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“You two need to head out of here so I can get dressed, got it?” I say, trying to be firm but struggling as I picture Jack hiding in my bedroom while these two badgers won’t give up.
They don’t move and I finally concede to them.
“Listen, yes, Jack is here,” I say, letting out a long exhale, my hands on my hips. “He’s probably just about to get in the shower because he spent the night.”
“Did you watch a movie?” Olivia asks, the boots now gone from her feet with one left by the sink and the other by the entrance to my hall bathroom.
“Not exactly.”
“Was it a date?” Oscar now asks.
“Sorta.”
“Is he your boyfriend?” Olivia questions, her voice going up in a teasing way as she says the word boyfriend.
I pause for a moment, choosing my words wisely because whatever I say here will be brought back to Ellen and twisted in a way that only a seven-year-old can do.
“Yes. Jack is my boyfriend.” I keep it short and simple. They understand boyfriends and girlfriends, not in the way that I was just shacking up with Jack, but rather in the way that they know I like him. I’m not sure how else to explain my relationship with Jack to them. I’m not certain that boyfriend is the right word, but for them it works. It’s easy.
“Finally!” Oscar shouts, throwing his hands up in the air dramatically as he turns on his heel and walks over to the front door.
While the conversation with Oscar ends there, Olivia is a little more difficult.
“Are you going to get married? Can I call him Uncle Jack? Does he live at your house now? Why is he allowed to wear muddy boots in your house but I’m not?”
“Whoa, take it down a notch, sister,” I tell her, my fingers twisting one of her pigtails into a bun. “Jack is still my friend. We just like to spend time together. That’s all.”
“I want you to marry him,” Olivia states firmly before shrugging her shoulders and following the path her brother just took.
Now that the Spanish Inquisition has vacated my house I head back to the bedroom, but as I push the door open it nails Jack right in the side of the head.
“Shit, Lu, be careful,” he says, rubbing the spot on his face where the door hit him.
He’s standing there in his underwear, clearly not concerned about putting on some clothes as the kids questioned me in the kitchen. I can picture him with his ear pressed against the door trying to eavesdrop on every word of our conversation.
“Were you listening through the door?” I ask, giving him a teasing pinch to his side.
His hand closes around my wrist as I move it away, and Jack pulls me into his arms. The smile on his face is spread so wide and his eyes crinkle up in the corners. I can practically feel the happiness radiating off him.
“So, I’m your boyfriend, huh?”
Chapter Nineteen
Jack
“So, it’s official now, is it?”
I look up and find Ellen standing just inside the shed, a huge shit-eating grin on her face as she looks at me.
“Jesus, word travels fast around here.”
Ellen laughs, stepping toward me. “The beauty of working in a family business, Jack,” she says. “Don’t worry, you’ll be married by lunch and have her knocked up by dinner.”
I shake my head, unable to stop the smile. “Good to know,” I tell her. “And for the record, those kids of yours would make fantastic interrogators.”
Ellen laughs again. “Ugh, I know,” she says. “But just so you know, I like this thing you’ve got going with Lauren,” she adds, serious now. “Despite her protests, she does actually like you. You make her happy and it’s good to see. She deserves it.”
I nod. “Making her happy is all I wanna do,” I tell her.
