He smiled down at her. “It’s okay. Visit with your friends. This will only take me a few minutes, and then I need to take off.” He glanced out at the road. “I was hoping to see your mom before I left, but I can catch up with you guys later.” Joey followed him inside the house.
Pete glanced out the window above the sink as he washed the dishes. Jenna tucked her feet up under her as she leaned forward and whispered to Amy and Bella. He couldn’t hear a word they said, but the smile on Jenna’s lips told him that she was as happy as he was. After he washed the dishes, he went into the bedroom to gather his things in his overnight bag. Joey trailed his every step. Jenna had made the bed with hospital corners, and it made him laugh a little under his breath. Jenna. Several paperbacks were stacked neatly, and upon closer inspection, alphabetized by author, on the bedside table, and he noticed that even the rocks she kept on the floor by the door were perfectly lined up. He grabbed his bag and went into the bathroom to collect his toiletries.
Jenna was on the deck with her mother when he went outside, bag in hand, Joey on his heels. Miranda was taller than Jenna by a few inches. She wore her hair shoulder length, and she wore a tight red dress that barely covered her thighs. Jenna had mentioned that she was going through a hard time and dressing younger, and still Pete had to mask his surprise with a fake cough. If the short dress wasn’t enough to tip him off, the heavy makeup on a face that he’d always seen almost bare would have.
“Pete? I didn’t know you were here.” Miranda embraced him, and her smile lit up when she noticed Joey sniffing around her feet. She crouched to pet her.
He shot Jenna a look over her shoulder. Didn’t know? What is going on? It never dawned on him that Jenna wouldn’t tell her about them.
“Were you fixing something?” Miranda’s eyes bounced between Jenna and Pete as she ruffled Joey’s head.
Jenna nibbled on her lower lip and set a pleading gaze on Pete. Bella and Amy had the same look in their eyes. He got the hint, but it pissed him off—and royally confused him.
“Yeah. The sink.” He touched Jenna’s arm. “You should be all set now. Call me if you need anything.”
Jenna let out a breath. “Okay. Thanks, Pete.”
He nodded and hoped her mother didn’t see the confusion or the anger he felt. He climbed into his truck after Joey jumped in, and a minute later Jenna was standing at the window of his truck.
“Pete,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. I didn’t plan on not telling her, but she started right up with, Where are the hot men?” Jenna let out a frustrated breath. “I didn’t want her getting into our business.”
He didn’t know what to say. He was hurt and angry, but the sincere, worried look in Jenna’s eyes softened his annoyance. He glanced at Amy and Bella ushering Jenna’s mother into the cottage.
“You could have warned me, babe.” He stroked her cheek.
“I’m sorry.” Jenna put her hand on his. “It was a split-second decision. I just…She talks about sex and stuff, Pete. She’s not like she used to be, and I don’t want her in that part of our lives.”
“Babe, I get it, but I’m not a liar or a sneak. I can’t look into your mother’s eyes and pretend I’m not falling for her daughter. You’re either all in or you’re not. I’m all in. Can’t you just define boundaries? Tell her what aspect of our lives are off-limits?”
Jenna nodded, but the worry in her eyes seemed to magnify with his words.
“Jenna, is there something else going on?”
Her mother came back outside laughing with Bella and Amy. Jenna took a step back from the truck. He had half a mind to step from the truck and tell her mother himself, but again, Jenna’s pleading look kept him in line.
He ran his hand through his hair and spoke quietly. “Do whatever you need to, but after all this time, the last thing I want to do is pretend you’re not everything to me.”
JENNA SPENT THE day with her mother and Amy at the beach. Her mother wore enormous sunglasses and a bathing suit with cutouts at the waist. Miranda Ward was petite like Jenna, without the mammoth-sized bust, and Jenna had to admit that she looked great for a woman in her late fifties. But she lowered her sunglasses and leered at every guy who walked by, and Jenna was mortified. She’d tried to dissuade her, but her mother’s retorts came quick and sharp. Oh, please. They know they’re hot. Or, I’m not doing anything more than looking. Maybe you should look, too. Or the one that grated on Jenna’s nerves the most. I settled for years with your father. He never looked that good a day in his life. No more settling for me.
Her mother’s comments about her father put Jenna on the defensive. It was a struggle not to snap at her and remind her that she’d once loved everything about him, from his paunchy stomach to his dry personality and silver hair. But she knew from experience over the weeks before she came to the Cape that comments like that would only feed her mother’s venom toward him and put Jenna in the middle of an even more uncomfortable situation.
Jenna had been mulling over what Pete said all day, and she knew he was right. She needed to tell her mother about their relationship, and she could define boundaries with her mother. She had to, and she wanted to, but every time she tried to bring up Pete, her mother would point out another twentysomething guy on the beach, or bring up a memory of a guy she dated before she’d met Jenna’s father, and Jenna held back.
When they arrived back at Jenna’s cottage in the afternoon, Jenna promised herself she’d say something.
“That was such a fun afternoon,” her mother said as she carried her beach bag to the deck. “Jenna, you’re here with all these available men. I just don’t get why you never seem to date.”
“Mom, I have to—”
Her mother set her bag on the table on the deck and interrupted her. “And Peter?” She fanned her face. “He’s a doll, baby. If one of you ladies don’t go after him, I will.”
Amy choked on her water, and Jenna elbowed her.
“Mom! He’s at least twenty years younger than you.” And he’s mine!
“That didn’t stop your father.” Her mother took her bag and went into the cottage, leaving Jenna to stew on her words.
“I thought you were exaggerating about her,” Amy said. “But she was like a woman in heat on the beach. I swear she said something about every man who walked by.”
“No kidding.” Jenna’s insides were simmering. She felt as though she was on the verge of blowing up, and it took all of her efforts to remain calm. She stomped back to the car with Amy by her side and grabbed the beach chairs from the trunk. She reminded herself that what her mother was doing was a hundred times less painful than what Pete was going through with his father.
“How am I going to tell her about Pete? You heard her on the beach, talking about all those guys. I don’t even want her thinking about Pete that way.”
Amy laughed. “Too late. She clearly has thought about him in that way already, so if I were you, I’d nip it in the bud.”
“Right. I’ll get right on that.” Jenna rolled her eyes. “Library in an hour?”
“Sounds good.”