Page 14 of It's a Love Story

I ALLOW MYSELF ONE MINUTE AND TWO KIT KATS BEfore I call Lyle again. I cannot believe I wimped out like that. Of course I should have stepped up and owned it. I sang that song with Jack, and his uncle would remember that song. It rings and rings until I realize he’s probably blocked my number.Oof.I call Dan.

He picks up on the first ring. “Let’s hear it.” His voice echoes. Not for the first time, I think of him as Batman, but in his lair.

“Are you in a cave?”

“Darkroom.”

“Ah, retirement planning.”

“Don’t use my joke,” he says.

“So I’m wondering if your brother has seen Jack. Like maybe he could talk to him?”

“Quinlan?”

“No, Jack Frost, Dan. Of course Jack Quinlan.” I hate the thing my voice does when I say his name. Like it wobbles on the way out.

Dan lets out a breath. “Okay? Why are we wanting an electrician involved in the negotiations? Jane, could you please start making sense.”

“I sort of overstated where we are with Jack.”

“Oh God,” he says. “This is going to be good.”

“It’s not,” I say.

He doesn’t say anything, but I can hear him on the other end of the phone. “Areyouin a cave?” he asks.

“I’m in my closet,” I say. That hardly seems important now. “I haven’t talked to Jack in nearly twenty years. It was just an idea I had on the spot. But it did buy us some time and another round with the green light committee?”

“You made it up.” I hear him open and close a door, and it now sounds like he’s in a bigger space. I hear his footsteps stop and water run.

“I did.” I whisper it. “There are going to be layoffs. I was desperate. All we need to do is pitch the story to him. It’s one song and he’ll probably win an Oscar.”

“Oh, is that all we need to do?” Dan lets out an infuriating little laugh.

I am crying. Just quiet tears rolling down my cheeks that tell me this is never going to happen. There’s no song. There’s no tiger.

“Jane? You there?”

“Yeah, sorry. I know you’re right. There’s no way.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you know that I used to be an actress?” I ask. I’m thinking about before I settled in to being Janey Jakes. I killed it in middle school as Audrey singing about a picket fence. I thought Angelica asked me to audition because of my singing voice rather than my flair for the awkward. I wipe my eyes on the hem of my first-date dress. Fresh and likeable rather than deceptive and sad.

“I didn’t,” he says. “Is that when you knew Jack Quinlan?”

“Sort of.” I am obviously not going to elaborate. “It was when I was a kid. I really thought I was going to be famous. The joke was always on me, but I made it work. But then I grew up. I keep trying and failing to be taken seriously. Everyone else seems to be leveling up, you know? Joke’s still on me.”

“I’m sorry,” he says.

“For what?”

“For screwing upStar Crossedfor you, though I probably saved you.”

“See, it’s not an apology when you immediately take it back.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that too.”

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