Jack grinned, and leaned down to kiss her. He ran his hand down the warm, smooth skin along her ribs, settling it on her hip, digging his fingers into the side of her ass.
He pulled away. “Tell me what you like.”
“I don’t know,” she whispered, and Jack’s gaze locked on her face in time to see her cheeks turn pink. “I…I haven’t done much. I mean, I’ve donesome, but mostly giving, and always rushed.”
“So we’ll figure it out together.”
THEN: April 8, 2020
Jessica didn’t think anyoneactually knew what they were doing the first time they had sex, and she and Jack were no different.
It was awkward, clumsy, slightly painful—for her, not him, though he winced sympathetically every time he moved and she gasped at the discomfort.
But it was also beautiful and wonderful, an experience Jessica will always be grateful for despite the soreness between her thighs, because she got to share it with him.
Naked and sticky with sweat, she and Jack curled on their sides, facing each other. Absentmindedly, he trailed his fingersalong her arm, side, back, thigh—basically anywhere he could reach.
“Tell me about your family,” she said, breaking their comfortable silence. “I feel like you know so much about mine, and I know so little about yours.”
“What do you want to know?”
“What are your parents like? Do you have any siblings?”
Before he answered, Jack rolled onto his back and pulled Jessica closer. She rested her head and a palm on his chest, his heartbeat beneath her hand steady and reassuring.
She would miss this, the easy way their bodies fit together, and their easy conversation.
“My parents are the best,” he said. “My dad actually played five seasons in the NHL before a compound fracture to his tibia that was poorly set healed wrong and forced him into early retirement. After that, he became a scout, met and married my mom, and they had my brother, Josh, then me. When Josh was born, they made the decision that my mom would be a stay-at-home mom, since my dad was on the road so often. Josh is five years older than me, and when he was ten and I was five, my dad got a job scouting with Philadelphia, so we moved.”
“Where did you live before that?”
“Massachusetts,” Jack said. “Peabody, to be exact. My dad was coaching Josh’s team and doing some college scouting for Boston University. But his dream had always been to get back into the NHL however he could, so he couldn’t pass up the opportunity when it arose.”
“Did you like growing up in…Peabody?” The pronunciation felt funny in her mouth.
“It was great,” he said. “It’s a suburb of Boston, and really close to Salem and all that jazz. Our last Halloween there is the only one I remember before the move. Dad happened to be home for a long weekend, and he and Mom took us to Salem to do all thewitchy shit. That place was madness. There’s absolutely nothing like it at that time of the year. Essex Street was so crowded we could hardly move through it, and there were nighttime cemetery walks and bus tours to all the haunted, witchy, and ghostly hot spots. It was one of the best days of my life.”
Jessica tried to imagine a teeny-tiny Jack, a fraction of the size he was now, dressed up for Halloween and participating in such a production. Unfortunately, she had a difficult time reconciling the sexy hockey player before her with that little boy.
“Are you and your brother close?” she asked. Five years was no small thing, and she knew from experience that it could be difficult to relate to older siblings with that sort of age gap between them.
“In the way that highly competitive brothers can be,” Jack said with a smile. “He’s always wanted better for me than I sometimes want for myself. He’s a crazy talented defenseman. He played college at Penn State, and he actually just got signed by one of Pittsburgh’s farm teams.”
“That’s amazing!” Jessica said. “I know nothing about hockey, but I’m assuming that’s a dream come true for him and your family.”
“It is,” Jack said. “But it’ll never be enough for Josh. He wants to play in the NHL, to follow in Dad’s footsteps, and he’ll work his ass off until he gets there. I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes it happen within the next couple of years.”
“It must be difficult to live up to those expectations.”
“It can be,” he said quietly. “But it’s different for me. I’m a goalie, and goalie jobs in the NHL are so much harder to come by since teams only keep three on their active roster at any given time. So I’ll give it everything I’ve got. But I know my family is proud of me regardless.”
Jessica thought back to the conversation she’d had with her mom earlier, and wished she felt that secure within her ownfamily. While she knew her parents, Berkley, and Logan, were proud of her, she couldn’t always quiet the insecurities of that little girl inside her who felt embarrassed to tell people she wanted to be a teacher when both of her siblings were on their way to becoming attorneys.
“Hey,” Jack said, sliding a hand up to cup her jaw and angle her face toward his. “Where’d you go?”
She must’ve been silent longer than she realized.
“Just thinking about my own family.”
