A Fresh Start (17 page)

“I choose…” She leaned back and gazed up at him. “Ten meals.” Then she stepped away with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

He closed his eyes as he grinned, surprised by what she did.

He took in a deep breath and could still smell her lingering scent. He didn’t know what he was thinking, maybe he simply wasn’t.

Reaching out, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back. He took a step forward, pushing her back against the counter, and pressed his palms against the kitchen counter. His arms formed a cage around her as he closed the distance between their lips.

A peck on the lips. That was all he intended.

But when he felt her hand moving up against his chest, his arms wrapped around her, and he deepened his kiss.

When he broke from the kiss, he heard the soft moan she made. He grinned and shook his head, letting out a heavy breath. “You really shouldn’t make that noise,” he said, his hand still on the nape of her neck, his thumb grazing up and down her chin.

He didn’t even know when his hand got there.

“Oh, sorry,” she said and licked her lips.

Does she even know what she’s doing?
He shook his head again and pulled her in for a quick peck on her lips before letting go of her and taking another few steps away from her.

He needed a distraction. “You want to watch a movie?”

“A movie?”

“Yeah, we can choose something from cable.”

“Okay.” She reached for her glass of wine and took a larger than normal sip. She must have noticed his eyes widened.

“I know,” she said. “It’s not fruit juice.” She set the wine down and picked up her glass of water, taking two mouthful. “Happy?”

Paige exited out her back door and locked it before strolling over to the front of her house. The deck was only half done and Justin thought it was safer for her to leave and enter her house through her back door.

She wasn’t quite willing to jump across the deck anyway.

Once she stepped out of her door, she could hear the car’s engine. She headed up front and beamed as Justin’s car turned into the street.

She pursed her lips, licking them as she thought about the night before.
 

After the movie, they continued chatting for a while until Justin walked her home at nearly two in the morning. She had never liked going out so late at night. She always got in bed before midnight so that she could wake up for her jogs in the mornings.

But last night, she was more than willing to ignore her own self-imposed curfew.

They took forever to walk that short distance home.

With his arm around her waist, he kept pulling her in for a kiss.

And she would kiss him back.

They would stand on the road, her arms around his neck, his arms over her waist, and kiss.
 

It was late and there wasn’t any car on the road. It was just them and the stars watching from above.

She had never done anything like that. Kissing out in the streets where anyone could see them. Standing out in the middle of the road, not caring about anything but the warm hand cradling her face and his sweet lips on hers.

Even when they got to her house, he didn’t let her go in.
 

He weaved his fingers into her hair as she leaned against the wall. He bent in close, his lips hovering over hers, telling her what a great time he had before closing the gap between their lips.

It wasn’t her first time kissing, but it was the first time she’d ever felt this way.

Each time his lips locked onto hers, she would be swept into a wave of ecstasy, forgetting everything else.

She opened her eyes and grinned as she heard the car’s door close, blinking as she saw Justin. She’d always thought him to be good-looking, but seeing him in a white long-sleeve shirt, which was folded until his elbows, surprised her.

He was still wearing a pair of dark blue jeans, but the shirt took off a bit of the ruggedness and added a little more seriousness and manliness. He was wearing a shirt the first time they met, but she hadn’t noticed much of him then.
 

“Did you sleep well?” Justin asked as he neared.

“Yeah, and you?”

“Definitely.” He gave her a peck on the lips and took her hand, heading over to the Seymours. Justin led her up the porch and opened the Seymours unlocked door.

“It’s Sunday, Justin,” Mr. Seymour said. His attention turned to Justin when they entered, then down at their hands. “Huh. Celia, you need to prepare another plate,” he hollered into the kitchen and settled by the dinning table.

“What?”

Paige grinned when she heard Mrs. Seymour’s confusion in the kitchen.

Mrs. Seymour came out with her apron on. “An—” She immediately saw their intertwined hands and arched her brow. “Oh, okay.”

“How was dinner last night?” Mr. Seymour asked as they joined him at the dining table.

