Page 31 of Snowflakes Over Starr's Fall
And yet, Jenna told herself, trying to rally her flagging spirits, she’d known she needed the help, and Jack was being incredibly generous with his time. And so she’d gone along with it all happily enough… even if she was half-hoping that at some point Jack would relax and they’d go back to that fun, flirty vibe they’d had at his house.
It hadn’t happened.
Jack had made a list of things she needed to do and a timeline for her to do them in, and he was strict as a schoolteacher about her meeting her targets. She’d started feeling like he was her boss and not her boyfriend, not that she’d been thinking that way atall,and yet… she sort of had. Stupidly, and against her own better judgment.
And yet could she really begrudge him his free time and advice? She couldn’t, especially because Jenna recognized how valuable it was. Jack had even gotten his hands dirty, ripping out shelves and sanding floorboards, shifting boxes and inventorying stock, pricing out a salad bar and a coffee kiosk.
Jenna had enjoyed their work-focused camaraderie, and especially how the store had felt like something they were doingtogether, but… it hadn’t felt anything like the flirtatious possibility that had sprung up between them the night they’d had dinner. Jack treated her like a cross between a colleague and employee, and even with the occasional banter, the quick smile that made his eyes sparkle… she’d started to feel a little pathetic, always hoping for crumbs of flirtatiousness—a secretive look, a hint of innuendo,anything.
There had been nothing. Not one thing. Even when she’d felt like they were on the same page when it came to the store, theyweren’ton the same page when it came to each other.
Which wasfine, she told herself—again and again—because she wasn’t looking for a relationship, and especially not with a man like Jack Wexler. Yes, she’d liked the flirting, but she wasn’t sure she wanted it to go anywhere, so the fact that he clearly didn’t want it to was actually arelief.
Still, his seeming obliviousness to her person as he focused on the store had been… humbling.
“There really is nothing to tell,” Jenna told Laurie with a sigh, and then, in an embarrassing moment of weakness, admitted, “Unfortunately.”
“What?” Laurie stared at her, shocked as well as disappointed. “Are you telling me that for the last three weeks Jack Wexler has been coming over to your store pretty much every day andnothing’sbeen happening?”
“He hasn’t come every day,” Jenna felt compelled to correct, “and lots of things have been happening. You should see the store.” Except of course Laurie wouldn’t, not until mid-December anyway, because Jack had been adamant that there needed to be a grand opening. So Jenna had closed the store for the last two weeks and the plan wasn’t to re-open it until the Winter Wonderland Weekend. Five weeks of lost revenue wasn’t as much of a concern as it should be, Jenna knew, especially because she’d applied for a small business regeneration grant and received it, thanks, she suspected, to Jack’s influence. Still, she was grateful. Grateful for his tireless work on the store, his expert advice, his steadfast commitment… to the store. Sometimes she just wished he was a little more interested inher.
“I’m not talking about the store,” Laurie exclaimed. “I’m talking aboutyou.”
Jenna let out a tired laugh. Once upon a time, she’d conflated the store with herself. No longer. Now that Jack was so very interested in the store—andnotin her—she had been able to keep the two very separate in her mind. Funny, that.
Or not.
“I know you are,” Jenna told her friend. “And, as I’ve said, I’m afraid there’s nothing much to tell you on that front.”
“Nothing?” Laurie exclaimed, so clearly disappointed, before her eyes narrowed. “Wait, you’reafraid?”
“In a manner of speaking?—”
“And before you said ‘unfortunately,’” Laurie recalled with laser-like focus, before trumpeting triumphantly, “Youlikehim!”
“Laurie.” Jenna looked around furtively, even though there was no one in Laurie’s apartment save for her and Laurie and her dog, Max, who was watching their conversation with a certain alertness, probably because he thought there might be food involved. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” Laurie challenged, unfazed. “State the obvious?”
Jenna sighed and reached for her wine. “It doesn’t matter,” she told Laurie. “Jack and I are very much on a professional footing only. He’s been great with the store, giving me all kinds of advice and getting his hands dirty, but that’s it. Really.”
Laurie frowned. This was not, Jenna suspected, the fairy tale her friend wanted. It wasn’t the one she wanted, either. Not exactly, anyway. She might not be ready for a relationship, but the faint, buzzypossibilityof one would have been welcome.
That lovely, even magical, evening at Jack’s house three weeks ago now… well, technically nothing had happened, but it had felt like so muchhad. She’d sensed and seen depths to him that she hadn’t realized before. She’d acknowledged afresh just how attractive he was. They’d flirted. Low key, yes, but still. There had definitely been a spark there.
The three weeks since then had been depressingly sparkless, at least on Jack’s side. On her side, there had been all sorts of inconvenient sparks. As soon as Jack walked in the door of Miller’s Mercantile, Jenna’s senses swam. She had an irritatingly intense awareness of him as a person. She’d come to recognize every facial tic and habit—she knew when he was about to launch into a lecture, after he’d drawn a significant breath; she recognized that quirk of his mouth when he gave her a half-smile of rueful acknowledgment; she understood he was frustrated when he ran a hand through his hair and then let it fall to his side. She even understood the faraway look that came into his eyes whenever he talked about his former life, and she suspected just how much he missed it.
She felt like she knew this man, and yes, shelikedhim. But he had not given her even the smallest sense that he liked her back, in that way. No smiling, no sideways glances, no quick, flirty smiles. No laughing innuendoes, no accidental brushes of the arm. Nothing. Three weeks was a long time to hope for some small sign. That he thought of her the way she knew she was thinking about him, even if she wasn’t ready for it to go anywhere.
The truth was, her feelings for Jack both scared and depressed her, because hadn’t she learnedanything? She’d fallen so hard and fast for Ryan, had spent the same ridiculous amounts of time looking for clues that he felt the same way… and here she was, doing it all again, and to what purpose?
None. None whatsoever.
It needed to stop. Now.
“Okay, well, tell me about the store then,” Laurie said, and Jenna was both relieved and disappointed that her friend was willing to let it go so easily. Clearly Laurie had believed her that there was nothing going on. Either that, or it really was that obvious… to everyone.
“We’re doing a complete refurb,” she told her, trying to inject a note of enthusiasm into her voice. “Low budget, admittedly, but you’d be surprised at how many little things you can do to improve the place without breaking the bank.”
