Page 46 of Grounds for Love

Chapter 15

Rod

Somethingisgoingon with Jenni and I don’t know what. We were supposed to spend the day together. Rarely does it happen that her day off and mine coincide. This week, they did. She texted and said she had an errand to run with Joy and asked if I could pick her up at noon instead of ten. Which is fine and I agree with the schedule change. We aren’t doing anything that couldn’t be pushed back two hours.

Every time I ask if she’s okay, she gets this panicky look in her eyes and says she’s fine. “Did you and Joy have a good time in Southport? You didn’t get motion sickness on the ride?”

There’s that deer-in-the-headlights look again. “Um, yeah. It was… fine. And no. No motion sickness. The ride was fine. I’m fine.”

We all know what that means. “Did you get what you went after?”

She busies herself unwrapping her silverware from its paper packaging. “Yeah. Yes, we did,” she manages to say without looking at me.

“Here ya go,” Hilary, our waitress, says. “A Local’s burger with sweet potato fries and ranch on the side. And a chef salad, hold the cucumbers, hold the cheese, hold the egg, hold the bacon, and light on the raspberry vinaigrette.”

She places our food in front of us. “Is there anything else y’all need?”

Jenni eyes her salad and her nose wrinkles.

I smile at Hilary, a woman I went to school with, and say, “I think we’re all set, Hilary. Thanks.”

I’ve already dunked and eaten a few fries before I notice my plate being eyed while someone hasn’t touched her food. “Is something wrong with your salad?”

Jenni manages to pick up her fork. “No. No, it’s fine.”

I chuckle and take a bite of burger. I hear a moan and look up to find Jenni licking her lips and staring at the burger in my hands. “Would you like a bite?”

She shakes her head swiftly. “No. No. My salad is great. It’s very healthy with all the veggies and sprouts and…and…” She looks at her plate. “Carrots.”

She would have had more than lettuce and tomatoes if she hadn’t asked them to hold everything good about the salad. “Okay, but if you…”

Her hand shoots over the top of the table. “Well, maybe one bite, since you offered.” She grabs the burger, takes a big bite, and moans and wiggles in her chair like it’s ambrosia. My cock gets his wires crossed and is responding to her vocal appreciation.

“Mind if I have a fry?” she asks, around the second bite of my burger. I push the plate towards her. “Oh, great idea. Let’s switch. Here,” she says and swaps her salad for my burger and fries.

That hadn’t been my intention. I glare at a salad I’d never order and don’t even attempt to eat it. Instead, I motion to Hilary and ask for another burger and fries.

Everything’s fine, my ass.

I push the salad away and settle in to wait. “I thought after lunch we could stop by my place and walk to the lighthouse.”

She nods, her mouth full of delicious burger, and mumbles, “That sounds lovely.”

After she swallows, her head tilts. “Do you still have chocolate chunk ice cream?”

“I think there’s some left.” I try to make sure to keep some for Jenni because it’s her favorite and after the first time we shared ice cream in my bed, I would be crazy not to. That was a wicked good time.

After lunch, Jenni isn’t her usual talkative self on the drive to my house. I pull up and park in the garage.

“Jenni, honey, what’s wrong?”

She gives a heavy sigh and wrings her hands together. “I need to tell you something. I tried several times over lunch, but I decided that might not be the place. And now I’m scared to tell you.”

My mind goes to a dark place. I’ve been through a conversation like this before. “Sweetheart, you can tell me anything.”

A single tear falls from the corner of her eye. “Let’s go inside,” she says sadly and opens the truck door.

I follow behind, curious and a bit leery of what’s so upsetting. My mind is going in different directions. Are Jenni and Joy moving? Selling the coffee shop? Or is she breaking up with me? That last one hits me in the gut.

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