Long Gone Girl (6 page)

“That’s enough, Loretta.” Jett snapped.

“Hey. What’s going on out here?” Mr. Davis,
the school’s gym teacher pushed into the gathering group of
onlookers.

Could this get any worse? The whole school
would find out what had happened. Ginny clutched at the locker door
behind her and took a step back. And then another. Hot tears stung
her eyes and the crowd blurred.

She’d been set up—the butt of a cheap and
nasty joke between boys. She really did mean nothing to
Jett—nothing more than ten dollars anyway. Humiliation and anger
clogged her throat.

She felt like she wanted to die.

As she fled down the corridor toward the
door to the high school oval, she thought she heard Jett calling
her name.

Well he could call all he liked. She never
wanted to see him again.

Ever.

***

Point Pleasant, New Jersey, September 1953

“What you did…It was cruel and humiliating…I just
don’t know if I can get past that.”

Jett flinched, his gut twisting with guilt.
He deserved Ginny’s condemnation. Her pain was clear to see in the
shadows clouding her hazel-brown eyes as she stared out to sea. The
catch in her voice. Why, she couldn’t even bear to look at him.
After all these years, she was still hurting—badly. And he was
solely responsible. Somehow, he had to make things right.

He raked a hand through his hair to stop
himself reaching for her hand again because he knew she would
rebuff him this time. “Ginny, I never meant to hurt you. You must
believe me. I was stupid and cocky…and selfish. That night, when I
asked you to dance, when I kissed you—”

“Well I hope you got your money’s worth.”
Her tone was bitter. Cold. Yet infinitely sad.

Jett’s heart clenched tightly. “The bet…”
Shit.
An explanation was long overdue but now the moment was
upon him, he struggled to find the right words. “It wasn’t supposed
to be like that.” Even to his own ears, he sounded lame.
Unconvincing.

At last Ginny turned to look at him, her
eyes glittering with anger and tears. “What, you were supposed to
humiliate me in front of a bigger audience? Is that it?” she
accused.

“No, Ginny. You weren’t supposed to get hurt
at all.” Jett swallowed, trying to keep his tone measured and even,
but it was useless. Guilt lodged in his throat like a hard stone.
He dragged in a breath and focused on holding her gaze. If she
could just see the sincerity in his eyes, maybe, just maybe she’d
believe him. “I…I was falling for you. I honestly was,” he
continued. He sat forward a little on his seat, bunching his hands
into tight fists on the wooden table to stop himself from touching
her again. “I’d already suspected you might have a secret crush on
me, long before Prom night, but as you know, I was with Loretta so
I didn’t do anything about it. But a week before Prom, that jackass
Frank Baxter noticed you blushing at something I said when we were
partnered up during a chemistry class.”

Ginny sighed and reached for her root beer
bottle. Her slender fingers toyed with the wet label. “The
titration experiment.”

Jett nodded, heartened a little by her
response. Her anger had dissipated a fraction at least. “You
remember it?”

Her gaze returned to his and she arched an
eyebrow, a wry smiling playing about her lips. “I remember
everything about those last few weeks of school.”

Jett ventured a small smile of his own. “Me
too.” Ginny’s body language and expression might be slightly less
hostile at the moment, but he still had a lot of lost ground to
make up. The look of sad skepticism in her eyes pierced his heart
to the very core. Marshaling his courage, he drew in a steadying
breath and continued. “Anyway, later that day, at football
practice, Frank joked that there was no way on God’s green earth
that even the ‘Great Jett Kelly’—his words, not mine I might
add—could get you, the straightest girl in school, to agree to a
kiss, even if you were sweet on me. He suggested a bet of ten
dollars. With God as my witness, I told him to go jump.”

Ginny’s brow lowered into a deep frown.
“You’re saying you never made the bet? But he said, he owed
you.”

Jett at last gave into the need to have
physical contact with her and grasped her hand, praying she
wouldn’t pull away. She had to believe him. “I never agreed to it,
Ginny. I wouldn’t do something so cruel. As I said, it was his idea
of a joke. It wasn’t mine.”