“Good,” both of them echoed.
 

A corner of Mr. Seymour’s lips sneaked up, but he didn’t say anything.

“I’ll drive Paige to church later,” Justin informed Mr. Seymour.

“Okay.”

“All right, let’s eat.” Mrs. Seymour took out the plates and continued. “You’re picking Jane up on the way, right?”

“Why make it sound like a question when you already know the answer?" Justin asked.

Mrs. Seymour reached over and pulled his plate back.

Justin tugged on it, refusing to let go. “All right, we’re picking Jane up.”

“Thanks, Paige.”

“Why is everyone thanking me?”

“Jane has always been bullied by them, she never had a real friend,” Mrs. Seymour explained.

“I’m just doing what anyone would.”

Mrs. Seymour scoffed. “You’d think so, but no one ever did. I mean her mom is always telling her that she’s pretty and she should trust herself. But it makes a lot of difference when someone her own age tells her so.”

“Just accept her thanks. Otherwise, she’s going to confiscate your breakfast.” Justin reached over and pushed her hair back behind her ear.

Paige could sense Mrs. Seymour’s eyes on them.

She pursed her lips to stop herself from smiling like a fool and turned to her food.

After breakfast, Justin drove Paige over to Jane’s house.

She had expected Jane to be waiting for her outside the house, but she was nowhere in sight.

“Did you tell her I’m driving?”

“Yeah, I texted her this morning.” Paige pulled out her phone and called Jane, informing her that she was already outside her house.

Jane was out in an instant, her head down as she hurried over to the car.

She must’ve been waiting inside because she didn’t want to be seen.

“Hi, Jane.”

Jane glanced up for a moment, then at the surroundings. She quickly slipped into the car before replying. “Hi. Erm, hi, Justin.”

“Hey. You look great.”

Paige beamed at him and turned back to look at Jane.
 

“Really?” Jane brushed down her hair.

“Yes.”

“I’m afraid I’ll trip and fall in the heels. I’ve been practicing at home.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll be beside you. We won’t let you fall,” Paige assured. “You can use me as your crutch.”

Paige had thought that going into church was the easy part. Before the service, most of the churchgoers would be shuffling in, mumbling some form of greetings, then quickly settling onto their seats.
 

But today, the change in Jane’s appearance had everyone staring.

Paige could sense Jane’s nervousness. A few steps into the church’s compound, Jane froze, looked down on the floor, and began fiddling with her hair.

Paige quickly moved to her side and looped Jane’s arm around hers. “Here, you can lean on me if you’re unstable. Don’t worry about them, just keep your head high. They won’t come over with Justin around.” She turned toward Justin and grinned.

She was uncomfortable with all the attention, but it wasn’t about her. She made Jane dress up today, so she was going to stick by her.

“Yeah, come on.” Justin led the way, allowing Jane to hide behind him.

As they moved over to the section where they usually sat, several of Mrs. Seymour’s friends went up to Jane and told her how beautiful she looked.
 

Paige couldn’t stop smiling when she saw the relief and the smile Jane had.

Eventually, they got to the seats that Mrs. Seymour had saved for them. Paige looked at Jane and asked, “You all right?”

“I guess so,” she said nervously.
 

“Good.” Then she leaned over to Justin. “Thanks for coming.”

Justin gave her a peck on her forehead and immediately, Paige heard several gasps behind her. Even Jane was surprise. Her eyes popped wide open, and she raised her brows when Paige turned to her.

Paige suppressed the instinct to turn around. She gave Jane a smile and forced herself to look right ahead.

As the service began, the drowsiness from the lack of sleep was quickly overpowering her. She tried keeping her eyes open, but her lids were so heavy.
 

So when Justin draped his arm over her shoulders and pulled her close, she leaned onto him and gave up the fight against the drowsy spell.

She only opened her eyes when she heard the claps.
 

She ran her hand through her hair and smiled sheepishly. “I slept throughout the service?”
 

Justin helped her up to her feet. She pinched her cheeks, trying to get rid of the sleepy look on her face. Remembering Jane, she turned and checked on her.

