Jenny (Babysitter's Club 5)

“You’re telling me that all the time you were coming to my house acting like Little Bo Peep, this was the real you?”

“You didn’t deserve the real me; I’m still not sure that you do. You’re on a trial basis. You’ve been warned.”

“I’m not in the market for any more games, Jenny.”

“And I’m not in the market to get my heart trampled on by you or anyone else again.”

“Anyone else, like who?” Why the fuck did that bother me so much?

“When you were on that fishing expedition with my mother, didn’t she tell you about all the boys I’ve refused to date?”

“Yeah, so?”

“I can always change my mind.” I almost ran off the fucking road.

JENNY

Oh, sweet heaven, I’m going to kill myself trying to hold my laughter inside. My chest is hurting so bad, but if I let it out, he’s going to know that I’m full of shit. I never had any interest in those boys, not even after he came back with a wife and kids.

I’m just not the sort who can turn my true feelings on and off, and I never thought it was fair to be with someone else when my heart was already taken by him. With that said, I still have to make him pay for forgetting me, and for taking too long to remember our first night together.

It’s lucky for me that the girls were in the car because the way he was mumbling and carrying on under his breath, I was sure I was going to get an earful as soon as we were alone. He kept looking at me, and I kept pretending I didn’t see him in the reflection in the window.

I wanted to cave so badly, but I didn’t. There was still a lot for us to work through, but so far, he was pushing all the right buttons. I was afraid to breathe, afraid to get too excited unless something happened. And mostly, I was afraid to ask about the divorce.

I sighed long and hard the sound reverberating in the enclosed car before I could hide it. He squeezed my hand and raised my fingers to his lips again. “What is it? What’s wrong?” I just shook my head and turned to look at him as unbidden tears filled my eyes.

He pulled over and practically dragged me into his lap. “Don’t cry; I don’t think I can take that. I promise I’ll make it up to you, every little hurt, everything I forgot about you I’ll make it up to.” He kissed my temple before lifting my chin to stare into my eyes.

He lowered his head, his eyes still open on mine as if giving me time to deny him. But if I did that I’d be denying us both, I wanted so much to kiss him, to relive those feelings that got a fire started in my tummy that night that seemed so long ago now.

I was so tense without realizing it that, and when his lips finally grazed mine with the softest of touches, I felt all the tension leave me as I fell into his kiss. It was just as I remembered. Soft and sweet and so unassuming until he wrapped his arms tighter around me and dove in.

His tongue teased my mouth until he drew mine out to play. “Don’t cry anymore, okay, baby.” He wiped my face and kissed both my eyes closed while hugging me hard enough to crack a rib. He was being so sappy I didn’t have the nerve to tell him they were happy tears.

Derrick

Why was she crying? Is she still hurt? What a dumbass question Derrick, of course, she’s still hurt. What did you do to make it up to her so far except for a few empty words? But she must have noticed the change in our relationship.

I’m trying to do things right for her sake, not rush her into anything too fast so that she’d know, and I’ll know, that she wasn’t a rebounder that I wasn’t just using her to warm my bed. Though that horse is already out of the barn. What the fuck does that mean anyway?

She sat back in her seat quieter than usual, and I was starting to sweat, and then she reached her hand out and held it up until I took it and put it back on my thigh. I did a mental fist pump and sang along with the music while my girls in the back clapped, and my baby grinned.

We looked and felt like a family walking into the mall together, holding hands while pushing the double stroller together. I watched her every move, the way she was with the girls, the way they responded to her. I’d almost forgotten that she’d sat for them many times before and they knew her.