Page 104 of Making Over Maris

He dedicated himself to Sara’s pleasure, to adoring her, to showing her everything he felt and more.

He hoped it could be enough to tip the balance in his favor but he wasn’t the kind of man to leave anything to chance.

Plan B was in effect. Jenny had come through in spades.

He could only hope it would be enough.

And that it wasn’t too late.

Tuesday was a bad day. Partly because Sara had taken the day off to pack—Jack had always hated it when she wasn’t here but now it was even worse, knowing she wasn’t fifty-five-and-a-half paces away.

But the real reason Tuesday sucked was because that morning Kenny called.

“Jack…” His voice trembled over the line.

Jack’s heart thudded. Kenny never called in sick. “What is it?” he croaked through a dry throat.

“It’s Calvin. He won’t wake up.”

“Shit.” Goddamn Calvin. “Did you call 9-1-1?”

“Yes. They’re sending an ambulance. But…”

Jack could hear the grief, the anguish in Kenny’s tone. “Yeah, Kenny?”

“Can you come?”

Fuck, yeah. “I’ll be right over.” He dropped his cell phone on the desk and scrambled for his jacket and was out the door in two seconds.

He didn’t even tell Tristan he was leaving.

Sara checked her watch.

She stood on her porch surrounded by her bags, waiting.

Jack was supposed to pick her up and take her to the airport at six. It was a quarter past. She fished out her cell phone and checked her messages. She had one call from a number she didn’t recognize and three from Todd but nothing from Jack. With a growl, she punched in his number but it rang and rang and then went to voice mail. When she called his home number, she got the same response.

Damn it. She’d miss her plane if he didn’t come soon.

Traffic in the Valley—especially around Bob Hope Airport—was awful at this hour.

In the end she called Kat, who came over and drove her to the airport. But they got there too late and Sara missed her flight. Thank God for Kat, Kat who could flutter her eyelashes at a ticket agent and convince him to get Sara on a flight to Chicago that arrived in time for her to make her connection to Paris.

Sara fumed that Jack had forgotten to pick her up. But twined with that annoyance was a trickle of concern. And confusion.

Jack had never let her down before. Not like this.

She wasn’t sure what to make of it.

But it didn’t feel good.

She stewed about it. All the way to France.