Page 24 of A Second Chance

“What’s so funny? I want to know if you had a good time, at least.”

“That’s a weird thing to ask.”

“Is that a no?” he looked panicked.

Gwen laughed harder. He stared at her. “Okay, I shouldn’t poke fun right now, but it’s the strangest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Yeah,” he replied pushing the swing with his feet. “But here I am finding out we’ve slept together, and I’m jealous that you get to remember it.”

Heat surged through her and her cheeks burned in the cool night air. Maybe she should answer him and put his mind at rest.

“Will you tell me about it?”

“I’m not going to tell you that—”

“No not like in detail…I mean, I won’t stop you, if you do.” She huffed, and pushed his shoulder and he laughed. “I mean, how did we meet? At Weasel’s party?”

“Yeah, a party at the apartment complex where he was living. I was still new in town. We started talking, and a few hours later ended up in the hot tub.”

“We did it in the hot tub at the apartment complex?”

Her face was so hot she was sure it glowed in the dark. “Yep.”

“We were drunk, right?”

“Oh yeah.” Not as drunk as she wished they’d been. She blinked back the tears and looked out over the darkened front yard. The porch light glow didn’t extend beyond the steps.

“Anyone could have walked in on us.”

Neither of them worried about interruptions that night. There wasn’t anyone else, but them. And now she was the only one between them that held those memories. If true, then she’d been angry at him these past few years for what? She’d spent way too much time and energy for a man who’d been… injured inwar.

Tears spilled down her cheeks. She’d lost her resolve to not cry in front of him, but she wouldn’t look at him.

He sucked in air; she felt his gaze. “Gwen, no… please don’t,” he whispered.

The waterworks didn’t listen. “I was over this. Over you. And here you are again.” His hand brushed up her back to the shoulder and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her. Gwen allowed herself to rest against his chest, where she cried into his shirt. To his credit, he said nothing, just a light touch running up and down her back. They swayed on the porch swing in silence for a long time. Up against him, his chest was solid, but thinner than that night.

***

He kept it together in front of Gwen, but now, alone behind the wheel of the truck his hands shook; the windshield blurred. He blinked back any tears that may have wanted to escape. Thoughts swirled in his head, the image of her sobbing against his chest. Jason wracked the recesses of his brain for any memory of that night, the party, the hot tub, the woman. Any flash would do. It made little sense for something like that to be erased from his brain. The unfairness of it all. All of the shit he recalled, theonething he was sure he had a lot of fun doing, wasn’t one of them. The corners of his eyes damped. No. He hated crying.

Gwen had to be one hell of an amazing woman. He’d noticed her instantly at the bonfire. If he were a betting man, he’d wager that he’d spotted her just a quick at Weasel’s party. Those brilliant blue eyes were enough to get lost in, and he’d known it from the start. What had they said to each other? She wouldn’t tell him that, or anything that they’d done in detail. Jason relented and pulled into a parking lot behind the market and let the tears fall.

The shrink said that crying was normal for guys, but he still didn’t like to admit that he’d done more than his fair share over the last few years. He mopped up his face with napkins from a fast food restaurant and took a deep breath. A knock on his window and a flashlight to the face took him by surprise.

“Sir,” came a loud, male voice. “What are you doing?”

He squinted, shielding his eyes. “Geez, lower the thing, will ya?”

“Jay?”

That’s when he recognized the voice, Eli Morrison, the only guy who ever shortened his name to Jay. Eli was now an officer with the White Oak Police, they’d known each other since little league. He lowered the car window.

“Damn, dude, you tryin’ to blind me?”

“I thought you were some junkie back… Why are you back here?”

“Stopped to use my phone. Or do you want me staring at it while I drive?”

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