Page 50 of Finding Jack
I almost wanted to give him another fifty Scrabble points for that answer. “Why would you know that?”
He shrugged. It drew attention to the many favors his soft cotton thermal did for his broad shoulders, so much so that I almost missed his explanation.
“I knew a guy.”
“You knew a zambuck?”
“I did. Play again?”
“Wait, I feel like this requires more investigation. How did you meet a zambuck? Did you go on vacation to Australia and stumble across one?”
He shifted and rubbed his eyes. “Not exactly. It was kind of a work thing.”
I wanted to ask what kind of work thing requires you to cross paths with a zambuck, but he didn’t look like he wanted to get into it any further, so I let it go. Instead, I clicked to start a new game. “Play again.”
I beat him by ten points that I had to work really hard for. Somehow, at the end of two hours, we were tied at one win each, but he was about a hundred points ahead in the making-me-laugh category.
“You’re really funny,” he said. “I like that.”
“I was literally just thinking the same thing about you,” I admitted. “You’re even funnier than you are on Twitter.”
“Thanks,” he said. His focus shifted for a second, blinking at something on his screen that wasn’t on the camera. “I should probably call it a night. But I’ve never had so much fun being a loser before.”
I gave him a mock frown. “If we’re talking total points, this is a murder scene and I’m dead.”
“Dark. I like it.”
I liked how often he said he liked things about me. It was a nice change from Paul’s earnest but constant suggestions for improvements I could make. “That’s me. Pitch black soul.”
“On that note…”
I smiled at him. “I’ll ‘see’ you around.”
“Definitely.”
We cut the connection, and I stood up and stretched, enjoying the prickle of every nerve ending coming alive.
Wait.
I sat back down as the adrenaline washed over me. How could I feel this tingly and alive after playing Scrabble for two hours?
I almost wished Ranée were here to help me work through that. Because this wasn’t as simple as, “You feel tingly because you like him.” There was something else at play, but I wasn’t sure I could explain it to her. Besides, she would most likely be out for hours still. It was only ten at night.
For a second, I paused to wonder why Jack had needed to go. It looked like he’d gotten a call or text while we were talking. But I refused to jump to fretting that maybe he had another virtual flirtation going on. So what if he did? It was none of my business. I wasn’t the jealous type, and I wasn’t going to become so now.
I was a whole ball of things at once. Energized, worried, slightly smitten, a little stressed. All of it made my insides itchy, like when I was a kid and I’d watched too much TV, and I’d suddenly need to be outside doing pretty much anything as long as it got me moving.
I headed back to my room to do my FEMA work. Imposing order on chaos always cleared my head, but as I plucked some workout clothes from the floor to fold, I realized what I really wanted was to be OUT. Out of my house, out of my head.
I changed into the workout clothes instead of putting them away, grabbed my keys and phone, and headed out the door to the gym. There was nothing like several miles on a punishing treadmill course to burn off the restlessness. It hummed in my chest and over my scalp, like I could flick my fingers and strike a spark with the excess energy buzzing through me.
If that didn’t work out the strangeness cresting inside me…
Well, I needed the run to work. That was all. I just did.
Chapter 19
The gym was deserted. That was no surprise late on a Friday night. I was glad for the empty line of treadmills and jumped on the middle one, setting the course for hills.
