Page 95 of Where You're Planted

Jack hadn’t expected toseehim. He also hadn’t expected that the clear, undeniable link to Briar—to Tansy—would hit him in the gut like this.

When Charlie pulled Tansy in for a hug as well, Jack could neither keep watching in silence, nor look away. They were afamily. Even if they weren’t one right now, they’d started as one, and Charlie would always be in their lives because Tansy wanted Briar to have a relationship with him, because Briardeserveda father.

It wasn’t nothing.

It was a lot moresomethingthan Jack had realized when Charlie was just an idea to him, when he wasn’t standing right here, holding Tansy in that hug for far too long.

Charlie was saying something into Tansy’s ear. It was all too intimate. A swell of jealousy spread through Jack’s lungs like some kind of toxic algae bloom. The vice around his head cranked even tighter, along with a faint ringing in his ears.

When Tansy pulled back, though, she looked stricken by whatever Charlie had said to her. Her eyebrows were drawn together, her mouth tight. Her eyes darted down to Briar and back to Charlie. Whatever she replied to him was short and quiet, cautious.

Jack should have made his way to his truck. She’d wanted space from him, and he knew better than to think two hours had cut it.

But he had no willpower to walk away. And he wasn’t going to hide in the shadows likehewas the one in the wrong place here. Hell, these werehisgardens. He strode across the courtyard.

“Could we talk about this later?” Tansy asked Charlie through a forced smile, eyes cutting to Briar, who was catching every bit of the exchange.

“Later? When will that be?” Charlie shot back. He was standing too close to her. And now Jack saw his hand on Tansy’s wrist.

“What’s going on here?” Jack cut in.

They both turned in surprise, breaking their face-off, butthen they ended up shoulder to shoulder, them versus him. Charlie didn’t let go of her wrist. Tansy’s face and neck were splotchy with stress, and Jack didn’t know if it was lingering emotion from her horrible day, or from whatever was going on between her and Charlie.

“Jack!” Briar exclaimed, throwing her arms around his waist. Despite the thick tension oozing around them like tree sap, the hug was sweet. He stooped to say, “Hey. Those caterpillars hatched. They’re munching everything in sight.”

“Really? Can I go look, Mom?”

Tansy shot Jack a grateful but wary look. “Sure. Stay where I can see you.”

Briar skipped down the short walk to the garden he’d shown her during the festival and began carefully peeking under leaves.

“What’s going on?” Jack asked again, this time without the ounce of warmth he’d put there for Briar’s sake. He edged close to Tansy and lifted his hand to her lower back. She shifted away.

“This is Jack, huh?” Charlie said, not so much as glancing Jack’s way. “The guy my kid’s been hanging out with without a word of his existence from you?”

Tansy closed her eyes. “It’s not like that.”

Jack swallowed.Not like that.

Charlie huffed a harsh exhale. “So you’re not fucking him?”

“Charlie.”

Jack didn’t think, just pushed between Tansy and her ex, using the few inches of height he had on him to his full advantage.

“Here we go,” Charlie said, throwing Jack a wild,gotchasmirk. “This just proves it, man.”

“Jack,” Tansy pleaded wearily, tugging his arm.

He didn’t budge. “Show some respect when you speak to her, or you won’t be speaking to her.”

“Jack,” Tansy snapped, yanking hard on his arm. “Jesus.”

He let her drag him back two big steps and come around to face him, hands on his straining biceps, eyes sharp on his face. “Please, let me handle this.”

She looked exhausted and weary, and rather than leave her to handle anything, he wanted to call a new truce, a time-out from their current impasse and from whatever was going on here with her ex, so he could smooth every new line of tension from her face.

Jack stayed put when she removed her hands from him, which she took as compliance, if tenuous. His actions depended entirely on Charlie’s next move. Jack could restrain himself. He could override the way concern led to him stomping and barking, as she’d complained recently. But he certainly wasn’t going to leave, so she’d better not ask him to.

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