He was going to lose her; that was a given. In the meantime, he wanted to savor her.
“Did you order pizza?”
His dad slapped the table sharply and said, “Yep.”
Jack put his hand on Hannah’s lower back, intending to lead her into the living room, but Michael stopped them. “You’re not a vegetarian, are you?”
Hannah choked on her beer a little bit. “Is pepperoni a vegetable?”
Michael laughed. “Funny, too. How’d you end up with my loser brother?”
Her spine stiffened under Jack’s hand. “He’s not a loser.”
Warmth spread through his chest at her defending him, but his growing tenderness toward Hannah didn’t stop him from saying, “Yeah, says the guy getting the divorce.”
Michael had no room to comment on Jack’s relationships. His brother might have gotten married right out of college and settled down into the family business like a good son, but he hadn’t chosen well. Karen had made Michael’s life miserable with her insane jealousy when they’d started dating, and he’d thought it would get better once they got married. Jack couldn’t remember a holiday when Karen wasn’t sulking about Michael allegedly flirting with someone in front of her.
That was where Jack’s idea to flirt with Darcy had actually come from. But, like most things, emulating his brother’s habits didn’t work for him.
“Come on up to my room.” He tugged on Hannah’s hand and led her toward the stairs. “I want to show you my baseball cards.”
“Is that what they’re calling it nowadays?”
* * *
—
JACK’S SISTER AND THE pizza arrived at around the same time. Bridget Nolan, with her thick acres of auburn hair combined with her mother’s gray-blue eyes and a feminine version of the Nolan smirk, was absolutely stunning.
Shortly after they’d gathered around the kitchen table, fresh beers at hand and plates piled high, Hannah realized that she and Bridget would get along just fine. “You’re definitely not as much of a twat as Jack’s last girlfriend.”
“Watch your mouth.” Sean’s words held little charge.
Bridget motioned around the room. “I didn’t use the c-word, Dad.”
Sean grumbled, and both Michael and Jack snickered.
“Well, I love hearing that I’m doing better than the competition.” Hannah immediately wanted to claw the words back. Competition? What the hell was she thinking? It was like all of her feminist solidarity with other women had gotten swallowed up by her lust for Jack. She normally wasn’t the jealous type, but she’d probably have a Dynasty-style catfight with a woman who’d been with Jack.
Except then, Jack nuzzled—nuzzled—her neck and said, “There’s no competition.” The only thing that kept her from melting on the spot into a pool of Jell-O was Bridget rolling her eyes and scoffing.
Hannah turned to Jack and said, “You’re ridiculous.”
“We need to play Cards Against Humanity so that I don’t have to see them canoodling anymore.” That was Sean, and everyone laughed at the idea that he’d read enough gossip columns to know the word “canoodling.”
“Dad, we have to get you a better hobby.”
Hannah wasn’t sure how this was going to go. She was a stellar Cards Against Humanity player, and she was fairly certain that those skills would go over well in the Nolan household. But she also thought it might be a good idea to let Jack win. She wanted to keep him in a good mood, and winning might do that.
She didn’t think Jack would be like Miguel, who’d slammed doors in her apartment when he’d almost lost a game of Scrabble. But she didn’t want to risk it.
It turned out that she didn’t have anything to worry about. Even if she had been giving it her best shot, Sean Nolan would have bested all of them. And, competitive as she was, she kind of liked it. She was cuddled next to Jack and full of pizza. His siblings seemed to like her. At the very least, they’d each shot her knowing smiles while they thought that Jack wasn’t looking.
And Mr. Nolan—er, Sean—patted her arm when she won a round.
That was why it came as a surprise when Michael said, “I thought this one was different, Jack-off. But outclassed again.”
Hannah wasn’t sure what she was expecting Jack to do, but it wasn’t standing up and tackling his brother so hard that Michael fell off his chair. And she gasped when Jack pounced on top of his brother and gave him a noogie that might leave a mark.
She looked to Sean, who picked up both of their beers and nodded over to the living room. “Last time they took down the table, and I hate to waste beer.”
“They do this a lot?” Hannah wasn’t sure what to think as an only child; she knew that siblings fought. But she hadn’t expected it to be so sudden and violent. Jack’s other relatives seemed nonplussed, more worried about getting her out of the line of fire than stopping their sons and brothers from killing each other.
“It’s Michael’s turn to get his ass kicked.”
“They take turns?” She looked over at them. Jack had Michael in some sort of wrestling hold. His older brother’s face was red, and he was trying to tap the ground with one hand. “I think Michael’s giving up.”
But Jack wouldn’t let him go. Not until Sean kicked him, hard, in the side. “That’s enough, boys. You’ve scared her plenty.”
He had that right. She was a little bit terrified as both of them slowly got up from the ground. Michael’s joints cracked so loudly that Hannah winced on his behalf. She pursed her lips to keep from saying anything.
She might have dated some real losers, but she’d never been with anyone who’d hit someone—even if it was a smartass brother. What Michael had said hadn’t even been that bad, and Jack had just freaked out.
But it was too late to find another guy to bring to the Halloween party, and having Jack show what appeared to be his true colors now would make things a lot easier when it ended. She was stuck with him for a few more days.
No one else seemed to think an after-dinner fight over something as trivial as a stupid comment and an offensive nickname was a big deal. And when Michael slapped his brother on the back of the head and Jack laughed, she wondered if she was making a mountain out of an intersibling-violence molehill.
Michael looked at her with a toothy grin, not missing any teeth, and said, “Congratulations, he really likes you.”
“What?” She was so very confused.
Bridget piped in. “They beat each other down at least once a month. And usually, when Jack likes a girl, he gets his ass kicked. But you really add something to his right hook.”