Headed for Trouble - By Suzanne Brockmann Page 0,73

her and held her close. “Jesus, I’m a total douchebag for thinking this. My kid’s in the hospital and I can’t stop thinking shit, shit, why didn’t I check into the Baldwin’s Bridge hotel with you when I had the chance?”

She laughed. “You’re thinking that because you’re human and you know damn well that you were going to get some tonight.” She lifted her head to kiss him, and the kiss he gave her back was deliciously loaded with promise. But his worry and fear was back there, too, and she pulled away, because he had to go. “I’ll be here when you get back,” she promised him in a voice that was breathless.

He kissed her again. “Or you could meet me in Vegas.”

“Again with the Vegas thing.”

“We’ll talk about it,” Jack told her.

“Jack.” Robin was at the door. “Jules got the car, he’s waiting out front.”

The trip to the airport was going to take fifteen minutes at best. Longer if there was traffic.

Jack pulled Arlene back with him into the party room. He raised his voice. “Mags, I gotta go.”

But Maggie was already standing right there by the door, looking worried. “Jules told me that Becca called and Luke’s in the hospital.”

“Jack,” Robin said again.

“I’ll keep you updated,” Jack promised Maggie, giving her a hug and Arlene one last glance before he followed Robin back out the door.

Maggie chased after him. “Jack, wait!”

Arlene pushed open the door, too, watching as Maggie ran to keep up with Jack.

They were halfway down the hall when something Maggie said made Jack pull up short. Arlene watched as Maggie stood there, almost nervously turning the green ring around and around on her finger. And Jack gave the girl his full attention as he listened to whatever she was telling him so earnestly. It was clear she was upset as she used the heel of her hand to wipe tears impatiently from her eyes.

Jack, bless him, spoke to her just as seriously, just as earnestly, and completely reassuringly. And then he took Maggie’s sweet face in his hands and planted a kiss on her forehead.

And it took Arlene’s breath away—watching this man be the kind of father that Maggie’d never had, the kind of father that all little girls deserved in their lives.

Whatever he’d said to Maggie calmed her, and she nodded as he told her something else, and then they both turned, almost at the exact moment, and looked back at Arlene and smiled.

And her heart damn near burst.

Then Maggie stepped back, and Jack was gone.

But then Lizzie appeared, running past Arlene to pull Maggie back with her into the party.

And Arlene knew she was going to have to wait until they got home to ask Maggie what she’d said to Jack, and what he’d told her in response. Except her phone rang, and she saw from the number that it was …

“Jack.”

“Hey.” His warm voice came through the tiny speaker. “Since I’m not driving, I thought I’d call and tell you, well …” He exhaled hard. “I’m just going to say it, okay? Maggie was afraid that my having to rush off to California was another ploy of Becca’s that would keep you and me apart. And I was sitting here and it suddenly occurred to me that if Mags was worried about that, you might be, too.”

Arlene hadn’t even considered the possibility. “Should I be worried?” she asked.

“No,” he said, his voice absolute.

“Then I’m not worried,” she told him.

“I love you,” he said.

Arlene nodded, even though she knew he couldn’t possibly see her. “I love you, too.” And then she said words that were even more astonishing—words she truly couldn’t believe were coming out of her mouth. “We’ll meet you in Vegas, Jack. Maggie and me. After Luke’s out of the woods. After Maggie’s show on Sunday. Maybe on—”

“Monday,” he finished for her, laughing, and she could hear his joy in his voice. “That would be amazingly great.”

“Or Tuesday,” she said, “provided I can take Maggie out of school.”

“I think they’ll let her go for her mother’s wedding,” he said, and the world tilted for her, because it was so surreal. And somehow Jack knew it, because he lowered his voice. “When you start having second thoughts, just remember, Leenie, how many years we’ve known each other. How good it feels, just to sit together in the same room. How well we fit.”

They did fit. But … “I still have to go back,” she reminded him. “I can’t get pregnant. Not