It was Tuesday, so of course Sierra was working, and I assumed Theo gave her a heads up at some point.
When she materialized out of the office when I carried my bag to the truck to wait for Theo, she looked just…sad.
It was worse than if she’d been mad at me.
She walked to me and threw her arms around me, then pulled back and punched me in the shoulder.
“You fucking menace,” she hissed. Then she sniffled and blew her nose. “I know you vetoed this subject, but I want to say one thing.” She sniffled a bit more, then squared her shoulders and stared me in the eye. “You’re in love. For the first time in your life, you’rein love. So, I know you have to run now, but you come back and you make things better, because you know this could be it for you.” She gestured around us. “This place is magical, Jack,” she said firmly. “You’ve seen Theo and Lake, and River and Ben, too. It can happen to you as well. You just need to come back.”
The sudden realization of her being afraid I wasn’t going to ever return hit me square in the chest. I leaned down to hug her close. “I will, Sie, I’ll come back when I feel I’m ready, okay?”
“Okay. You better.” She glared at me. “And this time you won’t walk as much, okay?”
“I’ll try.”
“That’s all we can.” She blew her nose again, then her gaze flicked up and then back to me. “He’s looking through the window.”
I jerked, before I could hide the need to see Rey one last time. Somehow, I managed not to turn around though.
Behind her, I saw Theo marching toward us.
“Okay, I got to go.”
“Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
* * * *
Theo left me at the airport with a gruff “If you need anything at all, you’re supposed to call us. We’re your family, Jack.” More than his words, the fact that he’d started to call me Jack, too, made me feel choked up.
I sat on the plane, playing back every conversation I could remember having with my Twin Star family in the last month or so. Sierra had called me Jack, today, too. Even she had called me Cook before.
Everyone had. But then Rey…I sighed and tried to relax into my seat.
Lake had been apologetic for not being able to get me a seat with more leg room, but it wasn’t a long flight, so I’d be fine. He’d made sure it was a direct flight, which I appreciated more than I could say.
I sat there in my cramped space, trying not to squish the elderly man sitting next to me, and kept tonguing my split lip.
* * * *
I made it to Rhiannon’s door around eight in the evening and felt relieved that the lights were on. I rang the doorbell and heard her walking in from the kitchen.
“Oh, Jack,” she breathed when she saw me.
She stepped aside and grabbed my bag. I toed off my boots and hung my jacket, then aimed straight to her couch where I half sat, half collapsed and burst promptly into tears.
She was next to me in a flash, gathering as much of me as she could into her arms.
Through the tears, blowing my nose with tissues from her ever-present box on the coffee table—her shows made her cry regularly—and having her speak to me softly, I managed to slowly calm down.
I had my head on her lap when I started to speak.
I told her that I thought I’d found my human even though it also felt like shit. Like someone held my happiness in their palm, but as soon as I even looked at the hand, they’d close their fingers. And how that person with the hand might actually be me, too.
“I get that he’s young, and whoa boy would I be mad if it was someone else and not you, but what’s your real issue here?”
I contemplated sitting up, but decided that I didn’t want to look her in the eyes when I talked about this shit.
