Jennifer sucked in a shaky breath, feeling his words clear to her soul. He was talking to her. He was telling her he’d been scared. Telling her he was still scared.
“I don’t know how,” Marcie said, grabbing Bobby’s arms and pleading. “Will you talk to him? He’s so mad. I don’t know what to say, and I know you don’t know him well, but—”
“I’ll talk to him.”
“Now?” she asked hopefully.
“Yes,” he said. “Now.”
Jennifer stepped forward and wrapped Marcie in the towel. “To the bathroom and get in that hot tub. I even put some of that calming eucalyptus in the water you gave me on my birthday. I’ll bring you wine and we’ll talk.”
Marcie nodded and headed to the bath.
Bobby made sure he had Jennifer’s cell programmed properly into his phone. They stood toe to toe, the silent, unspoken words wrapping them with a mixture of hot sun and cold winter snow, too complex and textured to touch on now.
“Thank you for doing this,” Jennifer said. “I know you haven’t slept.”
“I’m not worried about sleep,” he said. “I’m worried about Marcie and Mark working this out before their wedding.”
“Yes,” she said, her hand resting on his chest. There was so much she wanted to say. “You’ll come back?”
He scooped her into his arms and kissed her. “I’m not going anywhere this time, Jennifer.” His lips brushed hers and then he was gone.
Jennifer stood there, stunned. Confused. He was leaving. He was staying. He was up for reenlistment, but obviously, clearly after today, a soldier. He wore the title well, wore it with honor.
Jennifer’s cell phone started ringing, startling her into action. She rushed forward, to the table where she’d set her purse. Marcie appeared in the hallway, still fully dressed, a hopeful look on her face that had Jennifer saying, “It’s probably Mark, worried about you.”
“Don’t answer it if it is,” she said. “He doesn’t want to marry me, he doesn’t deserve to know where I’m at.”
Jennifer blinked in confusion. “You just asked Bobby to go talk to him.”
“I know, but…” Marcie pressed her palm to her forehead. “I don’t know anymore.”
Jennifer grabbed her purse on the hall table and checked caller ID on her phone. “It’s him,” she said.
“He doesn’t want to marry me, Jen,” Marcie said, mascara dropping down her cheeks.
“He wants to marry you,” Jennifer said. “This is just cold feet before the wedding.” The phone stopped ringing.
“See!” Marcie said. “He already gave up.”
“It’s Saturday night,” Jennifer said. “And mark my words, by next Sunday night, you will be a married woman enjoying the first day of her honeymoon.” The phone started ringing again and she answered it.
“Is she there?” Mark asked, his voice steely hard.
“Yes.”
“That’s all I wanted to know,” he said and hung up.
Jennifer pulled the phone from her ear, stunned by Mark’s abruptness.
“He didn’t even ask to speak to me?” Marcie asked, her face already crinkling.
“You didn’t want to talk to him,” Jennifer said, trying to talk her way out of this. Marcie burst into tears.
It was a good while later when Jennifer managed to bundle Marcie up in silk pajamas. They sat on the bed and talked.
“Everything was perfect until we decided to get married,” she said. “Now it’s a mess.” She sipped her wine and set it on the nightstand. “If I need to stay here until I find a place, you won’t mind, right?”
“You won’t need a place to stay,” Jennifer told her, “but, of course.” She took Marcie’s hand. “It’s going to work out.”
Marcie studied her. “It didn’t for you and Bobby,” she said. “And you wanted it to. You still do. But it won’t happen. You know why? The same reason Bobby and I are friends. Because we both have enough baggage to sink a warship. We aren’t the forever kind of people. You and Mark picked wrong. There is no happy ending.”
Jennifer had a moment of clarity. She’d spent seven years looking for an ending. Bobby had run from an ending. Marcie was running from an ending. She reached out and took Marcie’s hand. “Love doesn’t have an ending,” Jennifer said. “We both need to stop trying to find one.”
She loved Bobby. She would always love Bobby. Closure didn’t mean she stopped loving him. In fact, it meant she’d stopped denying she loved him. It meant she had to figure out what kind of spot that love filled in her life.
***
THE RAIN HAD, AT LEAST, temporarily stopped, the moon peeking through a tunnel of clouds, but not a star could be seen. Nor was there a light to be found in Mark and Marcie’s house when Bobby pulled into the driveway and parked behind Mark’s truck. It was a bad sign. Bobby ground his teeth and climbed out of the car. Either Mark was gone, probably drinking off his troubles with the guys—trouble waiting to happen. Or Mark was in bed asleep, unaffected by his fight with Marcie—bigger trouble. As in the kind that meant the wedding was really off.