And despite my best attempts to hate everything about the night, she did manage to cheer me up a little bit. Of course, that went away completely when she left, when I was alone again.
- 10 -
I couldn’t get out to his car fast enough.
When Jack texted me the next day and asked to hang out, I hated myself for getting so excited about it. Even though I felt ridiculous, I spent an hour preening.
I rushed outside, and Jack sat in the Jetta, grinning broadly. Pat Benetar blasted out when I opened the door. He turned it down when I hopped in, but I barely even cared.
We were alone for the first time in what felt like forever. Nobody growled at me or chastised us for being too close. I could just be with him.
“Hey,” Jack smiled.
“I don’t wanna go to your house.”
“Why not?” He cocked an eyebrow.
“Because.” I pulled my knee up to my chest and looked at him, refusing to elaborate on my answer. I expected him to drive away or press me further, but he just nodded.
“Okay,” he smirked. “Where do you wanna go?”
“I don’t care where. Just drive.”
“You got it.” His eyes glinted, and he sped away from my apartment.
The buildings were a blur of lights beside us, and he had this weird ability to weave through openings in traffic that weren’t even there.
“So… how’s life with Milo?” I asked cautiously.
I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to know, but I needed to know. I had to make sure Milo was okay, and I wanted to hear how Jack felt about it.
“Good,” Jack shrugged noncommittally. “I like your brother. I like having him around.”
“I see,” I murmured.
“He’s already much better. Pretty soon you’ll be able to be around all the time. And I’m sure it will be all the time. He really misses you too.” Jack looked over to see if I believed him, and I wasn’t sure that I did. “He talks about you a lot. He just isn’t always thrilled when I talk about you.”
“Really?” I raised an eyebrow. “You guys talk about me? What do you say?”
“I don’t know,” he laughed. My heart flipped happily, and I settled deeper into the seat. “Nothing bad, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“I just wonder what you say about me when I’m not around.”
“What do you say about me when I’m not around?” Jack countered.
“Hasn’t Milo told you?” I figured that by now, Milo had spilled everything.
“Yeah, he has, because apparently, all you ever tell him is that you’re not interested in me.” He tried to play it off with a smile, but I saw the hurt behind his eyes. “So yeah. I got all the juicy details.”
“That’s not all I say.”
“So then what do you say?” Jack asked, watching me from the corner of his eyes.
“That you’re the most dashing, handsome stranger I’ve ever met,” I said with a dramatic Southern drawl and batted my eyes at him, making him laugh. “No, I don’t know. I try not to say anything about you.”
“Why not?”
“Cause.” I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s hard to talk about you.”
“How is it hard?”
“Well… what am I supposed to say about you?” I squirmed.
“You’re supposed to say whatever you want.”
“Things are a little too complicated for me to say what I want,” I said finally.
I didn’t know what I felt for Jack because I wouldn’t let myself think about it. To quantify it as something would put expectations and shatter things. I liked being around him and I missed him when he wasn’t there, and that was as far as I was willing to admit.
“Fair enough.” He ran a hand through his sandy hair.
He turned to me, looking like he might say more, but his phone rang in his pocket. Cursing under his breath, he pulled it from his pocket.
“Hello?” Jack answered his phone. “Yeah. Yeah…. I’m with her now…. Yeah… Yes… Okay… Yes…. I get it… I got it…. No. I’m fine….Yep… Okay…. Okay… Bye.” He sighed and then shoved his phone in his pocket.
“What was that about?” I asked.
“We’re going to my house.”
“What? Why? Who was that?” I tensed up at the thought of his house. It suddenly felt like so much drama.
“Milo.” He pursed his lips. “He wants to see you.”
“Does he really? Or is he just against the idea of us being alone together?”
“Both, probably.”
“I’m a little offended actually.” I watched out the window at the changing scenery as Jack switched directions towards his house. “Peter never got this jealous over the time we spent together.”
“Yeah, well, Peter’s a total idiot,” Jack grumbled.
“Have you heard from him lately?” I asked offhandedly.
“Why are you asking about him?” Jack had very little tolerance for the sound of Peter’s name, but I wanted to know anyway.
“I was just wondering if anybody had heard from him,” I shrugged. “That’s all. I can be curious, can’t I?”
“I’d prefer it if you weren’t,” he admitted wearily. When I didn’t say anything for a little bit, he continued, “You took the book.”
“Ezra said I could.”
“Is everything to your satisfaction?” he asked icily.
“It’s a book, Jack!” I didn’t even want to dignify it with a response. “What do you think is going to happen? I’m going to run off with it and leave you in the love triangle with my brother? It wouldn’t even be a triangle anymore. It would just be an angle.”
“An oblique angle,” Jack said, and his bout of jealousy was quickly replaced with glee. “Ha! I told you I would work that in!”
“What are you talking about?” I didn’t understand what he was getting at, but he grinned foolishly, so I was swept up in it.
“Remember? That time I took you to the concert after we first met?” His eyes danced. “And you asked what my angle was, and I said isosceles, but really I should’ve said oblique. And I said that I’d remember it for next time, and I did!”