The line fell silent. He was my best friend. But, if we had been in the same room when he made that last remark it would have earned him a cracked jaw. I wasn’t surprised by his reaction but was disappointed all the same.
“Watch it, Jack,” I growled, trying to keep myself in check. He was in shock, and I doubted he’d ever be totally okay with us. Maybe he didn’t get what PJ and I had, but I wouldn’t let him cheapen it.
“Look,” he let out a long sigh and I could picture him rubbing his temples as he always did when he had so much to say but had to hold back. Dating PJ was changing the dynamic between us already. “You’re in the picture now, and she’s already changing everything. She’s going to the School of Visual Arts instead of San Diego like she’s been chewing our ears off about for a year. I thought it seemed off when Mom first told me.”
“She decided to stay on her own, her decision had nothing to do with me or us. You know me, I’d never hurt her.”
Three more long beats of silence pulsed between us.
“I know you won’t hurt her on purpose. My sister is a determined little pip-squeak. When she commits, she’s all in. I don’t want her having regrets of giving up everything she wants for a fling.”
“It’s not a fling, Jack,” I snapped, as my hand balled into a fist. The thought of this being a fling and having it end when summer did was too awful to contemplate for more than a minute or to even hear anyone suggest. “If you don’t believe anything else I say, believe that. She’s not just some girl I’m dating for the summer. I won’t interfere with school or anything else she wants to do, but I’m not going anywhere. No one will understand it, and that’s fine. But you’ll have to get used to it like everyone else.”
“I’m not who you have to worry about.” He let out a humorless laugh. “Sure, you’ll probably sway Mom eventually, but Dad? You’re doing … I don’t even want to think about what with his Peanut. He doesn’t even approve of her dating guys her own age.”
“We’ll tell them, and they’ll accept it … sooner or later.” I hoped.
“I’ll tell you one more thing and just let it be. I don’t like this, but … be careful with her, all right? And make sure you tell our parents before they find out. If they hear from someone else or catch you guys … that will make it all a hundred times worse.”
“Working on it,” I grumbled as I raked my hand through my hair. Wasn’t that the fucking truth?
“So, I guess I’ll see you back up here when Dad breaks your leg?”
I laughed, remembering how I’d made the same joke that … really wasn’t a joke.
“We’re good?” I asked, cringing at the lag in his response.
“We are, as long as my sister is.” He sighed into the phone. “I love that pain in the ass. No one hurts her and gets away with it, and that includes you.”
I smiled and shook my head. Jack had complained about PJ from the day she was born, but she meant everything to him.
She meant everything to me, too. I’d make everyone believe me … eventually.
But whether they did or they didn’t, I meant every word I said.
I wasn’t going anywhere.
18
Jack
I rearedback in the cafeteria chair and glanced at my watch. It was already a half hour later than Danielle usually walked in, and I resolved to give up on her in another ten minutes. My hand dragged down my face and I couldn’t help but laugh at myself. These little meetings at night held more significance to me than they should have. We had a great patient and therapist relationship, but at night, things were different. In here, we were just a man and a woman having a chat and skating around the growing pull toward each other. It felt … normal, hopeful. I needed normal and hopeful tonight as I tried to sort out PJ and Dylan along with what the hell to do with my life in a few weeks. The past couple of nights, Danielle had done most of the talking since I was still shaking off the shock of my best friend dating my sister.
Right before I stood to leave, I groaned at my phone vibrating across the table but smiled when I read the name on the screen.
“Hey, Uncle Evan.”
“How’s my favorite godson?”
Uncle Evan was my father’s best friend, and before Mom married Nick, the only father figure I’d ever known. He only had daughters and always referred to me as the son he never had. He was fun, yet protective. Ever since I could remember, Uncle Evan listened like a friend but gave advice like a parent.
“Coming along, I guess. I’m walking in therapy, so that’s something.”
“You bet your ass it’s something.”
I laughed out loud at his excitement. “With crutches, but—”
“But nothing. You never could sit still, just like the other Jack I knew. You’ll be running in no time. How’s everything else? I need to get up there to see you, but I’m guessing your parents are there every damn weekend, right? I haven’t seen your sister in a while; I hear she’s staying home instead of going to California.”
