Page 88 of Finding Jack
He nodded. “I do. And yes, you’d be the medicine he needs, but more like adrenaline than an antidepressant. He’s ready. He doesn’t see it yet. I’m being selfish and wanting you to go remind him that there’s life beyond that little town. It won’t be hard to find a doctor ready for semi-retirement who can take over his clinic gig. I’d love to see Jack back in the game. He was one of the best in his field. It’s where he belongs.”
“It’s not my job.” I’d never wanted to be anyone’s salvation. That felt like a burden far heavier than my shoulders were meant to carry.
“I’ll back off,” he said. “Sorry.”
I shook my head to indicate he didn’t need to apologize.
“I’m going to walk Shep. Will you tell Ranée to text me when she gets up?”
“Not until she’s had a cup of coffee.”
“Good call. Catch you later, Em.”
Shep did some kind of Australian Shepherd celebration when he saw the leash. It involved prancing and tail shaking, and a happy bark when Sean opened the door to go outside.
A text came in. Jack again.Full disclosure: I wanted it to be me with Sean. Maybe you did too. What do we do about that?
Again, I didn’t answer. Because I didn’t know.
Chapter 31
Jack’s unanswered text nagged at me all day. Luckily, I had a ton of work to do because of the software update, so I worked remotely, answering questions from my team as a handful of them worked overtime and popped into our team chat app with questions. But any time I had a second to breathe, I faced down the same question: what should I say to Jack?
I worked until almost midnight and fell into bed exhausted, only to get up and make myself some instant oatmeal and dive back in again. Sean rolled off the sofa and made coffee, silently filling my mug while I tapped at my keyboard like crazy. I gave him an absent-minded smile and thank you and disappeared into the impossible list of tasks that had to get done before the update went live.
Ranée appeared mid-morning. “We’re going to grab brunch. Want to come?”
“Can’t. Living on caffeine until we get this update ready.”
“I’m bringing something home. And you will eat it.”
“As long as I don’t have to leave my laptop.”
An hour later she was back and deposited a spinach quiche with a side of fresh fruit in front of me.
“Eat,” she ordered.
I picked my way through it, not paying attention to anything but my screen until Shep whined. I looked up to see Sean trying to coax him into his carrier. I blinked. “You’re leaving?”
“Yeah. Gotta get back for work tomorrow.”
“You’re making a twenty hour round trip drive to spend a day-and-half with Ranée?”
He looked a little embarrassed. “I wanted her to meet Shep.”
“Well, you and Shep are the cutest, then.”
He got Shep into the carrier and snapped it closed. “We’ll get out of your hair now.”
“You were never in it.”
He hitched his backpack over one shoulder. “Hey, Emily, I’m sorry. I overstepped on the Jack thing. He wouldn’t be thrilled that I said anything. Don’t hold it against him, okay? Whatever you two are doing, you both seem to be having fun. I should’ve stayed out of it.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, finally focusing on him. “You’re a good friend. I get it.”
“I hope so. I think you know if you decided to resign from the real world for a while that Ranée wouldn’t let you get away with it. That’s all I’m doing here, but you’re right: you’re not bait. I’ll figure out another way to get through to him.”
I got up and hugged him. “I’m not mad. Drive safe.”
