Jessie Belle: The Women of Merryton - Book One by Jennifer Peel Page B

it.”
    “You
don’t need to.”
    He
stepped closer and then even closer. He reached out and touched my hair ever so
lightly as he stared into my on-the-verge-of-crying eyes. “I know I don’t need
to, but I want to.”
    “Thanks,”
I replied quietly.
    “It
will be okay,” he said, almost as if it were a question. “It will be okay,” he
repeated, this time as a statement. He then took my face in his rough,
calloused hands and leaned in and kissed me hard once on the lips. His lips
lingered as they pressed against mine. It had been too long since we had shown
each other such affection and the emotion of it all sent tears trickling down
my cheeks and onto his hands.
    “Jess,”
he whispered against my lips.
    “I’m
scared,” I admitted to him.
    “Me,
too.” And with that he kissed me once more and left me standing in my closet, feeling
too many emotions.
    As
I crawled into bed that night after midnight, I pondered my life and marriage.
I wondered if we could weather this storm, or any storm, for that matter. I
almost forgot what smooth sailing felt like. Was there such a thing? Our
marriage had always seemed to have difficulties, even from the beginning. Sure,
we were in love with each other, but moving to Merryton was a sacrifice for
Blake. It wasn’t his first choice, but Jessie Belle’s was going to be mine, and
even as a young girl I had dreamed of running it when I got older.
    I
knew it was difficult for Blake—it meant him giving up a well-paying job with
one of the top construction companies in Utah and starting over. I did offer to
move to Utah. I had even talked it over with my mom, but Blake insisted this
was where we would put down roots. His dad had left him and his mom when he was
a teenager, and his mom passed away in his early twenties. Blake had a
half-brother somewhere out there, but we never saw him or Blake’s dad. I think
Blake liked the idea of having family nearby, although my dad had been anything
but a loving father-in-law. But my mom and Blake had a good relationship,
probably a better one than I currently had with him.
    Sometimes
I thought Merryton was suffocating for him. He grew up in Phoenix and had lived
in bigger cities his whole life until we married. He didn’t like big cities
because of the people and attractions, but you couldn’t hide at all in
Merryton. He never complained, but I did wonder. I also wondered if I should
offer to move, but his business did well and so did mine. I didn’t know if I
wanted to start over at our age, though we were still relatively young. But
maybe it would be better to go somewhere else, to a place where there weren’t
reminders around every corner about what we had lost.
    I
just didn’t know. And that was the thought I drifted off to sleep with.
    I
was woken up well before sunrise by the lightest of touches. Blake sat close to
me on the bed. I could barely make him out when I opened my eyes, but there he sat,
looking at me tenderly.
    “I
wanted to say goodbye before I left for the airport.”
    I
sat up some and ran my fingers through my mess of hair. “Do you want me to
drive you?”
    “No.
I’m leaving from Denver International. I planned on leaving my truck there.
I’ll be back early tomorrow.”
    I
nodded my head in acknowledgement. That made sense. I wasn’t sure our small
municipal airport flew to Salt Lake City, unless he got something private.
    “Jessica,
this doesn’t change how I feel about you. You know that, right?”
    I
stayed silent. I had wondered if he thought about trading me in for a working
version—someone that could give him lots of Madelines, someone that he knew
loved him and someone that wasn’t me.
    His
eyes narrowed in concern when I didn’t respond other than to pull up the sheet
like that would somehow comfort me or protect me. Protect me from what, I
didn’t know.
    “I
love you. This is going to be okay.” He kept saying that phrase like saying it
would make it come true.
    “I
want to believe