Jennifer's Journey Read online

  “I was attracted to you the first time I saw you. Was that January? Or was it March? I don’t remember. I just remember I saw you standing at the counter, and I thought to myself that I wanted a girl like you to spend the rest of her life with me.”

  “Why didn’t you ask me out?” she asked, surprised.

  “I was afraid you were already attached. A girl as pretty as you usually is. I mean, I hoped that you weren’t, but I was feeling pretty shy, and I didn’t ask.”

  “Shy? Are actors ever really shy?”

  “This one is. I’m great when I’m on a stage or in front of a camera, but when I’m talking to some girl I’ve never met before, I’m super shy and confused.”

  “Well, you should have asked, because I would have gone out with you, and we could have saved Dr. Lachele the trouble.”

  “Would you really have? Even thought my name is Maynard Butts?”

  Her eyes met his. “I think I would have. I might have tried to convince you to change your name, but I’d have gone out with you.” She leaned forward and brushed her lips across his, so he would know she was joking. She hoped.

  “You really do hate my name, don’t you?”

  She shrugged. “Jennifer Butts is not the name I grew up wanting to be called. Did you never tire of the constant torment the name must have brought you as a child?”

  “I guess I hated it, but I still think the name is the right one for me.”

  “What about our children? Do you want them to be stuck with Butts for a last name? If so, then I insist on naming our son Harry.”

  He frowned at her. “Please don’t make fun of the name. I was raised by my grandparents, and they were the most wonderful people alive. They weren’t ashamed of being Butts, and they taught me not to be ashamed either.” He wasn’t sure he could ever explain how much his name actually meant to him. He knew the name was horrid, but that didn’t seem to matter.

  She rubbed the back of her neck, embarrassed, but not really wanting to agree to give any children they had the last name of Butts. She couldn’t do that to her unborn children! Or her unconceived children! “Why were you raised by your grandparents?” she asked, changing the subject rather than talking about children’s names.

  “Well, I already told you my dad died in Desert Storm. My mother was convinced that there was no way she could keep going with a small child and no husband. So she drank poison. She took me to my grandparent’s house first, though.”

  “That was kind of her.” Jennifer frowned at him. “I’m surprised you’re so…well, normal is the word coming to mind.”

  Maynard smiled. “My grandparents truly were the best choice for me. They doted on me and treated me as if I was the most important person in their entire world. My father was their only child, and they missed him horribly, but I looked just like him. Some people would have looked at me and been sad, but not my grandparents. They looked at me and only saw me.” The love they’d shown him, despite the circumstances, was truly epic.

  “I can’t wait to meet them.”

  “I’ll take you to Nebraska soon, but not this week. This week we’re on our honeymoon and getting to know each other better.”

  Jennifer smiled at that, resting her head on his shoulder. “I like the idea of taking a full week with just us. Too bad we can’t go up in the mountains and hide from the rest of the world.”

  “Is there someone on the ranch you want to hide from?”

  “Not exactly. It’s just…well, Jaclyn is a little bit odd, and I think she’s got her eyes on us and making sure we’re happy together.”

  “Is that a bad thing?” Maynard barely knew Jaclyn, but he liked what he did know. She was a good person in his eyes.

  “I guess not. I’m sure it will be just fine.” Jennifer curled her legs under her, resting her head on his shoulder. “What do you like to do when you’re not acting or waiting tables?”

  “I like to do jigsaw puzzles, hike, and swim.”

  “All things we can do this week. I have a couple of puzzles in my closet.” She’d found that as she’d learned how to be kind to people, she would do puzzles in the evenings, replaying every word of conversations she’d had.

  “You do? Do you want to start one?”

  Jennifer jumped up and walked to the closet, pulling out the two puzzles she had. One was a landscape scene set in Yellowstone of a waterfall, and the other was a basketful of puppies. She held both up for him to see.

  “Let’s do the landscape.” He got up and walked with her to the small kitchen table. It was big enough to do the puzzle on but just barely.

  As she dumped out all the pieces, the two of them went to work together immediately turning them all right side up and separating the edge pieces from the inside pieces.

  He stopped sorting and stared at her for a moment. “I forgot to give you your wedding gift.”

  Jennifer looked at him, frowning for a moment. “I didn’t get you anything.”

  “You don’t need to.” He jumped up and hurried over to the couch and picked up the small package on the floor. “I figured being married to me, you’d eventually need this.”

  She looked at Maynard for a moment before taking the package. What could that mean? After she opened it, her face split into a huge grin. “Frank’s Fudge! I’m addicted to this stuff!”

  “And every woman deserves chocolate if she has to put up with a man.”

  “Who taught you that?”

  “My grandmother. Every time she got annoyed with my grandfather, he’d go to the store and get her some chocolate. She told me once that it was the only reason they were still married. He could always find the right chocolate to calm her temper and make her happy.”

  Jennifer laughed. “I don’t remember my father ever plying my mother with chocolate, but I can see where it would work.”

  Maynard shook his head, a knowing look in his eyes. “They just weren’t fighting in front of you. I’m sure there was much chocolate exchanged every time your father did something stupid.”

