“No, you’re right,” I said. “Plus, Chloe needs to know before the gala.” The gala, on the other hand, was now only a week away, and Chloe would definitely be there. If Jack were to be my safe harbour in the hurricane of my job, it would be pretty obvious.
“You should come to film night tonight,” he said. And though part of me felt a little weird about intruding on their years-long tradition, it actually made me really happy to think about their little threesome becoming a foursome. I smiled and nodded.
“Yeah, okay.”
Jack smiled back, and leaned in to kiss me. My alarm went off right as our lips met, and he groaned into my mouth.
“I don’t want to go,” he said, pulling back from me and covering his face with a pillow. I frowned at his sudden distance, despite the fact that we were still basically one person from the hips down, and so I burrowed under the pillow to get close to him again.
“You can’t make me go,” he said to me, his breath hot under the pillow.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I said. “But that means I have to go, too. It’s crunch time.”
“My kingdom for a lazy day in bed with you,” he said, pulling me close and kissing the tip of my nose. I giggled in response.
“You get those every weekend.”
“But I want itnow,” he insisted, throwing the pillow off our faces and onto the floor.
“You just want to avoid this walk-through with your dad.”
“Both can be true,” he said. “But you’re right, I really don’t want to do this.”
“Better get used to it,” I said, sitting up and running a finger down his chest. “You’re the future face of Evans Contractors!”
I meant it in a joking sort of way, but I saw his face fall in exhaustion.
“Don’t remind me.”
I hated seeing him like this. Every time he had to do anything for work other than build – every quote visit, every “finance day”, every little whiff of management – he deflated. He obviously hated it. Why wouldn’t he at least admit it to me?
“Hey, question for you,” I said, laying my head down on his arm, continuing drawing on his chest with my finger. I could feel it rising and falling with his breath.
“Answer for you,” he said, planting a kiss on the top of my head.
“If youweren’ttaking over the business, what would you want to do?”
He chuckled. “I don’t know. I don’t really think about it, because that’s what’s happening.”
“Right,” I said, “but if it weren’t.”
The laughter disappeared from his voice. “But I am,” he said. “So there’s no point in getting carried away with what-ifs.”
“But surely there is a point, if you don’t actually like it?”
Jack’s body tensed, and his chest went still, as if he were holding his breath.
“What are you talking about?” he asked, all the warmth and grogginess gone from his voice. It was almost disconcerting. “I didn’t say that.”
“Well, I mean, it’s obvious from how you react every time you have to do his job instead of yours.”
Jack stretched a bit and then wiggled out from under me, sitting up on the edge of the bed. My hand fell to the sheet as he moved away.
“I think you’re reading too much into it,” he said. “I’m perfectly happy, I promise. Plus, it’s really nice to feel like I get to help my family out.”
“Whatever you say,” I said with a sigh. Work was yet another landmine in the landscape of Jack Evans, it seemed. “But can you humour me for a moment?” I reached up and poked his arm, pawing at him until he turned to face me.
“Sure,” he said, softening again. “Go on then.” He smiled at me, but it wasn’t the deep smile he’d been wearing when we woke up together.
