“What way? Angry? Hurt? Put off?” She clenched her fists tightly, trying to keep her emotions in check. She was feeling all of that and more.
Brady groaned and took his ball cap off before shifting it back onto his head in a nervous gesture. Jewel rolled her eyes. He had no idea what to say to her. The loud click of the tailgate shutting and the cart being pushed over the asphalt caught her attention.
“You’re a jerk, Brady. Really. Fourteen months of being together and you break up with me via text in the middle of the school day.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t know how else to do it.”
“To my face!” Her voice was nearly a screech. “You don’t invest that kind of time in a relationship and then break up in a text. God, you are so immature.”
“Look who’s talking.”
She glared at him again. “Why? Because I took the time out of my day to confront you, maybe talk this out a bit?”
“You didn’t come here to talk.”
Brady was right, of course, but that didn’t mean Jewel was any happier about it. Not to mention, she wasn’t above making a scene. Everyone in town knew her by that point. She’d been teaching at the school for three years, and they knew she had a mouth on her. “I came here for an explanation.”
“Do you really need one?”
She didn’t. Nothing had been going right with them for the last couple of months, and they’d barely even seen each other. The tension in every date had been high. Jewel held her ground. “I would like one.”
“We’re not working, Jewels. It’s too much. You’re too much.”
“Right.” She nodded slowly, tears stinging her eyes. She was too much. She’d heard that before, unfortunately. She was pretty sure she’d hear it again. The bite in her tone never left. “And what is too much for you?”
“Jesus, this is not the place to be having this conversation.”
“Neither is text.” Her words were sharp, and she knew she’d made her point.
Brady sighed heavily. “I’m sorry I texted you that way.”
Jewel wanted to curse at him, wanted to completely let loose, but they were standing in the middle of the parking lot at the only grocery store in town, so it would not be wise. “What is too much about me?”
“I’m not listing everything out.”
“Why not? Tell me. Maybe I can change it. Not for you, obviously, but tell me, Brady, how am I ‘too much’?”
“Crap like this. You just don’t let up when you should.”
“You mean I’m not docile.” That one should hurt him, but instead it hurt her. She wasn’t built to be the stay-at-home wife who put her entire life into her kids’ lives. She needed more than that—deserved more than that—but she had to remind herself where she’d moved to, a tiny town in the middle of nowhere Kansas. They were fifty years behind the rest of the country in some ways. This was one of them. Repeatedly people had asked if, when she and Brady got married, she would quit to stay home with the kids. It was disgusting, really.
“I don’t mean that. I mean that this isn’t the time or the place, and you should drop it already.”
“That’s fancy, you calling me out on time and place when I could say the very same about you.” She wasn’t going to back down. As much as that inner voice in her head told her to stop, she couldn’t keep her tongue in check, and every time he said something, she had a retort to keep the argument going. But the fact remained, they weren’t together anymore. He didn’t have to stay and talk to her. He didn’t have to explain anything to her. She took a different tact. “Fourteen months, Brady. I think I deserve more than a Dear John text.”
He didn’t respond immediately, but the pallor of his cheeks told her she had pushed him to see her point. She shook her head at him, stepping away from his truck and putting her hands out to her sides as she walked backward toward her car.
“Next time you break up with someone, try not to be a jerk about it.”
With that as her final word, Jewel shoved her way into her car. She sped out of the parking lot, way faster than she should have, but she was rightfully angry. She drove straight home, to the tiny two-bedroom house she managed to rent. Pulling under the carport, she closed her eyes and pressed her forehead to the steering wheel, hot tears streaming down her cheeks. This was it. She couldn’t go through something like this again.
“What is wrong with me?” she whispered to no one but herself.
Jewel tried to brush the tears from her cheeks, but it just made more fall to replace them. The droplets were hot as they streaked across her skin and down her chin to fall in her lap. Fourteen months of what? Nothing. She needed a shirt: “Fourteen months and all I got was a text.”
The thought brought a smirk to her lips. She should get it, and then she should wear it all around town for the next month. It was vindictive, yes, but it’d make her feel a little better, at least for a month. Groaning, Jewel pulled her seatbelt off and rested in the driver’s seat. She didn’t want to go inside to her lonely house. She didn’t want to do anything except wallow in self-pity and despair.
The sound of knocking on her side window startled her. Jewel jumped and turned to face the door as it opened. The face that popped down to stare at her was the most welcome sight in the world.