A Hidden Truth

Calling Kenny

[Jaxon]

    I finished my food quickly and followed Juniper to her room. I felt bad about making her stop eating because I couldn’t control myself. It was strange, now that I knew she was trying not to do things with me, I wanted her more. My hands ached to touch her and I could still taste her on my lips from when I was kissing her neck.

    When I opened the door, she was crouched down against the far wall with her head in her hands. It was such a stressed pose, that I felt even worse. She’d only been trying to do what I asked, and I was pushing it. I walked over and stood in front of her.

    “Juniper? Are you alright?” I asked softly.

    She sighed. “What part of ‘I need some time’ made you think I wanted company, Jaxon? Can’t you leave me alone for a minute? Why are you trying to make this more difficult?”

    “Sorry. I got worried. What I did there was inappropriate. Thank you for not slapping me this time.” I murmured.

    Juniper raised her head to look at me. She gasped a little. I didn’t understand until she pushed away from the wall and tucked her knees under her. My groin was at face level to her. I could feel myself getting hard as I realized our position.

    She reached out and caressed the bulge in my pants. My breath caught as she massaged me through my jeans. Her fingers slid over my fly and moved to pull the zipper open. I stopped her hands. I was messing up.

    Juniper drew back with a sigh and pulled her knees up. She crossed her arms on top of them, hiding her face. I knelt in front of her.

    “I’m sorry I’ve been weird today. I was so happy you’d wait and, then, I just couldn’t make myself stop trying to touch you. Please forgive me, sweet.” I said softly.

    “Go and I’ll forgive you for making me go back on my promise.” She murmured from behind the wall of her forearms. “If you don’t leave, I won’t be able to stop myself.”

    I didn’t want her to stop. I wanted to pick her up, put her on the bed, and spend all night discovering all the different ways I could make her scream, sigh, and moan my name. God, I wanted to be with her so much, taste her skin, feel her under me, on top of me, every way we could think of.

    “What if I don’t want you to stop?” I asked.

    “Get out or I won’t let you see me until Saturday, Jaxon!” She growled.

    “Maybe that would be for the best. I’ll take care of the things I promised tomorrow, but I won’t stay on Thursday and I won’t come see you on Friday.” I kissed her head and got up.

    “You’re not leaving me, right? Not forever. This is just for now, just until Saturday.” Juniper squeaked, looking up at me with sad eyes.

    I sighed. “It’s exactly what I said, sweet. I’ll see you tomorrow, then stay away until Saturday. Remember when you said I was yours at the Garrisons?” She nodded. “I’m still yours. Always means always. Get some rest once your study group leaves. I’ll pick you up at ten ‘til noon for your appointment. I love you, sweet girl.”

    “I love you, too, Jaxon.” Juniper whispered.

    I grabbed my bag from the desk chair where I’d left it after my shower and headed to the living room. Closing her door behind me, I turned to see Teddy, Gary, Kelly, and Clay staring at me. They were cleaning up and froze when I came out.

    “I’m gonna head out. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” I said with a wave.

    “Did you talk about it?” Gary asked. I was confused.

    “Sorry, what?” I asked.

    “About the tension everyone’s feeling around you two. Whatever you have going on, is just going to get worse if you don’t talk about it.” He warned.

    “She needs some time. I’m going to give her the space she asked for. I’ll pick her up and take her around like I promised.” I told him and left.

    There was no need to sit there and talk about it. I messed up tonight, but I wouldn’t mess up again. She was willing to wait for me and it thrilled me like nothing else before. Juniper was mine and I was planning to keep her.

 ***

    I was down in the guest room digging through my bags. I had a nice suit, but I wanted to wear my tux. My mother made me get one when I started being asked to be in wedding parties two years ago.

    A lot of people in my cohort were getting married, and all of the ones I was friends with made me a groomsman. My mother said it was cheaper to have a suit made and just buy the accessories for each wedding. She made my father pay for it.

    Beau had been helping me look, I didn’t have many bags, but my mother had sent some boxes to me and I was hoping it was there. After an hour and a half, we gave up. It wasn’t there. Beau asked me to focus on the last place I remembered seeing it, hoping we could have it sent. I closed my eyes and thought of the last place I’d worn it.

    I opened my eyes. “Kenny has it. We went to a wedding during spring break. It was the main reason I stayed in Boise, even though I graduated in December. I just have to call her. Thank goodness.”

    “Who’s Kenny?” Beau asked.

    “My ex. We were friends before we dated, and broke up since long distance doesn’t work. The whole reason we were even dating was because we hated the pressure of going to weddings single, trying to balance dating and school, and missing out on all the fun couples’ things on campus.” I smiled. She was an awesome girl.

    “And there were no hard feelings? Like you’re sure your suit still exists?” He snorted.

    “We weren’t like that, Beau. We were attracted to each other, but knew a romantic relationship wasn’t something we were really interested in putting the work into. Mostly, we just acted as the others ‘plus one’ for things. She’s practically my best friend.” I picked up my phone and texted her.

    We were an hour ahead of her, so I knew she was still up. I just had to hope she was still sober. She would drink on Mondays and Wednesdays since she didn’t have classes on Tuesday and Thursday. Final papers were due next week, so she’d be drinking heavily this week.

    My phone rang almost as soon as the text was marked as received. I showed it to Beau. Kendra and I had pictures on our contacts. In the one on my screen, she was passed out with three of our friends after we had spent all of Pride drinking and cheering our friends on. There was so much glitter, I thought we’d never get it out of the apartment.

    “Hi, Kenny! What are you doing?” I answered.

