Page 10 of Forever and Other Lies

“Well played,” she mouthed to Jessica.

Ben opened the cooler and started passing around beer cans while the men settled around the fire. Jessica poured out her syrupy sweet wine into glasses. Jayna took one and dumped it out after two sips. It tasted like cough syrup, except cough syrup tasted better. She leaned back on the log, her eyes travelling around the gathered group she’d known since kindergarten. It truly felt good to be back home. But instead of contributing to the conversation she found herself observing.

Who needed reality TV when real life was more interesting? Last week at Patty’s Pub, she had observed Kylie and Jovanny closely. Now she found herself staring at Nick Taylor across the flickering flames. The cop had called off his wedding to Piper Reynolds, Leighton’s best friend. He insisted it was just a postponement now that Tommy had been found alive. He wanted his best friend to be there when he tied the knot.

But was that really the whole story? Nick’s eyes held a haunted look, which was hardly surprising. Every day, as a city cop, he faced trauma. Jayna knew the difficulty of disconnecting after a long shift, fighting against heart-wrenching images that haunted her sleep. However, there seemed to be something more troubling him.

Nick looked miserable. He had ever since Kylie had started dating the movie star. Was Kylie’s engagement the cause of the perpetual frown Nick was sporting?

While rooming with Kylie during nursing school, she’d been aware of the brief fling between her friend and the cop. And it ended badly between them. There was a reason why a brother’s best friend was off limits. When the relationship soured, as they tended to, the guy was still around. Kylie seriously should have known better. And Jayna should have had the same insight when she’d taken up with Kylie’s brother in high school. Seriously stupid move.

However, the person that she truly felt sorry for was Piper, the sweet schoolteacher. Judging by Nick’s current state, the woman was in for a world of hurt. Jayna wondered if the wedding would ever be back on.

There it was. More validation to add to her oath of remaining single.

Jayna turned her gaze to Derek Brennan, perched on the log next to Nick, and memories flooded back, blurring her vision. Suddenly, she was fifteen again, sitting in this very spot. Derek's eyes had met hers across the fire. He’d looked straight through her, as if denying that just the weekend before, she had been the girl on his arm, the one he’d been kissing. The girl he’d rejected when he learned she was still a virgin. He couldn’t get out of the back of his hand-me-down jeep fast enough.

Derek Brennan didn’t do virgins.

He also didn’t do feelings.

Never in her life had she felt so humiliated. She’d never hated anyone before.

With Lucy Bellamy by his side, he sat there with his lips all over the new girl. Lucy, with her blossoming modeling career and effortless beauty, had made Jayna feel so small and inadequate. Yet, even with the popular Lucy next to him, his attention had been diverted. As always, it had been on Leighton, his brother’s girl.

For years, Derek had been the guy she wanted, the boy she had dreamed of. Her crush on him had been huge, and then he’d crushed her.

It was the last crush she’d ever had. He was the last guy she’d ever chased.

Having lost her virginity to a guy in twelfth grade who meant nothing was something she deeply regretted. And she blamed Derek for that. Derek had changed her that night when he’d acted like virginity was the plague. He’d made her feel unworthy, which then caused her to place such little worth on something that should have been so special.

“Nick, how’s your grandfather?” Jessica’s voice pulled her out of the past. She blinked away the painful memory.

“He’s doing okay,” Nick answered.

“What exactly happened?” Leighton questioned.

“Well, he and Norm decided to strap the oversized box from his new flat screen on the front of the riding lawn mower. Then they attempted to plow the driveway with it.”

“Hey, that’s a great idea,” Ben said.

“It would have been if the snow had been lighter,” Nick chuckled. “But it had been a heavy wet snow and, well, Grandad went flying. Luckily, he landed in a snowbank, but he tweaked his back.”

“Those two,” Jayna laughed, forcing her mood to lighten. High school was ruined for her by Derek Brennan. She wasn’t going to allow him any more power over her life.

She pretended he wasn’t seated across from her. It helped that he was ignoring her as well. Despite the ape-man’s presence, it turned out to be a wonderful evening. She loved sitting around the fire, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather with good friends. It was great to be home.

“Congratulations on second place,” Jamie said to Leighton.

“Thanks, and congrats on taking third place.” Leighton held up her glass of cough syrup in a toast.

“We were cheated!” Jayna exclaimed, and her great mood vanished just like it had when Derek walked down the path. “The Meddler has it in for us.”

“Not that you didn’t deserve second place,” she quickly added, meeting Leighton’s shocked expression at her sudden outburst. “But Frank wins every year with the same display.”

“Your window display was just too imaginative for Ophelia,” Nick offered. “Which should be taken as a compliment.”

But the compliment just wasn’t enough. Jayna had wanted to win this year. She hated coming in second place and definitely third place. What she hated most though, was that she still noticed that Derek only had eyes for Leighton. More than she hated losing, she hated not being seen.

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