Clay stopped him before he could silently escape out the back door. “Where you think you’re going?” he demanded.
Len’s usual response would’ve been to not say anything, and he was really tempted, but the truth was Clay had given him a shove in the right direction, and his brother needed to know it.
Besides it was good practice for telling Janey things he’d discovered were important.
“I’m going to go grab hold of an opportunity I nearly let slide.”
His brother’s eyes widened, then he pulled the door open and gestured with his head to the outdoors. Only he placed a hand on Len’s shoulder before he could escape, giving him a serious glare. “You hurt that girl again, and I’ll work you over until you can’t stand. She deserves better than what you did to her.”
Len agreed. “She deserves far better than me, but hell if I’ll let anybody else have her.”
“She deserves you, when you’re not being an asshole,” Clay corrected him. He gave Len a rough pat on his back before shoving him out the door.
Now he needed a little more luck. He phoned his sister and hoped she was in a forgiving mood as well. “Do you know where Janey is?” he asked.
“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t.” He could all but hear her anger snapping over the line. “Don’t know why I’d tell you anything about where she is.”
Len laid it on the line. “I want to get back together with her.”
Once again he got the silent treatment for long enough to make him sweat. Finally Katy came back online. “I swear if you hurt her again, I don’t care if you are my brother. I will hunt you down.”
“Take a number. A lot of people want my head on a stake.”
“Bastard.”
“Katy, I miss her so hard.”
“Awwww. You’re such a shithead it took you this long to figure it out. But fine, she’s working on a fence down on the four hundred block. I think she said she’d be there all week.”
“Thanks.”
“And, Len?” Katy warned. “I know it’s like pulling teeth for you to open that mouth of yours and say stuff, but you’ll have to do more than simply show up. It’s going to take a lot for her to trust you again.”
The warning had been expected, but he got the full impact of it when he pulled up in the back alley behind her truck.
Another man was holding a fence panel in place while she secured it, laughter ringing out between them. For one evil second a horrid slash of jealousy raced through Len as he walked rapidly toward them.
Janey glanced towards him, and the light went out of her eyes, her laughter dying away. “Len.”
The man turned as well. Brad Jons offered him a sour expression and stern face. “What’re you doing here?”
Len gestured. “Just wanted to talk to Janey for a minute.”
“She’s busy,” he snapped.
“It’s okay, Brad. Give me a minute.” Janey stepped toward the front of the truck, turning to face Len with her arms crossed over her chest. “What do you need?”
He wanted to say I need you, but it was too soon, and there was a huge lump in his throat. He was intensely aware of Brad refusing to leave to give them privacy.
And yet…in one way he’d rejected her in front of everyone. He would have to prove himself in front of everyone before this was all over. “I want to see you.”
Janey looked away, only her eyes weren’t focused on anything. “I’m right here. You can see me fine.”
“You know that’s not what I mean.”
“I don’t know what you mean a lot of the time,” she said quietly. She turned back, her dark eyes sad but determined. “If you don’t have anything specific you need from me, maybe you should leave.”
“Let me take you out for supper,” Len asked. “We need to talk.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think we have anything to talk about.”
She stepped away, back to the fence. Picking up her tools and going back to work.
Brad stared for another moment, as if double-checking to make sure Len didn’t plan to do anything foolish, and then he went back to work as well, stepping in and helping Janey adjust the angle on the next set of boards with an easy camaraderie.
Len paced back to his truck with a heavy step, and even heavier heart, and a hell of a lot more determination.
Okay. So it was going to take a little more effort to get things started. Janey had pursued him for years, constantly getting underfoot until she got under his skin. If it had worked for her, he could damn well take a lesson from her determination.
Operation Stalk Janey began in earnest.
It wasn’t his usual method, and Len felt awkward as all get out. But the idea of never having her in his arms again was unbearable.
His father had been right. The kind of pain it was to walk down the street and see Janey across the road from him, smiling with her friends, or even sitting quietly and knowing that he wasn’t welcome to go talk to her.
That was an even worse kind of agony.
Whatever it took. All of the energy he’d used to avoid her for years, all the strength he’d accessed in the other decisions in his life to resist relationships and resist connections— He took all of that and put it toward getting the one thing he could not live without any longer.
Janey.
If it meant he had to bare his soul, he’d do it. If it meant he had to beg for help from every one of his family and friends, he’d do that too.
And if it meant he had to give her everything within him so that she knew he wanted every bit of her…
He wasn’t going to stop. Ever.
She was being watched, and by who wasn’t a mystery, because no matter where she went, it seemed Len was somewhere in the area.
After that first day when he’d asked for a chance to talk, Janey had gone home and cried herself silly. She wanted so badly to say yes, but the hurt inside wouldn’t be erased by some well-meaning conversation.
She’d told the truth. She was worth more than he’d given her, and until he found some way to be completely upright and truthful, there wasn’t much point in starting another conversation.
Loud knocking sounded on the door of her apartment. She groaned as she got off the couch, all her muscles aching from the cleanup job she and Brad had done at the local Legion. She put her eye to the peephole, sighing as she spotted Mitch.
She pulled open the door. “I don’t want to jump to any conclusions.”
“I think you’re safe in jumping to a few.” Mitch grinned, pulling a bouquet of flowers out from behind his back and holding it out to her. “Len figured you’d either slam the door in his face or not open it in the first place. I got deputized to deliver these.”
“I’m telling Anna you’re giving flowers to other girls,” Janey teased.
Mitch’s eyes widened. “Oh, your sense of humour still lives.”
She shrugged. “You didn’t do anything that makes me want to stab you in the balls.”
He shifted involuntarily on his feet, presenting the bouquet again. “I’m very glad I didn’t. But in spite of my brother managing to be a fool, I really think he’s changed. And you should take these.”
It was too much. Janey shook her head. “I appreciate you stepping up for him, but flowers don’t make a difference here.”
His grin only got wider as he pulled them back to his chest. “And I said that’s what you would say. Thanks. You just won me twenty bucks.”
In spite of the tightness in her chest Janey laughed. “You’re terrible.”
“It’s worse than you think. Before I came over here, I made Len agree to do all my dump runs for the next three months.” Mitch shifted his shoulders. “Look. I screwed up big-time with Anna, thinking I knew what was best for the two of us. And the best thing she ever did was forgive me for being stupid, before proving to me how good we were together. I hope you give Len another chance.”
She held on to the door tightly. “You can take the flowers to Anna.”
He nodded slowly, looking as if he wanted to say more, but then he turned and walked away, the broad width of his shoulders stretching his leather jacket, the oh-so-familiar Thompson step taking him down the hall. He could’ve been Len’s twin. A shot of sadness hit.
Along with a teeny, tiny ray of hope.
Janey knew the Thompson family. She knew exactly how stubborn the boys all were, and the only way Mitch would’ve shown up at her door was for Len to have talked long and hard. It was a move in the right direction. Or at least a step—because talking was a whole lot better than staying silent.
Mitch outside her door was only the start.
After the flowers came the presents. Little gift bags hanging on her truck antenna and on the doorknob of her apartment. Small candies and scented candles. A book of puns.
A distinctly pink bag showed up, hanging off the fence boards when she and Brad came back from a coffee break. Janey glanced up and down the back alleyway, but no one was there.
Brad looked torn between amusement and concern. “If you want me to tell him to get lost, I will.” He got the bag off the fence, slowly holding it out toward her. “Or you can tell me to get lost if I’m out of line.”
She took the bag, clutching it tightly as she debated what to do. “It’s fine.”