    “Same thing I do every night, Jackie. Trying to see unicorns by imbibing copious amounts of alcohol.” She laughed.

    “Any luck?”

    “Only the ghost of Hemingway and these damned pink elephants.” Kenny snorted.

    It was an old joke for us. Hemingway was a huge deal in Idaho. We had a friend whose great-grandfather had been a hunting buddy of his. It gave her some serious status in our group. And we’d all watched Disney movies when we discovered someone hadn’t seen one. Three people, including Kenny had never seen Dumbo. That pink elephant scene stuck with them.

    I chuckled. “I need my tux. I think I left it in your closet on accident. Can you check?”

    “Sure, Jackie.” She chirped and I heard her moving through the apartment. “Yeah. The suit and shoes are right here.”

    “Can you overnight them to me?” I asked.

    “You know, I just have to have my last paper in by Friday. If I stop drinking now, I can get it proofed and drop the final off in the morning. Then I can just deliver it myself. I’d love to come see the town you used to go on about.” Kenny offered.

    “As long as you can be here before Saturday afternoon, that’ll work. Then I can show you around and introduce you to people on Sunday.” I smiled. It would be nice to see her again. I’d forgotten to text her with how busy I’d been the last two weeks.

    “Why so soon? You were afraid they were gonna try and marry you off if you went to Texas. Don’t tell me you’re getting married! You said I could be your best man when that happened!” She practically shouted in my ear.

    “Not getting married yet, but keep June and July free.” I laughed.

    “WHAT!?” Beau and Kenny yelled.

    “Oh! Who’s that? He sounds hot. Put me on speaker, Jackie.” She begged.

    I groaned and put the phone on speaker. “You’re on speaker, Kenny.”

    “Hi, sexy man. I’m Kendra, you can call me Kenny or the love of your life.” Kenny purred.

    Beau snorted. “I’m married, Kenny.”

    “That’s Beau. My brother-in-law.” I chuckled.

    “Aw. I told you to only ever put me on speaker with single guys, Jackie. What the hell?” She whined.

    “You begged me to put you on speaker. I’ll send you my address. You can come, or you can overnight it. Just make sure it gets here.” I told her.

    “No, wait. Who are you marrying? How the hell did that happen? You’ve only been there a couple weeks. You never messaged me.”

    “I’ve been busy. I’m picking up the ring on Saturday. I’ll propose next Saturday. I just, fell in love. You’re gonna love her, too, Kenny. Juniper’s funny, smart, kind, and sweet. I already asked her brothers for their blessing and they said yes. Now, I just hope she does too.” I said softly.

    “Single brothers?” She asked hopefully.

    I laughed. Kenny believed in soulmates, and was willing to meet any guy if she had a chance at finding her perfect match. It was why she wanted to go to everyone’s weddings. We went together and she always said if she saw him, she’d know and dump me right then. It wasn’t malicious. She said I was meant to be her best friend, but not her forever guy.

    “They’re both taken, too. I’ll let my sister know you’re available for matchmaking, though. She’ll keep you busy the whole time you’re here.” I joked.

    “She really will. It’s her life’s joy to try and put couples together. She’s the one who picked Jax for Juni, and apparently he’s plannin’ to marry her now.” Beau snorted.

    “Who are you texting? Don’t tell people! Someone’s gonna let her know early. I want it to be a surprise!” I grabbed for Beau’s phone.

    “No, I’m tellin’ Red and Trace. If you already asked Teddy and Carson, then Camille and Gary know by now. Bobbi’s gonna have my head if I don’t tell her. Tamsin and Karen’ll be pissed if they aren’t kept in the loop. I’m tellin’ them to let their wives know it’s a secret. We’ll talk about your plan later.” Beau said.

    “And you have to introduce me when I get there. I’m definitely coming now. I can’t let my Jackie marry someone that isn’t good enough for him. She’ll have to pass my marriage test.” Kenny stated firmly.

    “She’s underage, Kenny. No drinking with her.” I commanded.

    I remembered her marriage test. She gave three people alcohol poisoning.

    “You old cradle-robber.” She snickered.

    Beau laughed. “He really is. She’s only just turned eighteen.”

    “Whoa, that’s too young, Jackie. I’ll let you know when I hit town. Promise to be there as soon as possible. I gotta go or I won’t be able to sober up enough to finish tonight. Be good. No making babies with that baby.” Kenny cackled as she hung up.

    I shook my head. “Crazy girl.”

    “You aren’t hung up on her or the other way around, right?” Beau asked, suddenly serious.

    “No. She says I’m not ‘the one’ and she won’t settle for less than the perfect man for her. Part of her charm is her flirting. Kenny flirts with everyone. It makes some people uncomfortable, but makes others adore her. No matter how crap you feel about yourself, Kenny thinks you’re hot.” I chuckled.

    “She should probably keep a handle on that. Bobbi doesn’t like women hittin’ on me.” Beau grinned.

    “I’ll warn her when I see her. Teddy’s gonna love her. I could see them getting on really well.” I replied. “I guess I’ll get some sleep. Did you let the Cleaners know Juniper’s meeting Hank and Marie-Rose for lunch tomorrow?”

    “Yeah. No one’ll interfere. I’ll head up. See you tomorrow.” He said as he headed out the door to the laundry room.

    I changed and headed to bed after I got everything put away again. It was lonely and cold without Juniper there. I hoped she was having a better night tonight. A nightmare would be terrible. Gary and Teddy wouldn’t be able to hear her from their room. I sent Juniper a goodnight text. She replied with the same. Plugging in my phone, I tucked into my bed and curled up with a pillow, wishing it was Juniper.