Page 34 of Comeback
I finished tying Mack’s shoelaces and let her go. She dashed out of my arms and ran towards Jack. He scooped her up, held her in the crook of his arm, and gave her the bloodstone. “You ready to go out on a boat today, little girl?”
“Uh-huh!” she answered, nodding profusely, studying the bloodstone up close.
“Good.” He smiled. “You really like that stone, don’t you?”
“It’s so pretty,” she said quietly.
“It is, isn’t it?” he answered, catching my eye.
I stood and approached him, the butterflies in my stomach nervously flitting about. Our eyes met. There was an undeniable magic, an electricity, between us.
“Hi, Jack,” I said quietly, not knowing what to do with my arms. I wanted to kiss him, or at the very leasthughim, but I knew I couldn’t.
“Morning, Emma.”
Jack, I could tell, wanted to touch me, too—his eyes meandered up and down my body before he forced himself to look away. He knew he couldn’t touch me.
“Oookay,” Nicole laughed, cutting through the tension. “I think you’re all ready to go, yeah?”
Jack cleared his throat, regaining his composure. “I am. You ready, girls?”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
“Then let’s hit the road.”
We said our byes to Nicole, and Jack led us outside. Parked on the curb was a pristine forest green Range Rover.
“This is your car?” I stammered, wondering what exactly Jack had done back when he worked, before he ran off with his savings.
“Yep,” he said.
“Wow, it’s nice.” I walked right past his car, though, and unlocked Nicole’s car.
“What’re you doing?” he asked.
“I gotta switch out Mackenzie’s car seat,” I said.
He smiled and shook his head. “No, you don’t. Come look.”
I neared. Jack opened the back door and showed me that a child’s seat was already waiting.
“Oh,” I said, surprised. He hadn’t mentioned anything about having kids of his own. “Is this yours?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“Oh,” I said again, my heart sinking. I wondered how much he’d been keeping from me all along. Was it possible thathewas the one that was already happily married? Did he have young ones of his own at home? Did that make me a home-wrecker?
But before I could spiral any further, Jack spoke again.
“I bought it the other day,” he said.
“Wait. You bought it for this?” I asked, panting with disbelief. Those child seats weren’t exactly cheap. “Fortoday?”
He nodded.
“Jack!” I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“She’s gonna need it, Emma,” he said. And though he didn’t say a single word more, I knew exactly what the implication was:because we’re going to be seeing a lot more of each other.
