Including this one, that the impenetrable Macy Devereaux had not only kissed me a few times but had also appeared to actually enjoy it. She’d even agreed to a date. I didn’t know if we’d just scratch our itch and be done with it, but right now, with the wind coming through the windows of my old truck and Springsteen on the radio, anything seemed in reach.
Grinning, I drove down Main Street in the Cove, humming along, tapping my fingers on the wheel. I was already eager to see Macy and get a full-barreled dose of her snark when we had an entire evening to be alone.
Well, as alone as we’d be with our fellow hayride attendees and Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers and whomever else lurched out of the darkness. I wasn’t a huge horror fan like my daughter or Macy, but even I could enjoy a night of being entertained out in the woods.
And if that led to some making out in the woods…let’s just say I wasn’t averse.
My smile lasted until I pulled up in front of Brewed Awakening, already prepared to drive around back and look for parking. Like I usually did. I’d never showed up here to pick up Macy for a date, but otherwise, everything was like normal.
Then I glimpsed the white stretch limo gliding up to the curb. The driver stopped and climbed out to open the back door for his passenger.
Huh. Who the hell could that be? It was far too early for homecoming dances, and besides, did anyone take limos to those? I thought that was solely reserved for the prom.
And for my ex, who floated out of the car and stood on the sidewalk, patting her lacquered hair and glancing around as if she couldn’t believe her spaceship—sorry, limousine—had landed in the center of small town, USA.
She wasn’t the only one. I was finding it hard to believe myself.
“Jessica.”
She didn’t hear me at first, since she was bickering with her driver. Probably debating if this could really be the right place.
We’d met when I lived a few hours away from here, near New York City where Jessica had been filming a movie at the time. She’d bought a small place outside the city that she intended to use as a hideaway and had contacted me through a reference from a friend of a friend to redo her fireplace and the surrounding built-ins.
I wished I could say we’d had a lengthy courtship—if you could call it that—but we’d been lovers within a matter of days. I’d moved in not long after that. Within six months, she was pregnant with Dani and we were married.
Looking at her now, staring at me as if I was a stranger, I wondered how I’d ever been that young and naive.
Or just stupid.
“Jessica,” I said again, and this time, she tilted her head, her gaze sweeping over me in that thorough way that had once heated my blood.
Now all I felt was cold.
“John.” Her voice matched the chill at my back. “I drove by your place. Your truck wasn’t there.”
“So it wasn’t, because I was on my way here.” I moved forward, my steps measured and unhurried even as my heart thudded dully in my ears. “Have you stopped using phones?”
“We needed to chat in person.” She stepped away from her driver and I half expected a hulking bodyguard to emerge from the bushes as she approached me. Imagine a star of her caliber walking around freely in a dangerous town like Crescent Cove. “Since things have changed recently.”
I set my jaw. “Have they?”
She gestured to Brewed Awakening. “Does this place serve espresso? The real stuff, not the watered down kind most Americans favor.”
Oh, she and Macy would get along so very well. “This is a very high-end coffee bar, so yes, they serve whatever suits your palate.”
“Is that so?” Jessica wrinkled her nose as she stared at the Jason hockey mask hung over the ornate light adjacent to the coffee shop entrance. “I wouldn’t have guessed, since it’s so…quaint.”
“As is the owner, whom you’ll be meeting soon enough.” I didn’t glance at my watch, but I knew I wasn’t more than a few minutes early.
If I wasn’t at Macy’s door right on the dot, she’d come down into the café and soon realize why I thought marriage was the gateway to certain doom. More precisely, marriage to Jessica Kyle. I wouldn’t blame anyone else for my negativity.
“Well, then, let’s go inside and chat.” Jessica gave a quick nod to her driver. “I shouldn’t be long. If anyone questionable approaches the car, deal with them as you see fit.” With that, she flounced toward the café door.
I wasn’t one to demonize people. In fact, my father had always accused me of seeking the good even to my own detriment. I’d obviously once believed Jessica had many positive qualities or I wouldn’t have married her. But it seemed like those particular attributes had been hidden under fur and jewels and pretension, and I wasn’t at all eager to find out what had brought her to my town.
I followed her inside and met her at the counter, where she was already ordering a quad shot latte and “one of those adorable little scones”. A very pregnant Vee was helping her, and she arched a brow at me when I stopped at Jessica’s side. There was plenty of space between us, but I wanted to get this over with as fast as humanly possible.
Preferably before Macy came downstairs and schooled Jessica on how out of her depth she was.