  “How do you know my father did stupid things?” Truly, Jennifer had never seen her parents fight. They’d been careful to keep that part of their lives from her.

  “Because he was a man, married to a woman. Enough said!”

  She laughed. “So you’re going to do stupid things?”

  “Probably more often than I’ll want to admit to them. So this is a sorry for the first thing I do wrong that I don’t realize I do wrong, so you don’t have to say, ‘Well, if you don’t know what you did, then I’m not going to tell you!’ Argument has been skipped!”

  “You think you’re pretty clever, don’t you?”

  Maynard shrugged, a sheepish little boy look on his face. “Sometimes. I have to admit that I was taught by the best. My grandfather could get around my grandmother like nobody I’ve ever seen.”

  She stepped forward and kissed him softly. “Thank you for the chocolate, and I’ll forgive you the first stupid thing you do.” She frowned. “So what about the first stupid thing I do?”

  “We’ll deal with that when the time comes. Besides, I don’t see you doing anything stupid.”

  “You don’t know me very well yet. I will say things I don’t mean. I will be rude to you and others. I’ll try not to be, and I’ll always be sorry after…but I’ll do it over and over again.”

  He cupped her cheek in his hand. “I think you’re too hard on yourself. You’re a very special woman, Jennifer Butts.”

  Jennifer let the name go without cringing. She was getting better at this game. “Thank you. I hope I can live up to your image of me.”

  They both took their seats again, across from each other, and worked on the puzzle. As they worked they talked about their tastes in everything. “What’s your favorite food?” Maynard asked.

  “Real food or desserts? The answers aren’t the same!”

  “Real food and then dessert. I want to know everything!”

  Jennifer didn’t even have to think about
her answers. “Tacos and s’mores cheesecake.”

  “Just so you know, I’m making mental notes to get myself out of hot water later, because I expect to live at least half of our marriage boiling in hot water.”

  “That’s very smart of you. Now what’s your favorite foods? Real food and then dessert?”

  “Steak. And orange cranberry muffins.” His eyes met hers as he said the dessert.

  “Really? I hit on your favorite dessert?”

  He nodded slowly. “Yup.” What was the point in telling her that it was only his favorite dessert since she’d made it for him.

  As they continued talking, they had fun just learning about one another. Her favorite color was purple while his was blue. They both preferred jeans to sweat pants. They both preferred cold weather.

  “Skiing or sledding?” she asked.

  “Ohh…that’s a harder one. I love both. I’ll say skiing. It feels a little bit more adventurous.”

  “And I prefer sledding. It feels a little safer.”

  “It’s not exactly safe to marry a stranger,” he said as he snapped a particularly difficult piece into place. He’d been hunting for the piece for more than an hour, and the puzzle was filling in all around it.

  “It’s not. I still can’t believe I put myself out there that way. I also can’t believe that in the game of marriage lottery, I won the grand prize.”

  “No, you didn’t!”

  She frowned at him. “Why do you say that?”

  “Because you got me, not you!”

  Jennifer laughed softly. “I want you to hold off on the compliments until we know one another just a bit better. Give me a month or two.” She frowned. “About that…do you want me to work? I quit my job at the hotel, but I could work somewhere else instead…”

  “For now, you can do whichever you’d like. We don’t need a second income, but if you get bored with just being a wife, you’re welcome to get a job somewhere.” Maynard shrugged. He really didn’t care if she worked or not. He thought that would be a decision for her to make for herself.

  “I’ll figure it out then. Do you really want to move to Quinn Valley?”

  He nodded. “I actually have my eye on a house there. It’s set up on the hill overlooking the town. Nothing super fancy, but big enough for a few kids.”

  “A few? How many kids are you wanting?”

  “Not more than a dozen.”

  7

  Jennifer gaped at him for a moment, her jaw dropping. “A dozen? Please tell me you’re joking!”

  Maynard laughed. “I’d like at least one or two. If you want more, I’m happy to accommodate. I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy making them.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her, hoping it would make her giggle.

  Instead she blushed. “I don’t even know what to say to that!”

  He shrugged. “We’re married. I can say what I want to say, for the most part.” He popped another piece into the puzzle. “Are you getting hungry?”

  It had been an afternoon reception with hor dourves, and she realized her stomach was growling now. “I’m starving. Want me to see what I can find to throw together? I wasn’t planning on cooking this week, and we’ll probably have to run to the grocery store in Riston tomorrow to keep stocked.” She glanced at the clock on the microwave. “I guess we could go out to eat now and hit the grocery store.”

  He got to his feet. “I’m not going to ask you to cook on our wedding night. We’ll go out to eat and grab groceries while we’re out.”

  “You don’t mind?” she asked. Jennifer felt strange asking him to grocery shop on his wedding night.

  He shook his head. “Not at all. You’ll have to cook in the morning if we do it that way. Do you mind cooking?”

  “Nah. Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve figured out that I really do enjoy cooking. I mean, nothing gourmet, and not all the time, but occasionally, it can be fun.”

  “Why don’t tell anyone?”

