m the youngest, but I’m twenty-one years old, and I can make my own decisions.”

“You’re absolutely right baby brother. If you want to be ignorant for your entire life, that is your prerogative.”

“God, I hate you two sometimes,” he said and threw a box of tomatoes onto the table. “How about the two of you do this all alone. I’m going home to help take care of Mom. She shouldn’t be alone with how weak she is from the flu. I might not be the smartest, but I’m her favorite,” he said as he stormed off and started to walk toward the train station.

“Come on Jackson. We were just teasing,” I blurted out after him.

“Should we go get him?” Jason asked. “Maybe I’ll just go talk to him and make sure he’s cooled down a bit. I’ll be right back.”

Before I could protest Jason’s plan, he was already running after Jackson. And just like that, my brothers had left me to unload the pickup and get the whole booth ready for the farmer’s market.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t do it; I’d done the prep work before all by myself. But I’d also arrived on time instead of thirty minutes before the market opened. Now I had barely enough time to get everything off the truck before early rising shoppers were going to be hitting up our booth. I certainly couldn’t manage the booth all by myself. Even when there were four of us, things got a little crazy with the first wave of morning shoppers. San Franciscans were pretty serious about their fresh fruits and vegetables.

By the time the first wave of shoppers showed up at our booth, I had barely managed to get the boxes off of the truck. I was still frantically arranging items on the tables when Jason decided to stroll slowly back to our booth and help with the first woman who was picking through our carrots.

“Sorry, he was really upset,” Jason said with a smile that told me he was utterly full of shit. “Can I help you bag some of these?” He turned to the woman shopping.

The morning was absolutely crazy with only two of us at the booth. It was a good kind of crazy since it meant we were likely going to sell out of all the produce we brought with us, and that was going to make our mother really happy. Yet, my anxiety was through the roof as a line formed in front of the booth, and we could hardly keep up with people.

“Can I get four tomatoes please,” a familiar husky voice asked.

My eyes darted up and there, right in front of me was Kevin Fox. I froze in a state of utter and total loss. I wasn’t prepared to see him there. He looked so much out of his element, and I certainly didn’t look like a ballerina with my dirty T-shirt and jean shorts that were both coated in sweat and produce grime.

“Five dollars,” Jason said as he handed Kevin the tomatoes.

“Do you have a minute to talk?” Kevin asked as he looked over at me.

“No.”

“Jenna. I just need a minute. I promise. I’ll come back in a little bit when things die down? How about that?”

“Yeah, that would be best,” Jason said as he looked suspiciously at me and then at Kevin. “We will calm down in an hour or so. Or whenever we run out of food.”

“Great, I’ll finish the rest of my shopping and come back,” Kevin reached out and let his fingers touch mine before walking off.

If I was going to try and deny knowing Kevin, that touch had ruined that option for me. Jason’s eyes widened as he looked from me to Kevin and then back to me while he continued helping out customers.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I blurted out before he had a chance to say anything.

Jason was bagging up some fresh spices for a customer, and as they handed him the money, he just shook his head in my direction. He clearly wasn’t going to let this go. He smiled at me as if he was just waiting for me to break and tell him what was going on.

“So, you don’t want to talk about the most eligible bachelor in San Francisco just coming to our produce booth and waiting for twenty minutes to buy four tomatoes?”

“Yep. I don’t want to talk about it.”

We both continued helping customers as we talked. Jason obviously knew that something was going on between Kevin and me, but I wasn’t about to admit to it. Jason and Jackson wouldn’t let me live it down if they knew the truth of what had gone with Kevin and me. The last time I had a boyfriend that they knew about, I was harassed over text messaging daily until they got to meet the guy. No, there was going to be none of that with Kevin because I wasn’t dating him.

Sure, we had been on a date. Sure, he was a very attractive and nice man, but we absolutely were not going to go out again. It had been two weeks since our trip to the burger joint and my second night with him. The feelings I had for Kevin were way too strong for me to be around him any longer. Not if I wasn’t going to be able to let things go farther. Not if I was never going to be able to keep him. No, what we had was great, but it was over.

“I think he seems like a nice guy,” Jason said when we had finally finished selling everything we had brought to the market. “I mean, I’ve heard some not nice things about him, but I imagine those tabloids make a lot of that stuff up.”

“What have you heard?” I asked eagerly.

“So you do like him!”

“No, I just want to know what you’ve heard.”

“Just that he dates around a lot. Lots of supermodels and different girls every weekend. That kind of stuff. Nothing too horrible.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that too,” I said as I saw Kevin walking toward the booth. “Don’t leave me alone with him. Jason, don’t …” I said as Jason grabbed some boxes and started to walk away.

“Perfect timing,” Jason said to Kevin. “I was just hauling these boxes to the recycling bin. Be back in a bit.”

“I hate you!” I yelled after him. “Sorry, that’s my brother Jason. I guess I could have actually introduced you to him. If he wasn’t such a dick and running off trying to get out of loading these tables and the tent back into the truck.”

“I’ll help,” Kevin said as he set his bags down by the back of the truck. “So your brother has a farm?”

“No, our mother turned her entire backyard into an herb vegetable garden. She had one lemon tree back there and thought she needed some herbs, then suddenly we didn’t have a backyard, and she had tons too many vegetables.”

