Page 49 of Jackson's Redemption
I looked up as Ark sat at the table with this beer.
“Get this,” he said to me and Cal. “I told Olivia about my date with Jenny and she wished me luck. I’m not buying it. She hates me. She should hate the idea of me being happy with someone. Just one more thing I would have over her. Doesn’t make sense.”
Cal and I exchanged a glance. Right. Olivia hated Ark and Ark hated Olivia. That was their story and they were sticking to it. Only now Ark was upset because Olivia wasn’t more upset about him going on a date.
I considered telling him to stop being an idiot and just make a move on Olivia already, but I was in no place to give love advice to anyone.
I was spared having to reply when Cal announced some news of his own. “Got a call from Angel. He’s extending his leave.”
“Permanently?” I asked.
Permanently would mean he’d figured out a way to forgive Shelby for lying to him. Permanently would mean he was choosing her over the job. I wanted to be happy for him. I wanted to be…but I wasn’t.
“No. He’s taking some time to spend with this mother. Just so happens Shelby works not too far away and he’s seeing where things go with that but, by all accounts, it seems to be going well. He thinks Shelby might be open to coming back to Hope’s Point. She’s already talked to Eve about being a nanny to Zeke Junior and apparently Eve loved the idea.”
I thought about Zeke allowing another woman into his space and didn’t buy it for a second. That man was far too private and, if I had to guess, there were a lot of secrets he was holding close to his chest.
Then I thought about Eve asking him for this and I knew he would give her anything she wanted.
Because he loved her.
I thought about Eli forgiving Shelby for lying to him.
Because he loved her.
“Okay,” Ark said, clapping his hands looking at me. “That’s one happily-ever-after ending. Now, let’s make it two. Why don’t you pull an Angel and go after your woman? Try to win her back and shit.”
“No.”
“No? I don’t get it. Why not? It worked for Angel.”
“Not the same thing.”
Eli had walked out on Shelby first, basically pushing her away. Maybe for a good reason. Maybe because she scared the fuck out of him. She had no intentions of coming back unless he went to get her. The fact she was considering coming back meant she hadn’t been lying about her feelings for him.
Really, that was all that mattered. The other stuff was bullshit.
But I didn’t push Kate away. Kate left me.
Not the same thing at all.
I stood. “You two get a ride with some of the other guys. I’m going to head back early.”
Ark looked like he wanted to say something, but Cal cut him off with a short shake of his head.
He knows, I thought. Cal knew what this felt like. This gut-aching sense of loss.
Kate. She’d been with me only a handful of days. Or my whole life. I wasn’t sure. It shouldn’t hurt like this.
Except it did.
* * *
Palm Beach
Kate
It was crazy. I was a cop. I was supposed to look for the details. See the patterns, but in my own life, it was like I saw nothing.
