I’m more than grateful that Olivia wants Jack to hang out with her. God knows what would have happened if she hadn’t interrupted us.
18
Jack
Saturday afternoon and night pass in a blur of movies, painting, more bubble blowing, running around the backyard, bath time for the girls, cooking dinner, reading, and the dance of getting the girls to sleep.
We barely see Jessica because her work has her full attention, but Hazel and Olivia are more than happy to spend time with me. I’m more than happy to spend time with them too, but I’m counting down the hours until Jessica and I can take up where we left off earlier this afternoon.
I cook spaghetti for dinner after Olivia tells me it’s one of her favourite meals. Jessica eats with us after helping me bathe the girls. She then reads a story to both of them before helping me get them to sleep. After that, though, she tells me she has more work to do. I suspect she doesn’t, but I let her go.
Three hours pass while she works and I mindlessly flick between TV shows.
At 10:00 p.m., I walk into the office where she’s been holed up all day, rest my shoulder against the doorjamb, cross my arms, and settle in for an argument. “You need a break.”
She glances up at me for barely a second before looking back down at her laptop. “I don’t have time for a break.”
“I don’t care. You’re taking one.”
This time, her head snaps up and she holds my gaze. “You’re not my boss, Jack.”
“I can get your boss on the line if you want. He’ll agree with me on this.”
Irritation flashes in her eyes. “I wasn’t lying when I said I don’t have time. But feel free to get Ashton on the line so he can verify that for you.”
Fuck, she’s shut right down on me after this afternoon. I’d hoped she wouldn’t, but I’d guessed she might. Knowing Jessica, now is not the time to push her, so I don’t.
“Okay,” I concede. “You keep working. I’ll bring you a drink.”
“I’m fine,” she says. “I don’t need a drink.”
I push off from the doorjamb with a nod and leave her to go make that drink. ‘Fine’ is not a true indication of how any woman is feeling when they tell a man that’s how they are, let alone Jessica when she’s annoyed with me. I don’t care if she wants a drink or not, she’s getting one.
After I deliver a decaf coffee to her, I watch some more TV. Will and Mira’s couch is one of those big, L-shaped, cushiony couches that’s hard not to fall asleep on, but I manage to stay awake. I make it through two episodes of a crime show before Jessica finally exits the office.
I listen as she potters around in the kitchen for a bit, and am about to go in there when she sticks her head around the corner of the lounge room and says, “Do you want a cup of tea?”
“Sounds good.” I resist the urge to follow her back into the kitchen and take over. She might have been working all day, and I might think she’s exhausted, but the last thing Jessica wants from me is to be told to rest. Picking which battles I fight with her is key. I quickly learned that eight years ago, and I’ve never forgotten it.
Ten minutes later, she joins me on the couch, placing a mug of tea on the coffee table in front of me. She doesn’t utter a word, and we settle into silence watching TV together.
I give her fifteen minutes of that silence before saying, “Did you get everything done you needed to?”
She eyes me over the rim of her mug as she takes a sip of what I presume is more decaf coffee. Jessica doesn’t drink tea. “Yeah.” She takes another sip. “Thank you for today. I really appreciate it.”
“I think the girls had fun, though Olivia is pretty keen to spend tomorrow with her favourite aunt.”
She smiles and it hits me right in the chest. It’s rare I receive a smile from her. “Olivia asked me if you could take her to the park tomorrow. It seems not even my niece is immune to the famous Jack Kingsley charm.”
Fuck, she’s more exhausted than I realised. Compliments are also rare from her.
I want to keep her talking but she needs sleep, so I push my wish aside and say, “You should go to bed, sweetheart. It’s been a long day.”
She glances at the television and then back at me. “I need to wind down first. What else is on?”
What she’s saying is she needs something that will bore her to sleep. Jessica’s mind takes its time switching off at night. I used to challenge myself to find new, boring shows for her each night. However, there’s a faster way to get her to sleep, and we both know it.
Jerking my chin at her, I say, “Give me your feet.”
“No, just find me a show.”
She can be stubborn at the best of times, and I know she’ll be more than stubborn about this. Especially after what happened between us earlier.
Before she can stop me, I pull her feet up onto my lap. Ignoring her protests, I begin massaging them. Not an easy task when she’s doing her damnedest to extricate them from my grip.
“Jack,” she argues in that bossy tone of hers I usually love. “I don’t want my feet—”
I tighten my hold on her feet. “Stop fighting me and just let me help you.”
“No, I—”
“You need sleep, and this will get you there the fastest.”
She glares at me like she wants to hurt me. “You don’t know that about me anymore.”
“Okay, let’s try it then and see.” When she continues glaring at me and opens her mouth to keep arguing with me, I change tactics and take her by force. “You can keep that up, and I’ll keep this up, sweetheart, but it’d be a whole lot easier for both of us if you just allowed me to do this. Alternatively, we can go back to the conversation we were having earlier, which is actually my preference. But you let me know what your preference is, so I know what to do next.”
Her eyes widen for a split second and then her lips flatten. “Knock yourself out,” she mutters. “But when you’re still there in half an hour and I’m not asleep, it’d be really good if you just found me a show like I requested.”
“We both know you’ll be asleep within twenty minutes.”
She exhales a grumpy breath as I get to work on her feet.
I welcome all that grumpiness.
Any time Jessica wants to give me this kind of fight, I’m here for it.
I wake just after 4:00 a.m. on the couch with Jessica’s head in my lap.
After massaging her feet for a good fifteen minutes, she requested I massage her shoulders and promptly switched positions to lie with her head like she is now. It didn’t take her long after that to fall asleep, at which point I turned the television off and rested my head back against the couch. I hadn’t intended on falling asleep myself. I’d simply wanted to enjoy having Jessica close for a little while before carrying her to bed.
I look down at her, not wanting to separate us but also not wanting her to be uncomfortable here on the couch. In the end, her comfort wins, and I scoop her into my arms to take her to bed.
She stirs, but only briefly, and I get her into bed without fully waking her. I pull the blanket over her and slide the strands of hair that have fallen across her face off it. This rouses her, but only slightly. Just enough for her to mumble something about wanting to kiss me.