“That’s cool. I wish my mom would have done stuff like that when I was younger.”

“So you come down here to get your own groceries very often?” I asked as I tried to keep the conversation going. “You don’t seem like the sort of guy who likes to come to the farmer’s market all by himself on Sundays. I mean, well, you probably stay up late on Saturdays. Not that I know or anything.” I laughed as I babbled on.

Kevin grabbed one of the folding tables and made quick work of flipping the legs in and loading it onto the truck. In fact, before I’d even finished my response, he had all four tables folded and loaded onto the truck.

“I heard there were some good organic foods down here and wanted to check it out,” he said as he continued to help me with pulling down the shade tent that we used as our booth. “Plus, I mean once I saw you here, there was no way I was leaving without getting a chance to talk to you. Did you get your badge back at work? I dropped it off with that friend of yours.”

“Elaina, yes. She gave it to me. Thank you. I can’t believe I left that there.”

“I need your phone number. Is there a particular reason I don’t have it?” Kevin said bluntly as he stopped moving and stood straight in front of me.

The sexual tension between the two of us instantly grew as our bodies weren’t moving and were in such close proximity to one another. I felt pulled to move closer and closer to him. Even though my brain was telling me I needed to end things, my body wanted Kevin so desperately that I actually ached as I stood there looking at him.

“My phone number?” I swallowed hard as I tried to think of a reason not to give it to him.

“Yes, here. Just put it into my phone, and I’ll have it,” Kevin said as he handed me his phone.

I froze as I tried to think. I had to just tell him no. This wasn’t going to work. I knew it, and he had to realize it too. We were only compatible because I’d lied to him. I was literally working a produce booth to help my mother get a hundred dollars, and Kevin dropped that sort of money without even thinking twice.

“God, I look terrible. Um, I should get going,” I said and handed him the phone back. “You know, I think you’re a great guy. I laugh a lot when we are together, but I’m really busy with life right now. And well, I think I better just get going.”

“You’re really not leaving without giving me your number.” He playfully stood in front of the door to the truck and handed me his phone again. “Please, Jenna, I really like you, and I’d love to take you on a regular date. You know, where I pick you up at your house, hand you some overpriced flowers, all that boring date stuff. I’d love to do that with you so it isn’t so boring.”

“Kevin …” I tried to protest.

“Please,” he insisted as he held his fingers around mine as I held his phone.

There was nothing else for me to do. I couldn’t say no to him. So I started typing a phone number into his phone. It wasn’t my number; it was a random number, but at least he’d leave and let me leave as well.

I was weak around Kevin. Not weak in the sense of who I was as a person because I actually felt strong and more capable with my life and my goals when I was around him. I was weak because I desired him so much and couldn’t stop wanting to touch and feel him.

His energy radiated off of his body toward mine when we were close, and I felt like it mixed perfectly with my energy. If only I hadn’t started this whole thing off with a lie. If only I’d been upfront with him at some point before then. But it was too late. This was over. We would never happen.

“Finally,” Kevin sighed in relief. “You know, believe it or not, it’s usually a little easier for me to get a girl’s phone number.”

“Thanks for helping me load up,” I said with a smile. “I better get going.”

“Anytime,” Kevin said as he pulled me toward him.

My heart skipped a beat as I felt him moving in to kiss me. I wanted to push him away. I wanted to tell him we would never see each other again. But I was weak. I moved my lips towards his and felt the electricity as our mouths collided.

I’d never felt such a perfect fit for my lips. His taste, his softness, even the way we moved our lips around each other was the best fit I’d ever had. I genuinely enjoyed kissing him and could have done it for hours if I’d been given the chance.

“I better go get my brother; sometimes he gets lost and spends all our mom’s money.”

“I’ll call you later,” Kevin said with a proud smile. “It was really good seeing you.”

“Thanks again for the help.”

There was so much more I wanted to say. I should have told him I wasn’t planning on dating him. I should have just said that I didn’t want him to call me. Maybe I could have even thought of a better excuse if I’d tried, but instead, I got into the truck and closed the door.

I had to get away from him. I pulled away and didn’t look back even though I felt his eyes on me. Maybe I wouldn’t be able to avoid him forever. But he really wasn’t going to be happy when he realized I’d given him a fake number. He wasn’t going to be happy at all, and I hoped it would be the end of him trying to track me down and trying to make something of this thing that was going on between us.

There was nothing more that could be done about the two of us. I made my mind up. He didn’t deserve a liar like me. Kevin deserved more, and that was the end of it.

As I pulled up to the recycle bin, I found Jason standing there with our boxes in his hand. I knew he wasn’t really going to recycle them. Our mother would kill us if we wasted her boxes like that. Instead, he was standing there just playing on his phone and waiting for me to come get him.

“Did you kiss him? Did he ask you out? How long have you two been dating? Wait until Jackson hears about this. Wait …” Jason said as his eyes got really big. “Wait until Mom finds out. She is going to be so excited.”

“No, don’t tell anyone. There’s nothing between us. I just broke it off. I’ll never be seeing him again,” I said as Jason loaded the boxes, and we got back into the truck. “He’s not the right guy for me.”

Without another word, we drove off to our mother’s house. Jason must have heard the sadness in my voice because he didn’t ask any more questions. He just looked over at me and then touched my hand with a little squeeze of support.