Loved? Yes, that was it. At thirty years old, he’d finally found the woman he wanted to share his life with.
But that meant sharing everything. He’d been serious about having no secrets between them, although work secrets obviously couldn’t be helped. He hoped at least, that whatever her mission was, she’d tell him if her life was in danger.
Suddenly, she opened one eye, murmuring, “Hi.”
“Hi,” he answered, giving her a tender smile.
“I can’t believe how tired I was. I slept like a rock.”
Jack reached for her, pulling her into his arms. “I’m sorry. I forgot you mentioned you were here for rehab.”
She began laughing. “I don’t think there’s anything to be sorry about.”
“Well.” He cleared his throat, grinning as he deliberately rubbed his body against hers under the covers. “Does that mean you’re not too tired to do it again?”
“You just try and stop me,” she growled, pulling him even closer.
* * *
“I can’t believe what a fantastic cook you are.”
“It’s only breakfast,” she protested, although she looked pleased.
“I’ve been eating out since Nick left. When he was here, we occasionally ate in, and something other than frozen dinners.
She suddenly became serious. “I was the oldest of six kids, so it was up to me to take care of things. My mom was ill most of the time, when she wasn’t pregnant, and we were dirt poor.”
Jack nodded. “I’m glad you’re ready to tell me everything. I’ve noticed that you’ve never mentioned your family to me, even once.”
She heaved a sigh. “I guess I’ll just tell you the entire story right now. Let me get my coffee.”
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
Jack grimaced. “I think I forgot to lock the back door from the parking lot last night.”
“You keep eating. I’ll get it,” she murmured, strolling toward the door.
Jack groaned, when he heard Heather’s voice outside in the hallway.
But she seemed a little different today as she glanced back and forth from Jack to Janelle when he approached the door.
Heather sighed. “I thought it might be something like that. I guess if it would have been me, I would have behaved even worse if there was another woman trying to sit in my guy’s lap.”
Surprisingly, Janelle smiled, sounding gracious when she replied, “It was my fault too. I’ve been too busy telling Jack that I’m not ready for commitment, it took his debacle of a blind date to open my eyes to the way I’ve been feeling.”
Heather actually laughed. “Debacle? That’s an accurate description for sure.”
Jack nearly fell off the kitchen stool when Janelle asked Heather the next question.
“Would you like to come in for a cup of coffee? Jack and I will be running a few errands soon, but we’re just getting caught up since we haven’t seen each other in a while.”
When Heather came in and had some coffee, mostly conversing with Janelle, Jack felt like he was living in an alternate reality until Heather left.
“That was…” Jack shook his head, not being able to think of an adequate word.
Janelle grinned. “Weird?”
Jacked grinned back. “Yes.”
“She’s lonely. She went to college and doesn’t even have a job, because her parents apparently give her everything she needs. She lacks purpose.”
Jack paused, his coffee cup in midair. “Now, I suppose you two will become best friends?”
Janelle gave him an impish smile. “You never know. I couldn’t really blame her for not being able to keep her hands off you last night, since I seem to be having the same trouble myself.”
Jack blinked and barked out a laugh.
“Okay, where were we?” she murmured, reaching for the coffee pot and refilling his cup and hers. “I’ll try to make it quick.”
She continued, “My Dad is a minister and for too many years he neglected his family for his parishioners. An example of that would be our health insurance for one. His wages were miniscule, and most of them went for food and utilities, but eventually, I discovered, Dad was making more money than we knew. He’d been receiving regular cost of living raises throughout the years. But instead of using that money for better healthcare, especially for Mom, he doled out extra funds to parishioners who supposedly needed it while our family lived on bread crumbs, and Mom’s health continued to decline. When she got pregnant with me and my older brother and sister who came after me, a midwife delivered us, but by the time I was a teenager, I was delivering the babies that she obviously should not have been having.
Janelle heaved a sigh, as tears filled her eyes. “She died during the delivery of my youngest sister, but the worst part about it was that Dad couldn’t even get a doctor to tend to her, when she needed one so desperately. For a long time I considered it my fault, until a psychologist I was seeing for PTSD after my first couple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq convinced me otherwise.”
Reaching out, Jack squeezed her hand.
“I entered the Air Force to help pay expenses, but I came to find out that Dad wasn’t using the money to benefit the kids, and I had to make arrangements with my younger brother. But then Dad found out about that too and I didn’t discover he was handling the money again for several months. At least, by that time, he’d remarried one of his parishioners. When I saw that she was doing her best to take care of the kids, I stopped trying to help.” She pursed her lips. “Well, not exactly. I just stopped sending money when it became obvious that Dad wasn’t going to use it for the family.”
“Let me guess? You’ve started some kind of savings account for each of your brothers and sisters?”
