Page 60 of About that Fling
“Sit down, Aunt Gertie,” Mia said, lurching out of her chair. “You’ve done enough already. You’ve been on your feet all morning fixing this amazing breakfast. Just tell me where to find it and I’ll grab the stain stick.”
“Let me,” Jenna said, but Mia was already halfway down the hall.
“It’s in the laundry room in the basket next to the dryer,” Gertie called. “Just bring it back out here and I’ll help you work it into the stain.”
Mia disappeared around the corner, and Jenna turned to Aunt Gertie with a grimace. “You think she’s doing okay?”
Gertie shook her head. “Pregnancy hormones can really take a toll on a woman. I can’t say for myself, but I remember when your mother was pregnant with you, those last few months were especially hard.”
Jenna swallowed and tried not to let her brain go there. She’d never told Gert about her own miscarriage. About the reason she and Shawn had split up or how everything fell apart?—
“Hey, ladies?”
Mia’s voice echoed from the other end of the house, breaking Jenna’s train of thought. “Can’t find the stain stick?” Jenna called back, rising to her feet to aid her friend.
“No, it’s not that. Just wondering where this sweatshirt came from.”
“Sweatshirt?” Jenna called back, her arms prickling with an unease she couldn’t explain.
“Cornell University Law School. Not the most common school in the world.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, and it’s kinda weird. That’s my ex-husband’s alma mater.”
Jenna closed her eyes and wished for the ground to swallow her up.
Chapter 10
Jenna’s eyes were still closed when she heard her Aunt Gertie’s voice across the table.
“Cornell University Law School?” Gert’s voice spurred Jenna to open her eyes and find Gert watching her with interest. “That must be Arthur’s sweatshirt.”
Mia trudged back into the room, a Tide stain stick clutched in one hand and an expression that was more curious than suspicious. Jenna willed herself to breathe.
“Who’s Arthur?” Mia asked as she dropped back into her chair and popped the top off the stain remover.
“Arthur is my new gentleman friend. He stayed over one night last week, so he must have left that behind.”
“He graduated from Cornell?”
“Why yes, I believe he did. Practiced family law for quite a few years down in the Bay Area before he retired. He dabbles in a bit of elder law now and then over at the Senior Center. Another biscuit, dear?”
Jenna blinked and reached out to take the wooden bowl her aunt had nudged toward her. When Gert caught her eye, she gave a wink so faint, Jenna was sure she’d imagined it.
She knew she should feel relieved, but the guilt pressed heavily into her chest. She split open a biscuit and reached for her orange juice.
What Mia doesn’t know won’t hurt her, she told herself.
It just might, her conscience argued back.
Jenna gulped down the last of her juice, her stomach roiling. She felt like the worst friend on the face of the planet. She probably was.
Beside her, Mia chattered on.
“I’m glad you’re seeing someone, Aunt Gertie,” Mia said as she finished rubbing the stain stick over her shirt and recapped the pen. “Love is a wonderful thing at any age.”
“Pish, who said anything about love?” Gert grinned and pushed the gravy toward Jenna. “I’m just after the sex.”
