Jenner, page 3
He asked, “Laura?”
She nodded. “Yeah, we’ve been friends for about five years,” she replied. “This is her second marriage.”
“Interesting,” he murmured.
“Why?”
“Because one of the things that I did when I knew I was coming here,” he shared, “was to call my ex-wife, to let her know I would be in town, and I’d like to meet up with her.”
She stared at him. “Oh my.” Then she turned to plate the two servings.
His lips twitched. “That’s an odd reaction.”
“No,” she murmured, but she wasn’t sure what to say. To think that this was Laura’s ex-husband? Then Kellie compared him to Silas and wondered what had gotten into Laura’s head. “She did mention her ex.”
“Mention what?”
“Just that her ex had phoned, and she seemed kind of rattled.”
He stared at her. “Interesting. She’s married, right?”
Kellie nodded and carried the plates to the dining room table. “Yeah, but she made some comment about she wasn’t the person she was before, and she hadn’t left things in a very good state.”
He didn’t say much at first and nodded. “Yeah, as far as I understood at the time, she was marrying my best friend.”
“Oh, ouch,” she replied in fascination. “Honestly, I don’t know anything about it. Come and eat.”
“And that’s fine,” he stated. “I’m not talking out of turn or expecting you to say anything. If she doesn’t get hold of me, she doesn’t get hold of me.” He shrugged. “I just thought it might be an opportunity to mend some bridges.”
“Well, she is married, and she is pregnant and, I believe, happy.”
“Good.” He nodded. “Nothing’s between us anymore, and anything that was there is not something I care to rekindle. For me, trust is everything.”
At that, Kellie had to wonder because it sounded like he couldn’t trust Laura, which would also hurt. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I ever mentioned it.”
He laughed. “How could you know? I came here for the War Dog, but I figured, while I was in town, maybe I could mend some fences, but more for a sense of moving on and leaving it all behind. Not that I’m carrying any torches for her or anything,” he stated. “It just occurred to me that maybe I was holding some grudges that I needed to let go of.”
“That’s always a good thing to deal with,” she noted cautiously. “I’m not sure how receptive her husband will be if you see her.”
“Obviously not very happy,” he agreed, “and I initially had thought her husband was my best friend. Then I heard rumors it wasn’t.”
“Silas Kentrol,” she shared.
He frowned at her. “She married Silas Kentrol?”
She nodded. “Do you know him too?”
“I do. He was a best friend of her father’s, I believe.”
“Yes, he’s quite a bit older than she is.”
He stared for a moment, then resumed eating. “This is a lovely dinner, by the way.”
Something was odd about his voice. “Thank you,” she murmured, while wondering how they had ended up in such a strange conversation and how he must feel to realize who Laura had ended up marrying. But it sounded like she had deliberately thrown Jenner off by saying she was with someone else. Kellie wasn’t even sure what was going on in Laura’s mind. Kellie had certainly been curious as to why this beautiful young woman had married somebody a lot older than she was.
When Jenner was done with his plateful, he smiled up at Kellie. “This was an absolutely wonderful meal. I really appreciate it.”
And there was sincerity in his voice, enough that she realized he wasn’t just making it up. “Good, I really love cooking,” she murmured, “so a bed-and-breakfast seemed like a great idea at the time.”
“But maybe not now?” he asked, with a quirk of his lips.
“Sometimes it is. Sometimes the conversations can get a little bit bizarre.”
“Yes, it sure can, but you don’t have to be a bed-and-breakfast if you don’t want to do that. Surely other occupations interest you? What made you decide to get into this?”
“The house was my family’s,” she explained. “Then they moved to Europe, didn’t want anything to do with it anymore. It was my grandparents’ first. My parents inherited it from them. Then I bought the place off them, had a few hiccups getting started again, and here I am. It’s a good way to make an income, along with the horses.”
“You have horses too?”
“I think everybody here does,” she admitted, “but I actually board horses, senior horses that are no longer being actively ridden. I just provide the place. The owners come out here and feed and water and brush them, so it’s nice for everybody.”
He looked at her with interest.
“Basically I just give them a nice home, so that they can live out the rest of their years. Some are actually charity on my part, and some are ones that I get paid to keep. The paid ones help cover the cost of the ones that I’m helping out along the way. I have a vet assistant who sees to those, feeding and watering them and whatever. So I pay her a little something to do that, as it helps me so much.”
“Because horses are not cheap,” he murmured and nodded.
“Exactly.”
“My family used to live around here,” he noted. “My mom was killed in a horse riding accident, and my father hated horses forevermore, and we ended up moving to California. When I got of age, I signed up with the navy, was stationed there when I met Laura, before I ever realized that she was from here. It was such a weird feeling to realize that she was part of Ashland that I had learned to hate because of my mother’s death, but I only hated it because my father did. So, by the time I worked my way through all that crap,” he added, “Laura and I spent a fair bit of time here.”
“I’m not surprised. She has a lot of family nearby,” Kellie replied, wondering how they ended up back on the Laura topic again.
He looked over at her and then chuckled. “I know. Honestly, I’m not fixated on her. I think it’s just being back here again and dealing with the memories,” he explained, as he got up, carrying his plate to the sink. “Where do you want me to wash the dishes?”
