When Jess pulled off his leather jacket at the next night’s hotel, his cell phone fell out of the pocket. Oh crap, he thought. He’d kinda forgotten about the thing. It hadn’t been on in days. He’d finally given people a number that would stick, and he didn’t even remember to answer it.
After a minor fight with his voice mail, in which he jabbed at random keys, trying to remember what his password was, he listened to the droning voice announce that he had four new messages.
“Hey, baby it’s your Mom. TJ and I are having a ball on our honeymoon, but I miss you. You’ll come visit soon, right? And call me back. I feel like we never talk anymore.”
“That’s because we don’t,” Jess muttered.
“I still hate Hemmingway.” That was Lily. He’d suggested that she broaden her reading horizons and sent her a couple books. Apparently she read them.
“Jeez, Jess. I hate leaving messages on these things.” Luke’s gruff voice echoed into his ear. “Some stuff’s happened since you left. I uh, gotta ask you something. Call me back.”
“Jess? Um, this is Rory.” Jess felt his heart skip a beat. “I, um, I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry. I mean, for yelling at you the other night. You just kinda freaked me out. Really freaked me out. I didn’t know how to react. Anyway, I still don’t think we could, or should be together, but I don’t want you to hate me.”
Jess didn’t bother to listen to the rest of the message, instead pitching the phone across the room. Lindsay jumped as the phone bounced off the wall beside her.
She blinked several times at him and gulped. Unable to not be somewhat afraid of his outburst, she tried not to let her apprehension show. “Are you okay?” she asked softly.
“I hate her!” Jess exclaimed, flexing his hands into fists and then straightening out his fingers repeatedly.
Lindsay watched his face contort. She’d never seen such raw emotion on someone’s face before. The expressions that his eyes were making, his jaw, the way his mouth was set, it gave her a infinite sensation of emptiness in her stomach.
Those three words were the last things she heard out of his mouth for most of that night. He pulled a worn paperback out of his duffel bag and curled his body in a ball on the bed, facing the wall. Occasionally the rustle of turning pages was heard, but the sound was infrequent enough to indicate that he wasn’t really reading.
Lindsay watched a sappy movie on the Lifetime Channel about a woman who found out her husband have three other “wives” stowed across the country. It hurt to watch.
She didn’t really care.
Jess stood up later on and picked up the offending cell phone. Despite it’s brief stint as a dart, it still worked. He dialed the familiar number.
“Luke’s.” A gruff voice stated.
Jess cleared his throat. “Hey, I uh, got your message.”
“Jess?”
“Yeah.”
“I really hate to have to ask you this, but, people have been talking.”
He sighed. “About?”
“Dean’s wife left him.”
“Good for her.” Jess avoided the curious glances Lindsay was shooting him from the other bed. One prying person at a time, he thought.
“Babette claims she saw Lindsay get in your car Saturday night.”
Jess froze. He’d really been hoping that no one saw him helping Lindsay into his car that night. Should have known better. In a town like Stars Hollow, nothing is overlooked. Not with Patty and Babette around anyway,
“Jess?”
“Yeah. I’m still here.”
“Jess, her family’s really worried about her. No one’s seen her since she ran out of her and Dean’s apartment on Saturday. If you know where she went….”
He looked over at Lindsay. Her eyes had widened a little, almost as if she knew what they were talking about.
“Dean’s really upset….her mother’s frantic. She thinks something happened to her.”
“She’s fine.”
“What?!”
Jess adjusted the phone. “She’s fine.”
“Where is she?”
“Here.”
“Where the hell is ‘here’?!”
“With me,” Jess answered with a sigh. “She’s with me.”
***
“What did he say?” Lindsay asked softly, several minutes later as Jess hung up the phone.
“That your parents are worried about you. You didn’t call them?”
She shook her head. “I d-didn’t want them to know.”
“Okay. I told Luke he should tell them you’re all right, but I didn’t tell him where we were, or where we’re going.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Jess shrugged. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Yeah, you did.”
The admiration that was shining out of her eyes made him uncomfortable. One nice deed and she was ready to make him a saint. She’d figure out soon enough just how far from the truth it was.
“I’m going to bed,” Jess said curtly, turning onto his side and flicking off the light beside his bed.
Lindsay stared at him for a moment. She had a feeling that she’d never know what was going through his head. He’d helped her escape. Thanks to him she had time to sort out her feelings about everything that had happened, without anyone pressuring her.
She wouldn’t have gotten that at home. Her parents loved Dean. They wouldn’t understand how unhappy she’d been, how bad things had gotten. He hadn’t just made a mistake.
He’d chosen.
***
It was two nights later when Lindsay woke to a warm body slipping under the covers and cuddling up beside her. She tensed slightly, confused, but just then she heard a low rumble of thunder in the distance. Relaxing, she leaned her body slightly into his, refusing to admit to herself just how right it felt.