“Hey, don’t eat all the good stuff.” Marcus poked me in the ribs and grabbed the knife to slice him off a piece too. I smiled up at him.
“Good morning to you too.”
He grinned and took a bite of his bread. Marcus closed his eyes and moaned loudly, and poor Henrietta jumped.
Ms. Mary rolled her eyes. “Boy, can’t you eat any quieter?”
With a chuckle, he shook his head “no.”
I wiped my hands on a paper towel and turned to Ms. Mary. “What do you have for me today?”
She smiled and pointed to the pantry. “I need you to go through and check all expiration dates for me. We need to throw out anything that is old and replace it.”
I nodded and went straight to work. With Jax singing in my ears, the morning flew by.
Marcus joined me at lunchtime. “How’s it going?” He grinned down at me and sat with his plate full of food.
“Good, thank you, and you?”
Marcus shrugged, “Same ’ol, same ’ol, I guess.” He studied me, as if waiting for me to do something.
I frowned. “What?” I asked, before taking another bite of my Reuben sandwich.
“Nothing, I just thought you might be a little upset. You didn’t talk much this morning, and I figured you knew.”
I frowned and sat my drink down. “What?”
It looked like he was trying to decide whether or not to answer me. “Well?”
“Um, why don’t we go outside and eat...and talk.”
A nervous knot formed in my stomach, but I wanted to know what Marcus knew and I didn’t. I picked up my food and followed him out to the gazebo. “All right, tell me what this is about.”
Marcus didn’t sit down. He walked over to the edge of the gazebo and leaned a hip against the railing. “Amanda has email subscriptions to several teen news websites. This morning she came running into my room before I left, asking me if you were still dating Jax. I told her ‘yes,’ and she showed me the Teen Star Follower. It has photos of Jax taken last night out on the town with actress Baily Kirk.”
My stomach quivered, but I’d been through this before with Jax, and I knew he couldn’t help the publicity photos and what the news reported.
I forced a smile. “It’s not a big deal. He has to take those photos for publicity reasons. I’m not concerned.”
Marcus sighed and reached into his back pocket to pull out some papers. “I printed it out.”
I took the papers from his hands and sank down into my seat with images of Jax holding hands with a beautiful, dark-haired girl. One photo showed him leaning down and laughing at what she was saying. The other showed him with his arm around her shoulders, pointing toward something and smiling. I didn’t want to read the words, but I found myself reading it anyway. “Last night Jax Stone was seen out for the first time in weeks on the arm of Baily Kirk (The Dream Date and Winters Way). Both appeared very interested in each other. We guess the rumors that Jax has been hiding out with a new lucky lady are untrue because he seems very interested in Miss Kirk.”
I handed the paper back to Marcus and stood up. “I’m not hungry anymore. I need to get back to work.”
He grabbed my arm when I walked by him. “He does not deserve you.”
I didn’t want him to see my face because tears were threatening to fall at any moment.
“I’m not a part of his world. He has another life outside of his life here with me,” I choked out in a whisper. I pulled free and started back to the house.
Marcus came up behind me and grabbed my hand. “Stop, Sadie.”
I stopped, but didn’t turn around. Tears were rolling down my face, and I didn’t want to humiliate myself.
“I know I have said this before, but you’re worth more than what he gives you. You’re beautiful, and smart, and kind, and funny, and you don’t care if your hair is messed up or if you break a nail. You’re not too busy to play chess with an old man, and you’re raising your mom and never complain.” He sighed, took my face, and turned it toward him. “Why can’t you see how special you are?”
I kept my eyes downward.