“Oh no you don’t.” She bounced to her feet. “You’re not washing them.”
He shook his head. “I don’t mind.”
“No, absolutely no way.” And she quickly took the plate from his hands. “Go sit down for a few minutes. I’ll get the dishes started and put on some coffee, if you would like.” She turned around to glance at him.
He nodded. “I would really like a cup. I always appreciate a good cup, but right now? … I’d love it.”
“And I do have dessert.”
“Okay, if you’ve got dessert”—he grinned—“I promise I’ll go sit down, like a good boy.”
She burst out laughing. “Sounds like dessert is what makes you sit up and pay attention.”
“Absolutely. I’ve always had a bit of a sweet tooth. I just try to keep it under control.”
“I’ve always done a whole lot of cooking, trying to keep the sugar mostly in control too,” she murmured. “However, I do love to bake as well, so I generally have something sweet around.”
“Well, I won’t complain.” He sat down at the kitchen table but then hopped up and immediately cleared her plates from the dining room table and brought them over.
“Stop, stop, stop,” she fussed.
He shrugged. “I’m not used to just doing nothing.”
“When you were injured, you were,” she argued, “because you would have been in bed. So think back to being an invalid.”
“Do I have to?” He groaned. “Those are years I would like to cheerfully forget.”
“Did it take long to recover?”
“Maybe not,” he murmured. “But I had three different surgeries, multiple skin grafts, and the list just goes on. It seems like it was years, but it was probably only about nine months, but you don’t really ever forget that stage of your life.”
He sat back down obediently and watched her. She quickly bustled around the kitchen, put on coffee, loaded the dishwasher, came back with a dishcloth, and quickly wiped the dining table.
He lifted a few things to help her wipe underneath them, and she asked, “So apple pie or cinnamon buns?”
He looked at her in shock. “You mean, I can have one or the other?”
“Sure,” she replied. “I have both.”
“Ah, well, that’s a really hard decision.”
“You can have one of each,” she offered. “Did you get enough food to eat?”
“Oh, I’m fine,” he said, “but, as you probably know, for anybody with a sweet tooth, there’s always room in the back tummy for desserts.”
At his term back tummy, her laughter rang out. “Oh my, you sound like a kid.”
“When it comes to desserts, I’m a kid,” he confirmed, with a big grin.
She walked over to the kitchen, brought out a dessert tray from a cupboard and carried it to the kitchen table. He studied the apple pie, as she went to the fridge and brought out something from there. She brought that over, so he could take a look at both.
“Cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing. I don’t mind if you want one of each,” she repeated. “I mean, they certainly won’t keep all that long.”
“Absolutely. I really think I should take one for the team and help you out with that.”
She nodded solemnly. “You know what? I think you’re quite right.” And she quickly dished him up a piece of apple pie and then, on a separate small plate, a cinnamon bun. He stared down at the two dishes, and she could almost see him rubbing his hands together. She grinned. “I don’t know. You look way too happy right now.”
“No such thing,” he declared. “After years of military food, then hospital food, and then what little bit I could concoct myself, treats like these have only happened in restaurants.”
“Oh, I guess you didn’t have a partner to help you bake?”
“Nope, never did. Even when I did, she didn’t cook.”
And Kellie remembered that Laura didn’t cook at all. Kellie nodded. “Well, in this case, I love to cook.”
“And I love to eat, so it’s a match made in heaven.” With that, he reached for his fork and dug in.
Jenner was happy to be back on a more normal and natural footing with Kellie because the conversations about his ex were something he did not in any way expect to share with her. They did make her uncomfortable, and he was sorry about that.
The cinnamon buns and apple pie in front of him after the meal that he’d just gulped down were a huge boon. She was absolutely a wonderful cook, and he knew he would thoroughly enjoy his time here. Even if, so far, he had no idea how to proceed on the War Dog’s case.
He studied her covertly, as she bustled around the kitchen, cleaning up and washing pots and pans. She was trim, small, auburn-haired, nothing terribly gorgeous about her—like there had been about Laura—but he really appreciated a wholesomeness and a naturalness to Kellie. A quiet joy surrounded her, one he appreciated.
Her face was just so mobile that he found himself constantly watching her lips, wondering what it would be like to kiss them. He knew that she would be incredibly responsive. Yet here he was, having an awkward conversation that he had brought up about his ex-wife. He pondered his actions. What had him thinking that contacting Laura was a good thing in any way?
Maybe I shouldn’t have.
Maybe it was better to let things be. He was absolutely stunned to hear that she was pregnant, and yet again that she was pregnant with Silas’s child. And that was another stunner. Silas was at least twenty if not forty years older than her. Jenner just couldn’t see the two of them together, couldn’t comprehend the reason behind it at all. So thinking about why was beyond him.
Being here and knowing that she’d just been at the B&B, chances were good that Jenner would have no way to avoid Laura, even if he had chosen to.
It was just one more of those strange circumstances that brought him back here. Not exactly sure why but Jenner somehow knew that it would be good to walk away and to know that it was done and dealt with, as far as Laura goes. If just curiosity kept him mentally angry, then to resolve that would be a good thing.
