Forever and For Always

“Want me to help carry your bag?” he asked.

“Yes, please,” Jayne replied.

The second Daniel bent over to pick up her bags she craned her head to check out his backside. She caught Emily’s eye and nodded her approval. Emily cringed.

“Let me take those,” Emily said quickly, nudging Daniel out the way and grabbing the bags. “Wow, Jayne, these things are heavy! What did you pack?”

“Oh, you know,” Jayne said. “Two outfits a day – daywear and nightwear – plus an extra something for a formal evening, just in case. Lingerie, of course. Facemasks and moisturizers, makeup bag and brushes, nail polish, hair straighteners, curling tongs – ”

“Did you really need to bring straighteners and curlers?” Emily queried, lugging the bags over the threshold and into the corridor.

“ —and crimping irons,” Jayne added. “You never know what mood might strike.” She grinned wickedly at Emily.

“Emily,” Daniel said, “you seem to be struggling. Why don’t you let me take those up to Jayne’s room?”

“Thanks Daniel,” Emily said, making sure she was strategically blocking Jayne’s view of Daniel’s butt as he bent over. “Why don’t you put those in Room One please?”

The original guest room, Room One, was affectionately nicknamed Mr. Kapowski’s room by Daniel and Emily, but right now Emily didn’t feel like delving into that particular story. She knew she sounded weirdly rigid and formal asking him to put the bags in Room One, but at this point in time she didn’t care; her sole focus was getting Daniel safely away from Jayne as quickly as possible, preferably without her ogling his ass as he climbed the stairs. The farthest room in the house seemed to be a good distance.

Emily turned to Jayne. “Let me give you the tour.” She steered her friend into the living room.

“Oh my God!” Jayne squealed before the door had even closed behind them. “Is that the new man in your life? Tell me it isn’t so! Really? How did you keep it so quiet? Why aren’t you calling up everyone you’ve ever met, including your kindergarten teacher and the postman, to tell them you’re dating a hot lumberjack?”

Jayne spoke incredibly quickly, and loudly, in a way that could give someone a headache after five minutes in her company.

“He’s not a lumberjack,” Emily whispered, feeling embarrassed. How had she forgotten how brash Jayne could be? What on earth made her think it was a good idea to invite her oldest friend to the B&B when doing so would mean her relationship was scrutinized? She didn’t want her to scare Daniel off; she’d already done a pretty good job of that herself by blurting out that she loved him yesterday.

“But girlfriend,” Jayne added, “he is seriously hot. You can see that, right? I mean I know your tastes have gone all wacky over the last few months but you can still see a hot guy when he’s standing in front of you, right?”

“Yes,” Emily whispered, rolling her eyes. “Please don’t be weird with him. It’s new. Really new.”

“What do you mean weird?”

“Like don’t say anything about babies or marriage. And don’t mention Ben, or any of my exes. Or my mother. Please, God, don’t say anything about how crazy my mother is.”

Jayne laughed. “You really like this guy, don’t you? I haven’t seen you this anxious in a long time.”

Emily squirmed. “Actually, yeah, I do. I think I’m in love.”

“No. Freakin’. Way!” Jayne cried, the volume of her voice rising a thousand notches. “You’re in love?”

Just then, Daniel entered the room. Emily froze and Jayne’s eyes widened in shock. She pressed her lips together.

“Oops,” she said loudly, looking from one mortified face to the other. “So Daniel,” Jayne added, breaking through the wall of tension that had filled the room like a balloon, “tell me all about you.”

Daniel looked from Emily back to Jayne and gulped. “Um, actually, I think I’ll leave you ladies to it. The dogs need walking.” He backed out of the room in a hurry.

Emily sighed, feeling herself deflate. It hurt her that Daniel was acting so awkwardly about the fact she was in love with him. She turned to Jayne.

“Can we get out of here for a bit? I could show you around Sunset Harbor. You’ve never been here and this is where I spent most of my summers as a kid so it would be cool to show you the sights.”

“Babe, tell me what footwear I need and I’m totally on it. Are we talking hiking boots? Jogging sneakers?”

Trust Jayne to have brought every possible type of footwear with her.

“Actually, you know, I haven’t been for a run since I left New York,” Emily said. “It might be fun to do that. It’s too beautiful a day to spend it in the car, and we’d certainly cover more ground than if we walked. We can take the ocean path.”

“Sounds great,” Jayne said. “I got so many calls yesterday after I finished speaking to you that I had to give up on the twelfth mile. I could do with a proper run.”

Emily gulped. A proper run for her had never really gone further than five miles. Right now, after six months of laziness, she’d be happy just to hit two miles.

“I’ll just get changed,” she said.

She rushed upstairs, leaving the B&B at the mercy of Jayne. When she reached the bedroom, she found Daniel lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

“Are you okay?” she asked tentatively. “I thought you were taking the dogs for a walk.”

“I just had to get out of that room,” Daniel said.

“Oh,” Emily replied, glumly. Was the thought of her loving him so repulsive he had to run away?

Daniel sat up, looking dazed. “I mean why does she have to talk so quickly? And loudly? And why does she have to say five words when one will do?”

Emily realized then that the reason Daniel had rushed away so quickly was not because of her but because of Jayne, because of her fast-paced New York way of talking. She laughed, releasing some of the tension that had built inside of her.

“You know I used to be just like her.”

Daniel shook his head. “No way. I don’t believe it.”

“Yes way,” Emily replied, insistent. “Just you wait. By day five you won’t be able to tell us apart.”

“Dear God,” Daniel said, falling back against the mattress.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Jayne looked like a supermodel as she jogged beside the glittering waves, her hair flowing behind her, her limbs long and lithe. Unlike Emily, Jayne had hardly even broken a sweat. Everyone they passed checked her out, bowled over by her beauty, by seeing someone so stunningly attractive in their quiet, sleepy town.

“I don’t even remember the last time I saw the ocean,” Jayne said. “I mean other than during the drive over here. Sometimes New York makes you forget that there’s anything other than roads and buildings out there.”

“That’s true,” Emily replied, panting, finding it difficult to form even the shortest of sentences.

Raj was just putting some potted plants outside his shop when they passed.

“Hi, Emily!” he called.

She waved back, conserving her breath. Then she saw Parker Black in his wholesaler’s van. Parker was a young man, only around twenty-three or twenty-four years old, with a mop of curly blond hair. He’d inherited the wholesalers at the age of just sixteen when his father passed away and had done a sterling job keeping the operation going. When Emily opened the B&B, she immediately knew she wanted Parker to be her wholesaler.

He honked his horn and waved.