“Oh, I just remembered, Anna asked me to sit next to her,” he said quickly. “I’m afraid I can’t.”
Anna snorted and Lucy rolled her eyes. “Sit — no, get Moreau first, this concerns him too.”
Anna turned around. Why did it concern him?
“I’ll sit next to Anna,” Jack said lightly. “So don’t feel guilty, Dax.” He patted him on the shoulder.
Dax gave him the middle finger.
“Hey. Watch your rude gestures. An impressionable teenager is sitting next to me,” Lucy said sharply.
“What?” Leon looked at the empty seat next to him. “Who?”
Anna laughed and pushed Jack forward by the shoulders. “Okay, I think we should leave her alone before Leon finds out Lucy’s talking about him.”
“What? Dude, I’m almost in my mid-twenties!”
Jack grinned and allowed himself to be maneuvered two rows back, where Anna hoisted his suitcase into the overhead compartment.
“Oh, I love my job,” she said blissfully. “So many men who are so easily unsettled. It’s a dream.”
Jack snorted. “You’ve had a lot of practice.” Gingerly, he sank into one of the seats, his face filled with pain.
Shaking her head, Anna looked down at him. “You haven’t taken your pain pills, have you?”
“I don’t need them.”
“Why do you all think that?”
“Because we’re hockey players. We can take pain,” he explained slowly.
“Oh, please. After one period cramp, you’d all be on the floor crying,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Really, I’ve never had so many unwilling patients! It’s like I work at a children’s hospital.” She sat next to him and leaned slightly to the side. Lucas was walking down the aisle toward Lucy…and his dark gaze slid briefly across her face, but long enough to make her tremble.
God, that man and his looks, and his hands…
“So? Are you okay? With your…life?”
“Hm?” Anna turned to Jack, taking a moment to register and understand his words. But then it clicked. Thoroughly. He still thought she had a secret boyfriend. Which…wasn’t the case?
“Sure,” she said in a high-pitched voice. “Why do you ask?”
“Just wondering,” he replied a little too casually, stretching out his long legs. “You know you can talk to me, right? Even about things that would upset Dax?”
“Oh, because you’re the chill brother?” she asked with a smile.
“Yup.”
She didn’t know if that would still be true if he found out about Lucas.
“You know I’m always in control.”
“All I know is that Penny can’t keep a secret,” she noted, amused.
Jack’s ears turned red. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Man, you’re so subtle, Jack.” She laughed.
He sighed heavily. “It's just that, when you said you care about everything in my life, that’s a two-way street. The same goes for me. I’ve lost too much time with you. I want to…make up for it.”
