He remembered the place well. He’d been here before. He’d met Gia's aunts while on that job for the UK Mission. They’d invited him to a small gathering at their home. He hadn't wanted to go but Burkes had talked him into it. The evening had changed his life. He’d met Gia.
He heard a child's voice shouting as he crossed Sutton Place.
“Jack-Jack-Jack!”
Dark braids flying and arms outstretched, a little slip of a girl with wide blue eyes and a missing front tooth came dashing out the front door and down the sidewalk. She leaped into the air with the reckless abandon of a seven-year old who had not the slightest doubt she would be caught and lifted and swung around.
Which is exactly what Jack did. Then he hugged her against his chest as she clamped her spindly arms around his neck.
'Where you been, Jack?' she said into his ear. 'Where you been all this time?'
Jack's answer was blocked by a lump in his throat the size of an apple. Shocked by the intensity of feeling welling up in him, he could only squeeze her tighter.
All the time he’d spent missing Gia, never realizing how much he’d missed the little one. For the better part of a year he and Gia had been together, Jack had seen Vicky almost every day, becoming a prime focus of her boundless store of affection. Losing Vicky had contributed much more than he ever could have imagined to the emptiness inside him these past two months.
Love you, little girl.
He hadn’t truly known how much until this very instant. Over Vicky's shoulder he could see Gia standing in the doorway of the house, her face grim. He spun away to hide the tears that had sprung into his eyes.
'You're squeezing me awful tight, Jack.'
He put her down. 'Yeah. Sorry, Vicks.'
He cleared his throat, pulled himself together, then grasped her hand and walked up to the front door and Gia.
She looked good. Hell, she looked great in that light blue T-shirt and jeans. Short blond hair—to call it blond was to say the sun was sort of bright: It gleamed, it glowed. Blue eyes like winter sky after all the snow clouds have blown east. A strong, full mouth capable of a wide, dazzling smile. High shoulders, high breasts, fair skin with high coloring along the cheeks. He still found it almost impossible to believe she was Italian.
10
Gia controlled her anger. She’d told Vicky not to make a fuss, but at the first sight of Jack crossing the street she’d been out the door and on her way before Gia could stop her. She wanted to punish Vicky for disobeying her, yet knew she wouldn't. Vicky loved Jack.
He looked the same as ever. His brown hair was a little longer and he looked as if he’d lost a few pounds since she last saw him, but no major differences. Still the same vitality, making the very air around him seem to throb with life, the same feline grace to his movements, the same warm brown eyes, the same lopsided smile. The smile looked forced at the moment, and his face was flushed. He looked hot.
'Hello,” Jack said as he reached the top step. His voice was husky.
He leaned his face toward her. She wanted to pull away but affected sublime indifference instead. She would be cool. She would be detached. He no longer meant anything to her. She accepted a peck on the cheek.
'Come in,' she said, doing her best to sound businesslike. She felt she succeeded. But the brush of his lips against her cheek stirred old unwanted feelings and she knew her face was coloring. Damn him. She turned away. “Aunt Nellie's waiting.'
'You're looking well,' he said, staring at her. Vicky's hand was still clasped in his own.
'Thank you. So are you.' She’d never felt this way before, but now that she knew the truth about Jack, the sight of him holding hands with her little girl made her skin crawl. She had to get Vicky away from him. 'Honey, why don't you go outside and play in your playhouse while Jack and I and Aunt Nellie talk about grown-up things.'
'I want to stay with Jack!'
Gia started to speak, but Jack raised a hand.
'First thing we do,' he said to Vicky as he guided her into the foyer, 'is close the door behind us. This may be a ritzy neighborhood, but they still haven't got around to air conditioning the street.' He shut the door, then squatted in front of her. 'Listen, Vicks. Your mother's right. We've got some grown-up stuff to discuss and we've got to get down to business. But I'll let you know as soon as we're through.”
'Can I show you the playhouse?'
'Sure. '
'Neat! And Ms. Jelliroll wants to meet you. I told her all about you.'
'Great. I want to meet her, too. But first—' he pointed to the breast pocket of his shirt—“see what's in there.'
Vicky reached in and pulled out an orange ball of fur. 'A Rascal!' she screeched. 'Oh, neat!'
She kissed him and ran toward the back.
'Who or what is Ms. Jelliroll?' he asked Gia as he rose to his feet.
'A new doll,' Gia said as brusquely as she could manage. 'Jack, I...I want you to stay away from her.'
Gia saw his eyes then and knew that she’d cut him deeply. But his mouth smiled.
'I haven't molested a child all week.'
