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moved down here from Kitty Hawk when she married Jake, so she’s been in this town for more than a decade and not a one of us knows much about her. Goes to church, works hard, and takes care of her boy. Hell, none of us even know where her or her dad came from before he took over Wright Baptist up in Kitty Hawk. And speaking of her dad, she don’t even talk to him no more. They live five miles apart, but act like total strangers. Hell, I’d reckon there ain’t a body around who knows much of anything.” He clapped Tres on the back with the hand holding the cigarette, “Jenna’s different son. I don’t think she wants to bothered with a man. She is an artist, you know? They can be a bit weird sometimes.”
    “She owes me an explanation. She can hide from every other soul on earth, but she owes me.” Tres looked down the road where she disappeared moments before. It made no sense and his pride told him to forget about her, but he had to know, why was she doing this?
    “Why waste your time with a girl who don’t want to be bothered by you?”
    Tres thought a moment over Russ’ words. Russ was right. Knowing why wouldn’t change the fact that she had in the end chosen to marry Jake Austin when she could have been with him. Why didn’t really matter. He slowly nodded and turned from the road and began the walk back to the building. “Guess you’re right. I suppose it’s best to stick to the easy things in life….like moving two hundred foot piles of bricks.”
    Russ laughed and gave him a warm pat on the back. “Come on, son, we’ll finish up here and then I’m gonna take you to Chester Grover’s for lunch. He’s roasting some blue crab he caught last night and turnin’ it into chowder…mmm, mmm…ain’t nobody who cooks like Chester…though don’t tell my missus. Then later on, you’re gonna meet the boys and me at the Lonnie’s sports bar. We got the whole place closed down just for us. We’re even sneaking in liquor. Don’t mention that to the missus either. The light’s moved and we changed history. Now we’re celebrating a brand new beginning…and it’ll take your mind off Jenna.”
    Tres snorted and shook his head, but said nothing more on the matter.

Chapter 4
     
    Mind spinning with thoughts she’d rather block, Jenna was deeply grateful the drive to Milo and Connie’s was short. Standing on their front porch, her hands shook and her heart raced as she fumbled with the key. She stopped and took a deep breath, willing herself to calm down so she could simply open a door.
    She swung it open and went directly to the nursery because she needed to work, needed to focus on something besides the past. She wasn’t so pathetic and lonely as to sit and brood over how the mere sight of him electrified her as much as it infuriated her. Have lunch with him? Never. Their past could never be as easy as water under the bridge– it went over and through the bridge, sweeping it downstream in a torrent that smashed and twisted it, leaving no resemblance to its former being.
    But Jenna knew better than anyone else that intention and reality were often at odds. She planned to work. Instead she sat in the wicker rocker in the corner of the room and allowed her traitorous mind to brood.
    Rarely did she visit the past, but as she rocked back and forth, back and forth in the quiet room, she couldn’t stop herself from remembering a time when being with Tres felt like it was the most natural state of being life had to offer. When she held his hand, it didn’t feel foreign, but rather an extension of herself.
    “Trust me, Jenna. I love you.” These words were the silken cords he used to bind her rendering her defenseless against him.
    But not anymore.
    Jenna sprang from the chair and wiped at the tears that rolled down her cheeks. “Lying little prick,” she said to the empty house. She stomped to the bathroom. The tear stained face before her made her cringe; the smeared mascara made her look and feel