LOVE BACK; jra ✓

056 | before she steals you

The pair had arrived in Hawaii around midday and headed to their hotel to drop of the small carry-on bags they had each brought, yet also to fill in the couple more hours they had until the time Jack had agreed on with his daughter's mother.

They had planned the short trip so they'd arrive and then not leave again till the following day — not wanting to necessarily wanting to spend more time in airports and on planes than in the state, although it was still quite close to that being the case.

Adalyn was currently laying on the bed beside where Jack was sitting, stomach down and her eyes glued to her phone as she scrolled through websites looking for something that stuck out to her. While Jack was doing essentially the same except not looking to spend money.

"Are all your sisters going to be at your place on Christmas?" she asked, glancing over at him quickly before back at her phone.

"um.. from what I know, yes," he looked over, away from his own phone as he furrowed. "Isla, my youngest sister, will definitely be there and.. Ava and Syd should be. Why?"

"I was just wondering.."

"How are you feeling by the way?" he placed his phone down beside him, giving her his full attention.

"better, I guess" she rolled over onto her back and looked up at him. "like I'm not in pain or anything anymore.. but I'm still sad and I feel like being around Lavender and Ellie is only going to make me more sad."

"Sit up, do you wanna talk about it," Jack grabbed hold of her hand, gently tugging her in attempts to get her to sit up.

"I don't wanna talk about it," she mumbled, pulling her hand away from him. "you said next year.. and I kinda wanna do something for my birthday and I don't wanna go through all that again."

"Okay.." he slowly nodded. "Your birthday's when, like early January?"

"twenty-first.."

"We'll wait till after then to talk about it all, if it's something you wanna talk about then," he ran his fingers through her hair. "But for now you just gotta get through this week."

"mh.."

"If you ever get overwhelmed being around Lavy you can just walk away," he continued, still speaking in a soft tone. "I won't mind."

"I'll be fine.."

Jack kept his eyes on her as she sat up, repositioning herself on his lap and her legs either side of his while wrapping her arms around him, then resting her head on his shoulder. A smile appearing on his face while his arms went around her lower back.

"I just wanna cuddle before she steals you from me," Adalyn muttered against his shirt.

"Jealous of a two and a half year old huh," he softly chuckled, placing a singular kiss on her collarbone.

"No! never," she shook her head as she lifted her head back up and looked at him, a small smile slowly creeping onto her lips.

"I think you are," he followed with a kiss on her lips. "Five minutes then we'll leave."

"Five minutes huh," she smirked.