“No, Jenna. He didn’t ask about your scars, and why should he?”
“Because they’re hideous and I’m an oddity,” she replies, her voice much stronger but only because she’s feeling the need to defend her insecurities.
“You’re an oddity,” I reply irritably. “But not for your scars. Which are not hideous, by the way.”
“Says the woman with perfect skin,” she retorts bitterly.
I gasp at the assault, because it’s so un-Jenna-like. Before I can even say a word, she’s apologizing. “I’m so sorry,” she blurts, her head swinging my way only briefly to lock eyes before she turns back to the road. “I don’t know why I just said that.”
“It’s okay,” I reply gently, my hand reaching out to her shoulder for a squeeze. I look into the back seat and see that Felicity is still ignoring both of us.
“I think I’m just really nervous about this new job,” she mumbles. “Even if it is remote, I’m going to have to go in for meetings sometimes.”
Jenna is going to make a stab at reentering the workforce for the career she had originally chosen in journalism. Her dream out of college was to be the chief editor of a major newspaper one day, even though print is struggling. She was well on her way to establishing a career when the fire happened, and her lengthy medical recovery set her back right to the start again.
Except once she healed and was strong enough to return to work, she didn’t have the desire to pursue such a career. Really, she had no desire to be in public because of her scars.
It’s easy for me to say they’re not bad. To the ordinary eye, you can really only see the ones on the lower part of her face and traveling down her neck. No one really knows the back of her legs all the way up to her lower back are riddled with the same knobby pattern of melted flesh. It’s why you never see her in shorts or dresses. Jenna doesn’t want anyone seeing the damage left behind.
“You know,” I start hesitantly. “You’re going to have to open up a bit. Especially if you stay here with me in Phoenix. I think taking this job is a courageous step. I’m glad you’ll have to go in sometimes for meetings, even if it’s scary to you.”
“What do you mean open up?” she asks curiously, because there’s no need to fight over my statement that she actually needs to get out of the house. We’ve had many discussions about that, and to some extent, she’s doing quite well. She’ll take Felicity out wherever she wants to go, so she’s heading in the right direction.
“I mean,” I drawl, seeing the arena up ahead. “Dominik Carlson runs his team like a family. He has many events to bring everyone together, and I’ll want you to be there with me and Felicity because you’re part of my family, and thus part of the Vengeance family. I don’t want you hiding away from people.”
“I don’t hide from people,” she mutters in response, but I hear the guilt laced within.
I shoot her a smirk that she doesn’t see since she’s diligently watching the road and slowing to make her turn into the staff parking lot.
I don’t bother arguing with her because she has, in fact, started to courageously get out of the house more with Felicity. I expect she just needs the practice to reintegrate, as she’s spent much of the last two years recovering and then hiding because of her scars.
She swings into the lot, which is mostly empty given it’s a Sunday, and pulls parallel to the curb that borders the staff entrance. It’s right beside the player’s parking lot and entrance, which leads via staircase directly down to the locker room. The staff entrance opens up to a secure elevator which rises to the top level that houses the executive offices and a state-of-the-art gym. There is some basic equipment for the players in the locker room, such as bikes to warm up on and bands to stretch with, but if they want the full gamut of every imaginable piece of motorized or static equipment you could ever imagine, they have a direct elevator from the locker room up to the gym.
You’d think when they built the arena—which is partially owned by Dominik—they would have put the workout room in the basement near the locker room, but Dominik wanted it on the top level, which is encased in floor-to-ceiling glass with a gorgeous view of downtown Phoenix with the mountainscape behind the glass buildings. The gym is open and available to any member of the organization, as well as their families.
It’s why I’m here on a Sunday. To get in a workout but I’m also going to do a few hours of work at my desk. While I can just as easily work from home, I get a motivating vibe from this arena.