Page 9 of Second Act
Chapter 3
Jessica inserted her key into the lock only to discover her front door was already open. “You’re not in Iowa anymore, Aidan,” she snapped under her breath as she stepped in and shot home the dead bolt behind her. The thick oak door wouldn’t offer much protection if it wasn’t locked.
Between Boots the cat reacting so badly to the anesthesia and Hugh showing up in her office, it had been a strange day. Thank goodness Boots seemed to have made a full recovery. However, Jessica still hadn’t regained her equilibrium after Hugh’s visit.
“Jess! Come on in here. I have a surprise for you.” Aidan’s greeting came from the living room.
“In a minute.” Jessica shrugged out of her puffy coat and hung it up in the hall closet. She stood for a moment, letting her gaze wander over the quarter-sawn oak paneling and the white and yellow roses depicted in the stained-glass window by the front door. The front hall was the last room she’d had a chance to renovate before she had gotten too busy with the clinic. It soothed her irritation with her brother a bit to admire the results of all her labor in stripping and revarnishing the wood.
She took a deep breath and walked into the living room. It was still a work in progress, with only one wall rescued from the garish 1960s wallpaper that was especially cringeworthy against the exquisite Victorian woodwork. The carved marble mantel was sooty with smokestains while the wooden planks of the floor still bore the nail damage from the wall-to-wall green shag carpet she’d pulled up.
Seated on her blue crushed-velvet sofa were Aidan and a man with white-blond hair, drinking two of the craft beers she kept in reserve for a really bad day at the office.
The man rose and set his beer on one of the veterinary magazines strewn over the mahogany coffee table. “Jessica, you probably don’t remember me, but I’m Pete Larson. From Wellsburg.” He smiled, his teeth straight and white.
“Pete? The last time I saw you, you were...” She held her hand up level with her own head. Now he towered well over six feet with a breadth of shoulder that his blue button-down shirt outlined to good effect.
Pete laughed. “I had a growth spurt after you left for college.” He was a year older than Aidan, which made Pete two years younger than Jessica.
“I’ll say.” Jessica held out her hand across the table. “It’s good to see you again. Where did Aidan find you?”
“At a bar,” her brother said. “You need to get out more, sis. Fellow Iowans are everywhere.”
She’d made a concerted effort to leave Iowa behind, so Aidan’s supposed enticement didn’t convince her to increase her socializing. But no one in her family had ever understood her desire to get away.
“You look great,” Pete said, genuine admiration in his gaze. “And you run your own veterinary practice in New York City. I always knew you’d make a success of yourself.”
Jessica sat down on a carved walnut chair she’d found on the curb and refurbished. He was a nice man to say she looked good in her rumpled scrubs.
“Want one of these excellent beers?” Aidan asked, holding up his bottle. “You have good taste in beverages.”
Jessica decided she’d better enjoy her own beer before it disappeared. “If there are any left.”
Aidan headed for the kitchen while Pete leaned forward, his elbows resting on well-muscled thighs clad in khaki chinos. “I’m sorry to barge in on your evening like this. Honestly, I don’t go to bars much myself. Some folks from work talked me into it, and there was Aidan. We started reminiscing, and he thought you’d want to join the fun.”
A long-forgotten memory surfaced, making Jessica cringe inwardly. When she was a senior in high school, Aidan had persuaded her to accompany him to a party, mostly so she would drive him there. After pushing through the crush of bodies, she’d realized it was a younger crowd and had been headed for the front door when Pete had caught her wrist. “Let’s dance,” he’d shouted over the din of voices and music as he towed her toward a dark room where bodies gyrated.
Thinking one dance couldn’t hurt, she’d joined the writhing crowd. After a few fast dances, the music had turned slow. Pete had pulled her into him, his chest and arms ropy with muscle from hauling hay bales on his family’s farm. She’d hesitated because it was not cool to get involved with your younger brother’s friend. Wellsburg was a tiny town, and word would get around. But it felt good to be pressed against his solid, male body and when he inexpertly sought her mouth with his, she’d let him kiss her.
Soon, they’d stopped dancing altogether.
When the music had picked up speed again, she had broken away, making it clear that the kiss had been a onetime deal. Pete probably didn’t remember any of it, but she felt a flush heat her cheeks.
“Are you thinking about what I’m thinking about?” He gave her another smile, this one a little flirty. “There’s one memory I’ve held on to for years. You kissed me at a party when I was about, oh, fifteen. It was the best kiss I’d ever had.”
“I was hoping you’d forgotten that. Especially since I wasn’t so nice about it afterward.”
“No, you let me down easy. I knew I had no business kissing my friend’s big sister.” He chuckled. “But that didn’t stop me from enjoying it.”
Aidan reappeared with her drink, which kept her from having to respond. Pete sat back on the cushions while Jessica took a gulp of beer.
“Did you all start without me?” Aidan asked, looking back and forth between them.
“Just a short warm-up,” Pete said with a wink for Jessica.
“Good, because I don’t want to miss anything,” Aidan said. “Jess, do you remember when the Schmidts’ sow got loose and lay down in the middle of Route 23? She must have weighed about five hundred pounds. No one could get her to move, and traffic was backed up in both directions.”
Jessica laughed. “All four members of the police force surrounded her, and she still wouldn’t budge.”
