Liam looked up and adjusted his glasses. "Seems like you have more urgent business at the moment."
"I—no, he's just hiding out. Finally figured out my strategy." Jenna forced a laugh, glancing between Liam and Country.
"You know what?" Tasha stood up. "Liam, I think it's time we took a break, don't you?"
Liam unlooped the headphones from around his neck. "Excellent idea. I'd say, fifteen minutes?"
Jenna's eyes widened. "Nope, it's fine, we were just?—"
"Fifteen minutes. Perfect." Tasha winked as she and Liam pushed past Jenna and Country, then whispered something as she left the room and Liam closed the door behind them.
Country reached out and locked the door handle. Before Jenna could open her mouth, he said, "Tasha asked me to lock it."
Jenna pursed her lips. Of course she did. Jenna had mentioned one thing—one tiny comment about her history with Country—and Tasha and Liam had gone to town with it. That had been weeks ago, and now they were trying to play matchmaker? "I really need to figure out what's happening with?—"
"No comment?" Country stood in front of the door like a sentinel, the dim booth lights making him glow blue.
Jenna swallowed hard. "I have comments, but I think they're more than fifteen minutes worth."
"Give me the Cliff notes." He took a step forward, and when Jenna tried to back up, she ran into Liam's chair.
What was she supposed to say? How could she explain herself when her thoughts spun like debris caught in a tornado? "I'm worried you don't know what you're saying."
"How so?" Another step and Jenna reached back, gripping the edge of the chair.
"You think you want this, but what about when everyone else in your family is having kids?"
"They're already having kids. I have seven nieces and nephews."
Jenna's eyes widened. "Seven?" He nodded. In her head, even though she'd been gone living her life, everything here had stood still. She was about to have a niece or nephew. The conversation with her mom about Travis and his wife expecting had sent her into a tailspin for over twenty-four hours. She knew it would be coming eventually but hadn't been ready for the gut punch.
"That's my point. They're building families, but you don't see me with a wife and kids."
"Just because it hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't." Saying the words out loud made her stomach feel like it was being wrung out like an old kitchen rag.
"It won't."
Jenna set her jaw. "Why not?"
"Because I don't want it to."
"You don't want kids now?"
Country growled. "Of course I do, but I want you more!" The force of that statement knocked the breath from her lungs. "Why can't you believe that someone would choose this? That I could choose you?"
"Because nobody ever has!" Jenna clamped her mouth shut, her vision swimming. She needed to get out of this booth. Faces blurred in her mind’s eye. Carson Hart laughing as the AD joked about him unzipping his pants with Jenna kneeling under the desk. The emails from John and Owen showing up in her inbox. Travis walking up from her parents’ basement and barely looking at her.
Every word that left Country's mouth melted like the most decadent chocolate, but she knew how this story ended, and she'd been serious about him not knowing what he was saying. He couldn't give up having kids of his own for her, it was too big. Too much. It wouldn’t last.
"I see what you're doing." Country took one last step and held onto her arms so she couldn't bolt.
Jenna shook her head. "I'm not doing anything."
Country's grip relaxed as he trailed his hands down the backs of her arms then found her waist and tugged. "You're analyzing."
She stood rigid in his arms. "I don't have to analyze this. I already know what the data says."
"There you go writing things off again."
