Page 67 of Extended Bridge

When I’m out of here, these awful articles will stop. Everything will go back to normal for UC.

“Jenna?”

Protective walls around my heart start to reform. The ones I built when Darren died and somehow allowed Bennett to take down. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Bennett kisses my cheek and whispers my name in my ear. “Jenna?”

My head swivels toward him. I don’t try to look into his eyes, I don’t want to. All I want to do is escape. From Bennett’s arms. From this hotel room. From Louisville.

“Talk to me, Sweetheart.”

His endearment zings straight to my soul. Catching my breath becomes more difficult. Why is this happening? The universe must not like it when I’m happy. Do I deserve happiness? First it took my grandmother. Then Darren. Now it’s trying to take Bennett away even though, thank God, he’s still very much alive.

The man’s warm hands skim my frigid arms. Yes, he’s very much alive. “You didn’t spend any time with Lissa?” My voice ticks up at the end indicating I’m asking a question rather than stating a truth.

“You know I didn’t. She’s a lying bitch, among other things.”

I stare at the beige carpet. “How could she do this to you?”

He chuckles. “This, I’m sure, gave her a nice payday. I’m surprised she didn’t hand the paps some photos from back then.”

“Actually,” Luke pipes up. “She did.” He passes his cell to us, which Bennett takes without disturbing me from his lap.

Despite not wanting to, I stare at the screen as Bennett bounces through several pages. Photos of a teen Bennett, still cute but nowhere near as sexy as today, with adoration in his eyes for the girl-next-door Lissa, with her long blond hair and blue eyes. Not the current plastic, extensioned, Botoxed version. The story paints quite the picture of young love.

Bennett flips through more screens, faster as the headlines change to focusing on me. Ruining UC. The Black Widow. Preparing to strike again.

I address Luke. “If I leave, do you think this will die down?”

Behind me, a tenor voice rumbles, “You’re not going anywhere, except with me.”

“Some of it would quiet down, yes,” Luke answers. His gaze bounces between Bennett and me. “But remember why you’re here in the first place—to give physical therapy to Bennett. Among other things, I’m sure you don’t want to leave your patient before his therapy is complete?”

“He’s almost healed.” This is the truth. Hell, we were about to have sex, proving he doesn’t need me. No one does. I can escape to Aroostook and hide in my anonymity. “He can keep up the exercises without me.”

Bennett asks, “Did you forget about the ones we haven’t done yet?”

I don’t answer, just keep on trying to leave his lap, which he continues to resist. Going limp, I say, “I can leave instructions.”

Luke pushes to do his job. “So I’ll confirm to our PR team that this whole wild night with Lissa never happened.”

“Yes,” Bennett passes the cell phone back to his manager. “Even if my heart weren’t otherwise occupied, I’d never touch that skank again with a twenty-foot pole.”

His protest does nothing to soothe my aching conscience. He didn’t tell Luke I’m the woman he loves. Why would he? Who needs a Black Widow in their life unless they also like playing Russian roulette?

Luke taps on his phone. “Great. We’ll deny her sex, booze, and drugs claims.” He swallows. “I’m hate to ask this, but we want to be perfectly clear in our response. What about your supposed complaining to her about Jenna?”

The encounter replays in my mind, even though I tried to deny it before. No way did anything remotely close to this happen. I guess she thought we were together and wanted to insert herself in the middle.

Bennett’s hands go around my waist. “Lies.”

The manager nods. “Jenna?”

Because he used my name, I stare at Luke. He continues, “I think we really need to address her allegations about your relationship with Darren, and the fact you weren’t involved in his death in any way.”

Without energy, I say, “That’s not what his mother said in the recent article.”

Bennett tugs at me, securing me against him. “When we visited her, we got her to see how wrong she was. Right?”

---