Page 30 of Suddenly Single
The gentleman who had called her a beggar stepped forward—cautiously, she noted—and extended his hand.He spoke again in Italian, “I am Lorenzo.Lorenzo Bartolotti.Who might I have thevery greatpleasure of meeting?”
It was no pleasure, it was embarrassing.And it didn’t help to see Edan actually smiling behind the three of them, clearly enjoying her discomfort.“Jenny Turner.” She ignored his hand and folded her arms tightly across her body instead.“I’m going to my room now.” She gave them all a withering look before marching off down the hall with the clothes clinging to her and her boots squeaking loudly and her thoughts racing around Edan and the fact she didn’t have this perfect little inn to herself any longer.
Nine
After a bath and a nap, Jenny felt much better about her disastrous morning.The sun had peeked out, too, which helped her get over her unreliable weather app.
She’d also found a little clarity, too.This morning, her head had been filled with that sexy as hell kiss.But now, having seen the young woman at the care home look so longingly at Edan, and recalling his sober expression when he’d announced he loved his ex, Jenny had come to a few conclusions.
One: She loved it here, but she couldn’t stay indefinitely without purpose.
Two: Edan was going back to find his love and that was that.
Three: She could back to California and face her new family dynamic instead of avoiding it, and maybe take the job Vanessa had found for her.
Four: Or she could buy this inn.
The thought had come to her as she’d soaked in the tub.Edan was leaving, the inn was going on the market. Why not her? She had the money.Well, okay, her dad did, but he would be happy to loan it to her.This was exactly what he’d told her to do the night he’d invited her to dinner at Lolo’s Lounge and had sprung Cathy on her.
At the time, Jenny had thought the invitation was odd because her father rarely got out—between his work and his inability to find anything in his house, he pretty much kept to himself.Or so she’d thought.The moment she’d walked into the restaurant, her gut had sank, because he was sitting there next to a woman with a short crop of unnaturally yellow hair. Both of them were smiling at her.Too sunnily.Too eagerly.
“Jen, sweetie, I’d like you to meet Cathy,” her father had said, and his chest had puffed up a little, and his eyes had taken on a sheen of delight.
Jenny could hardly speak she’d been so shocked.“But how?” she’d asked. “How could you not tell me, Dad?”
“I was afraid you might, you know, insert yourself,” he’d said jovially.
They were going to live together, he said.Cathy was going to help him clean out his house.
Great,she’d thought.Good luck with that.“I’ve tried to help you clean out the house for years,” she’d reminded him.Years she’d never had anyone sleep over.Years of friendships she’d never had because she was afraid someone would find out their dirty secret. It wasn’t until she went away to college and attached herself to Vanessa, Brooke and Bethany that she had actual friends, and the only reason she did was because they were on the other side of the country from her family’s dysfunction.
But her father had smiled sympathetically and said, “It’s not your job to fix your dad, sweetie.It’s your job to liveyourlife.You know what I wish? I wish you would find that thing that makes you happy.I wish you would find the place where you fit.” He’d reached across the table and had taken her hand in his.“Cathy and I both hope you will at last feel free to go and live your life.”
Jenny didn’t know what was more jarring—that her father was essentially telling her to get out of his life? Or that he had discussed it with Cathy?
But on the other hand, had it not been for him and Cathy, she never would have gone with Devin to escape.She never would have found the Cassian Inn. And shelovedit here.She loved the lake, she loved the old Victorian mansion, she loved being far away from her awful childhood home.
This was where she belonged. It was becoming clearer and clearer to her.
So she grabbed her laptop, and headed for the lounge so she could email her dad about it.
As she walked down the hallway, she happened to see one of the Italian men walk into the lounge ahead of her.
She detoured.
She went outside into the sun and followed a path that took her past the inn and into the woods, and up to the top of a small hill that overlooked the lake.To her delight, she discovered a bench. Jenny put aside her laptop and sat down.Here was the opportunity to meditate she’d hoped for this morning, and she tucked her feet up beneath her, pressed her palms together at her heart center, and bowed her head.
The goal of her meditation was to clear her mind and breathe before she emailed her father, But her mind was not clear—she kept seeing Edan Mackenzie and the way he looked at her, even when telling her there wasno possibility.Unfortunately, she was thinking of him so intently that she could practically hear him.
Wait a minute—shecouldhear him.And he was talking.In complete sentences.Jenny opened her eyes and looked wildly about.She could definitelyhearhim, but she couldn’t see him. She stood up, following the sound of his voice to the tree line.She peered into the woods and realized that the cluster of trees to the north side of the bench was nothing more than a copse.On the other side of that copse was a cemetery.She could see the top of Edan’s dark head—he was squatting beside a headstone and he wastalking.Holy cow, the man was talking to a ghost.
Jenny suddenly realized she was watching him in a private, unguarded moment, which mortified her, particularly since he already believed she was stalking him.She hurried back to the bench, grabbed her laptop, and fled down the path. In her haste to get as far from his as she could, she took the wrong fork in the path and emerged in back of the inn.
“Close call,” she muttered, and tucking her laptop up under her arm, began the walk around the inn to the entrance courtyard.
“Ciao,Jenny Turner.”
Startled, Jenny almost dropped her computer. She hadn’t seen one of the Italians sitting on the wooden bench next to the hedgerow.He smiled, his teeth brilliantly white in the sunlight, and came to his feet. “You are dry and you are smiling.Bella, bella.Now, this day is made beautiful for both of us,” he said with a charming smile.
