This was the moment that any day of the last week she would’ve made some excuse to brush them off, but Shannon was right—they’d given her time alone to get her head straightened out like she’d asked. Time to push it into the past.
No more moping around because Len Thompson had cut out her heart and stomped on it. “If you bring food, I’ll let you in.”
“That’s my girl,” Shannon said. “Chinese or pizza?”
Janey made a face at her bowl and the now soggy Cheerios floating under the surface of the milk that had gone warm. “Anything you guys like. I have pop in the fridge.”
“Screw the pop, Liz is bringing over the hard stuff.”
“You are true friends.”
Janey dumped her mushy cereal down the toilet, watching the final desperate Cheerio fight for the surface before the water swirled it away. Time to stop moping, definitely, because all the other fabulous reasons she had to stay in town were still there, except for the one.
And obviously that had been a lot more one-sided than she’d thought.
By the time the girls banged on her door, she’d cleared room around the coffee table and had music playing on her iPod.
Shannon glanced around, wrinkling her nose momentarily. “Dibs on unpacking the kitchen.”
“Janey and me are going to do her bedroom,” Liz announced, setting two paper bags on the coffee table. “We’ve got it all figured out. We work for two songs, then we stop and have a drink.”
The sheer determination on her friend’s face brought a smile to Janey’s lips. “At some point we’ll either run out of boxes, or we’ll be so tipsy we’ll be falling into them.”
“Then we’ll crash on your couch. It won’t be the first time,” Shannon said.
“It won’t be the last, either.” Liz lifted a bottle in the air. “I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing on my Friday night than spend it with friends.”
The momentary rumble of pain that struck was shut down instantly, because that was the only option. Friday nights were not about Len anymore, they were going to be a whole new adventure heading forward.
With friends helping, the burden of unpacking was reduced to a doable task. Janey paused to look out the window of the apartment, still momentarily surprised to see city streetlights instead of the green grass of her backyard.
Her world had changed, and she just had to get used to it.
“You’ve got everything in place with the new job?” Shannon asked.
Janey nodded, turning back to see her friend carry in the final armful of clothing for the closet. “Brad and I worked out a schedule. We’ve got the legal stuff all done up, and we’re booked solid for three weeks straight, and that’s without doing any advertising.”
“Or adding in managing the emergencies here at the apartment,” Liz pointed out. “I think you ended up with a damn good situation.”
Janey had to agree. “It’s a little strange not being solely in charge of my time, but this is far more practical for the long run. And Brad has turned out to be awesome to work with. I can’t believe I thought he was a stick in the mud.”
Shannon raised a brow. “Do I detect a note of interest in your voice?”
Janey was liquored up enough to let a loud burst of laughter escape. “Oh, hell no. I’m glad he’s a hard worker, but I’m not looking for anyone right now. Not like that.”
Her friends exchanged glances before turning back with knowing smiles. “Sometimes the strangest things happen just out of the blue,” Liz suggested.
Janey shook her head. She was moving forward in other areas, but it was going to take longer than a few days to get over Len. “If it happens, when it happens, that’s fine. But right now, I’m excited about settling into town properly. I always thought I’d be leaving at some point, so it’s nice to be able to set down roots for good.”
Shannon patted her on the shoulder, and they turned back to the living room, Liz raising the bottle in the air.
“I think it’s time for a classic movie,” Shannon suggested. “Now that we’ve arranged your living room into the ultimate television-watching experience.”
Janey snickered as she glanced around the crowded space. “The ultimate? We need to work on your life experiences.”
Her friend clicked her tongue. “Only three steps between the refrigerator and the couch? Sounds like my idea of heaven.”
She grabbed the control and went searching for one of their favourite movies, and as Janey settled on the couch with junk food spread on the table at their feet, she took a deep breath and faced the future.
And tried to ignore the part inside that insisted on wondering what Len was up to that night.
The list of solid, logical reasons he’d thought buying Janey’s house was a good idea escaped him. What he felt was numbing pain, and all he saw was carrying on into the future, day after day, with nothing to bring him happiness.
And every new day would simply be a repeat of the one before. Something constantly missing from his life.
The worst was down at the shop. As if they’d talked about it ahead of time, not a single one of his brothers came forward to call him a stupid shit. Maybe if they had they could get the lingering tension over with sooner, but instead work went on as usual. Repetitive jobs were completed day after day accompanied by a bit of the joking—none of that had vanished. Len remained silent, not usually a big part of it anyway, staying on the fringes.
Until the guys would suddenly pause in the middle of whatever they’d been joking about, as if remembering he’d done something they didn’t understand, and everything would go silent for long enough to be awkward before they turned back to their jobs.
Only his typical silence spared him from getting harassed by people all over town, but he got the looks. And the looks were powerful.
He stopped in at the café for lunch. Tessa seated him and handed him a menu without even flirting. “Specials are on the billboard.”
“Just a regular,” Len ordered.
Tessa stomped off without a word, and Len stared out the window at the rain-wetted sidewalk. This wasn’t what he had thought would happen.
When Janey stepped outside of the hardware store across the street, his eyes followed her, greedily soaking in the momentary sight like an addict craving a hit.
Across from him the bench seat made a noise as his brother Clay joined him. “Do you mind?”
Len shrugged.
He put in his order, and then seemed to become absolutely obsessed with his coffee cup, stirring slowly as he stared into the liquid.
“Something up?” Len finally asked.
His brother nodded. “I’ve been trying my damnedest to come up with a reason that makes sense for what you did, but I can’t figure it out.”
It wasn’t the greatest of places to have this conversation, but at least they were finally having it. “I just wanted the best for her.”
Confusion still covered Clay’s expression as his spoon clicked against the ceramic cup. “See, that is what I expect from you—to treat people right, and try to do right by them. That’s who you’ve always been up until now, but this was a totally screwed-up move that makes no sense.”
“She was going to leave town,” Len offered.
Clay sighed. “Yeah, well, that one seems to have backfired on you big time.”
Len nodded. Didn’t say anything more.
Clay lifted his gaze to Len’s, and heavy sadness shone in the depths. “Look. It sounds like you and her got a bit confused in terms of who wanted to leave town, who was hoping to stay in town, and what you wanted compared to what you thought you were going to get. It’s all tangled up, and at this point it really doesn’t matter how it got that way. What matters is getting it untangled.”
“Maybe untangling it isn’t the solution,” Len offered.
That one made his brother sit back in shock. “Because everything is so fantastic the way it is?”
Len stared out the window. “We’ll get over it.”
“Damn stubborn bastard,” Clay muttered. He reached across the table, catching hold of Len’s wrist. “I don’t know exactly why you’re insisting you don’t care about the woman, but you’re not thinking straight. Crazy asshole—you’re living in her damn house. How frickin’ twisted is that? Can’t you see what’s happening? You have a chance here for something that’s amazing, and you’re throwing it away without a fight. Don’t do that. Don’t fucking give up just because you have some strange idea you two not being together is a good thing.”
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” Len insisted even as he had to silently agree. Living in her house was hellish. There were too many memories around him of Janey just from the short time they’d worked together. It was totally fucked up, and the moments he thought he smelled her hand cream or her shampoo were enough to send his heart pounding.
His head aching with regrets.
He was living with ghosts of his own choosing, yet maybe he could change it all if he’d just…
Tessa dropped a plate in front of Len with a lot more force than needed. Clay let the conversation go, at least while they ate their meal.