I bit back a snort.
Kendra turned to me with pleading eyes, and like the sucker I am, I immediately caved. I sighed. “Jesse asked me to help him, True. I’m sorry I ran late tonight. The weather caught us as we were pulling in.”
The bride-to-be’s face lit up. “Is that true, Jesse?” She turned to her fiancé, and of course, the wanker went with it.
I was about to come clean when Kendra pressed her curvy body next to mine and wrapped her arms around my waist.
“Thank you,” she said.
Damn it.
“Okay, Jesse. Where do we plug in the music?” I asked him.
“Right this way,” Jesse said as he led me out of the ballroom and down the uneven hallway.
Jesse disappeared into a large office containing a series of glass trophy cases. As I wandered over to the displays, my breath left me. “What is this?”
“The Jarrett family,” Jesse said. He pointed to an extensive story quilt behind glass. “Penny made this quilt out of old concert t-shirts. That broken calculator is from Ken’s brother,Edison, who is a bit of a banking and math genius. Kendra’s brother Brock was a Golden Gloves champion at 18, and Boone, or ‘Boots’ as everyone calls him, opened a restaurant on Pleasure Point. This is from the grand opening of The Horny Toad.”
I hadn’t ignored the most obvious case in the room. It was the first thing I noticed. A large golden cup shared the case with a framed picture. In it, a teenage Kendra beamed at a boy her age. They stood next to a sailboat, holding the cup between them.
“That must be you with Kendra.”
He smiled. “Yep. We won this sailing race as kids. Everyone thought we would fail, but Kendra can be pretty stubborn when she sets a goal.”
“She can,” I admitted. “Is that how you two met? Sailing?”
Jesse pulled over a chair and sat in front of the case. “No. We met when I stopped this bully from pounding her face in.”
Anger surged through my veins. My fists clenched. “When was this?”
“Relax,He-Man,” Jesse snorted. “This was in middle school.”
“And Kendra was being bullied?”
He laughed. “Well, not exactly. I was the new kid with a slight accent, meaning it was open season on me. This huge fucker, I think the kid flunked sixth grade a few times, decided to pick on me. I was a skinny kid who hadn’t reached my growth spurt then. The big fucker shoved me into a trash can when I saw a blonde girl kick him in the balls and told him to pick on someone his own size.”
I burst out laughing. “How big was he?”
“Twice Kendra’s size.”
I shook my head. “Damn.”
“Exactly. The big fucker went down to one knee and swore he would get revenge. By this time, I had climbed out of the trash can. Part of me wanted to run, but the other part felt responsible. If this girl hadn’t come to my rescue, I’d be the one poundedin the face. And she’d be fine,” Jesse said. “So, I picked up the metal trash can that was almost as big as I was, swung it toward his head, and hit him as hard as possible. He went down with a heavy thud. You know, the sound a big tree makes when it falls to the ground? Like that. Kendra and I ran off to hide; then she told me we were now best friends, well, second-best friends because she didn’t want to hurt her friend Joy’s feelings. But we would all be best friends and stick together, no matter what.”
That sounded exactly like the Goldilocks I knew. And I admired that loyalty, to stick beside a friend through the years.
There wasn’t a lot of room for a desk and chairs in the office, with all the trophy cases, but I suspected the owner of such an office wanted it exactly like that. He would sit behind the desk and see the highlights of his children’s lives.
Not one framed photo of an oligarch or Senator to be found.
I rubbed my sternum. “Who’s office is this?”
“That would be mine,” Bolt said as he entered the room. “Kendra said you boys might need help plugging in the music. Jesse - True was looking for you.”
Jesse nodded. “We good here?”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “We’re good.”Damn it.
