Page 84 of Thick & Thin

He shrugged. “Her blood pressure shot up, and they had to rush her in for surgery. An emergency c-section. You know where they cut the baby out or some shit like that. Anyway, Mom said she passed out on the table and almost died.”

My heart fluttered in my chest.

She had almost died giving birth.

“So yeah, she’s like single mom untouchable these days. A total MILF. The entire town talks about how she slept around when she was in Texas, but the funny thing is, she hasn’t touched a single soul in this town in the three years since she’s been back. At least as far as I know. Makes you wonder.” JJ shrugged, taking a swig from his beer and sending my mind tumbling into even more questions.

Leave it to JJ to still have Jenny’s back. Out of the entire group, he gave her the hardest time growing up, but I had always known they were secretly friends who liked to give each other shit.

“And we all know you’ve tried,” Vaughn chuckled.

“Hell yeah, I’ve tried,” JJ admitted. “She’s hot.”

I had about all I could take when it came to Jenny, so I steered the conversation in another direction and brought up the new football team at West Ridge High School. The guys jumped all over the subject, complaining about the new defensive line, and I was relieved. I had gotten close to giving my friends hell for talking shit about my girl even though Jenny hadn’t been mine for a very long time.

An hour later, we were dragging our asses out of Player’s Place, and I was driving home entirely too drunk, which was the dumbest fucking thing I had done in a long time. I drove slower than the speed limit, over checking every turn and light until I found myself pulling into Jenny’s driveway instead of my own.

I put my truck in park and cut the engine. I wasn’t sure what I was doing. It was way too late to be showing up at someone’s house, but that didn’t stop me from going to her front door and pounding on it to wake the entire house.

The kitchen light flicked on, and soon, I was staring through the window in the door and straight into Jenny’s green eyes. She rolled her eyes and unlocked the door to let me in, but instead of stepping through the doorway, I fell into her house, the beer finally taking away my legs and making me laugh hysterically at my own drunkenness.

“What are you doing here, Josh?” she hissed in a whispered yell.

I chuckled from her kitchen floor, and she kicked me.

“Seriously, be quiet. You’re going to wake Caleb.”

I shushed myself and grinned from behind my finger.

“How much did you drink at Player’s?” she asked.

“I drank all of it. Everything in the building.”

I was only joking, but I had drunk too much.

“And then you drove? Are you fucking nuts?”

I climbed from the floor, grabbing onto the kitchen table to keep my balance. “Well, it’s not like I could call you to rescue me like old days, now could I?”

She crossed her arms, pushing her luscious tits up and into my face. She was annoyed with me, but I didn’t care. All I could think about was Vaughn saying she had almost died and what I would have done if something had happened to Jenny.

“You almost died,” I muttered, not making any sense.

“What?” she asked, confused.

“Vaughn said you almost died. Don’t die, Jenny,” I slurred.

I was definitely drunk because I couldn’t stop the words from flowing from my lips.

“I’m not going anywhere, Josh. Come on,” she said, pulling on my arm. “Let’s at least get you to the couch so you can pass out. I’ll call your momma and let her know you’re okay.”

“My mom loves you,” I said, letting her drag me to the old couch in her living room.

I fell back onto the couch and closed my eyes, and then I said something that I wished I could take back immediately.

27

Jenny

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