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Why not me?
God, so many reasons why I’ll never be Jen’s soulmate, much less husband. Although being with her would prove to Riley and our clients that I’ve cleaned up my act. She’s that good. That well-respected.
“Jen will get her happily ever after,” I bite out, shoving aside the ridiculous thought that she’d find it with me. “Can’t rush those things. Or so I hear.”
He offers me a tight smile. “You’re right. It’ll happen for Jen when it’s meant to.”
“In the meantime, we focus on getting you better.”
I should visit a site over on East Beach where we’re laying the foundation for a five-thousand-square-foot waterfront custom build. Could check in with Riley too. Explain what happened with our client before he hears it from someone else.
I should email my father’s case worker to see if he’s making any progress with the counselor he’s supposed to be seeing in jail.
But I don’t want to leave Joe. So we hang out for a while and drink our beer. I can’t get over the fact that this man—this huge, infallible, gentle giant—is sick. He’s been my rocksince I was fifteen and practically homeless. What happens now?
Am I capable of being his rock?
No one deserves cancer, but especially not Joe. He’s a great man. Selfless. He didn’t need to take me in, but he did.
He had no reason to trust me, but he did. It’s why I’m not rotting in jail alongside my sperm donor right now.
If I am Joe’s rock, does that mean I should do anything and everything to help him recover? Take care of his family, even? Tuck’s about to have a baby, so his hands are full. That means?—
God, I don’t know.
I finally get up to leave when we finish our beers. Joe pulls me into his arms and pats me on the back. “You asked what you can do, but I think you already know the answer to that question, son.”
I scoff, brushing off the suspicion that Joe can read my thoughts. “I’ll do my best, Joe.”
“That’s all I ask. Oh! You and Jen—and Lady too of course—y’all are the only ones I’ve told about my diagnosis.”
I make a mental note to call Jen as soon as I get off this boat. She’s probably a wreck right now. “Right. This is a delicate time for Tuck and Maren. Just let me know when you tell them.”
Joe says he’s got some things to take care of onThe Jolly Roger, so I step onto the dock alone.
I can’t feel my legs as I move toward shore. My pulse blares in the back of my throat and in my ears.
Joe is sick.
He has cancer.
Jen needs a soulmate, and I need to “open up”.
Walking up the plank to land, I dig my phone out of my pocket. I’m thumbing through my contacts for her number when I look up and there she is.
Tall. Tan. She’s standing in the little parking lot off themarina in a blue dress that shows off her legs. She lets her phone fall from her ear, tapping her thumb on its screen like she’s hanging up a call.
She’s so beautiful that for a second I think I’ve imagined her. What are the chances of me running into her like this?
But then her face crumples and so does my chest.
“Your eye,” she says, but I know that’s not why she’s crying.
Making a beeline for her, I curl an arm around her neck and pull her against me. Jen burrows into my chest. She’s not little but neither am I, and she fits perfectly there, head resting against the top of my shoulder.
“He just told me,” I say hoarsely against her hair.
“He told me this morning too. Just went for a walk on the beach to try to process... everything.” She sniffles. “What are we gonna do, Abel?”
