Searching For Treasure - By L.C. Davenport Page 0,39

starting to come around and you're giving up? Now?"

"I'm not giving up."

"Well, it looks that way to me. And it looks that way to her." Jack said nothing. "So what, she doesn't say what you want to hear today. What are you going to do, go out and find another girlfriend?" Jack flinched as if from a blow. "I didn't think so. You two have been together since before I could walk. I don't think either of you would have the first idea how to live without the other. You're making ultimatums you can't follow through on, Jack."

"I wasn't making ultimatums." Jack paused and then laughed with self- loathing. "I don't know, maybe I was. I just wanted her to think."

"Well, she's thinking now. She's crying her heart out because she thinks she's lost you. If that doesn't mean she loves you, I don't know what does. Dana has never cried over a man. Ever. But she's crying over you. Now you think about that."

*****

Jack didn't know what made him go to Dana's room, other than old habits were tough to break. Noah was right. Dana rarely cried, but when she did, Jack had always been the one she needed.

He knocked, holding his breath. She opened the door slowly, the marks of crying clear on her face. He felt his heart squeeze in his chest. Dana's eyes widened when she saw him standing there. But before he could make a sound, she grabbed him by the shirt and hauled him into the room.

Kicking the door closed, she hung onto his shirt by the fistfuls and tried to shake him. She only succeeded in tearing his shirt. "Don't you dare leave me, Jack Matthew Harrison,”she shouted furiously. "You can't leave me."

"Why not, D?"

She threw her arms around his neck and hauled herself up. Wrapping her legs around his waist she kissed him with everything she had until he staggered from it.

Leaning against the wall, Jack cupped her face with both hands and gently broke the kiss. He tenderly brushed her hair away from her face and looked at her with haunted eyes. "I need more, D."

Her feet thudded to the floor and she stared at him in disbelief as tears of frustration welled in her eyes. She'd shot her load and missed. She had declared her love. She had thrown her pride on the floor and begged him not to leave her. She had nothing left to give him. She shook his shirt again. It was like trying to shake a rock. "I don't know what you want me to say!"

Mercifully, he took pity on her. "I'm you're best friend, I know you love me. Just like I know you love Noah. Or Jinx…Or, hell, even chocolate chip ice cream. But I need more than that from you, Dana."

The light dawned in Dana's mind and she collapsed against him boundlessly. "Oh." She laughed softly, sudden understanding making her giddy. One simple little word... She now realized what he wanted and she could give it to him now without any qualms. "Jack, I am so crazy head over heels in love with you that I can't imagine life without you." She folded her hands demurely and bowed her head. "Please don't leave me, Jack,”she said meekly, peeking at him with eyes sparkling with mischief. "I couldn't bear it."

"Well, since you put it that way." With a grin and a shout of triumph, Jack swung her up into his arms and spun her around the room, falling across the bed with Dana splayed across him. "And just for the record, I am crazy head over heels in love with you, too. I can't remember a time when I haven't been."

In wonder she touched his lips with her fingers. "Silent for so long," she said.

"Then I almost blew it."

"Not for good. We are too much a part of each other. Eventually we would have worked it out."

"Noah said we couldn't live without each other."

"Smart kid."

Jack traced his thumbs across her cheeks. "I'm sorry I made you cry, D."

"Me, too, it's not one of my better looks."

"I don't know. I've always thought bloodshot eyes, a red and runny nose and blotchy skin looked rather fetching in a woman your age."

"Quiet, buster, or I will have to hurt you." Dana was once again clutching huge fistfuls of his shirt. The fabric would never be the same. She placed a string of tiny kisses along his jaw, down his throat and across his chest. "Jack, you know