Page 37 of Carry Me Home
I blinked. How could money not be an issue? On a bartender’s salary, I would have thought money wasalwaysan issue.
She shook her head. “Even if you picked her up every day this week—and again, Jack, that means a lot, seriously—summer vacation starts in two weeks.” Frustration bled into her voice. “I’ve tried nannies before, but no one worked out. Maya is autistic. She’s a level one on the spectrum, which is high functioning, but I haven’t been able to find anyone who could handle her long-term. They’re usually out at her first meltdown.” She blew out a slow breath. “If I had more time, maybe I would have been able to find someone from out of town. Someone in Denver or wherever who had experience with kids like Maya. But it’s too late.”
Maya was autistic? Should I have known that? I didn’t know much about autism, but it was hard imagining Maya having a meltdown of any kind.
Janie’s gaze cut to her daughter at the end of the bar and her whole face softened. “She deserves the whole world. I can do this. I can swallow my pride and apologize. As long as I know the truth, isn’t that what really matters?”
The words were quiet, spoken more to herself than to me. She wasn’t looking for my agreement. I hoped.
Because she sure as fuck wasn’t going to get it.
An idea popped into my head. Adrenaline made my heart pump faster, excitement coursing through my veins.Operation Fuck Those Fucking Fuckwads. God, I loved a mission.
She was still looking at Maya, all that love shining straight at her like a tractor beam, when I picked up the card and rippedit in half. Then I stacked the sides together and ripped it again. Shit, that felt good. Satisfying.
Janie paused like it had taken her brain a moment to catch up to what her ears had just heard, and then her head whipped toward me. She blinked down at the card scraps. Her mouth dropped open.
I took a sip of beer. It hit just right.
“Jack! What did you—why—what—” she sputtered.
“You can’t apologize to that asshole, Ace. You know you can’t.”
She slapped the bar top with both palms. “For Maya, I can do anything.” She leaned forward, dark eyes blazing furiously. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
I had some idea, actually. Janie Belmont was a firecracker. And goddamn, I wanted to see her with her fuse lit. But not like this.
Never like this.
Janie deserved so much more than to burn herself up for someone else’s wrongs.
“I told you I don’t have another option,” Janie hissed.
“Yes, you do.”
“Yeah?” she huffed sarcastically. “What is it?”
I spread my arms wide and leaned back with a self-satisfied smirk. “Me.”
15
JANIE
“No,”I said. I didn’t have to think about it. There was no way. It was too ludicrous to contemplate.
Jack looked at me like he had never heard the word before. Honestly, he probably hadn’t. “Okay,” he said, like he was agreeing with me, but I knew he wasn’t. “Let’s plan it out. Tell me all the reasons why it won’t work, and we can settle them one by one. We need a battle plan, that’s all.”
He actually looked excited about it, like this was one of his special forces’ missions to rescue an asset instead of babysitting duties. Why was that so damned hot? I looked away so I could focus on what was best for Maya instead of the way his biceps bunched as he folded his arms on the bar.
“In the first place, you have a job,” I reminded him. “You’re a cowboy, remember? I’m pretty sure Adam isn’t going to let you have a seven-year-old tag along while you work cows.”
“Nah, he’d probably be fine with it, actually. He’s a single parent too, remember? Ben used to do that all the time.”
“And even if hewere,” I bulldozed ahead, not letting him prove me wrong with things like facts, “Maya does not want to be chasing cows at sunrise.”
“That’s fair. I wouldn’t ask her to.”
Well. Okay, then. I’d expected him to try a little harder and not give up at the first impediment. “Good. So we agree it won’t work.”
