The Heart - Kate Stewart Page 0,106
Jack’s mother, Amy.
“Look, freak show, can you just keep your damned clothes on for the weekend?” That was definitely Jack Sr.
“Who wants coffee?”
I pulled the pillow behind me to my face as I howled into it with laughter and Jack remained where he was as another long sigh passed his lips. He smiled at me, and I sighed with relief upon seeing it. It was a smile that told me everything would be all right, that I wasn’t alone in love.
It was a smile that held my future.
“Welcome, beb.”
Hours later, after we’d witnessed one of the most romantic candlelit weddings imaginable, my dance partner and I swayed to Van Morrison’s “Someone Like You” under the stars with the rest of the wedding guests. Jack held me closely, a new kind of protectiveness in his posture as his eyes wondered over me in love.
“Mind if I cut in,” his Uncle Spencer said as Jack stilled us. He gave his uncle a solid smile as he handed me over with a kiss and a whisper that he would have the last one. I took his uncle’s hand, slightly shy in my execution.
“No need to be shy. Didn’t your man tell you I am an excellent dancer.” He chuckled as he twirled me underneath his arm and back again, and I damn near congratulated myself for pulling it off.
“Spencer tells me you’re a judge,” I said in an attempt to make small talk.
“Nah, you aren’t getting off that easy,” he said with a wink. “I just came to thank you for bringing our boy back. He’s spent so much damned time away, I wasn’t sure if he’d ever have a home.”
“I can’t take credit. He decided that on his own,” I said as he moved me around the floor set up underneath a long, sloping oak covered in Spanish moss and twinkling lights.
“Oh, I believe you had a large part in it,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.
“And now I feel guilty because he’s practically moving to Texas.”
“Trust me, it’s much better than getting a damned new picture from Iceland.”
“True,” I said with a nod.
The song ended and Ziggy Marley’s version of “Drive” replaced it as my eyes widened. “I love this song,” I said as Spencer kept our feet moving.
“Me too. I have a good feeling about you,” he said with a wink as Jack approached to steal me away.
“Thank you for the dance,” I said with a smile.
“No, thank you, Rose,” he replied as he gripped his wife’s hand as she approached. “Come on, baby, let’s go give darkman some chores,” he whispered to her as they drifted out of sight.
“Who is darkman?” I asked as I looked up at Jack, a sigh on my lips as he gave me a slow smile.
“For me, a bedtime ritual, for them, something else,” he said as he looked in the way they left. Crisp air surrounded us as fall made its presence known. “I’ll tell our little man or woman all about him.”
“Sounds scary.”
“Anything but,” he said as he looked down at me with soft eyes. “It’s a wish for a long future.”
After a brief grilling about what his uncle had asked, Jack swayed with me to the song we’d first danced to in my parent’s living room.
My eyes on Jack’s, I listened to the words as they asked the questions, and I danced with the answers.
Jack
Seven and A Half Months Later
I was stuck in a brightly lit room full of clocks that endlessly ticked. It was hell on earth. One by one, the alarms began to sound as I raced through the room to reset them. When I’d finally silenced them all, I felt a peace take over me and sat back against the whitewashed wall in relief. It was short lived as another clock began to buzz repeatedly. Irritated and hungry for just one more minute of peace, I searched through the piles of clocks one by one and began smashing them with my fist to get the buzzing to stop.
“Jack?”
My eyes opened as I looked up to see Dallas peer down at me with concern. “You okay?”
I came to quickly, wiped the sleep from my face, and sat up in the bed. A bed I’d sought at the center what seemed like only minutes before to get some much-needed sleep.
“She’s keeping you up again?”
Brushing off the last of my mid-day coma, I looked to Dallas with a plea. “She isn’t getting any sleep, either. She spends the whole