AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She was surprised she wasn’t a puddle on the floor after hearing the way he had planned this side trip for her.
“I’ll tell Rev to pack his bags,” she said. She didn’t try to hide the excitement in her voice. “Did you already call Kelly or should I call her?”
“I talked to her earlier so I’ll just tell Jack to let her know. Kelly was excited to have built in entertainment for the puppy all weekend. Your dog has his work cut out for him.”
“Oh, Rev will love it. As long as Kelly pays Rev in treats, he’ll be happy.”
“I’ll make the reservations. See you tonight? I can bring take out,” he said.
It really wasn’t necessary for him to ask at this point. It had become a given that they would have dinner and spend the evenings together. The only real question each night was whether they would go out or stay in. Apparently tonight, Andrew wanted to stay in and that suited Jill just fine.
“See you then,” she said with a smile that she couldn’t fight off if she tried.
As she pocketed her phone, she heard it ring again.
“What’d you forget?” Jill asked. Figuring it was Andrew, she hadn’t bothered to look at the screen. There was a heavy pause before she heard a voice she hadn’t expected and wasn’t happy to hear.
“Jill? It’s Jake. Who were you expecting?”
She swallowed a sigh. “What can I do for you, Jake?”
“No need to sound so formal. I just wanted to see how you are.”
“Jake, I’ve asked you to leave me alone. I mean it. I don’t want to talk to you, don’t want to hear from you and don’t want to tell you how I am. I asked for a clean break. You need to respect that,” she said. She gave up trying and let the exasperation boil over and pour through the phone.
“I don’t understand why you’re so upset with me for checking up on you. I still care about how you’re doing. I want to know that you’re okay,” he said.
He really sounds like he believes his own crap.
“Jake, you’re the last person who has the right to ask how I’m doing. You gave up that right when you left our bed for another woman’s. You don’t get to care about how I am. You don’t get to call. You don’t get to check up on me. You get nothing, period.”
She pressed the ‘end’ button and turned off her phone. So much for the smile Andrew had put on her face. Jill was just about to stomp back to the darkroom when it dawned on her.
She wasn’t hurt and sad and angry. She wasn’t filled with heartache and loss like she had been every time she spoke to Jake in the past.
This time, she was ticked off and frustrated. She was agitated and annoyed.
But that was it. No more heartbreak. Jill’s smile returned as she slid the door to her darkroom open and went back to her chemicals.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Andrew finished his Friday meeting just after lunch and picked Jill up at the hotel. He insisted on first class tickets for the flight and had set up appointments for Jill at the spa to keep her entertained Friday morning.
After the spa, she spent the rest of the time during Andrew’s meetings walking the trail at Lady Bird Lake in Austin enjoying the sixty-degree weather that was such a change from the New England cold.
The trail was just off the hotel grounds and she caught several shots of eight or more turtles at a time bathing in the sun on logs out on the water. The turtles were the size of basketballs, layered one over the other in a long row as they sunbathed.
With the sun sparkling on the water behind them and the exposed roots of the trees on the edge of the water, they created beautiful pictures. Jill was glad she’d grabbed her telephoto lenses when she decided to head out for her walk. She thought she’d only need the lenses for catching shots of larger animals at Big Bend, but the turtles would be great for her notecard line.
Andrew collected Jill in the rental car in the afternoon and they headed out across Texas to Big Bend National Park. During the drive he filled the time with stories of Jack’s and his escapades during school.
He also gave her a more detailed version of Jack and Kelly’s story and told her about Kelly’s kidnapping, a story Jill had only heard an overview of before.
Several hours into the drive, she gasped at the vision of the sun beating down on a landscape of red rocks with blue sky behind and cacti in the foreground. Without even asking if Jill wanted him to, Andrew pulled the car over so that she could get out and take pictures.
He waited patiently while she changed lenses, checked lighting and switched apertures to achieve different effects she could play with in the darkroom later.
When she was finished, she turned back around to find Andrew leaning on the hood of the car. His long legs were out in front of him, ankles crossed, eyes on her as she walked toward him.