Jane patted down on her hair as they moved out from their seats and headed out to the compound where the congregation always gathered. Paige was sure that if it were up to Jane, she’d make a beeline for home.

Once they were in the compound, different groups of people began coming up to them. Most of them were rather nice, telling Jane how nice she looked and commenting how surprised they were to see Justin.

But those were friends of the Seymours.

Then came Mrs. Bradley and Gloria.
 

Both Jane and Paige drew in a deep breath when they saw the Bradleys moving toward them.

“So, looks like you did keep him around your house on purpose.”

Paige forced a small, polite smile.

“She isn’t like you. She doesn’t have to do the chasing,” Justin said.

Gloria fumed while her mother continued. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, dear. You’d better keep your eyes on this one.”

“It takes two to have an affair. Maybe you should direct your anger toward your husband instead of Justin and his mom.”

“How dare—”

“Okay.” Justin stepped between Paige and Mrs. Bradley. “Mrs. Seymour is waiting for us.” With his arm over her shoulders, he gently nudged her forward.

“Jane! Where do you think you’re going? I’m thirsty, get me something to drink.”

Paige eyes widened when she heard what Gloria said. She couldn’t believe anyone could be so rude. Paige was about to pull Jane away when she noticed her hesitation.

Paige sighed softly, she was being insensitive. Gloria was probably the only friend Jane ever had.

“What are you waiting for?” Gloria shouted.

Jane glanced over at her and back at Gloria.
 

“It’s okay, go ahead if you want to. Don’t worry about us.” Paige didn’t want to make Jane choose. This whole situation was ridiculous, they weren’t in high school anymore.
 

Jane smiled and nodded. Taking in a deep breath, she shook her head and said, “No.”

“No?” Gloria snarled.

“No. Get your own water.” Then Jane turned and walked toward Mrs. Seymour.

“You—”

Gloria stepped forward, trying to grab Jane, but she tripped over something and went sprawling forward.

Instinctively, Paige reached out and stabled Gloria before she fell flat on her face.

Instead of gratitude, once she’d averted the fall, Gloria slapped Paige’s hand from her, sending Paige’s bible skiing across the floor.

Paige straightened as Justin picked up the bible for her. The moment their eyes met, they started laughing.

“Everything okay?”

Paige looked over and saw Keith standing beside Gloria.

Jane had cracked a small, hopeful smile, but that faltered when Keith moved closer to Gloria.

If Justin was going to tie someone to a flag pole, she’d want it to be Keith. She clenched her jaws and held Jane by her arm.

Gloria uttered something about them being crazy, then stormed away.

Hoping to distract Jane, Paige recounted her story of her unfortunate bully as they made their way over to Mrs. Seymour.

Thankfully for Jane, the confrontation was juicy enough to keep the gossipers talking among themselves and away from them. Paige didn’t know if they should stay and socialize or if she should make up some excuse to get Jane out of there.

After what had happened, Paige didn’t think Jane would want to hang around.

But Mrs. Seymour and Mrs. Cassell’s friends kept coming up to Jane, telling her how different she looked and how beautiful she was.

There wasn’t a chance for her to slip in an excuse, so all she could do was to watch Jane with concern.

“What’s wrong?”

“Hmm?” She glanced up at Justin. “What do you mean?”

His head tilted to the side, and he stared at her. “You’re worried about something.”

She hated keeping secrets. She sighed softly, took a glimpse of Jane, then back at him. “I promised I won’t tell.”

“That she’s in love with that jerk?”

“How…When—”

“She had a crush on him since high school.”

“It’s more than that now, but I’m not entirely sure.”

After nearly an hour of socializing, Jane finally voiced out how tired she was.

On the way back, the smile that Jane had displayed in church disappeared. No amount of compliments in the world would make Jane feel better when her hope was simply for some kind words or gesture from Keith.

“Thanks for the ride, Paige, Justin.” Jane stepped out and said before closing the door, “You guys look cute together.”