Jack Who?

CHAPTER 10

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“You came…” Rising, Marissa crossed to meet Jack just as he hit the large open entry.

     Her parents and Olivia were still gob smacked, and Jack dipped his head their way in a courteous, yet uneasy, nod.

     With a slight tip of her own head, she indicated her wish for him to follow. Slowly, she started down the hall, ignoring her mother who lunged from the chair obviously wanting an introduction.

     Written on her parents’ faces was recognition, not of who he was, but of who he was. The resemblance to Tristan was strong, especially with his hair pulled back. Factoring in the toy he carried, they had done the math, figuring out he was the missing father of their grandson. Olivia, groupie that she had once been, most probably knew his face from the rock media sources she had once fed on.

     One foot in front of the other, buffed linoleum tile after tile, the clunk of her ankle boots was matched by the soft soled squish of his sneakers. They continued this way, only stopping once they were closed inside the hospital room. Earlier, the room seemed vast and empty once Tristan, along with the bed, was rolled out. Now, with Jack’s presence, the walls seemed to close in.

     Ambling over, he set the ginormous plush toy next to the tiger.

     “I called you.” His firm words were spoken as he turned, and his eyes met hers gauging her reaction.

     Cowardly, she could not hold his gaze and instead studiously studied the floor. “You didn’t leave a message.”

     “I didn’t have a message.”

     Now she looked up, needing his expression as an aid in this combative exchange. “So why did you call if you had nothing to say?”

     “I have a lot to say. I said I didn’t have a message. I wanted to talk to you…”

     “Really? What could we have to talk about? We only fucked once, or was it twice?” Just as he had mocked her in their recent phone call, she now pulled from that chilly phone conversation a rebound of the hurtful barb.

     “Je–” The sight of innocent plush animals in the window seemed to cut his curse. Possibly, he was counting to ten because in roughly that many seconds later, his eyes bounced back to her face. “I’m sorry about that. About being an ass when you called. But you just dropped something like that on me out of nowhere! What did you expect?”

     “I kinda expected most of it! I just didn’t expect to get hung up on like a bill collector!”

     The words flew from her lips without any thought. When they reverberated in her head, it embarrassed her to the extreme to have used that analogy. He would never understand collectors calling after a stressful workday or the degrading calls interrupting Tristan’s sweet chatter during dinner.

     “I sure as hell didn’t expect to get re-routed to your lawyer like some stranger!”

     “You kinda are a stranger…”

     Until now, she had thought the term ‘seeing red’ was just that. But at this moment, the room seemed to shade with her fury.

     “Get out!”

     “Were, I mean. Not are. Were–” Jack hastily attempted to correct the obnoxious answer but epically failed.

     “Get out!” The scream ringing from the depths of her soul sounded exorcist like as it reverberated off the walls.