I wished I could say that blackjack Bible study was the strangest thing I’d ever heard happening, but it wasn’t even in the top ten. The people in King George County were a different kind of people.
I tossed Lily the keys to the Suburban. “You rode in with Cole,” I reminded her. “You don’t have a vehicle.”
“I’ll leave it under the portico and drive Sheldon’s car to my place. He can sleep on the couch.”
“My place is closer,” Cole said. “Just take him there. You know where everything is. Just make yourself at home. You’ve got a key. I might even make it home tonight if this witness plays out.”
Lily’s smile was seductive and she moved in close to Cole. “I like the sound of that.”
My eyebrows rose to my hairline and I felt Jack’s hand on the back of my neck, squeezing ever so slightly. I had questions. A lot of questions. Cole had always been very proprietary about his house. And now to find out Lily had a key. That was big news.
I’d never been one to be big on gossip, mostly because I’d spent most of my life being gossiped about. But Lily was my friend, and I was straddling the line between being nosy and wanting to make sure she was protected in case things went bad with Cole.
“We’re out,” Jack said, putting his hand on the small of my back and ushering me toward the door. “We’ll let you know how it goes with Trest.”
Jack and I hurried and left while Lily and Cole finished saying their goodbyes.
“Other people’s love is kind of gross,” I said, fastening my seat belt. “Do you think we were that gross when we started dating?”
“Definitely not,” he said. “And we didn’t really date. We just came to our senses.”
“Do you think we should check on Doug?” I asked. “He’s still a teenaged boy in a house alone.”
“I texted him,” Jack said. “He said he ordered pizza and is doing an assignment for class. Then he asked if he could make some modifications to the golf cart.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him to go ahead, and while he was at it to see if he could amp up the riding lawn mower.”
The whole parenting thing was new to me, and parenting a teenager was like jumping into the deep end of the pool when you didn’t know how to swim. Doug wasn’t a normal kid. I knew the reason he was with us was because we could give him opportunities to stretch his mind without too much fear of going to prison or being reprimanded—within reason.
“Just remember I draw the line at robots,” I said. “The second the toaster starts walking across the counter I’m burning the house to the ground and we’re starting over somewhere else.”
“I’ve reminded him,” Jack said, driving past the Newcastle city limits sign. “No robots. Newcastle has always been a little creepy to me.”
“It’s a cute town,” I said. “Very artsy. Bloody Mary has a lot of the Tudor influence with a touch of Americana. King George Proper looks like every college town in America, and Nottingham has no style at all. Newcastle has done a good job at revitalizing the city. Art galleries, cafes and bistros, the theater, and all those indie clothing shops where they sell angora and hand-sewn leather and you have to put one of your children up for collateral to purchase anything.”
“It’s bougie,” Jack said.
“You’re so hip with the lingo,” I said, cracking a smile.
“Doug is teaching me all kinds of words. He says it’s the least he can do to pay us back for having a bottomless pantry.”
“He realizes that someone actually has to fill the pantry up, right? He doesn’t think that it’s a magical doorway where elves make sure he never runs out of Soft Batch cookies?”
“Which is why he’s going to start doing the grocery shopping every week,” Jack said. “I figure now that he’s settled in it’s time for him to start taking on some responsibilities.”
“You’re going to be a good dad,” I said.
“You say that as if you don’t believe you’re going to be a good mom.”
I shrugged, trying not to think too much about it. We’d been talking about children for the last couple of months. Jack had become comfortable easing into that part of our future. I wasn’t there yet. It’s not that I didn’t want to have children. It’s just that my role models for parenthood had been subpar at best, and it was a heavy responsibility to think that I could screw up a couple of more people’s lives like my parents had screwed up mine—at least the first part. Not that I was planning to turn to a life of crime and bad decisions anytime soon, but you only know what you know.
Jack was thinking of responsibilities and things that would make Doug grow as a person, and I was thinking that I didn’t want to get murdered by a toaster robot in my sleep.
“All I mean is that you’re just good at the responsible stuff,” I said. “Like giving Doug chores and things like that. I don’t know how you can throw yourself into work like you do, and still have the brain capacity to remember to make sure we feed the kids, or put them to bed on time, or pack lunches. When I’m working I have trouble focusing on anything but work. What if I forget to pick up Sally from dance class or leave crime scene photos on the dining room table and traumatize her forever?”
“I’m going to have to put a hard stop on the name Sally,” Jack said. “Sally Lawson clearly works as a barmaid at the saloon on Bonanza.”
“You know what I mean,” I said, rolling my eyes.
Jack reached over and grabbed my hand, squeezing it firmly. “I want to remind you that you are not your parents. You’re not even related to them by blood. But what you are is compassionate and caring, not only toward those who are privileged to be part of your life, but to those who can’t speak because their life has ended.”
“So I know without a doubt in my mind that when we’re ready to bring children into this world that you’re going to take care of them and love them and comfort them like you do for all of us. We’re both going to make mistakes, but we’re going to make them together. That’s why there’s two of us. We make each other stronger. Where I’m weak, you’re strong. And where you’re weak, I’m strong. That’s what marriage is. We’ll screw up together. And we’re going to have victories together. But it’s all going to be done together.”
I squeezed his hand back, but there was something caught in my throat that left me unable to speak. I knew he spoke the truth. Jack had always been the calm in my storms. Did I believe I would be a natural at parenting? No, not at all. But I believed in Jack. And he believed in us. That was good enough for me.
I cleared my throat and blinked the tears from my eyes. “I love you.”
Jack winked and said, “I know. I’m very loveable. I’ll show you later.”
I laughed and shook my head, feeling the tension release from my shoulders.
Now that the festival was over, they’d moved the barriers and let vehicles downtown again. Traffic was light because most businesses on the square were closed Mondays, hardly anyone wanted to be out in weather like this, and because a lot of people were probably recovering after a week of drinking mulled cider and beer.