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He blinked at her in surprise. “I am?”
“Yeah. After the scene at your house, I started walking down the street, and I was suddenly right around the corner from the house where I spent half my childhood. I’d spent all day—one hundred and forty-six of them—refusing to visit my father, and there I was, right outside his door. Because I’d met you.”
Jack looked like his head was about to explode. His mouth fell open. “So, what did you do?”
Gemma sighed, thinking back to how angry she’d been on that street. “I did everything to stall and bail out at the last second. I hid in someone’s hedges and called Lila and my brother, and they both told me to go inside.”
He watched her, waiting for more. “And?”
“AndI went inside,” she said with a soft smile. His hand tightened on hers with an encouraging squeeze. “We talked, and I may have unloaded on him because he told me that he’d pulled strings to get my ex’s band in the opening lineup for Nigel’s show tonight. He thought Nick and I were still together because Nick had lied to him and said we were.” She shook away the unpleasant memory since it was in the past and they’d moved on. “I left really upset, and that’s part of why I was so short with you at the museum; I’d just come from there.”
He frowned like he wished he could go back and make it better.
“But,” she went on, “what I said to him finally got through to him, because he made some calls and got Nick’s band pulled at the last second as a favor to me.”
Jack’s eyes popped wide. “Seriously?”
She nodded.
“Damn. Maybe Ishouldbe afraid of your father.”
A quiet laugh rocked her shoulders. “Nigel was in on it too, so you’ll hold them in equal regard if you know what’s best.”
“Noted,” he said, dazed. “And I thought I had connections.”
“It has its perks sometimes,” she conceded. “And that whole situation actually put me in a position to finally confront Nick about everything he’s done to me. I ran into him backstage right after his act got pulled.”
Jack pressed his palm into hers and squeezed. “And how did that feel?”
A smile spread across her face. “Fucking great. Even better, Lila caught the whole thing on her livestream.”
His mouth fell open again. “Wow. How did I miss all this?”
“Oh, you were busy running around convincing your ex you were leaving for Europe and begging a rock star to serenade me.”
“Both very time-consuming yet important activities.”
“Surely.”
“So, are you and your dad better now?”
Gemma leaned back against the couch’s surprisingly comfortable cushions and sighed. “Not yet. But I think we can get there. Eventually.”
“That’s really great, Gemma. I’m happy for you,” he said with genuine warmth.
She softly smiled. “I guess I should have realized that telling you about him in the first place was a sign I was ready to make changes. I never talk about him with anyone.”
Jack gave her a look like he’d selflessly play the role of open ear in whatever way she needed.
“And because of all that,” Gemma went on, “I finally set my poor brother free—both from the airport and from playing family peacekeeper. I apologized for the position I’d put him in all our lives and told him how happy I am for his new job in Lagos.” Her voice caught on the last word. She’d temporarily forgotten that Patrick would be permanently leaving soon.
Jack threw an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. He pressed his lips to her hair.
“Sorry,” she said with a sniffle. “I’d kind of forgotten that news with everything else tonight.”
“Don’t apologize. That’s pretty big news, even if it’s not going to change your relationship.”
She tucked into his chest and took a ragged breath, remembering their conversation from outside the radio studio and taking comfort in the way he smelled like woodsy fresh air. She hadn’t yet pressed her face so close to the source. “I hope you’re right.”