He didn’t want anything to do with Laura; obviously trust was something that he had struggled with at this point in time. Getting over that would help him to look at other relationships from a healthier viewpoint. Part of him wanted to understand why Laura left him. And with whom?
And yet he didn’t know that getting those kinds of answers would help at all. Laura was somebody who wanted more in life, and obviously she felt Jenner couldn’t get that for her. Silas, Jenner recalled, had been incredibly wealthy, and, with that realization, it almost made sense that she’d hook up with him. Money and prestige mattered to Laura. But, on the opposite side of that, she’d loved nightclubs and partying. He couldn’t see that as Silas’s lifestyle. And yet what she really loved, Jenner acknowledged, was what money could buy. So maybe it did make a lot of sense for her to marry Silas.
Jenner finally put down his fork and looked over at Kellie. “Thank you. That was delicious.”
She flashed him a bright smile. “Good.”
The word was said in such a natural way that he knew she was just being herself again.
“I’m really glad that you enjoyed it.”
He got up, walked over, and handed her the dishes.
“Breakfast is at eight, if that’s okay.” She looked over at him. “Unless you’re an early riser?”
He thought about it. “I am an early riser. I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring though,” he murmured.
“Well, if you want anything earlier,” she offered, “let me know. I am up early every morning.”
When he looked at her curiously, she added, “I go to bed early, and I get up early.” She shrugged. “So, if you’re up at six or seven, that’s fine. Coffee would be on as soon as I get up.”
“Perfect.” He nodded and stepped away.
He headed up to his room, where he pulled out his laptop. What he hadn’t told her was the property several houses down where the dogs were supposed to be had looked empty and deserted. He wasn’t sure what that was all about, when, according to her, dogs had been there just a few weeks ago. He would go there again this evening for another walk and see what he could come up with. It made sense that the War Dog was now possibly in trouble or had been sold to another family, if the son were now in charge of Sisco. Except, if the son already had multiple dogs, there was no reason not to keep that one in particular.
Jenner quickly phoned Badger and gave him an update.
“Have you met up with your wife?”
“My ex-wife and no. She’s married to somebody who’s decades older than her,” he shared, and, although uncomfortable, he had to get it off his chest. “Apparently she’s pregnant.”
“And how do you feel about that?” Badger asked curiously.
“Glad it’s not me,” he noted bluntly. “I forgot how much money meant to her, so it makes sense in a way that she has married somebody so much older. He was very wealthy.”
“Maybe she had an insecurity about being destitute,” Badger replied. “Still, it’s her problem.”
“That’s how I feel,” Jenner agreed. “I’ll head down to the neighbor’s house again and take a walk around and see what I come up with tonight. According to the bed-and-breakfast owner, the son had multiple dogs, but today I didn’t hear or see any signs or sounds of any dogs.”
“Okay,” Badger murmured.
“She also has problems with the owner now, the son, in the sense that he’s somebody she feels threatened by and who pushes her personal space boundaries and comes drunk after hours to the bed-and-breakfast, at times that she’s not comfortable with.”
“Interesting, so maybe give him a good side-eye, see what else he has got going on there.”
“That’s what I thought,” Jenner agreed. “If nothing else, I need to find out why it looked completely deserted earlier today.”
“And not to mention nobody should know that you’re there,” Badger noted.
“No, nobody should know, and nobody should know what I’m after is the War Dog, so no reason for this guy to have bolted.”
“Well, go take a look,” Badger said. “See what kind of problems you’ve got happening down there.”
“Does it always happen with problems?”
“Yeah,” he admitted. “Seems like there’s always a problem. Sometimes it’s relatively easy to solve, but, so far, we haven’t found very many easy ones along the way.”
“Of course not,” Jenner replied. “I’m up for whatever. I’d like to find Sisco though.”
And, with that, he hung up, walked down the stairs carefully, hopped back up a few risers, and went down again, checking on that joint. When he looked up, Kellie stared at him. He smiled. “Just checking to see if I needed to borrow the Allen wrench again.”
She burst out laughing. “Doesn’t look like you suffer too much from it,” she stated, with a note of admiration. “Honestly, I didn’t even know, until you lifted your pant leg.”
“That’s the way it should be,” he stated. “I’ve been working with a friend of mine. She designs these prosthetics, so I tend to wear a bunch of her prototypes and give them a good old tryout. If nothing else, I can put them through the hard wear and tear to see how they size up.”
“Fascinating,” she replied. “Are you an engineer?”
“No, not necessarily,” he said, “but I am a tech, so I do a lot of modeling online, and then we build prototypes, and I get to play them up.”
“Sounds wonderful to me.”
He lifted a hand and waved. “I’ll just head back down to take another look.”
She nodded. “Good enough, but remember I lock up at ten.”
“And if I’m later?”
She winced. “Well, hopefully you won’t be too much later, but it’s a typical bed-and-breakfast. I lock up for last time at eleven, but I prefer to lock up at ten.”
“Got it. I’ll try to be back by ten. If not, how about I call you?”
