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“You asked me to prep you for the interview this afternoon. Remember?” He looks me over with one brow raised, sits forward, and opens his laptop. “However, it seems ...” Eddie makes a few clicks, types something, and closes the lid. “It seems you’re going to need more than the hour we had scheduled.”
He pushes the laptop away, stands, and holds out his hand. “Let’s run down to Cuppa Joe’s and get you a triple espresso, then we’ll see about fixing you up to camera-ready Jack.”
I breathe deeply. “Deal.”
Outside the LivFit doors, I loop my arm through Eddie’s. We walk like that for a block and a half before he says, “You know, Jack, you’re not the same at all since we’ve returned.”
“Really?” I furrow my brows. “How so?”
“I think you know, but don’t want to admit it.”
He can’t be talking about Luca. No, I decide. “I have no clue what you’re talking about. I just need coffee like I need air to breathe.”
We swing into Cuppa Joe’s. Eddie waves to the barista and holds up two fingers. When his partner, who is currently attending Berkley and working here, nods at us, Eddie blows him a kiss.
I nudge my coworker playfully. “Must be nice to be the number one customer.”
“It has its ... perks.”
I groan.
“Be right back, hon.”
Eddie slips away to grab our coffees, and I scan through my emails while I wait. When he returns and shoves the paper cup in my hand, I sip then let out a satisfied “aahhh.”
“Come on, you have an appointment.”
I look at him askance.
“Girl, you look like you could have slept in those slacks. There’s a pencil skirt, white button down, and fresh hair style waiting for you at my salon around the corner.”
Every bone in my body sighs with relief. “Oh my gawd, Eddie, you’re a lifesaver!”
He checks his watch. “Get a move on, doll, or we’ll miss the appointment.”
Outside, he stretches out our stride to the end of the block and we whip around the corner. I plow straight into a brick-wall of a man. The half-cup of coffee crushes and splatters between us, and he crouches to where the cup falls. I gasp and hold my hands out, in shock and saddened over the loss of my espresso, but then I look down at the man. He’s wearing boots and a cowboy hat, and for an instant, my heart starts fluttering like a herd of butterflies. But it plummets when he stands up and hands me the remains of my cup, and I realize it’s not who I thought. Yet even his drawled, “I’m terribly sorry, ma’am,” makes me yearn for a man that I decided to run from only a week before.
Eddie pulls some napkins from his pocket and hands them to the cowboy. “She’s on her way to change, so this is the best I can offer you.”
He accepts the napkins and dabs his dark blue shirt and jeans. “It’s all right. At least I’m wearing a dark shirt.” He tips his hat, says, “Ya’ll have a better rest of the day,” and walks on by.
My lungs expand, and I take a long-awaited breath.
“Yup,” says Eddie, “sad is the house where the hen crows and the rooster is silent!”
“Aargh, I thought you were done with that?”
“Well, doll, I’ve got one more for ya.” He hands me his coffee and we press on toward the salon. “This career you’ve cooked upain’t gonna amount to a hill of beansif you don’t have someone to share it with.”
Luca
Jasper leads me on thetrail. The morning sun rises up over the hills in the distance. I haven’t taken Jasper out, just the two of us, in too long. When we reach an open field, Jasper doesn’t even gallop. Instead, he looks back at me, and puts his head down.
“I know, buddy,” I say. “I miss her too. But today we’ll have a new group arrive, and you’ll have someone new to ride you.”
My words are void of truth. And Jasper knows it. I miss everything about Jack. The way she puts her hands on her hips when she demands attention. The way she bites her bottom lip before she’s going to share something vulnerable. The way she stared into my eyes when I shared something. Like she understood and cared about what I was saying.
I also miss getting to protect her when she was scared, even though I knew she never needed my protecting. Jack is the most self-sufficient person I’ve ever met, and I have no doubt that someday I’ll be reading about her in some business magazine, and I can tell everyone that I knew her once.