  She considered telling him how she used to be for a moment, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. He’d find out soon enough when she started throwing plates at him for no apparent reason. Well, hopefully she’d never do that, but it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibilities. She shrugged. “I guess I don’t want people to know I’m secretly domestic. They might want me to bake cookies for bake sales or something!”

  He laughed. “I could see you wearing an apron as you baked cookies.” He led her to his car and opened the door for her. “What are you hungry for? Chinese? Pizza?”

  “I had pizza last night. Let’s do something wild. Let’s go to the steak place in town. That sounds good.”

  Maynard nodded as he pulled from the driveway. “Now you’re speaking my language. Meat and potatoes!”

  “So you’re not one of those Hollywood types who’s always on a diet?”

  “Me? A Hollywood type? I’m more the guy who pumps your gas at the local convenience store. I don’t know how I got sucked into this job, and I can’t say I don’t love it…but…it doesn’t really suit me to be famous if that makes sense at all.”

  “I was watching an old Lazy Love the other night. You were on there as MaryBeth’s love interest.”

  Maynard shrugged. “Yeah, I was on a few episodes. That’s how I met Steven, the producer for Legacy. It’s a fun group to work with. They’re all tight-knit, which makes it easy to just pop in, do a few shows, and pop back out.”

  “I got to meet Valerie and Jesse when they were here for Dr. Michelle’s wedding. They were really down to earth and nice. It surprised me.” They were more down to earth than she had been before her transformation. They’d been famous, but she’d been famous in her own mind. She rolled her eyes at herself, glad it was dark and he couldn’t see it.

  He pulled into the steak place, and they went in. It was a Saturday night, but even at that, it wasn’t terribly busy. It was the tail end of the summer tourist season, and most people seemed to be staying on the ranch. “Yeah, Jesse and Valerie are amazing. So are Amber and Bob really. Just genuinely nice people. They’re my role models. No matter how famous I get, I always want to treat people like they do.”

  “I like that as a goal. I always want to be kind to others as well. Sometimes it’s not easy to be kind.”

  He looked at her for a moment. “Why isn’t it easy? You just treat other people the way you want to be treated. Simple enough!”

  She sighed. “Not always. I try.”

  He had no idea what she was talking about, but he let it go. The hostess smiled at him. “Table for two?”

  “Yes, please.” He followed her to the table, wondering what on earth was going on in Jennifer’s head. She had seemed very kind and sweet to him, other than her short spell where she’d been making fun of his name when she hadn’t realized he’d been listening.

  After they were seated, he asked, “What do you want to do this week? Hang out on the ranch?”

  “Could we go house shopping?” Jennifer asked. “I’d love to see the house you’re interested in. It sounds amazing to me.”

  “I’d like that a lot. How much time have you spent in Quinn Valley?”

  “Not a lot. I went there for the first time yesterday for a massage, a foot detox, and a foot zone. It was really nice to meet some of the people I’ve been talking to on the phone for months.”

  “I didn’t realize you dealt with people there.”

  Jennifer shrugged. “If the hotel here is full then we’ll call over to Quinn Valley and see if we can get people into the hotels there.”

  “Oh, that’s nice. I didn’t realize you did that.”

  “Technically, they’re the competition, but the Westons and the Quinns have a good working relationship, and they’ve done that for a while. I got to meet Roxane yesterday, and she and I have talked at least a dozen times. It was really nice to meet her face-to-face.” She leaned forward, as if to share a secret. “And there’s this taco truck that parks in front of her hotel. The tacos are amazing. I had some for l
unch yesterday, and Mom brought me some today.”

  “That good, huh?” Maynard glanced down at his menu. “Maybe we need to move to Quinn Valley just for the taco truck.”

  “I would!” Jennifer thought she might be in heaven if she could have taco truck tacos every day for lunch.

  He shook his head at her. “You’re a little bit crazy. Has anyone ever told you that?”

  Mean was the word that was usually used. “Nope. No one has ever told me that. I kind of like you thinking I’m a little crazy though. It makes me feel special.”

  “I do think you’re special, Jennifer. I can’t wait to get to know you even better.” He took her hand and brought it to his lips. “Dr. Lachele made me happy with our match.”

  Jennifer sighed softly. “She made me happy too.” She just really hoped he would continue to be happy with her as they got to know each other better. It was her biggest worry at the moment.

  When they returned to the cabin, he carried the groceries in while she put them away. “So what are you making for breakfast in the morning?” he asked.

  “I thought I’d make another batch of those orange cranberry muffins, if that sounds good.”

  “That sounds better than anything else I can possibly think of.” He caught her by the waist and pulled her to him, resting his cheek atop her head. “I think our wedding went great, and our marriage is starting out beautifully. Don’t you?”

  Jennifer smiled. “I do think so.” She just prayed she could maintain her positive attitude. She wasn’t one who usually did that well at all.

  “Where am I sleeping?” he asked. “I’m going to assume there’s only one bedroom here?”

  “Yes, there is. Do you mind sleeping on the couch? Or we could sleep together and just sleep.”

  “I’ll take the couch. I can’t promise that I can lie next to you all night long and not want to have my way with you.” He kissed her forehead. “Are you ready for bed now? Or do you want to work on our puzzle a little longer?”