After we ate, I took out my tablet and showed Mom the table and chairs I’d selected. She browsed through the entire selection before finally settling on the style I’d picked out. As I placed an order and added rush delivery, Jack’s phone buzzed. He took it from his jacket pocket and glanced at the screen before telling us, “It’s my best friend, Wyatt. Please excuse me while I message him back.”
He got up and went into the living room, and as soon as he was out of earshot Romy whispered, “Why didn’t you tell us you’re dating someone? Jack is absolutely gorgeous! And I’m sorry about inviting Ford over. I had no idea you were bringing your new boyfriend to meet us.”
“I don’t know what Jack is to me at this point, but he’s not my boyfriend.”
“Yet,” my mom whispered. “You brought him with you from California, so he obviously means something to you.”
“It’s complicated.”
“Isn’t it always,” Romy murmured, before finishing the last of his iced tea. Then he added, “I like Jack. He doesn’t say much, but the way he looks at you is really sweet.”
“How does he look at me?”
“Like you fascinate him.”
I thought about that before asking, “Is that how Ford used to look at me?”
“No. He usually seemed like he was irritated.” That was from my mom, and it sounded about right. She added, “Now he seems like he’s full of regret.”
“He still cares about you,” Romy said. “When I walked him to the door, he had a million questions about you and Jack. He wouldn’t ask if you didn’t matter to him. But just to be clear, I’m not telling you this because I think you two should get back together. You were pretty terrible as a couple. That doesn’t mean you can’t be friends, though.”
“Maybe, but Ford’s way down at the bottom of the list of things I need to worry about right now.”
“Oh, I know, and I’m just saying,” my brother told me. “Between dealing with the thug that smashed up the bar and your new relationship with Jack, your plate’s obviously very full.”
It wasn’t a relationship, but I definitely had a lot to figure out where Jack was concerned. Was it more than a mutual attraction? Did I want it to be, and if so, could I actually trust him? I hadn’t been kidding when I told my mom it was complicated.
11
Jack
I sat down on Romy’s dark blue, L-shaped sofa and looked around me. The apartment was definitely on the modest side, really just a box with white walls, but he’d obviously tried to make it feel like home. There were house plants and framed photos clustered around the room, and the furniture had been selected with comfort in mind.
Even though they looked nothing alike, it made me think of the pink Victorian. Oddly, a tinge of homesickness accompanied that thought. I’d only spent a week there, so that didn’t make sense. But there it was.
I pulled my thoughts back to the present and took another look at the text I’d just received. Wyatt had written:Hey J, it’s been a minute. What are you up to?
Where should I start?
Wyatt and I had been best friends since high school, and I thought of him like a brother. But just like with my mom, I didn’t tell him everything. I was sure he strongly suspected I was a criminal, but we coexisted with this don’t ask, don’t tell unspoken rule between us.
It was just that Wyatt was this sweet, innocent guy, and I thought the truth of who exactly he’d been friends with all these years would hurt him, just like it would hurt my mom to find out what her only child had amounted to. So, while I never lied to Wyatt, I deliberately kept things vague.
That meant I was now faced with the dilemma of how to explain Adriano. I ended up writing:Hey W, I’m currently in Vegas with a hot guy. Long story. How’ve you been?
Since I’d never had a relationship, he didn’t automatically assume this person and I were dating. He responded:Forget that how’ve I been business. You know I need details about this hot guy. How else can I live vicariously through you?
I worried about my friend. I didn’t know if it was because he was deaf or because he was Wyatt, but he tended to live a pretty isolated existence. Most of his time was spent alone in his apartment, either playing video games or drifting around the internet. He even worked from home as a programmer, so there was very little to get him out of the house.
I told him:He’s tall, dark, and Italian, and sexy beyond words.His name’s Adriano.
I could have left it at that, but I really wanted to talk about this, so I sent another text:I’m currently at his brother’s apartment, and I just met Adriano’s ex-boyfriend. Now I feel like a slug by comparison. The ex is a doctor. As if that’s not enough, he’s also tall and muscular with blond hair and blue eyes. He looks like a giant Ken doll.
Wyatt replied:Gross. I hate the Ken doll type.
I grinned and texted:Me, too. But how am I supposed to compete with Dr. Perfect?
My friend’s response was:First of all, you’re smoking hot. You may not be Dr. Perfect, but you’re your own brand of sexy. You’re like a Midwestern David Tennant.