Page 106 of Forever Wild
“I missed you.”
“Jack—” I start, but I have no idea what to say. I’m so glad to see him. It feels like a little piece of home, but I don’t know what it means.
“Let me feed you and then we can talk. All right? If you want me to leave and never come back?—”
“You’ll listen?” I ask, skeptical.
He just smirks as he pulls into the parking lot. The pizzeria doesn’t have a lot of seating; they do more pickup and delivery than dining in, but Jack orders and we sit outside while we wait.
The weather is perfect. Still warm with a hint of fall in the air. The leaves are starting to change, but in a few more weeks it’ll be beautiful.
“I can’t believe you’re here.”
“I’m starting to get a complex,” he says, leaning back in his chair across from me.
“Don’t you have things to do? Practice? Captaining?”
“Captaining?” He grins. He looks so handsome when he smiles like that, it’s hard not to mimic his expression.
“Yeah, it’s how you spend most of your day. Bossing people around, making sure everyone else has what they need and are taken care of.”
He keeps smiling, but it takes on a hint of confusion like he doesn’t really see it like that. “We leave tomorrow afternoon so everyone else is spending time with their loved ones and packing up.”
And he’s here. I don’t point that out, but my face warms.
“That still doesn’t explain why you’re here.”
“I missed you.”
I blow out a breath. When he lays it out there so simply it makes my head spin.
“We should have gone somewhere with alcohol.”
Jack leans forward and his long fingers cover mine. “I’m here because I want to be. I want to see what your life is like here so I can picture you working hard and kicking ass.”
One hand reaches up and fingers the end of my hair. “So, tell me about your day.”
I let out a shaky breath, but he pulls back and it allows me to think clearer.
“I spent the morning in the office ordering things for clients and tracking down items that are delayed.”
He hangs on to my words like they’re fascinating, but I know they aren’t because I was bored to tears. But he asked for it, so I keep going. “This afternoon I went out to the lake house I’m staging.”
“Yeah?” His smile widens. “I looked online, but I wasn’t sure which one.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. I told you, I want to be able to picture you here.”
“It isn’t listed yet.” I pull out my phone and open the photos I took. I slide my phone across the table to him.
“Wow. This is stunning. The views are great,” he says as he flips through all of them twice.
“Right? And you should see it in person. The photos don’t do it justice. The entire first floor has a view out onto the water. The living room has these big, floor to ceiling windows, and the dining room opens up onto a little patio. Oh, and the master bedroom has a fireplace and this little nook perfect for a reading chair. I can picture curling up with coffee or a book, occasionally staring out at the water.”
I stop rambling and feel the flush in my cheeks.
“Anyway.” I take my phone back from him. “I still have a lot ofwork to do. It’s a really big project for my first one and the stakes are high. I feel like I’m in over my head. If I fail…” I trail off. I don’t say it, but he knows.
