Page 10 of Jenny
CHAPTER THREE
Dare:It’s Dare. Thanks for the number. Texting is easier. Bigfoot’s loss.
Jenny:Aw, thanks. You’re up early. Unless you’re on the East Coast. The sun is still asleep here.
Dare:Where’s here? I’m in Georgia.
Jenny:Washington.
That meant a three-hour time difference. It was still the middle of the night where she lived.
Dare:Sorry I woke you.
Jenny:I was awake. My sleep pattern is completely off due to working crazy hours to finish my project.
Dare:That happens to me. Exhausted, need to sleep, but can’t.
Jenny:Exactly. I can’t shut off my brain.
Dare:I was the same way last night.
Jenny:Everything okay?
Dare:Yes. Today’s looking much better.
Jenny:Good. I should try to sleep or I’ll be a zombie all day.
Dare:Sleep well.
Jenny:TTYL.
Jenny could count on him talking to her later.
With a big smile on his face, Dare leaned against his pillow and reread her texts.
****
After two weeks of texting with Dare, Jenny decided the time had come to tell her book club that she’d heard back from the person who found her message in the bottle. She wasn’t sure why she’d kept that a secret when she looked forward to hearing from him. The exchanges were mostly silly, but she liked waking up to his texts.
Sitting on the living room couch, she typed a message to tell her friends what she knew about Dare—he lived in Georgia and found her bottle on a beach in Key West—and that their exchanges were friendly, not flirty.
Which was fine with her.
So far, five of the book club members had heard from their bottle finders. Not quite half, but that was a better percentage than Jenny had expected.
Meg’s message had led to her being invited on the reality TV showOne True Love.She’d ended up falling in love with the producer, not one of the contestants. Jenny doubted anyone would be able to top that. She sure wouldn’t.
Dare’s first email about him not being in the market for a soul mate or wanting to find true love had been a clear warning, and that was good. It made writing to him easier.
No pressure. No reason to read anything into what he wrote.
Her message in a bottle might not have brought her a happily ever after, but she’d made a new friend. One whose emails and texts brought a smile to her face and didn’t make her feel so isolated and lonely when she spent so much of her time by herself.
She closed her laptop and walked into the kitchen. Missy was unloading the dishwasher. She was working her regular shift at the cupcake shop now that Elise was feeling better.
“We have a housekeeper to do that,” Jenny said.
“She doesn’t come every day, and I want to bake cookies. There’s stuff I need in here.” Missy wore colorful paw-print leggings and an oversized T-shirt withSemper Fiwritten across the front. “We’re going to celebrate!”