Ginny’s gaze dropped to their hands on the
table but she made no move to withdraw. Jett released the breath he
hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

“I want to believe you, Jett, I really do
but…then there was Loretta. She accused you of cheating on her. But
you’d told me you’d broken up.” Ginny sighed heavily then met his
gaze again. “I don’t know what’s true and what isn’t.”

“I don’t blame you, Ginny. The truth is, I
had started to grow tired of Loretta’s demanding behavior and
waspish attitude some weeks beforehand. In fact, I had already
contemplated breaking off with her a few times leading up to Prom.
But then at the Prom, when she made a totally uncalled for snipe
about you, I told her I’d had enough of her judgmental ways. It was
the prod I needed to break up with her, so I could pursue you.” He
squeezed Ginny’s hand. “It was only then that I asked you to
dance.”

“So her accusation of two-timing was
false.”

Jett shrugged and gave a rueful smile. “I
guess she just didn’t want to believe it was over. But believe me,
it was definitely over.” He decided to push his luck a little
further and ran his thumb up and down Ginny’s wrist. He smiled when
he saw he’d raised goose-bumps along her fine, smoother than cream
skin. “As I said before, I honestly had a crush on you too, Ginny.
For months. But I was too spineless to do anything about it.” He
caught her gaze and risked throwing her a deliberately flirtatious
smile. “Do you know how Goddamned gorgeous you were in school?”

Ginny rolled her eyes, but a deep blush to
the very roots of her hair betrayed that she was affected on some
level by his compliment. “I didn’t think they let visually impaired
or delusional people into the military, let alone become a
pilot.”

Jett’s smile widened. He loved her
razor-sharp quips. And the fact that she didn’t seem to have a vain
bone in her entire beautiful body. “I swear most of the guys in our
school year thought you were the prettiest girl there. But you were
so smart and seemed so...contained and aloof. Unattainable even.
Everyone was intimidated by you. Including me.”

Ginny let out a huff of incredulous
laughter. “You must be kidding.”

“No. I’m not. I was so nervous when I asked
you to dance…you have no idea,” he continued in a low voice,
holding her gaze. “And when you said yes, I was over the moon with
happiness. When I took you out into the corridor, and kissed you,
it was all real, Ginny. It wasn’t a joke. And it certainly wasn’t
because of a bet.”

The breeze had blown a wisp of Ginny’s
red-gold hair across her cheek. His heart pounding with nerves and
desire, Jett leaned forward and gently tucked it behind her
shell-like ear. “One of my biggest regrets about that night is that
I was so caught up in needing to hear you say you had feelings for
me, I never told you how I felt in return.”

Ginny’s gaze instantly narrowed with
suspicion, and she withdrew her hand from his grasp.
Damn
.
She doesn’t believe me. I’ve pushed her too far.

“If all this is true,” she challenged, her
eyes suddenly hard with long-held resentment, “if you cared, why
didn’t you follow me? Tell me how you really felt afterwards.”

Jett sighed and sat back, resting his hands
upon his thighs to keep them away from her. For the moment. “After
you ran off, Mr. Davis hauled both me and Frank off to see the
vice-principal, Mr. Webster, for creating a ruckus. He then called
our parents and sent us home. My mom and dad were not happy, to say
the least. I was grounded for the next week. Actually I was damn
lucky I wasn’t suspended.”

Ginny’s expression softened a little. “I
didn’t hear about that.”

Jett shrugged and stared out at the waves
rolling in. The swell was getting heavier and the bank of low grey
clouds was moving closer to shore. The weather was going to take a
turn for the worse. He hoped to hell this conversation didn’t
though. He prayed that when Ginny heard about everything else that
had happened, she would understand, even if she couldn’t forgive
him. “Being grounded didn’t matter. It was the week leading up to
exams anyway,” he said matter-of factly. He glanced back at Ginny
again and tried to catch her eye. “What
did
matter was that
I didn’t get to see you at all. You never came to school…I heard
you were sick.”

She nodded. “I had tonsillitis. I guess I
was run-down.”

