“JENNA, YOU CANNOT go out with a guy you met in the middle of the road.” Bella stood in front of one of Jenna’s bedroom closets later that evening as Jenna sifted through outfits.
Her one-bedroom cottage didn’t have much space, but the space it did have was supremely organized. Jenna was so OCD that she organized her clothing by color, season, and length of the outfit. There were two small closets in the tight master bedroom, one on either side of the door. She’d hired Pete a few years earlier to lower the rods to accommodate her four-eleven stature and to build shelves above and below, leaving just enough room for shoes along the floor.
“What are you talking about? How do you want me to meet men? They don’t exactly line up outside my front door with résumés in hand.” Jenna held up a black sundress. “What do you think?”
“Too sexy. He’ll think you want to get down and dirty,” Amy said from her perch on the bed. “She does have a point, Bella.”
“Yeah, I know, but I think this is just Jenna rebelling.” Bella pulled a white sundress with puffy sleeves from the closet.
“No. No way. Who am I, Little Miss Innocent? Heck no. Rebelling against what, anyway?” Jenna snagged the dress from Bella’s hands and placed it back where it belonged—with the other short, white dresses.
“Rebelling against Pete not being interested.” Bella shook her head at a red dress Jenna pointed to.
“That’s not called rebelling. It’s called moving forward. Why do you care if I look for someone other than Pete anyway? You got the man you wanted—and Caden’s like a dream come true. A loyal police officer who worships the ground you walk on. Shouldn’t you want the same for me?”
“I care because I love you, Jenna. And you, my friend, are still hooked on Pete.” Bella cocked her head and held Jenna’s stare.
“What is with you? I’m not hooked on him, and I’m not getting any younger. Leanna got her man, you got yours, and now it’s mine and Amy’s turn. Right, Ames?”
“Don’t drag me into this, but Leanna said she thinks you’re doing the right thing,” Amy said. “She and Kurt went back to their beach house a little while ago, because she has a big jam order to fill and was going to work late tonight and early tomorrow, but she was all for Jenna’s new approach to dating.” Leanna owned Luscious Leanna’s Sweet Treats, a jam-making business that she ran out of a cottage on Kurt’s bay-side property. She sold jam, as well as baked goods she made, at the Wellfleet Flea Market and to restaurants and grocery stores around the area.
“And what do you think, Amy?” Jenna plucked a black miniskirt and white button-down, sleeveless top from a hanger and set them on the bed beside Amy.
“I don’t know. I feel bad for Pete. He looked like he wanted to kill that construction guy.” Amy smoothed Jenna’s blouse.
“Charlie,” Jenna corrected her. She’d told them his name four times already, and she was annoyed that her friends refused to use it.
“Charlie. Right,” Amy said.
Jenna’s cell phone vibrated, and Amy snagged it from the center of the bed. “It’s a text from your mom, Jenna.”
“Oh, no. Please.” The last thing she needed was to spend thirty minutes talking to her mother about anything. Miranda Ward had been acting so ridiculous that her lifelong friends were tired of dealing with her. And while Jenna was with her friends, they were battling about Pete, whom she really didn’t want to talk about. She’d gone to talk to Charlie only to escape the way Pete made her entire body hum. She knew that if she didn’t hightail it away from him, she’d fixate on him all summer long. She wasn’t even sure that Charlie was enough of a distraction to keep her feelings for Pete at bay, but she had to try.
“Jenna, she’s having a hard time. Want me to read you the text?” Amy asked.
“Why not? It’s not like she won’t text me eight hundred times in the next hour anyway.” She slipped on turquoise and leather sandals and surveyed them, then set them back in the closet.
“J, it’s Mom.” Amy smiled. “I love how she still does that, like you wouldn’t see her name on the phone.”
“She’s still getting a grip on that kind of stuff,” Jenna said.
“Hope you’re having fun. I was thinking I’d come visit for a few days if you won’t come see me. Okay?”
“Ugh. That’s the last thing I need.” She took the phone from Amy’s hand and texted her mother back. I’m really busy. Let’s talk about it in a few days. Jenna and her mother both lived in Rhode Island, though they lived almost an hour away from each other when Jenna wasn’t at the Cape. The Cape was only about two hours from her mother’s house, but she had no interest in leaving Seaside and going back to deal with her mom, when she could be drowning her Pete Lacroux woes in Charlie. Maybe.
“Let me show you what I’m dealing with.” Jenna scrolled through her pictures and held the phone out toward her friends.
“Oh my goodness.” Bella laughed.
Amy’s eyes widened. “Oh, hon. Your poor mother is really having a hard time. She’s dressed like Madonna, or Madonna’s grandmother.”
“Exactly. See what I’m talking about? Too tight, too short, not to mention that these outfits went out of style ages ago, and she wants to go dancing.” Jenna shoved her phone in her skirt pocket. “Dancing. My mother. The woman who spent her nights needlepointing in front of the television and her Sundays at church. Suddenly she’s lost her mind.”
“No, Jen.” Amy reached for her hand. “She’s lost the man she loved, and that’s not an easy thing to go through after thirty-plus years of marriage. She probably feels like her whole life’s been ripped out from under her.”
“I know. I’m trying to be patient, but come on. It’s been two years. Two years since their divorce. Shouldn’t she be building a new life and not mudding things up for me when I’m trying to get my own life in order?”
Bella looked at her watch. “Oh gosh. I have to go soon. Caden and I are taking Evan up to P-town tonight to see a comedy show.” Provincetown was an artistic community about thirty minutes from Wellfleet. Bella handed Jenna a tie-dyed aqua sarong. “It’s supposed to be chilly tonight.”
Jenna looked at the sarong and wrinkled her nose. “With a body like Charlie’s, do you seriously think I’ll be cold?” Jenna dressed in the skirt and top, leaving the top two buttons of her blouse open. She slipped on the sandals she’d chosen, a pair of dangling silver earrings, and a big red plastic ring that looked like a flower and covered the entire space between the knuckles of her index finger.
Bella planted her hands on her hips. “Jen, what are you doing? You’re not the kind of girl who goes out looking for sex, and with your girls on display like that, any guy would think you’re up for a good time.”