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“Well!” Eric shouted.
Jack’s laugh became heartier. “My little girl is a romantic fool and just wants everyone to be happy.”
Eric’s jaw tightened. “She’s a spoiled brat. The next time I see her I’m putting her over my knee. You tell her I know what she’s up to and it won’t work.”
“That’s my baby you’re threatening, slick.” Jack’s warning sounded wrapped in humor and Eric fumed more, his fist a steady beat against his thigh.
Jack’s tone sobered. “By the way, it alreadyisworking or you wouldn’t have called. It’s bugging the hell out of you that Jenna went out on a date.”
“Brett Masters doesn’t date. He seduces. He’s a rich, famous, good-looking jerk who dumps a different woman every week. Don’t you ever read the paper?”
Jack’s voice, the gravelly baritone familiar to millions, was steady and stern. “You listen to me, kid. I love you like a son. Stop being such an asshole. You’re the only goddamned rich and famous, good-looking jerk who dumped Jenna. Don’t blow it again. Get over all that nonsense you have going on inside that thick head of yours and ask her to marry you.”
The line went dead.
Eric shoved the screen door open and strode over to Ina and Janie. “Am I being an asshole?”
“Yes,” they answered together, with Ina adding a reproach for the language. Eric squatted down and clasped his daughter’s waist in his hands. “Could you give us a couple of minutes, honey? Go inside and have a snack or something, okay.”
“Sure, Eric.”
He shook his head and called to her as she ran off. “Are you ever planning on calling me Dad?”
Janie angled her blonde head to one side and curled her lips into a smile. “Yep. As soon as you marry my mom.”
“How do you like that,” Eric said as he and Ina watched the child gallop away. “She’s a nine-year-old extortionist.”
“She has a point. Maybe she can’t accept that you’ll always be around until you become a family.”
“Having your parents living together doesn’t guarantee you’ll be a family. No one knows that better than me and my brother and sisters.” He kicked at a clod of dirt, and it exploded into a spray of dust. “Besides, Jenna’s the one who left. She was the one who wanted a divorce.”
Ina fiddled with the empty flower cartons and condensed the flats one on top of the other. After placing them down, she pressed her fists into her hips. “Look, you both made mistakes…whoppers from what I understand. Seems like Jenna’s gotten past it. If you don’t forgive her, you’re going to lose her again. Is that what you want?”
Eric looked into the deep wisdom and sincerity of Ina’s eyes. “It wouldn’t be fair to any of us if I make a commitment until I’ve come to terms with everything one hundred percent…until my feelings are clear.”
“Oh you dear, sweet boy.” Ina’s voice skirted the edge of both comfort and sarcasm. She stabbed the center of his chest with her forefinger. “That’s horse shit and you know it. You finally have a shot at true love, and you’re too afraid to take it.” She poked him harder, and her gnarled finger left a dot of dirt on his chambray shirt. “Happiness is never guaranteed, so I won’t tell you what to do. What I will tell you is what not to do. Don’t come over here every time she has a date and re-fix my damned house.” She spun on her heels.
“But…but.”
“But nothing,” Ina shouted as she walked away. “If you’ve gotten yourself this bent out of shape because Jenna went out with another man, it seems to me your feelingsarepretty clear!”
Smiling, he caught up with his landlady and kissed her weathered cheek. “Janie has a gymnastics practice at three. Take my truck. Mine has seatbelts that actually work, and her bag is already in it.” He sprinted across the lawn and climbed into Ina’s rusted pickup. He turned the key that always dangled from the ignition and rumbled out of her driveway.
****
Jenna yawned and popped another dry saltine into her mouth. She wasn’t bothered by morning sickness but after a lingering midday episode, she felt exhausted. Depression wove its way into the network of emotions that were spiraling through her system and hitching a ride on her hormones. She was about to have a cleansing mother-to-be cry when she heard the backfiring engine of a truck sputter to a halt in her driveway. Eric. From her window she could see him heading toward the kitchen door on the side of the house. At first glance, she thought with concern something must be wrong for him to be back in his torn jeans and dirt-streaked shirt, but his slow loping stride convinced her otherwise. She stepped away and scrambled to the stove to boil water for another cup of tea as if she hadn’t a care in the world.
“Hi,” he said, leaning in the doorway. He shuffled his work boots on her mat and Jenna was stabbed with an acute reminder of the twenty-year-old man she had fallen in love with so easily and so completely.
“Oh, does Janie need more clothes?”Not a care in the world.
They played a staring game for a while before he asked for permission to come inside. Jenna stepped away from the stove, and as he entered, he unintentionally brushed against her. Even the slight, almost inconsiderable feather of bodily contact caused a thrill to pass between them. It always did. She sucked in a gulp of air, feeling the restive energy in the room.
He offered his hand. “Come here.”
Jenna timidly accepted and they stood, silent for a time. He eventually brought her hand to his lips and softly kissed her fingers. As she opened her mouth to speak, he cut her words off with a kiss, one lighter than the one he conferred upon her hand.
“Why did you do that?” Her words were a shy breath.
