Page 53 of Steel & Jenna
Carolyn stood. She was wearing a man’s white shirt that was at least three sizes too big for her and a pair of boxer shorts with skulls on them. “Do you trust me?”
Jenna’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“I can’t tell you. All I’m asking is, do you trust me?”
Slowly, Jenna nodded her head.
“Good. Wait here.”
With that, Carolyn left her bedroom. Jenna blinked, not entirely sure what just happened. She didn’t know what her sister was about, but she figured she’d give her a few minutes. After all, Jennahadsaid that she trusted Carolyn.
She ended up waiting around for almost an hour. She really was exhausted, having barely slept a wink the night before. She’d been too upset about being shipped off to boarding school to even consider sleeping.
When the door finally opened and Carolyn walked back into her bedroom, Jenna was laying under her sister’s covers. She’djuststarted to doze off when Carolyn came back. Jenna sat upright.
“Well, I have good news and I have bad news.”
Jenna bit her lip. “What’s the bad news?”
“It’s kinda a two-for-one deal,” Carolyn explained. “Can’t know one without the other. So you donothave to go to Massachusetts. Mom was agreeing to that before Dad came home, which is where the bad news comes in.” Carolyn gave her a sympathetic look as she said, “They’re making you return to your old school in Seattle.”
Jenna’s excitement at not having to go to Massachusetts plummeted. “What? Why?”
“Dad feels it’s best for your ‘educational future’,” Carolyn answered with air quotes. “You can’t argue, it is a better school, Jen.”
But it was a school without Jack. “I don’t understand. How does this help me?”
“Well, a two hour car ride is significantly shorter than a five hourplane ride over multiple time zones.” Jenna couldn’t argue that she did have a point there. “And,” Carolyn added, “you’re allowed to come up here on weekends to ‘visit me’,” again adding air quotes.
Jenna perked up. “I can?”
Carolyn nodded.
Okay, so she would spend her weekdays in Seattle and then get to spend her weekends in Port Townsend with Jack. That wasn’t a…bad plan. It was certainly an improvement on being shipped across the country. Really, there was no choice between the two.
“How did you get Mom and Dad to agree to this?”
Carolyn waved that off. “Please. With the amount of skeletons in their closets? All I had to do was threaten to make some of them public if they didn’t ease off of you and Jack. I tried to get it to where you could stay here, but Dad wasn’t budging. I think he thinks time away from Jack in the big city will make you forget about him.”
Not possible.
Jenna smiled at her sister. She scrambled out from under the covers to run to her. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
Carolyn squeezed her back. “Don’t push them too much, Jenna. I’m warning you. They’re not happy. And you still have to go pack. You have to be in Seattle in the morning.”
Jenna made a face. That was fast but she supposed she shouldn’t have expected anything different.
Carolyn stepped back from their embrace. “They’re also still not going to let you out of the house today to go see him.”
Jenna’s heart sank. “That’s…” Her voice cracked. “That’s fine. I’ll see him next weekend.” She pointed to Carolyn’s phone. “Can I?”
Carolyn nodded. “Just take it into the bathroom.” She stretched and yawned. “I’m heading back to bed.”
“Can I join you afterward? Probably best to avoid Mom and Dad today.”
Carolyn snorted as she crawled into bed. “Understatement and yes. Just turn off the lights before you come to bed.”
Grinning, Jenna grabbed the phone and cradle, glad the cord waslong enough to reach the bathroom. She closed the door to give her and Jack privacy, as well as keep the noise down for Carolyn.
