“You think something’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. We haven’t been talking for long, but she’s always so considerate of everyone. It doesn’t seem like her to leave me hanging.”
“She could just be busy.”
“Too busy to answer the phone or acknowledge a text?”
“Maybe she’s nervous. Could be making you wait to slow things down.”
Damn, I hoped not. She certainly was skittish enough for it to be possible. I’d feel horrible if I came on too strong, if I made her feel like she needed to hide from me.
“Why do you guys look so serious?” Brady asked as he came into the common room.
“Lover boy can’t get in touch with his girl,” Ryan answered before I could.
“Asshole,” I said without any real heat. If I wasn’t so worried, I’d appreciate how right it felt for Jenna to be called my girl.
The phone in my hand finally rang, Jenna’s name lighting up the screen. I jogged to my bunk room, answering as I closed the door behind me. “Jenna, hi—” I stopped myself and waited to hear what she had to say. I wanted to feel her out.
“Hey! I’m so sorry I missed your calls! I left work late, and then I felt bad I was gone so long, so I, um, took Thor out for a long walk, and I just realized how late it was.” Jenna finished her overly cheerful excuse before swallowing hard and tacking on a poor attempt to change the subject. “How was your day? Anything interesting?”
Why the fuck was she lying to me? I closed my eyes for a quick moment and let instinct take over. I felt the shift like it was a physical transformation. When my eyes opened again, theywere the eyes of a soldier. Clear. Focused. Assessing. “My day’s been fine. Everything okay with you?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good.” Her breath sped up, and the pitch of her voice rose. Another lie.
“I’m starving, though. I haven’t eaten yet, so I’m just going to go heat up a quick meal, but I wanted to call you first. We’ll talk tomorrow?” Another swallow and a hitch of her breath. Fuck, not only was she lying, she was on the verge of crying.
“Jenna,” I said gently.
“I have to go. Goodnight,” she rushed out, probably hoping she could go before I figured out she was crying.
“No.”
“I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Don’t hang up, Jenna. Please,” I begged. “You can tell me anything, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. Just don’t go like this.”
“I’m okay, really. I promise. It’s just been a long day, and I want to go to sleep.” That last part was the first honest thing she’d said.
“I don’t want you to go when you’re upset. Can we talk a little more first?”
“I don’t want to talk to you like this.” Fuck, she was breaking my heart with the little crack in her voice that she tried so hard to hide.
“I’ll talk, then. You just listen. Okay?”
She let out a long breath. “Okay.”
Thank fuck. “So, I told you my family owned a restaurant, right?”
She made a little hum of acknowledgement, and I racked my brain for any interesting story.
“Yeah, so there’s a lot of craziness that happens in restaurants. One time, I was in the kitchen on a busy Saturday night when the restaurant suddenly went silent. I grabbed myphone and a knife and stealthily made my way out there only to find a guy kneeling on the ground in front of a girl. She was crying and everyone in the restaurant was watching with shocked expressions. I got there just in time to hear the tail end of what sounded like him breaking up with her, loudly running through a crazy list of complaints. A woman yelled at him from across the restaurant for embarrassing the girl, and others joined in. At first, I relaxed when I realized the silence wasn’t due to any danger, but then I started to worry a brawl would break out.”
She sniffled, and my gut twisted at the sad sound. “What happened?”
“Finally, after his long rant, he said, ‘and that’s why I don’t want to be your boyfriend anymore.’ Then he pulled a ring out of his pocket and proposed.”
“Did she say yes?”