I take my time straightening my hair and getting dressed. I make my obligatory call to my cousins so they know I’m not chopped up in a trunk somewhere. I call Jack and listen to his husky voice as it goes straight to voice mail. I pace the room a few times. I paint my toenails neon purple.
When Jack’s still not back after all this, my worry begins to spread like the mutant roots of a giant tree, stretching into my limbs and wrapping around my chest. Just when I’m about to slip on my shoes and go hunt for him, Jack pushes into the room with his arms full of bags.
“Hey,” he says casually. Like he hasn’t been gone for an hour and a half. Like he hasn’t had me panicking over his whereabouts and whether or not he’s chopped up in pieces in somebody’s trunk.
“ ‘Hey’?” I put a hand on my hip. “Where the hell have you been?”
He sets the bags on a small table by the door and cocks his head with an almost smile. “Why, did you miss me?”
“I’m not kidding, Jack.” I thrust an angry hand in his direction. “You just took off without telling me and I had no idea where you went or when you would be back. And then I tried calling you but it went straight to voice mail—”
“Hey.” He gently wraps his hands around the tops of my arms. “My phone died and I didn’t have a way to charge it, and honestly I didn’t think I was going to be gone as long as I was. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to freak you out—”
“You didn’t freak me out,” I snap, pulling out of his grasp. “I just didn’t know where you were.”
He eyes me carefully then steps over to the bags. “I was out getting us dinner since this town is crawling with tourists for that art thing and I didn’t feel like fighting traffic and waiting lists for a meal.” He pulls out a few takeout boxes and sets them on the table with some utensils. He doesn’t look at me. “Thai food. I got you that curry shit you like and some spring rolls.”
The fury and fear that lit my veins just moments ago instantly dissolves as the smell of chicken curry meets my nose.
“You hate curry,” I say, walking up beside him.
He nods. “Yeah, but I love pulled pork. At first I went to this barbeque place to get us dinner”—he pulls a container stuffed with a pulled pork sandwich and French fries out of another bag—“but then I saw the Thai place next door and thought you might appreciate that a little more so I went there after, which is why it took longer than I expected to get back here.” He sets a box of spring rolls in front of me.
Of course he went out of his way to get food that I like. Must he always be so good to me? Even when he’s being a dickhead, he’s always so damn good to me.
I look up at his gray eyes apologetically. “I’m sorry I snapped. Thanks for getting us food.”
He grins. “Thanks for freaking out about me.”
I roll my eyes and sit down. “I was not freaking out.”
He sits down across from me. “Sure you weren’t.”
We eat in comfortable silence, both of us clearly starving, until all our food has pretty much vanished and we’re both in better moods.
“What time are you planning on waking up tomorrow?” he asks as he cleans up the empty boxes and bags. “Or do you plan to wake with the afternoon sun?”
“Ha. Ha.” I stab the last bite of chicken on my plate. “I was actually thinking about setting an alarm, believe it or not.”
He scoffs. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”
“I’m being serious.” I swallow the last bite and clean up my mess as well. “I want to get an early start so we’ll be in Louisiana by sunset.”
I feel his eyes on me as I haul the rest of the bags and napkins to the small trash bin. “I guess you’re pretty excited to be going home, then.”
I shrug. “It’ll be nice to see my mom. And my grandma, of course.” Seeing a rare opportunity of having Jack in both a good mood and in a willing conversation about “home,” I go fishing a little.
“What about you?” I ask innocently. “Are you excited about being home tomorrow?”
He leans back in one of the small dining chairs and his big body dwarfs the seat like he’s a giant and we’re in a miniature land. “Not really.”
I tuck my feet underneath me and cross my legs on my own chair, which looks just my size. “Because of things with Drew?”
He nods. “Yep.”
I drift my eyes to the to-go cup of iced tea he brought for me and pick at the lid as I carefully ask, “So what’s going on with him?”