Page 14 of The Sandover Beach Billionaire

Chapter Five

Jenna satin the Harris Teeter parking lot for ten minutes, unable to make herself get out of the car. She had sworn that she wouldn’t go back to Bohn’s to avoid Jackson. And doubled down on that commitment after seeing him at the beach a few days ago. But Harris Teeter was too new, too Off Island, too touristy. A chain. She had shopped at one weekly in Raleigh, but it felt wrong on Sandover. Even after years away from home, she couldn’t shake the sense of island loyalty.

She needed food and boxes. The last few days she had spent packing the dining and family rooms, making Goodwill runs whenever she had enough to load her trunk or back seat. She filled boxes with fake plants, ceramic animals, books, vases. A few nicer things went to Classy & Trashy, a consignment store a few miles down the beach. She couldn’t bear to dump her mother’s good China at a thrift store, though neither she nor Rachel wanted to keep it. Anything Jenna had an emotional attachment to or thought Rachel might want, she put in a separate box in her bedroom.

Rachel was driving in tomorrow, which meant that she needed to pull it together. Jenna hadn’t taken a shower or left the house in three days. Her only meals had gone straight from the freezer to the microwave to her mouth. She went to bed late and slept in until almost noon most days. The sting of the hot shower this morning had pulled her out of the slump she hadn’t realized that she had been in. Jenna felt hungry, really hungry, for the first time in days. The fridge was empty and the trash full.

When she finally drove away from Harris Teeter, Jenna told herself that it was because she wanted to support On Island business. But it wasn’t only that feeling that had her pulling up in front of Bohn’s. If she was being really honest with herself, she wanted to see Jackson.

Well, she did and didn’t want to see him. She sat in the Bohn’s parking lot almost as long as she had in Harris Teeter’s. Jenna had spent a lot of time over the past few days going over the conversation with Jackson at the beach. He had been surprisingly sweet. A word she never would have thought she’d use to describe him. He listened to her talk for too long about shells. He genuinely seemed interested—or faked it well. She also couldn’t complain about the way his sculpted body glistened with sweat, though she had done her best not to ogle him. What kind of workouts did the man do to get in such shape? He could have graced the cover of magazines or calendars.

And then he had apologized, honestly and humbly. This set her off somehow, snapping her walls back into place. Just like that, her anger with him bubbled right back up to the surface. After he apologized for something he had done to her sister, yet Jenna insulted him—again—and left him standing alone on the beach. Not her finest moment. She had even left her shoes, but was too prideful to go back. She could buy another pair.

She owed Jackson an apology. But she couldn’t find the words to compose one when she still didn’t understand why she had carried around the emotional weight of this for so long. He said that Rachel had forgiven him—why couldn’t she? She felt foolish and immature and as she finally forced herself out of the car and into Bohn’s, she couldn’t decide if she wanted to see Jackson or avoid him more. No, despite everything, the way her eyes darted around the store and the butterflies took flight within her stomach revealed what she really wanted more.

When Jenna hadn’t seen him after passing through most of the store, disappointment washed over her. She had filled the cart with food for the weekend and wandered through aisles she didn’t need to go down, just to spend more time in the store. Now she just needed to ask for boxes. Jenna found a woman who looked like she was in her early twenties, standing with a nametag that read Mercer, taking notes on a clipboard in the produce section.

“Excuse me. I’m packing up for a move. Do you happen to have any boxes I could have?”

Mercer tucked a strand of her wavy brown hair behind her ear. It was a pretty color, bringing out the blue in her eyes. She was strikingly pretty. Jenna felt a wave of irrational jealousy roll over her. Did Jackson think she was pretty? Ugh. That was the last thing Jenna needed to think about.

“Is it okay if the boxes are already broken down? We have some, I think, but they’re flattened already.”

“I don’t mind putting them back together. Honestly, I’ll take whatever I can get.”

Mercer had a soft voice and an even softer smile. “I’ll go grab some. Can I meet you by the registers in five minutes?”

“Sounds great.” Jenna wandered back up the candy aisle as Mercer disappeared to the back. Rachel still loved Twizzlers, so she dropped a big pack in the cart along with a package of Red Vines for herself. The Twizzler/Red Vine debate had been raging in their household since childhood. Her father had loved Twizzlers and her mom had preferred Red Vines.

Jenna stopped and rocked back on her heels, resting her forehead on her hands, still clutching the cart. It had been so long since she really thought about her father, who had died when she was in college. With her eyes closed, she could see his warm brown eyes and his beard, flecked with gray. But she couldn’t remember the sound of his voice. He was fading from her memory.

Would it be the same with her mom? The idea of her mother slipping away from her had Jenna almost panting, feeling her stomach cramp as her fingers cramped around the handle of the cart.

“Back so soon?”

It was the worst possible time to hear Jackson’s voice. She couldn’t hide, and probably couldn’t even mask the emotions overwhelming her. She took a few deep breaths before straightening and locking eyes with him. He wore a look of concern so sincere that Jenna’s chest tightened, threatening to pull all her emotions back to the surface. She looked down at her hands, hoping he couldn’t see the way her lip trembled.

She shouldn’t care what he thought. But letting Jackson see her in this state felt way too vulnerable. When her breath steadied, she looked back up, half-expecting him to be gone. But he stood at the end of her cart, hands in his pockets, waiting, still looking concerned.

“Are you okay, Jenna?”

Today he didn’t have on a Bohn’s apron, but wore a dark suit with a light blue button-down shirt. The sight made her stomach flip almost as much as the sight of him shirtless and sweaty on the beach. She hated to admit her growing attraction to this man, but it was welcome compared to the grief that almost brought her to her knees right there in the candy aisle.

“Sure. You know how it is: shopping.” Jenna gestured to her full cart, trying to keep her voice light. “I ran out of food and am trying to load up. Rachel’s coming tomorrow.”

His eyebrows lifted. Jenna wanted to kick herself for the reminder of her sister, which brought to mind his apology and her freak-out on the beach. She definitely didn’t want to talk about that right now. The fact that he seemed concerned about her, not angry with her for being an immature brat only made Jenna feel worse about everything. She wished that he would walk away so she didn’t run the risk of completely falling apart in front of him.

Then again, a part of her wished he would close the distance between them and hold her. The thought made her brain short-circuit. It was much easier when her feelings for him weren’t confused but were clearly in the negative column. She needed to shut this down, fast. She took a breath and went to her default: sharp, barbed words.

“You’re looking a little dressed-up for a bag boy.”

His mouth twitched, and he looked past her. It hurt Jenna to say the words. She had felt sick every time after she had been harsh with him. But insulting him felt like her only armor to steel herself against him. Especially now that he had shown her nothing but kindness since she had come back.

“There you are. I’ve got your boxes.” Jenna turned to see Mercer pushing a cart full of flattened boxes.

“Oh, great! Thanks! I was just about to check out. See you around, Jackson.”

Jenna did a quick U-turn with her cart, heading away from Jackson as fast as she could. Mercer shot a look between them but followed Jenna to the registers. Jackson did not. Per the usual with her messed-up emotional state, Jenna felt relieved and also disappointed.

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