Chapter 12
Cody had almost two full days off before he had to be in the ring again. He intended on spending every possible moment he could with Jenna, trying to make her see that she did still love him. He was giving her a tour of his house, he left his bedroom for last, not sure if she would be sharing it with him for the next two nights or not. More than anything he wanted her to, but he was beginning to see that he couldn't push her too fast, or she would pull away from him.
Jenna looked around Cody's bedroom, taking it all in. Her eyes took in the king size bed last. Would she be sleeping there with him or would she be staying in one of the empty bedrooms? She could feel herself slowly falling in love with him again, and it scared her. Scared the hell out of her. She had spent the last eight years building a life of her own without him thousands of miles away, and within three short days, Cody had torn it apart. For the first time, she was starting to regret leaving him so soon into their marriage. Maybe she should have stuck it out a little bit longer.
Cody sat down on the edge of his bed and watched Jenna look around his room. His breath caught when she wandered over to the bookshelf and picked up a framed photos. He knew without looking what photo it was. "I can't believe you still have this, Cody," Jenna said softly turning around to look at him.
He held out his arm to motion for her to come closer. She walked slowly over to the bed, still staring at the picture she held in her hands. She sat down next to him, he slowly put his arm around her waist as they both looked at the photo. It was the night of their senior prom, which they never actually went to, but instead took off for the lake to do other...activities. Cody looked strikingly handsome in his black suit with a dark blue vest underneath the jacket. Jenna looked amazing with her hair piled high and wearing a long strapless dark blue dress. They were one of the best looking couples in their high school.
"Why do you still have this, Cody?" she asked as she finally tore her gaze away from how happy she looked in that photo and turned to look at him.
"Because it was one of the happiest nights of my life. It was something that I'm never going to forget, no matter how many years go by."
Cody shifted away from her and got off the bed. He headed over to his dresser and opened the top drawer. He hesitated for a moment before he took it out. He walked back over to the bed and knelt down in front of her, handing her the picture he had taken out of the drawer. She recognized it right away and couldn't stop the tears that immediately ran down her cheeks. "Do you remember how I made you feel this day?" he asked quietly. She nodded and let the tears continue to stream down her cheeks. He reached up and gently wiped some of them away, looking into her dark eyes to see if there was still a chance for them. "I can make you feel that way again, Jen, you just have to let me," he whispered as he got up and started to walk out of the room so she could be alone with her thoughts.
'What did I do?' Jenna whispered out loud to herself as Cody walked out of the room. She stared down at the picture in her hands that he had kept all these years. The huge smile on both of their faces made her want to break down and cry like a baby more than she already was. They looked so young, so innocent, and so in love. It was one of the only photos taken of their wedding ceremony.
Deciding that she had done enough crying for one afternoon, she headed into the bathroom to make herself look halfway decent before she headed downstairs to find Cody. She was halfway down the stairs when she heard Cody talking to someone. Listening closely, she realized that she recognized the voice. It was his dad, Virgil.
She hesitated before walking into the kitchen, not sure how awkward seeing her father in law was going to be. Both men were sitting at the kitchen table not talking when she walked in. The look on Virgil's face when he saw Jenna was one of shock. "Good, Lord almighty! Cody wasn't lying, you are back!" he said loudly as he stood up and walked towards Jenna. She wasn't sure if he was going to hug her or smack her. Luckily, the huge man pulled in for a hug. She let herself be hugged tightly for a few seconds. Virgil whispered in her ear, "You have no idea how much that boy misses you, girl." If Jenna didn't feel bad enough from looking at old pictures of her and her husband, she felt worse now hearing what her father in law had just told her.
He let her go and she sat down at the table with the two men. "Tell me what you've been up to, girl. Don't leave anything out," Virgil said with a big smile, more curious than anything of what possessed her to leave her son in the middle of the night and not show her pretty face again until many years had passed, looking for divorce papers.
Once again, as Cody listened to Jenna talk about her life without him, he was sure that she never would have had any of those life experiences if she hadn't left him. He kicked himself in the ass knowing that he should have treated her differently during their short time together. He could only hope and pray that she was considering giving him another chance. It had only been a few days since they started this experiment, but he could tell she was starting to act differently towards him. She wasn't so angry with him, she cried a lot, and they had had a spat already. But it felt like she would come around eventually. He just hoped it would be before the two weeks was up so he didn't have to sign the divorce papers. As much as he hoped everything would work out, he would keep his promise to her if it didn't and sign them.
Virgil stayed for a little while longer before he decided that he had better head on home. "Why don't you two come on over tomorrow afternoon? Your mama would sure love to see you, son. You too, Jenna." Cody said they would see what they had going on tomorrow but more than likely they would show up.
After Virgil left, they went out into the living room and settled on the couch. "So...what do you want to do?" he asked her.
"I don't know. I know this sounds kind of a lame, but do you think I could borrow your car tomorrow and see my parents?" she asked timidly. Jenna didn't know what Cody had planned for the few days they were going to be in Atlanta, and she figured that as long as she was so close to Marietta, she might as well stop in and visit her folks.
"That's not lame at all, Jen. I think it's a great idea and of course your can borrow my car. As long as you promise to come back," he said with a little laugh, even though he was kind of serious. His worst fear would be for her to take off on him again when he wasn't looking. "How long has it been since you've seen them?"
"Oh. I don't know, seven or eight years," she said softly, looking down at the floor.
"Are you telling me that you haven't seen them since that night we told them we got married?" he asked in disbelief.
"I guess so. Seems like a long time, doesn't it?"
"Have you...wow. Have you even called them since then?" He could not get over the fact that she still wasn't talking to them.
"I have. About four years ago I finally called them up and told them where I was. To say they were pissed would be an understatement. I apologized and everything, but we never talked about me coming home to see them or for them to fly up and see me in Minnesota. So we just kind of left it at that. It's kind of awkward."
"I would imagine so. Wow."
"What do you want to do tonight?" she asked.
"Whatever you want."
"Whatever I want, huh?" she said with a sly smile on her face, moving a little bit closer to him on the couch. Cody felt his heartbeat speed up. What did she have planned? She moved even a little more closer until her legs were touching his. Cody forgot how to breathe as she climbed onto his lap, straddling him.
Jenna wrapped her arms around his neck as his hands moved to her lower back. His heart was beating so fast, it was hard to breathe having her this close to him. More than anything he wanted to push her off, lay on top of her, and ravage her body with his mouth. "What do you have in mind, hon?" he asked in a hoarse whisper. This was torture.
She leaned down and put her mouth close to his ear, feeling him tense up as she blew softly in his ear. "I don't know, what do you want to do?" she giggled as she pulled away from him, and slowly moving off of his lap. "You are such a tease, Jenna," he groaned as she sat down next to him again, grabbing the TV remote from the side table.
"Eh, you'll get over it," she said with a smirk. Before Jenna knew what was happening, Cody had pulled her for a hard kiss on the mouth, his tongue poking at her mouth, looking for an entrance. She obliged and he deepened the kiss, his hands running threw her hair. She was just starting to get into the kiss before he pulled away, leaving her breathless, wondering why he stopped. "Cody Garrett Runnels, you tease!" she said with mocked outrage.
"Eh, you'll get over it," he said with a wink.
She smiled as she moved a little bit closer to him, Cody threw his arm around her and they turned their attention to the movie that was on TV. This was going to be an interesting night.
