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Oscar grins, giving me a quick nod. “Cool. Also, Uncle Jack wants to see you when you’re done. He’s in the shed,” he adds, waving a hand in the direction of the bottling shed before he stands from his chair and saunters off.
Fuck me, this place.
After I’ve finished my lunch, I wander over to the shed to find Jack, certain I haven’t heard the end of what happened last night and the mess I made of it. As nice as Jack is, he’s pretty fucking relentless when it comes to telling you what he thinks, regardless of how personal the whole thing is.
Makes me grateful I’ve never admitted to anyone about the money I made, and especially how I made it. God knows what Tessa’s going to think of that now too, after everything.
“Jack?” I call out as I walk into the shed.
“Over here.”
I head toward the back where I find him dismantling the bottle labeling machine. “Need some help” I ask.
“Yeah, thanks,” he says, gesturing to the toolbox. “Can you grab the wrench?”
I hand it to him, waiting for what’s next cause I’m pretty sure he didn’t ask to see me just so I could hand him a wrench. Jack doesn’t say anything for a few minutes, just works on the machine until he finally gets a part out.
“So,” he starts, looking up at me, his face strangely serious. “How’s things?”
“Okay,” I say. “How are you?”
“Fine,” he says, waving a hand. “You and Tessa okay? You know after…”
My eyes roll as I glance up at the ceiling. “Yeah, I mean I think so.”
Jack nods. “’Cause you know, I am sorry about how…well, you know…”
I watch him, noting the way he doesn’t really look at me now, almost like he’s nervous or embarrassed or something. I can’t help but laugh, shaking my head as I ask, “Holy shit, are you nervous?”
“No,” he snaps. “Why the fuck would I be nervous?”
“I don’t know, you tell me,” I say with a grin. “But for the record, you are acting weird.”
Jack exhales, throwing the wrench onto the bench. “Look, I might have been a bit out of line last night,” he says, tipping his head a little as if to add,what can you do.“It’s new, this whole thing with you and Tessa and I guess, I probably should’ve been a little more mindful of that.”
My grin widens as I shake my head at him. “Fuck me, so this is you actually apologizing?”
“Fuck off,” Jack says, laughing now. “And yeah, it kinda is, okay. Lu sort of reminded me that not everyone needs me in their face all the time.”
“Uh huh,” I smirk. “And that’s why you sent Oscar to unload his advice on me too, is it?”
“Fuck,” Jack mutters. “I knew that cheeky little shit was eavesdropping. No look, I did not tell Oscar to say anything to you, but you know how they are, these kids hear everything, and they repeat it, with absolutely no filter whatsoever.”
“Kinda sounds like someone else I know,” I suggest.
Jack waves a hand at me. “Whatever. Anyway, my point is, I didn’t mean to make either of you uncomfortable and I really hope this hasn’t, you know, messed shit up or whatever. You guys are good together.”
“You really think that?” I ask, surprised.
Jack grins. “Well, that’s what Lu tells me, but you know.”
I nod, picking up the wrench from the table, more to give myself something to do, than anything else. I can feel Jack watching me and I know more is coming because as sincere as he is right now, he also can’t help himself.
“So, you didn’t answer my question. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, I don’t know, I guess,” I answer vaguely. “This is not something I’m, you know…”
“Used to talking about?” Jack prompts.
