Page 10 of Snowflakes Over Starr's Fall
Jenna paused mid-sip as she stared at Liz.Women like us?Liz was fifty-three. Jenna was thirty-nine, just last month. She’d had a birthday dinner at The Starr Light with Annie, Zach, Maggie, Laurie, and Joshua, and it had been very nice indeed. She might be getting older, but Jenna didn’t like how Liz had just lumped them together like they were in a postmenopausal divorcee club together.
Was that how everyone in Starr’s Fall saw her? Not that she minded being lumped with Liz, not exactly anyway. Liz was svelte, elegant, with diamonds or pearls always winking in her ears, her hair in a glossy silver bob. But still… Jenna wasn’t quite there yet, was she?
“I didn’t know you liked to play Scrabble,” she remarked to Liz, in an effort to change the subject, as well as the nature of her thoughts.
“I don’t,” Liz replied blithely. “But there’s a very eligible bachelor who likes to play, so I thought, why not?” She waggled her eyebrows as she gave a playful shrug.
A very eligible bachelor? Jenna felt that space between her shoulder blades prickle with suspicion. “And who might that be?” she asked in as neutral a tone as she could manage.
“His name is Jack Wexler and apparently he’s good-lookingandloaded,” Liz replied with enthusiastic alacrity. She was always eager to dish the gossip, and this was clearly a motherload. “Made a fortune on Wall Street as a venture capitalist and then moved here.”
Jenna made some sort of scoffing sound. “So what’s he doing in Starr’s Fall?” And why, she wondered, was she so surprised that Jack Wexler was still here? He’d said he’dmovedhere, after all. Just because she hadn’t seen him didn’t mean he’d disappeared. She’d just stupidly hoped he had.
Sort of, anyway, because the truth was, over the course of the summer Jenna had done a number of covert looks around whenever she’d been out and about in town, wondering if she’d glimpse those distinctive Nantucket Red khakis, that head of nut-brown hair. Not sure what she’d do or even how she’d feel if she did see him, but in any case, she never had.
“It’s a nice place to retire to, I guess?” Liz replied with a shrug. “I haven’t met him yet, but I’m hoping tonight’s the night.” She let out a hoot of laughter as she took another sip of her margarita.
“I’ve met Jack Wexler,” Jenna told Liz, simply because she knew it was bound to come out at some point and she’d rather that she was the one to control the information.
“You have?” Liz’s eyes rounded. “I have to say, he seems to be a very private man. I heard that he moved here in June, but no one seemed to see hide nor hair of him until last week, when he started coming in here to play Scrabble.”
“Really?” He hadn’t struck her as the Scrabble type, and she wondered if he’d gone away for the summer, after all.
“How did you meet him?” Liz asked.
“He came into Miller’s Mercantile back in June.” Jenna congratulated herself for not adding that he’d acted like a complete jerk.
“Oh, ofcourse…” Understanding lit Liz’s eyes. “Thatwas Jack Wexler. Makes sense.” Clearly she’d heard the gossip, which came as no surprise. “Not quite the place for smoked salmon, is it?” she remarked teasingly, which stupidly stung, just a little. Liz was only pointing out the obvious, but Jenna would have rather she phrased it differently, more along the lines of how Annie had reacted, thinking Jack Wexler was an idiot for wanting salmon in the first place. Not, of course, that there was anything wrong with wanting salmon… which maybe she should have considered when Jack Wexler had walked into her store asking for it.
Goodness, but she was feeling muddled about everything, and she’d only had one sip of margarita.
“So you think Jack Wexler is going to come tonight?” she asked Liz.
“Zach said he was. They’ve become buddies, apparently. Jack plays Scrabble with him.”
Her brother playedScrabblewith Jack Wexler? And hadn’t thought to mention it? Especially when she’d complained about Jack Wexler after their first interaction back in June? Although, come to think about it, that was probably why he hadn’t mentioned it. In any case, after that showdown in The Starr Light, Jenna was pretty sure tongues had wagged for some time about the mysterious Jack Wexler and why he wasn’t welcome. Zach probably hadn’t mentioned it because he hadn’t wanted to incur her ire. She could, Jenna knew, be a little grumpy sometimes, especially with her brother.
“Hmm,” was all she said to Liz, and she took a large sip of margarita. She couldn’t quite figure out how she felt about seeing Jack Wexler again. He probably wouldn’t remember her, she told herself, even as she suspected he would. And would he be as rude as he had been before? Wouldshe?
Whatever happened, it would be in front of half of Starr’s Fall, which was a less than appealing prospect. She’d prefer her dramas play out privately, if they had to happen at all.
Maybe she’d ignore Jack Wexler, Jenna thought, only to realize that could come across as passive-aggressive. No, she’d take the high road, she decided, as she’d meant to when she’d first met him, and be perfectly polite, maybe even friendly, if she could manage it. She’d be friendlyfirst, so he couldn’t claim he’d been the one to extend an olive branch. Which was kind of a competitive way to think about it, but so what? She’d still be friendly.
Satisfied with this, Jenna sat back and took another sip of her margarita, only to nearly choke on it when she saw who was already walking through the door of the café. Wearing khakis, a pressed button-down shirt in Oxford blue under a gray fleece vest, it was Jack Wexler himself, in the flesh… looking as rich and privileged andhotas ever.
5
Jack eyed the crowd in the café warily; the last time he’d come in here it had just been Zach, and they’d played a very pleasant game of Scrabble. He wasn’t sure how he felt about meeting what looked like half the population of Starr’s Fall, but he’d promised Zach he would come, and the truth was, he was finally trying to make an effort to get to know people. Not that it was easy, or even that desired, at least notallthe time, but three months on from his move, he was starting to feel a little… dare he admit it, he didn’t want to, butlonely. He was actually lonely.
It had been a long, hard summer, starting with that stupid pepperoni pizza he never should have eaten, that had had him driving himself to the emergency room in Torrington at midnight, and then staying in the hospital for nearly a week with a bleeding ulcer. He’d spent the rest of the summer recuperating, barely venturing out besides visiting his mother, and meeting no one. So much for the brand-new life he’d hoped to make for himself here. Those three long summer months had given him plenty of opportunity to realize he needed to stop resisting these unwelcome changes to his life. To resolve to be different. This was his life now, whether he wanted it or not, and he needed to make the most of it.
“Jack!” Zach bounded up to him, reminding him of a golden retriever in human form, all shaggy hair and wide smile. Jack was grateful for the younger man’s friendliness; he knew he hadn’t been all that reciprocal, no matter that hewastrying. Sort of.
“Hey, Zach,” he greeted him.
Zach clapped him on the shoulder. “Glad you made it, dude.”
“Yeah.” Jack managed a smile as he felt all the curious gazes in the room fixedly trained on him. The good people of Starr’s Fall were not subtle when it came to strangers, and even though he’d technically been living here for three months, he was still very much one. Maybe he always would be.
