Page 36 of Comeback
Is this a dream?
He pulled up to the front entrance and parked. While I stood and stared at the house, Jack freed Mackenzie from her car seat. He unlocked the front door and waved us in.
Mackenzie hopped through the open door, stamped her feet, and gleefully shouted, “Wow!”
Wow was right—it was like walking into a palace. The morning sun shone through the tall windows, bathing the elegant tile floors in golden light. The ceilings had to be twelve feet high.
“Your house ishuge,Jack!” Mackenzie yelled.
“Jesus, Jack,” I said beneath my breath.
“C’mon, girls,” he said, leading us forward. “We’re just cutting through.”
My head turned left and right as Jack led us through his house. Every room sang with bright, natural light—from the living room that overlooked the lake to the grand dining room with the beautiful hardwood floors, to the absolutely stunning gourmet kitchen with the gleaming marble countertops.
I was dying for the full tour, but we had other plans. Jack took us out the back door and down the balcony stairs. Mackenzie went hopping and skipping ahead of us along the stone walkway. The path forked, and Mackenzie took the right turn that led to the beach.
“This way, Mack!” Jack yelled, pointing to the path on the left.
He has anotherhouse?I thought when I saw the detached two-story stone building that sat right on the water.
“Is … is that a guest house?” I asked.
“It’s a boat house,” he said. “But the second floor serves as a guest house, yeah.”
“Jack …” I croaked.
“Yeah?”
“This house … how …” I couldn’t speak. Not only could I not find the right words, but my throat was bone-dry.
He smiled. “I tried to tell you at the park the other night.”
“Tell me what?” I stammered.
“What I did for a living,” he said, as he pulled out a set of keys and unlocked the boat house door. The lock clicked free, but he didn’t turn the knob just yet. “I know you’ve been asking, and I haven’t exactly given you any satisfying answers yet.”
True, I’d been asking, but now, after seeing where and how he lived, I almost didn’twantto know—because guys as young as Jack didn’t have enough years on Earth to have amassed this much wealth. All the secrecy about his life, all the evasive answers—it all started making sense. I was beginning to think Jack had made a fortune doing something illegal or immoral, and none of this would last …
I held Mackenzie’s hand tight and waited for him to tell me. But before he told me, he turned the knob and pushed the boat house door open. Once again, Mackenzie hopped in first and shouted, “WOW! Mommy, look!”
I stepped in after her and gasped.
I’d expected to see aboatin his boat house.Y’know, with an aluminum body and faded paint? The kind that your crazy neighbor stores on a trailer in his backyard, permanently covered beneath a tarp, and probably houses a family of rats?
But Jack didn’t have a boat. He had ayacht.A SunseekerPortofinoto be exact, according to the stenciling on the side. Floating in the water, the fifty-foot-long boat took up much of the boat house’s footprint. Despite its size, the luxuriousPortofinolooked powerful and sporty with its sleek and aggressive curves.
I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.
“Jack,” I gasped. Again, I could barely speak.
“She’s something, isn’t she?” he asked.
He flicked a switch and the automatic boat house garage door began to roll up, revealing the open expanse of the lake before us. Then he put an orange life preserver on Mackenzie and fastened it. He picked her up and stepped onto the boat’s rear deck. Jack turned back and extended his hand to me. I took his hand and stepped onto the boat, my head swimming.
“Welcome aboard,” he said.
The rear of the boat had a sun lounge. We followed Jack up two steps and entered the L-shaped lounge. I only felt dizzier as I turned around and took in the yacht’s amenities. A fully stocked wet bar. A roomy vinyl couch circled a collapsible table, where the crew could eat or play cards. Mackenzie jumped onto the couch and crawled across it, hooting and hollering about howawesomethis was.
