Jessie gulped. “He?”
No, no, no, this isn’t happening.
“Since Ben and Rose are staying in the guesthouse, it only makes sense that with their Grady in town, he stays here with them. And why didn’t you tell me you broke up with him? You cried for months. We didn’t think you’d be able to leave for college.”
“Please, stop exaggerating.”
“I don’t hear a denial.” Billy Sue opened the back door of Jessie’s car and took out the plastic laundry tub Jessie had filled with clothes. They were caked with drywall dust and mud, and her mom wrinkled her nose at the smell. “These jeans could get up and walk themselves.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you just leave them? We could make a fun weekend out of driving to Fort Worth or Dallas to find you a whole new wardrobe.”
This was all too much. The storm. Grady. Losing her apartment and school. “I don’t want new clothes, I want mine—anything to remind me that four days ago, I woke up in my own bed, ate my own cereal, drove my own car, taught in my classroom. Now I don’t have anything. It’s all just gone. I feel like I’m living in the Twilight Zone, and I need a break.”
“Honey...” Her mother slipped her arm around Jessie’s shoulders. “Don’t you see? Having Grady here will make everything better. You’ll see.”
“Oh, my God, Mom. No, it won’t. If anything, having him around will only make an already awful situation unbearable.”
“Sorry to hear that.” Grady stood on the porch, glaring at her.
“Jess...” It might sound sappy, but Grady had lost count of how many times he’d dreamed of this moment. Only, it was all wrong. For starters, Billy Sue wasn’t supposed to be there. And in his rich fantasy life, Jessie would smile as opposed to staring him down as if he’d sprouted horns.
“Grady.” Her cheeks were tearstained, white T-shirt dirt smudged and ponytail tangled, but even eight years since the last time he’d seen her, she was still the most beautiful woman in the world. And judging by her expression, she was also still not interested in anything he had to say.
“You two have fun catching up.” Billy Sue made an odd clucking noise, then bustled around the side of the house with Jessie’s clothes basket toward what Grady remembered was the laundry room door.
Now that they were alone, Grady should’ve had something intelligent to say. He didn’t.
“You look good.” She appraised him. “Healthy.”
Wow. Talk about a less-than-stellar evaluation. “You, too.”
“H-How long are you in town for?” She’d tugged a strand of hair from her ponytail and twirled it through her fingers. It was a nervous habit. One he’d watched a hundred times during University of Oklahoma football games.
“Two weeks.”
“That’s not long.” She twirled faster.
“Nope.” What could’ve only been thirty seconds stretched into a year.
“It’s good seeing you, Grady.” She hitched her thumb in the direction her mom had gone, then started to follow. “I need to help wash clothes.”
When she was gone, the sun shone dimmer.
No one in his whole life had hurt him the way she had. How many times had he told himself he hated her? He’d planned all the snide or clever things he would say when their inevitable reunion finally rolled around. Yet there it went, already come and gone, and he felt like a sixth grader ogling a high school cheerleader. What was it about her that had him trapped for all this time in her spell? How could he once and for all vanquish her from not only his mind, but his heart?
* * *
“GRADY LOOKS GOOD, doesn’t he?” Billy Sue sprayed a pretreatment solution on Jessie’s favorite jeans.
“He’s all right.” Jessie filled the utility sink with warm water, dumping in a few capfuls of detergent for her hand washables. She was so bone-deep tired that she was sure the gravity of what the next two weeks truly meant hadn’t fully sunk in.
Other than her parents, the only person she’d ever loved was Grady. What did she do with that fact?
“Still have feelings for him?” Her mother shook matted leaves from a pair of sweats and into a trash bin.
“No.”
“That why you broke things off?” Why did her mom keep pushing? It wasn’t like her to be all up in Jessie’s private business.
“If you don’t mind—” she gave a pair of socks an extrahard shake “—I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Honey...” Billy Sue blasted her with a look of parental concern. “Maybe I can help. All those years ago, I thought he left you for the Navy.”
“He did.”
“But you told him to go?”
Jessie shrugged. “I guess. Sort of. But, Mom, you know about...my situation.”
“Wait—that’s why you broke things off with him? Honey, why? Did you tell him and he was upset?”
Fighting the knot at the back of her throat, Jessie shook her head.
“He wasn’t upset?”
“I didn’t tell him.”
* * *
“BILLY SUE, I CAN’T thank you enough for this meal and—” Grady’s throat tightened when his mother’s voice cracked “—your hospitality. I’m not sure what we’d do without you and Roger.”
“Aw, it’s our pleasure.” Billy Sue and his mom shared a hug.
The early spring air held a chill, but the outdoor fireplace kept the area around the table warm. Jessie’s parents’ home had been built on the town’s only hill, which meant the pool deck’s view was expansive. On a clear night, you could just make out the Oklahoma City skyline. On this night, the National Guard’s generator-powered emergency lights securing downtown Rock Bluff punched through the dust just far enough to make it look like swirling ground fog.
Roger asked, “Grady, could you please pass the rolls?”
“Ah, sure...” He could, but that would entail looking at Jessie. Didn’t her father know how hard Grady had worked to keep his gaze focused on anything but her?
During the exchange, their fingers brushed.
Jessie released the basket so fast that it dropped. Cloverleaf rolls scattered.
Cotton
