He turned, and I stopped running, gasping for breath. I was sweating and sure my hair was a mess. The spaghetti straps of my sundress had slipped down my shoulders, but I didn’t care. I jumped into Jack’s arms, and I kissed him like I would never stop.
He laughed and, putting me down on the ground and pushing my disheveled hair out of my face, said, “So you missed me after all?”
I smiled, so relieved to hear his laugh.
“Hey, Ansley?”
“Yeah?”
“I know I haven’t seen you in nine months. But I think it puts me in a pretty good position to be able to say I love you.”
I felt my jaw drop. All those nights I had lain awake, pained over the loss of this boy, wanting to say those very words to him, I hadn’t been alone in my feelings. I kissed him again and said, “Really?”
He nodded.
“Well, I hope you know I love you too.”
The mere memory of that night made me want to cry all over again, standing on Jack’s new lawn. But I didn’t. Instead, I said, “It was so nice of you to let the girls take your boat. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”
“Well,” he said dully, “two of them are mine even if they don’t know it. Seemed like the least I could do.”
I looked around and hissed, “Jack!”
He shrugged and whispered, “OK, OK. It’s not like anyone can hear me.”
A silver BMW convertible with the top down pulled into the driveway, a foot from where I was standing. The car stopped, and squinting in the sunlight, I watched the driver get out. A woman. Not a sister or an aunt or a harmless friend. A beautiful woman with a tight skirt, well-highlighted hair, and far fewer wrinkles than I would have liked.
Jack waved. And smiled. He smiled at her. Couldn’t muster more than a grimace for me, his first love, the mother of his two secret children, the woman who, not five weeks ago, he had wanted to marry. Now here he was givingmysmile to a woman in Valentino pumps. Who wore Valentino pumps in Peachtree Bluff? Well, except for me. I did, of course, but that was only because Caroline made me.
The thought of Jack being with this other woman turned my stomach. But this was what I got. I had let the best man I had ever known go.
“Hi, sweetie,” she said, walking toward him.
I wondered if it would repel her if I threw up in the yard or if it would bring them closer together, make me the common enemy. All I knew was that I couldn’t stand around and watch this. But it was the proverbial car wreck from which I couldn’t look away. They exchanged an air kiss.
It had only been five weeks. Five weeks, and he had already found someone else? Of course he had found someone else. He was gorgeous and well off and didn’t have children—well, that anyone knew of. Very little baggage. What a fool I had been to let him go!
“Ansley,” Jack said, the warmth he had given tohergone when he turned to me, “this is Georgia.”
I laughed, and she joined me.
“I know,” she said. “What are the chances I would have moved to Georgia?”
“Georgia is my decorator,” Jack said.
I couldn’t hide my shock. It was a blow when I thought he was with another woman. But he had found anotherdecorator? This was entirely too much.
“Wait,” I said. “I’m sorry. Did you say she was yourdecorator?”
He shrugged. “Yeah. So?”
“So, I don’t know.” I had suddenly lost all sense of propriety. “It’s not like I’ve been talking about how much I want to decorate this house since 1974 or anything.”
Georgiawith her annoyingly perky breasts looked from Jack to me, confused. “Oh, right,” I said. “You probably weren’t even born in 1974.”
“Yes, I was,” she fired back. “In 1974.”
I felt genuinely hurt, not only that he might be moving on romantically, but also that he couldn’t put our differences aside. Jack knew, unequivocally, that this would hurt me almost as much as being away from him. He could stand there all frigid and angry in the yard, but the man knew I loved him. He knew turning away from him to take care of my family and protect the secret that could destroy all our lives was the single hardest decision I had ever made. In the top five, anyway. To do this to me was petty and cruel.
