“I think Jack’s a great name,” Jack said, slipping his hands in his pockets. The itching at his neck was getting worse.
“We’ll see.” Kitty rubbed at the feline’s head and totally ignored Jack. “Which is my way of saying no.” She headed back to her house. Which was, unfortunately, also Jack’s house.
He rubbed at his chest. Maybe he should really insist on getting out of there. Somewhere without a cat.
“What do you think the odds are that guy has a family?” April asked, looking up at Jack, and then her eyes went comically wide. “Oh my god, Jack. Your face is all swollen.”
Was it? Maybe that’s why he was getting a bit dizzy?
Probably.
He should sit. Here. Right there. On the landing.
Good idea, Jack. Solving problems.
Chapter Nineteen
“I may not like you or your choice right now but I will always love you no matter what.”
—Anonymous, Michigan, United States
Jack
Everything else happened in a blur of what-the-hell, as some pink tablets were forced on him by Yelena. He made it a policy not to take pills from random women he’d only recently met but, since she had a medical license and a syringe of some kind in hand that she seemed ready to wield, he figured it was a safe bet to take the meds.
By the time the swelling had gone down, the kids were in bed, and everyone had gone home, he was sitting on April’s couch searching for a hotel room on the phone app he used sometimes to book rooms.
“Hey.” April sat next to him.
“Hey.” He wanted to reach for her hand, to apologize for the girls’ night interrupted, but he refrained from touching her. Because he was starting to worry that if he began touching her, he wouldn’t want to stop. And he was not the guy who should touch April. “I’m sorry about the vase, really. I’d like to replace it.”
April shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.” She gave a little laugh that made his own throat go thick.
“It was special to you.” Clearly it was.
April nodded. “The first thing I bought when Kent left. Spent more money than I should’ve because he hates purple and it was so pretty in the window of the pottery shop. He definitely didn’t approve of purchases like that, so it was a little bit of a silly rebellion against him. But it’s fine. I knew better than to leave it out where the kids could reach it.”
But it wasn’t the kids who’d broken it. Jack gritted his teeth, mentally reprimanding himself for being a dunce about it.
“I’m so sorry, April.” He was, too.
“Don’t think twice about it. I knew the risks when I put it out.” She laughed, but it didn’t quite meet her eyes. “And I can just get another one. Stick it to Kent all over again.”
He’d need to figure out how to fix this.
She lifted her phone tentatively. “I figured out a post for tonight.” She’d done an all-made-up-for-girls’-night selfie with an inspirational tag and a reminder she had the food bank fundraiser coming up with her classes next week.
“Look at you. You’re on a roll.” He nudged her with his elbow.
The flash of pride in her eyes suited her and made his stomach feel funny. Happy-funny. Not antihistamine-funny.
They sat there for a long time in that moment, because it was one of those moments that felt important. So he just let it be what it was for the few seconds it lasted.
“Do you…” April paused, pushed her hair behind her ear. “Do you want to stay here tonight? I have a spare bedroom. And with the cat over there, I’m not sure…”
“I can get a hotel.”
“But it’s late.”
