Jennifer's Body

Jennifer’s Body

By Allison Rain

Copyright @Allison Rain Publishing

All Rights Reserved

All the characters of the book are fictional and in no way represents any person living or dead.

In no way it is legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Contents

Chapter 1 Frustration

Chapter 2 Night in the town

Chapter 3 New friends

Chapter 4 Tender passion

Chapter 5 About Last Night

Chapter 6 A Surprise Visit

Chapter 7 A legacy and a trip

Chapter 8 Meeting the family

Chapter 9 Grandma’s Diaries

Author’s Important Message

CHAPTER 1

: Frustration

Jennifer was pissed. Again. More accurately, she had been made pissed. By yet another member of the male species...the third inside a year.

Jenni, Tom pleaded as he stood in the doorway of the apartment.

DON'T 'JENNI' ME, ASSWIPE! she said angrily. I could KILL YOU! Just GET OUT! GET OUT OF MY APARTMENT and GET OUT OF MY LIFE!

But, Jennifer...

Jennifer whirled around and began advancing on Tom. She picked up an ashtray. I said GO!!! NOW!!! She hurled the ashtray at her now ex-boyfriend. He ducked out and slammed the door as the ashtray struck it, shattering.

After a moment, she cooled down. Rage gave way to despondency—her third relationship in a year, and it had come to this. Again. As she looked at the pieces of the ashtray, all she could think of was why she had had it in the first place, since she hadn't smoked since high school over six years ago.

Before Tom (a younger man—a college freshman she'd started dating as an experiment—and who, incidentally, had failed to mention his high-school age fiancee, as well as another high-school girlfriend), there was James...

James was a young man with burning ambition. Jennifer admired a guy with ambition...the only problem was, James's burning ambition was to sit in front of the television and drink beer all the time. The last time Jennifer had seen James was a night he'd invited her over for what she'd hoped would be a romantic (even passionate?) evening. She'd been ready...but for the competition.

Jennifer, while not what you'd call drop-dead gorgeous, was by no means unattractive—with her flaming red hair, large sapphire-blue eyes, and a figure that some guys would describe as fun, she was more than a match for any other woman who'd care to take her on where men were concerned... unfortunately, she was no match for the Green Bay Packers. She'd stood in the door of James's bedroom in her sexiest lingerie for about forty minutes before she got dressed and left without saying a word. James had never called after that...she doubted he'd ever noticed she was gone.

She'd moved to Port Landers a year before when she started her job as an assistant librarian. It wasn't a traumatic change...the town where she'd grown up was only thirty miles away. Still, it had been a bit lonely after college...Jennifer really didn't know anyone except for her cousin Caitlyn (also her best friend since childhood), who was usually busy with her plant shop. She and Caitlyn would talk on the phone several times a week, and sometimes would be able to meet coffee, or dinner—once in a blue moon, they might even get to go see a movie together. But it wasn't really the same. For the most part, Jennifer's life consisted of the library, her apartment, and an occasional drink with some of her acquaintances from work at a small neighborhood bar around the corner from her apartment building. It wasn't the worst life in the world—but it wasn't particularly exciting, either. Yes, she enjoyed her job at the Salish County Library (she had always loved books), but it seemed that there had to be more to life than her job, her apartment, and the neighborhood bar.

Two weeks after settling in, she met Ahmed...a dark, exotic Arab who worked as a bank executive. Jennifer had been smitten. They'd dated for several weeks before Jennifer began to notice that Ahmed had another love in his life—one with whom Jennifer could never hope to compete with. Ahmed bin-Faisal was a man totally, completely, passionately in love with—Ahmed bin-Faisal. Ahmed could deny his own truest love nothing, including the company and charms of any and all women that caught his eye. Jennifer found out about that when Caitlyn called one day to inform her that her boyfriend had been coming by the plant shop several times a week, putting the moves on her. Now, Jennifer had a very dual nature—she could be as sweet as Cindy Brady...or she could be as nasty as Lorena Bobbitt (for whom Jennifer had come to have a great deal of sympathy). Jennifer called Ahmed, confronted him, told him what she thought of him, made some rather colorful references to his family lineage, and informed him that if he ever came near her again, she would do a Lorena Bobbitt on him.

