Lead On (Complete)

~ Chapter 3 ~

                She pushed her hair back behind her ears and walked up to the truck window and looked at the man within, her arms resting on the open window, her head tilted.

                “What do you want?” she asked, hoping he’d get to the point, although she knew better.

                “Were you at your mom’s?”

                “I fail to see how that is any business of yours, Jeff.”

                “Suppose it’s not, but I’m curious.”        

                “Yes, I was visiting her.”

                “She knows I’m back in town for a bit?”  She let out a breath at his question.

                “In this small ass town, of course she does.  Wouldn’t be all that shocking if you were the talk of the town, you know.”

                “Guess that would be like old times, huh?”  She lifted a brow at him.  Jeff wasn’t ever a bad boy, but he was a star football player, and again, it wasn’t like anyone didn’t know everyone in these parts.  And Jeff was always a prankster, and sometimes, those pranks did get out of hand, causing him to be the talk that he hated so much.

                “And if I recall, you hated it back then, doubt you love it now.”

                “I don’t, but like I said, I came back for a few things, one was to talk to you.”  Rose stared at the man before her and her mind drifted off to a time further back…

                … “Rose, we have to talk about a few things.”  Rose sat down the knife she was using to cut the meat with and looked at him.  She took in his features; the cold glint in his eyes, the hard set of his jaw, and the twitch on his left cheek.  Something was bothering him and it was something big.  Oh, how she hated serious talks with him when he was like this.

                “Okay babe, what’s going on?” she asked as she took the chair out from their table and sat down, which he followed suit on.

                “You know the only family I have in this town is my aunt, and you, since my uncle past last year.”

                “Yeah.”  Rose’s brow wrinkled as she kept looking at him.  When his uncle died, Jeff had taken it hard.  For Jeff, those were the people that raised him, the people he looked up to and the only people he loved, besides her. 

                “Aunt Beth fell this morning and she hit her head.”

                “Oh God, Jeff! Is….,” she trailed off as she watched him, clearly seeing how he didn’t want the comfort he needed.

                “She didn’t make it, there was too much swelling on the brain.”  Rose felt her tears fall.  She loved Beth; her sweet nature was something that would be missed.  Beth was like her own aunt and if it was killing her, she couldn’t imagine the pain Jeff was feeling.

                “Baby.”  Rose got up and walked over to him but before she could wrap her arms around his neck to hug him, he grabbed her arms, his eyes locked with hers.

                “I can’t stay.”

                “Go, get away, I understand the pain…”

                “No,” he said, cutting her off, “you aren’t getting it.  There isn’t s**t in this town to f*****g keep me here.  She was the biggest reason I stayed and now with her gone…,” he trailed off and Rose took a step back.  If Beth was the reason he remained, what about her?  Did his wife not mean s**t?

                “Jeff, what about me?”

                “What about you?”  Man, that felt like the biggest slap he could give.  “You’re my wife, you go where I go!”

                “I can’t leave.  My job is here, and one day the diner will be mine.  And my mama is here, I can’t leave her, I’m all she has.”

                “You need to go with me.”

                “I’m not leaving, Jeff.”  She took a deep breath because she knew her husband.  He was hurting and not thinking right.

                “You won’t leave with me?”

                “Mama needs me, Jeff, and you know that.”  He nodded and got up, shoving past her.  “Am I not enough to keep you here?”  He looked over his shoulder at her.

                “No.”….               

                “So, talk.”

                “Can’t we go inside?  I’d rather not talk in my tuck.  We both know that never gets anywhere for us.”  She ignored the comment about their past and how them in any car either lead to heavy make out sessions, or s*x itself.  But she wasn’t a young horny teenage girl anymore and her feelings had long since flown out the window for this man.

                “I have no urge to do that with you anymore.  But come on, just make it quick.  I got a date that will be waiting for me down at the Western End.”  She didn’t miss the clenching of his jaw or the cold look in his eyes and she sure wasn’t going to say that her date was with a couple of tall bottles of beer.

                She made her way up her porch and opened the door, hearing his boots as they crossed the wooden planks after her.  She sat her purse down and put her keys on the hook, crossing her arms to watch him.  She knew he hadn’t been in the house since they day he walked out, and though she hadn’t changed the bigger things, there were many other smaller things she had changed.  Everything that was personal to them as a couple was long since gone.

                His eyes glanced around, frowning to himself as he walked through the hallway.  They had up, once upon a time, pictures of themselves and some of their favorite times and dates together; pictures he loved seeing as he walked the hallway.  And now, there were other pictures of Rose with her mom or with friends.  And as he walked into the living room he noticed their wedding pictures were gone as well, having been replaced with various types of art; what the hell?

                “Where the hell are all the pictures of us?” he groaned out, turning to face her, her arms crossed.

                “It’s been ten God damn years, you think I’m going to keep that s**t up?”