Jack laughed. “I’ve always thought that!” He shook his head, making his long hair move in a fun way. “I have a proposition.”
“Are you saying that you’re propositioning a minor?” I asked, smirking, before I could even think what I’d said.
His eyes widened before he busted out laughing. “Oh gods, don’t even…” He wheezed and leaned forward, his huge hands on his knees as he tried to control himself. “Holy shit, Rey.”
I felt pretty proud of myself and grinned. Jack was friendly and kind, but I had a feeling he didn’t belly laugh often. I felt like he needed more of that in his life.
“Okay, so what’s your…suggestion?” I asked once he was done laughing.
“Do you think we could walk by the wall? I could walk on your other side. I’m tall enough to be a bit of a barrier, right?”
I looked him over from head to toe, trying to concentrate on the discussion and not making it about checking him out. Especially after my previous joke. There would be no propositioning minors happening here.
“Let’s try?” I would’ve liked it more if it didn’t come out as a question, but beggars and choosers and all that.
“Sure.” Jack looked at me expectantly.
“Oh.” I glanced around again, this time realizing that what he’d said was true, it was hard to tell when you were actually closer to the door, so I just pointed right. “That way.”
He came to stand next to me, hands in his cargo short pockets, like he didn’t have a care in the world.
“So, you ever have pets before coming here?” he asked casually.
I took a step toward the loungers, knowing I’d have to go around them. “No, my mom was allergic, and then…later, I just…” I shrugged. “I was too busy.”
“Huh.” He took one step to my two. “We normally had cats and a dog, when I was a kid.”
“Where did you grow up?”
“Bumfuck, Alaska.”
I stopped and looked up at him. “Alaska? Really?”
He gave me a sarcastic look. “Yes, people are born there each day, I’d assume.”
I rolled my eyes and took another step. “No, I mean—you know, never mind.”
“You’re from New York?”
“Brooklyn,” I said out loud for the first time since before I’d ran away to the Bronx. I didn’t even want to think about it any closer than the boroughs. They were divided into neighborhoods, which I’d found that some people didn’t know.
“Where did the guys find you?”
“Close to where they lived in Bronx.”
“You got pretty far,” Jack said thoughtfully.
I snorted. It wasn’t that far.
“I meant that it’s a whole other world, if you look at it like that.”
“Twenty-one point three miles,” I murmured.
“Well, there you go. That’s far in my opinion. Besides, it’s easy to get lost in a city with that many people.”
I’d checked the distance from dad’s place to the guys’ apartment the first thing I could.
“You ever had to run?”
