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“I made you promise not to cry because it’s going to makemecry, Gem,” he said only for her to hear.
Gemma gave him a final squeeze and pulled away. She fluttered her hands and wiped her eyes. “Okay, I’ll stop. I’m sorry.” She took a deep breath and blew it out her mouth. “Be safe over there.”
Patrick reached for his backpack and threw the strap over his shoulder. “Mebe safe. I’m not the one who stopped reality for five months so I could fall in love.I’mthe one who should be worried here, honestly. Who knows what’s going to happen to you two.” He winked at her, and she felt her face flush.
Once he was safely in L.A., she had to tell him the truth of how she’d met Jack. She could tell the story to precisely two people who wouldn’t think she was making it up, and Lila already knew. She’d told Patrick on her own, without Jack there, in case Patrick worried that Jack, a man he’d never met, had somehow coerced her into telling him such a wild tale. He’d struggled at first, but when they stayed up an entire night snacking on junk food and theorizing about why and how and all the pieces that had to fall into place to break them out of the loop, Patrick was a converted believer. The same as Lila, he had no memory of the one hundred and forty-six trips through the same day, and only remembered the final version of it. All the others slipped back into the pocket of time they’d spilled out from, as if they never existed at all.
Jack came to stand beside Gemma and hooked an arm around her back. She leaned into him for support.
Patrick extended the handle on his suitcase, ready to roll away, and adjusted his backpack. “Call me if you guys get sucked into an interdimensional vortex or anything. Otherwise, see you at Christmas.” He shot her a crooked smile, and she knew she couldn’t hug him again because she’d never let go.
“Bye, Patrick. Let me know when you get there!”
“I will, Gem!” he sang at her tenth reminder. “Gotta go now!”
He grabbed his bags, and they watched him roll to the automatic sliding doors and disappear inside.
Gemma released a big breath and turned in Jack’s arms. He pinched the end of her ponytail and tugged on it, tilting her chin up. She and Patrick had woken late after all the wine and crying, and Jack made them breakfast. She didn’t have time to do anything other than pull up her hair and brush her teeth before they had to leave for the airport.
“You did it,” he told her, and chastely kissed her lips. “You saw him off.”
She softly smiled at him. She knew her face was puffy from the hangover and tears, and she wasn’t wearing a lick of makeup, and still, Jack was looking at her like she was the only girl in the world.
“I did. Thanks for coming.”
“Of course. I’m glad I got to spend so much time with him. Though I’ll be honest and say I’m happy I finally have you to myself.” He leaned over and pressed his lips to her neck. It shot sparks through her swollen body and woke herup more than the two cups of coffee she’d had with breakfast.
Once the loop broke, they’d only had three days before Patrick arrived in town. Gemma spent most of the first one sleeping, having stayed up almost all night at the Bowl, and the other two in Jack’s bed. The thought of crawling back there for the rest of the day sounded like the greatest idea of all time.
“Yes, I could use a day of rest before my first day at my new job,” she said, and bounced her hips in excitement.
After her interview with Nigel, she’d been promoted to afternoon host. Starting Monday, she’d have her own show. She’d spent two weeks prepping and was an anxious ball of excitement and nerves for her first official hours on the air the next day. She’d finally made the leap, and she was ready to fly.
“I’m thrilled for you,” he said. “But I have to warn you, there won’t be much resting going on today.”
Heat flashed her cheeks. The promise in his voice made her hold on to him tighter so she didn’t lose her balance. “Is that so?”
He leaned in and slowly ran his nose along hers, bringing his lips whisper-close but not actually touching hers. “Yes, that’s so.”
One of Jack’s many talents was making her wait in the most deliciously tempting ways. He did things with his mouth and hands and even his eyes that left her begging before he ever really touched her. She sometimes wondered if it was playful payback for the five months that he spent chasing her.
They’d reasoned that Jack’s theory had been right fromthe start: they had to fall in love to break the loop. He’d started remembering from the beginning because he was ready to fall. A man on a ledge in many senses looking for the piece in his life he didn’t even know was missing. The piece was Gemma, but she hadn’t been ready. She had been stuck in so many ways and unwilling to see that she needed to change until he came along and helped her. It took one hundred and forty-seven days and the best kiss of her life for her to be ready.
And now she was ready for anything with Jack.
She stole a kiss against his lips and went to turn for the passenger door right as a woman approached them.
“Excuse me, ma’am? Sir? You can’t be parked here.”
Gemma turned and saw a familiar woman standing on the curb in her airline outfit. “Helen?”
Helen the ticket agent briefly narrowed her eyes and resumed her stern look of disapproval.
“Helen, it’s me!” Gemma said. She hung from Jack with an arm around his neck still. “And this is the guy!” She pointed at him.
Helen sourly eyed them both.
“Jack, this is the ticket agent I told you about. The one who wouldn’t let us—”
