Page 44 of Jenny
Just great.Ash was perfect, and Dare was real. He grimaced.
“Move over Ashton Thorpe, there’s a new hero in town. Lucky you, Dare.” Vince snickered. “You could wind up as Mr. Ford. Make that Sergeant Ford.”
Dare stiffened. His roommate was turning into a real pain.
Jenny bit her lip. “Ford isn’t my real name.”
“But your readers think it is,” Vince countered.
She shrugged.
“So, Jenna,” Vince said. “What’s it like to be a rich and famous bestselling author?”
“My name is Jenny.” She toyed with the edge of the blanket on Dare’s bed. “And it doesn’t suck.”
She spoke in a lighthearted tone, but her smile looked fake. She scratched her neck.
Dare stared at her, dumbfounded. He knew nothing about writing or authors, but the Jenny he knew wasn’t rich and famous. He thought she would deny both. But she hadn’t, and he couldn’t wrap his head around that.
“Cool.” The way Vince nodded made him seem like he was party to a secret.
Secret.
The word echoed through Dare’s mind…as did his mother’s words.
Your father was the master at keeping secrets. I had to drag everything out of him.
Pressure built behind Dare’s temples, and his forehead throbbed. A heaviness pressed down on him. He felt as if he were being run over by a tank.
Jenny had been keeping secrets from him since she’d arrived. Her parents. Her brother. Her job. Her…fame.
Jenny had wanted him to open up to her. He had, but she hadn’t been willing to do the same. Not until he’d asked. Dare had needed to drag the words out of her tonight, just like his mom had tried to do with his father for years.
That raised a huge red flag. One that totally eclipsed Jenny wanting to stay home when he loved traveling to new places, which was the only requirement on her list he didn’t meet. Roswell was something he could compromise on, as well as Bigfoot, even the traveling when he wasn’t being deployed. But if he couldn’t trust her to tell him things…
“Were you going to tell me about this?” Dare gritted out the words.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
His father had said something similar when questioned by his mom. The words “I don’t know” had been his dad’s catchphrase. His dad had never known anything. Dare’s muscles tensed into knots.
Jenny touched his shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
“You’ve been keeping so many secrets from me.” His voice sounded hoarse. “Is there anything else I should know about you?”
“I wasn’t keeping secrets. You’re injured. Knowing about my family or what I do wouldn’t have helped you right now.”
“Those things are part of who you are. Stuff that will help me know you better.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“That’s my job.” The words burst from his mouth so fast she flinched. “Or was my job. Now…”
He stared at his arm in a cast and his leg in another cast.
