Jack Who?

CHAPTER 12

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SHE NEEDED TO make her phone calls, and Jack mentioned going down the hall to a vending area they had passed earlier. Olivia was her first call, and amazingly, didn’t ask any questions about Jack after hearing what had befallen Tristan. When calling her mother, she caught hell for calling Olivia first, but her parent calmed down enough to grill her about Jack.

     “Marissa, do you understand how much you embarrassed your father and me? We are your parents, and you walked off without so much as a brief introduction? If that young man weren’t such a hoodlum, I would think you were ashamed of us!”

     Despite the seriousness of the last couple of hours, and especially the last half hour, Marissa felt a giggle gurgling in her throat. How her mother’s actions would change when she learned Jack was a celebrity of sorts. Studying the French manicure Olivia had treated her to while helping her with pre surgery errands, Marissa let her mother run out of steam. By that time, Jack returned, setting both a coffee and a soda on the little table beside her, plus a package of crackers and one of mini donuts. Then, he reclaimed his seat, sipping his own soft drink.

     Nodding her thanks, she popped the top on the can and tilted the fizzy drink into her throat. “Mother, I’ve got a lot on my mind right now. Anything that doesn’t concern Tristan, we can talk about at another time.”

     “You act as if you don’t appreciate me being here,” her mother bemoaned.

     “Mom, don’t do this right now.” Feeling Jack’s assessment, she stared hard at the pattern on the carpet.

     “I really have no reason to be here if we cannot see Tristan or be with you today.”

     “It means the world to me that you’re here with me, but you are right. Why don’t you go home, get some rest, and I will call you as soon as they put him in his room.” As much of a comfort as her mother’s presence could be, at other times, like now, it was the opposite.

     “Excuse me for saying so, but you haven’t exactly been good with keeping us updated.”

     In the background, her father could be heard muttering something reproving, and Marissa knew within minutes her parents would be in an argument. As a child, she had been the peacemaker, running interference between the two of them. In her early adult years, she had distanced herself from them, but lately, these last few years, she found herself playing the diplomatic role again.

     “Mom, I’m coming down to walk you to the car, okay?”

     Hitting ‘End Call,’ she spun to Jack. “I’ve got to…well, you heard. Will you be here in case…?”

     Nodding, he assured with warm eyes, as much as warm words, “I’ll be here. Do what you need to do. I’m not going anywhere.” Still, she hesitated, wanting to be sure he had her cell number, but she knew he did. Maybe she was looking at her phone, or maybe he read her mind, because he reassured her yet again, “I will call you if anything changes. Don’t worry. You will be back in what, fifteen?”

     Nodding, she turned, and her feet moved in the closest action to a sprint that was acceptable in a hospital.

     Her father squeezed her in a hug, coddling with words of reassurance, and promised he would return the following day. Her maternal parent harangued her every step to the parking garage, and demanded information on who she clearly knew was Tristan’s father. Marissa refused to divulge any information about Jack, insisting he was a friend.

     Liv, as the true friend that she was, waited patiently in the lobby and passed over Marissa’s purse when accompanying her back to Tristan’s empty room. While gathering the few things she had brought for an all-day hospital camp, Olivia let Marissa know that Jack was not ‘Russ.’

     For the fortieth time, Marissa felt the guilt of carrying this secret. “I know, Liv. I’ll tell you everything soon.”

     “You KNEW you slept with JACK STORM?!” Olivia’s mouth opened, then closed, then opened again, like the guppies she had surprised Tristan with when he was three. “Rissa, Tristan is Jack Storm’s SON!”

     Marissa wanted only to run three floors up and be as near Tristan as she could but waited this out. Olivia was her best friend, and should have been told long ago. However, the problem had been her friend’s inability to keep a secret. Never could Marissa have been sure that Olivia wouldn’t tell someone.

     Ramming her phone into her clutch as she rattled off the observations, Olivia froze when her godson’s name made sense. “Ooh. Tristan JACK!” Turning her head to Marissa, so rapidly that her hair flipped, she declared, “You get a reprieve today. But Rissa, I swear, I will tie you to a chair or something until you tell me everything!”

     “Okay. Okay!”

     “Did he leave?”

     “No. He’s upstairs. I should get back up there.”

     “Yes you should!” Olivia curved a gentle simper. Then, she leaned against Marissa in a brief hug. “I’m so relieved the surgery part went well, and don’t worry, he’s going to get through this fine. Text me or call me, whatever, as soon as our little guy wakes up. Okay?”

     They walked together to the elevator lobby where Marissa pressed both the up and down buttons. Her doors parted first and, before stepping through them, she hugged Olivia again.

     Jack’s attention was on the face of his phone, a forefinger tapping on the screen, but as if feeling her presence, he looked up even though a television broadcasting in the upper corner of the room muffled her approach. Automatically, he stood. Momentarily confused, thinking he was leaving, she remained standing until she realized he was mannerly waiting for her to sit down.

     Dropping to her earlier vacated chair, she picked up her half-finished Coke, and while sipping, took in the other occupants of the room. The number of families awaiting news of loved ones, or waiting to visit, was testament of the number of patients that Tristan’s doctor had mentioned.

     “You get your mom sorted out?” His smile was small, but it was joking, and she took a moment to enjoy the break in the stress of the day before answering affirmative. One of his thumbs traced the edge of his phone case as he curiously queried, “Is she always like that?”

     “Like what?” Marissa disparagingly drawled, “Flipping everything around to how it affects her? Yeah.”

     Viewing the large clock on the wall, she saw twenty minutes to go until next visit time. Delving into her pocket produced her own phone, and she brought up the missed text messages. Although she and Olivia had spoken since, reading her friend’s earlier texts would occupy ten minutes or so.

     The fact that Jack could make her heart pound by just sitting there, and draw her gaze with his every move while her child lay ill down the hall, was discomfiting.

     After her talk with Olivia the other night, Marissa had put a lock code on her phone, and now, as she punched the number in, she noticed in her side vision that Jack had returned his attention to his phone.

     Since she was reading the texts backwards, the ones asking about Tristan came up first, and she skimmed and then stopped when she saw Jack’s name.

LIV
ALERT He is not Russ. That is Jack Storm or whatever name he goes by these days
9:22 AM

     Her internal amusement may have been verbal, because Jack twisted his head to her, and a strangely familiar instinct had her turning the screen to his viewing angle. “My friend, Olivia. The one who was with me when you got here.”

     An answering sound, as stressed and tired as her own laugh, expelled from his lips and then he asked, “Who is Russ?”

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