Page 41 of Already Home

Jenna wanted to tell her mother to stop talking about herweight. She was beautiful, and Jenna wanted to be just like her. Shorter andcurvy and lush. And while she was at it, she wanted to walk away from thisapartment and never talk to Serenity again.

She was angry with her birth parents for bursting into her lifeand really pissed at Beth for not being upset. Which probably didn’t make sense,but at this point, she didn’t care.

“Have you tried avoiding meat?” Serenity asked. “It’s veryhealthy, and many people I know have lost weight with a vegetarianlifestyle.”

Jenna wanted to stand up and scream. Was Serenity implying hermother was fat?

Instead of getting upset, Beth laughed. “We’re in Texas. Eatingmeat is practically a religion. Speaking of eating, I think we should all gettogether. You and Tom, Marshall and me and, of course, Jenna.”

“Jenna who brought us together,” Serenity said. “That would bevery nice.”

Beth dug a piece of paper out of her purse and wrote on it.When she handed it to Serenity, she said, “Here’s my home number and ouraddress. How about brunch on Sunday?” She drew her eyebrows together. “Do youeat eggs?”

“We can,” Serenity said in a tone that implied she would rathernot. “I’ll bring a dish, as well.”

“That would be good.” Beth smiled. “I’ll have to warn you, I’mnot half the cook my daughter is.”

Without wanting to, Jenna looked at Serenity and knew in thatsecond the other woman was thinking, “No, mydaughter.” But she didn’t say the words, which meant Jenna didn’t have toscream. Probably best for all of them.

The need to attach herself to Beth, to proclaim theirrelationship, unnerved her. She and her mother didn’t have anything to prove.Yet somehow Serenity’s arrival had changed everything.

“How about eleven?” Beth asked.

“That would be lovely.”

Jenna stood. “I need to get back to work. It was, um, nice tosee you again.”

Serenity rose, looking oddly elegant in her hippy dress. Herlong hair should have made her look old, but it didn’t. Somehow it suited herface.

“I guess I’ll see you Sunday,” Jenna added, then foughtunexpected guilt for not wanting to spend more time with them while they werehere.

Screw that, she told herself. She hadn’t asked for this visit,and they sure hadn’t given her any warning. Sunday was plenty of time.

She’d barely spent a moment thinking about her birth parents.Now they were here. Just as strange, her mother was only about fifteen yearsolder than she was.

“Lovely to meet you,” Beth said as they walked to the door.“Call if you need anything.”

“I’m sure the universe will provide,” Jenna muttered, when theywere back outside.

She thought Beth would snap at her, but instead her motherlaughed. “Serenity has a distinctive charm.”

“How can you say that?” It was practically a betrayal.

“Because she’s unique and there aren’t enough unique people inthe world.”

Jenna shook her head. “There’s something seriously wrong withyou, Mom. You know that, right?”

Beth linked arms with her. “I’ve known it for years.”

Eight

There was nothing like the unexpectedarrival of birth parents to put something as inconsequential as a blind date outof one’s mind, Jenna thought as she studied herself in her bathroom mirror.

She’d spent most of Thursday and today trying to forgetSerenity and Tom had ever shown up in her life, which proved impossible. Evenwork hadn’t been enough of a distraction. But considering she was about to go ona date with a strange man who had a reputation for being a god in bed, gettingher birth parents out of her mind should be relatively easy.

She studied the ruffled dress that Violet had rejected anddecided it suited her just fine. She wasn’t trying to be sexy or sophisticated.She simply wanted to get through the evening without embarrassing herself.

After slipping on high-heeled sandals, she grabbed her smallpurse, a pashmina wrap and headed for the door.

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