Page 58 of One More Kiss

Jack

Jack choked back angry tears.He’d never been much of a crier, but the past three years had done their worst and a man could only be so strong.

And that stubborn woman inside was being strong enough for both of them. A wall of solid steel, he’d swear there was no way to get through to her.

But what about the pink flush that had risen in her pale cheeks just now?

The flare in her hazel eyes?

For the first time in two years the wary, ashen look of being suspended in grief fell away revealing the fire inside her.

God, he hated the hope that bloomed in his belly at the sight knowing the crash could follow not far behind.

“What’s it going to take, Tucker?” he asked as though Tucker held all the secrets to the world.

And maybe Tucker did. He’d watched their lives unfold beginning to end, living every moment with them.

Tucker leaned against him glancing between Jack and the water below, his tongue lolling out. Jack knew the old boy was just waiting for some cue from him it was okay to jump in. He always waited.

Loyal to a fault.

“Go ahead, boy. Show me what you’ve got.”

Tucker crouched and leaned forward, his front paws on the edge of the dock and with one quick jump, arms and legs splayed wide, he splashed into the cool lake below sending water in every direction.

Breaking the surface, droplets ran down his thick fur, making it even darker. The onyx black only highlighted Tucker’s gray muzzle and the white hairs that had mixed in with the dark on other areas of his wise face.

Time marched on.

Jack had become so embroiled in the cycle of working, burying pain, and working more that he hadn’t noticed the years creeping in.

But it stood there, just waiting for him to notice, in every new wrinkle, in aches and pains that didn’t recede as quickly as they once had, in every lonely night he’d spent, with no desire to muster any energy to join the guys from work for a drink, or entertain moving on.

Moving on… he couldn’t.

Just the thought of another woman in his arms—no. Meg belonged there. Even after a year of simmering anger and tense silence, there was no other woman he wanted with him.

Tucker yelped snapping Jack from the fog of memories and into the now.

Twenty feet out Tucker whimpered and struggled to get back, his eyes once excited for the water, now darting back and forth full of fear.

“I’m coming Tucker!” He yanked off his shirt and dove through the surface. Opening his eyes under water and gliding through with strong strokes, Tucker’s kicking paws came into view in the murky haze.

Tucker sunk under the surface, thrashing his head, struggling to break the surface again. His back legs coiled against him, locked tight, as he struggled to doggie paddle with just his front paws.

Jack’s lungs burned with his last glide. Shoving his shoulder under the Tucker’s chest, he kicked hard launching them both topside.

Jack sucked in a gulp of air as Tucker licked his face, his front paws planted on either side of Jack’s face.

Squinting against the assault of dog saliva, Jack laid back, and started a series of kicks to get them back to the sandy patch of beach next to the dock.

“I’ve got you, boy. I won’t let you go,” he said.

Only he’d have to. In a few days they would walk Tucker in and consciously end it humanely before Tucker could suffer more.

Dragging him onto shore, Jack’s lungs heaved and Tucker continued the tongue bath.

“Oh, my God! Are you okay?” Meg asked running toward them with towels in her arms.

Jack rested his forearms on his knees and let Tucker dance around him.

Meg wrapped a towel over Jack’s shoulders, her fingers brushing against his skin, the gleam of her wedding band and engagement ring catching his eye.

It had scared him to look at her hand all this time, worried she’d shed every bit of them possible from her life.

But no. That ring winked at him in the light, just as brilliant as the day he’d spotted it in the jeweler’s window.

“Yeah, we’re okay,” he said, with a tentative smile.

---