Page 34 of Thick & Thin

At least that was what I told myself every day for the next week. It wasn’t long until I was in my room packing for basic, and Jenny was there helping me. Her eyes glassy with unshed tears as she pretended not to be bothered by the fact I was leaving.

She was bothered.

I was bothered.

I didn’t want to leave her, but I knew I had to. I had to make a life for myself. One that didn’t include working the farm. A good life for me meant a good life for Jenny since I was determined to make her mine one day.

Just not today.

11

Jenny

It was the day.Josh was leaving me. And what was worse, he was leaving when things in our relationship were all fucked up. I no longer knew what we were to each other, and his leaving before we figured it out made my skin itchy. Still, instead of dwelling on it, I made sure to act as normal as possible.

Just friends.

Normal smartassed Jenny Michaels.

“I can’t believe you’re leaving for basic training,” I said, choking down a throatful of pesky emotions and pretending I wasn’t bothered by his departure.

I was more bothered than I wanted to admit. The thought of Josh leaving and going into the military left my stomach feeling weak and queasy. There was a bizarre anxious pressure on my chest I couldn’t seem to shake. Nothing ever shook me this way. They didn’t call me the stone maiden for nothing but losing Josh … he was my Achilles’ heel.

He was going to be five hours away from me in Fort Benning, Georgia, for infantry training, and I hated it. I had known for months that he was going into the Army, but time seemed to fly from the moment he told me about his plans.

Sure, I was leaving for Texas with a full ride to Texas A&M University when the fall semester started, but being home in South Carolina without him was going to feel all kinds of wrong. I only hoped I would see him again before I left for Texas.

“I know, but it’s only fourteen weeks. It’ll fly by, and I’ll be back home before you know it.” He looked up from packing his duffel and smiled reassuringly.

I was glad things didn’t feel weird. The room was tense, but we were both acting as if nothing had happened between us. If I blocked the feel of his touch and kiss from my mind, I could almost pretend the tension was sadness.

“Yeah, but then I’ll be gone.”

I shouldn’t have pointed out the obvious. Fourteen weeks was a lifetime for us, but it would be more than fourteen weeks because I was leaving for school before he was due to come home from basic. I wanted him to stay until I left for school, but I didn’t say that out loud. He couldn’t make life decisions with me in mind, and I didn’t want to make him feel bad for leaving. Not when I knew he was doing what was best for himself.

My eyes moved around his bedroom, landing on his football trophies and then the pictures taped around the mirror on his dresser. There was a picture of the entire football team with him in the center holding up the state championship trophy. A picture of him and Brandy Miller at senior prom, the same night they were crowned prom king and queen. Beside that, a picture of his old Ford truck right after he had gotten the new black paint job and had it lifted. Mostly, there were pictures of us together.

Us in our underwear when we were seven covered in mud from head to toe.

Him carrying me piggyback when we went on the school field trip to Carowinds amusement park our freshman year.

Then there was my favorite picture of all. Him hugging me close to his side, a panty-melting grin directed at the camera and me looking up at him as though he was my everything, which was exactly what he was.

“This sucks,” I whined.

He chucked a pair of his boxers at my face, and I dropped them to the floor like they were on fire.

“You’re gross. Don’t throw your diseased dick covers at me.”

He laughed, and I knew it was his laughter I was going to miss the most. Josh was a lot of things, but a funny guy was my favorite of all of them.

He shoved another T-shirt into his duffel and zipped it up.

“Diseased dick covers.” He shook his head and chuckled. “I’ll have to remember that one for the guys.”

“Don’t be stealing my digs,” I teased. “But seriously, you’re leaving me for fourteen weeks. I feel like you should have gummies for me. You’re not living up to your end of the bargain, Black.”

I rarely called him by his last name, but when I did, he knew I meant business.

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