Where most young women Jennifer's age might have stayed in these sorts of relationships, or reacted to the break-ups by turning on the waterworks, Jennifer's reactions had ranged from extreme irritation to unmitigated rage...at least externally. The day after ejecting Tom from her apartment, however, Jennifer woke up feeling extremely depressed...not over Tom, specifically, nor James or Ahmed for that matter...but the state of her love-life in general. She'd dated a fair number of people in college...and even a couple in high school, but they never turned into significant relationships. In college, she'd been too busy to let it bother her much...besides; Caitlyn (with whom she'd shared a dorm room while she worked on a degree in botany) was all the company she'd needed. But now, with her own career, and Caitlyn running her own business, it seemed they never had time to get together. Was it really the closeness with Caitlyn she missed...?

Caitlyn and Jennifer were pretty close to the same age as well as being cousins. For the first several years of her life, Jennifer's Aunt Patrice (Caitlyn's mother) had lived across the street from them...it was no surprise that they became best friends. Then, when they were in sixth grade, Aunt Patrice met her second husband—a hay-farmer—and her and Caitlyn moved to the country. It wasn't far—only a couple of hours by car—but Jennifer had been genuinely sad for the first time in her life. Caitlyn came to visit regularly, and they wrote letters to each other every week, but it wasn't the same.

Jennifer began to think back on one particular summer, nine years earlier...

It was the summer after Jennifer's freshman year in high school...they had both been fifteen then. Jennifer had been looking forward to that summer eagerly—she would be spending the whole time in the country with Aunt Patrice and her cousin Caitlyn. They had planned it for months, and it was finally going to happen.

Something else had happened that year...Jennifer had gotten interested in a boy for the first time in her life. She had been too shy to approach him before school ended for the summer...but that was just as well, she thought. She'd hoped to talk to Caitlyn about it...maybe she would have some advice...

The first few days on the farm were idyllic...the warm, breezy days of early summer washed over Jennifer like ocean waves. Caitlyn had become intensely interested in plants, and couldn't wait to show Jennifer her own garden, which she planted herself in a corner plot her step-father had set aside for her. Jennifer found herself learning more about plants than she'd ever thought existed—when they went for bicycle rides in the woods, Caitlyn would point out all the different types of trees and bushes, when they walked in the fields, she seemed to know every type of grass and flower...while Jennifer didn't quite share Caitlyn's enthusiasm for the subject, she listened patiently, just happy to be with her best friend once more.

At night, the conversations turned to other things...sometimes Jennifer and Caitlyn would stay up talking about school, or the books Jennifer loved...but eventually, the topic turned to the subject of boys.

For two or three weeks, Caitlyn and Jennifer would stay up far into the night, giggling as they gossiped and compared notes on the boys they knew at their respective schools. Predictably, Caitlyn had gotten interested in boys too, but unlike Jennifer, there hadn't really been one boy in particular.

So have you kissed him yet? asked Caitlyn one night.

Jennifer had blushed, giggling. Are you kidding? I don't think he even knows I'm alive! Then she got (mock) serious. How about you? Ever kissed a boy?

Caitlyn shook her head. I wouldn't even know how.

Jennifer and Caitlyn agreed that night that it would behoove them to get some experience in the fine art of kissing. The problem was, most of the boys their age around there were gone for the summer.

Nobody at all Jennifer had asked.

Again Caitlyn shook her head. There aren't really that many boys around here anyway...

Jennifer thought for a moment. Well then...how are we gonna get any practice in? I'd really like to know how to do it before I see (now what was his name? Jennifer thought, straining to remember) again

Suddenly, Caitlyn had had what seemed a bizarre idea. Hey—maybe we could practice with each other!

Jennifer had been quite taken aback—at first. Kissing another girl? That seemed really weird.

But Caitlyn didn't seem to think the idea was all that outlandish. "After all, remember