Kaci rubbed some color back into her cheeks. “You gonna blow up all Jackson’s notes?”
She snatched the newest one off the table and shoved it in her pocket.
Kaci chuckled. “Guess that answers the love question, now doesn’t it?”
Anna gotthe call late Sunday that she’d been cleared to go back to work Tuesday, two weeks before Christmas, one week before she was due to leave for home. Jules had confessed and was supposedly working on a plea deal.
The OSI agent recommended that Anna stay clear of any further contact with her.
The agent didn’t say anything about Brad though. So Monday afternoon, Anna had a late lunch with him.
“You sent that guy to beat me up,” Brad said over his boat of sushi.
“I asked him to do what he would’ve done for a fellow airman.” Anna’s appetite was as nonexistent as it had been following her divorce, but she forced herself to eat some edamame. The salt stung her lips. She liked it. Not as if her lips would feel anything else ever again.
“I’m gonna try to get custody of the kid,” Brad said. “Got an interview later this week.”
“So you and Jules…?”
He didn’t meet her eyes. Couldn’t or wouldn’t, she didn’t know. “Turns out we’ve both got some growing up to do. Don’t think we’re looking for the same things.”
“I’m sorry,” she said.
He lifted a massive shoulder. “Shit happens.” His eyes shifted to her, then away again. “She said to tell you she was sorry. She wanted to be able to take care of the baby. When—you know. Because I was a worthless shit for a while there.”
Back in Minnesota, apologies were met withAw, it’s okay, you betcha. Here, she supposed blessing Jules’s heart would be mild. “As long as you put half as much effort into fatherhood as you did into being a shit, I think you’ll be fine,” she said.
The staff at the small restaurant swished around them, seating other customers and delivering food, while Anna and Brad ate in silence.
“Appreciate you sending that wake-up call,” Brad said finally.
“You and Jules were good friends to me and Neil when we got here. I couldn’t not do something.”
“Your friend did more than Neil would’ve. Don’t think he deserved you.”
He looked as if he wanted to say more, but she brushed it off. “It is what it is.”
“Think you’ll marry this guy?”
And now she felt as though the salt had settled in her eyes. “No.” She blinked rapidly.
“Dude. Might want to talk to somebody about that.”
She sucked back the sad and tilted her head at him. “You still seeing somebody?”
“Yeah, but he’s not my type. Maybe I should find a girl shrink. Baby’s gonna need a momma. Giggidy.”
He grinned, and Anna laughed.
If Brad could go through losing his brotherandhis wife and survive, she reckoned she could keep trudging too.
“IfIwere writing your story,”Mamie said, “you’d sacrifice a whole lot more than your dignity to get her back.”
Jackson thought about dropping the phone down the garbage disposal. “Great plan, Mamie, but sad truth is, she doesn’t want anything from me. Not my help, not my paycheck, not my dignity.”
Most perfect woman God ever created.
Except she didn’t want his love either.