And heart-sore too no doubt. Because of
me.
Jett winced a little as he felt a sharp twist of guilt deep
inside him again. “I remember, during our last week of school—exam
week—you wouldn’t even look at me the few times I did see you,” he
said softly. “I thought you hated my guts, Ginny. I just didn’t
think you’d listen to me if I tried to talk to you then.” Jett ran
a hand down his face, inwardly cringing at the memory of how
idiotic he’d been. “I was a cowardly ass.”

Ginny remained silent and crossed her arms
firmly over her chest. By the set expression on her face, the tight
line of her mouth, she obviously didn’t disagree.

Regardless, he needed to push on. “Anyway,
the day after school finished, my family left Ridgewood. I don’t
know if you recall, but we always went away for a few weeks every
summer—to stay with my grandparents in The Hamptons. I was due to
start law school in the fall, but as soon as I turned eighteen, I
enlisted for flight training with the air force, much to my dad’s
annoyance. He’d always wanted me to follow in his footsteps, but I
guess World War II put a crimp in his plans. Not that I ended up
serving then—the war ended before I finished my training—but that’s
another story.”

Still no response other than stony silence.
Disappointment settled in Jett’s gut like a cold, lead weight. He
only had one thing left to divulge. And if Ginny didn’t accept what
he told her next, he was screwed. He swallowed, attempting to
moisten his suddenly tight, dry throat. “I thought you should also
know that the morning I left for The Hamptons, I dropped a letter
off at your house, explaining everything… But based on your opinion
of me, I’m thinking, you never got it.” He willed Ginny to look at
him so he could see the expression in her eyes. To see if he stood
a chance. “Am I right?”

She frowned in apparent confusion and at
last met his gaze. “No, I never got it. Who did you give it
to?”

“Your sister, Kathleen.” He held his
breath.

Ginny’s mouth tilted into a rueful smile.
“Huh. Well that explains it. I’m sure she would have given it
straight to my mother, who would have thrown it away. Mom was
always warning me about how you were the wrong kind of boy, and
that no girl—even a decent one—would be safe in your company.”

Jett grimaced. “She was right to some
extent.”

Ginny’s gaze narrowed, but Jett thought he
detected a glint of humor in their rich, golden-brown depths. “And
I’m thinking it’s probably still the case.”

Jett put a hand on his chest, over his
heart. “Hey. I promised to be good, remember? I’m on my best
behavior here, believe me. Your opinion means a lot to me.”

“Hmm.” Ginny’s gaze was speculative as it
wandered over him, but again, he thought there was a hint of
amusement in her expression. “I’m still making up my mind about
you. You’re still very much a fast fly-boy if I’m not mistaken. But
that being said, I believe your explanation, Jett.”

Relief surged through Jett like a wave on
the incoming tide. She hadn’t exactly forgiven him, but it was a
start. And more than he probably deserved. He captured her gaze,
eager to say the one last thing that needed to be said. An apology
from the heart. “I’m so sorry, for everything that I did…or didn’t
do, Ginny. And for hurting you so much,” he said, his voice
suddenly rough with emotion. He swallowed and chanced catching her
hand. “But I’m not sorry for the dance, or the kiss we shared. As
for anything else…” On an impulse, he linked his fingers with hers.
“It’s up to you, what happens from here on in. But don’t forget,
you did promise to spend the day with me.”

Ginny smiled, almost shyly, reminding him of
the sweet girl he used to know. “I did.”

Jett’s heart rate kicked up a notch, and he
couldn’t suppress a grin. “So do we have a truce?”

Her smile widened, and her whole face lit
up. Grace Kelly had nothing on her.

“We do,” she answered, then raised a finely
arched brow. “So…how do you propose we spend the rest of the
afternoon?”

Wicked woman.
Didn’t she know she was
playing with fire, asking him a question like that with mischief
dancing in her eyes? But he knew a test when he heard one. He might
be forgiven, for now, but he was still walking on a thin line. He
would be foolish indeed to shatter Ginny’s new-found trust in
him.

Still holding her hand, he pulled her to her
feet. “How do you feel about carousel rides?”