Save Me (29 page)

"I'll tell him,' I say. “I can’t believe we came home early from the Smokies to this shit.” I rub my temples attempting to stall the stress headache that's building there.

"Is it bad timing to ask how meeting his mom went?"

"Yeah," I laugh a little. "But she's really nice. Really sweet."

"Damn, Carly I am just so sorry," Allie says again.

"It's okay, really. Just don't talk to him about anything if he comes around. Don't even talk to him at all if you can help it."

"You got it, Carls. Shit, I really messed up your day, huh?"

"Don't worry about it, Allie. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Please don't be mad at me," she squeezes in.

"I'm not," I promise. "See you tomorrow."

"Okay, bye."

I hang up just and watch Jack as he paces the floor, still talking to his lawyer. I chew at my lip and wait for him to finish. I let the conversation with Nick replay in my head, still not able to believe he’s doing this. Nick was never a very nice guy, not only to me, but to women in general. His friend Kyle once told Allie that he used to try and catch the girls changing in the women’s field house after soccer practice. He even drilled a hole in the concrete of the building to try and peek in at them. I once asked him about it, but he’d acted like it wasn’t true. Those ‘dike bitches’ hadn’t interested him. Those were the words he’d used to describe them. The story made me want to slap the shit out of him, but his attitude when I asked him about it made me sick.

Jack ends the call and puts his phone in his pocket.

"What did he say?" I ask nervously.

"He says he's not worried. I've been a good boy since the accident and I've paid all my fines. No one was injured, except me, so it was a DWI. I'd never been in any trouble and given that Dad employed someone in every family in this town at one point or another, I got three years’ probation; no jail time, so there’s not too much they can do to me." Jack's face is tight and his eyes are strained. It's hard to believe we were just eating pizza and watching zombies chase a guy through the streets of Georgia.

I walk to Jack hesitantly, afraid that he'll turn me away out of anger. Instead, he grabs my arms and pulls them around him. He rests his head on my shoulder.

"What a little shit," Jack says. "Thank god your taste in men has improved."

"I'm so sorry, Jack," I say, sighing heavily into his chest. "I'm sorry for the trouble he's causing you."

"He's gonna be sorry," Jack says.

"What're you gonna do?" I ask.

"He wants to try and do this, we'll just have to see what we can have done about the harassing phone calls and texts. Save every one of those, don't delete your calls and if he texts you again, get him to repeat what he said on the phone, if he will."

"I'm sure I can, if you think it'd help your case."

"It will, if there even is a case. My lawyer is gonna call his father tomorrow and let him know what his son's been threatening. Maybe it'll scare him into dropping this."

"God, I hope so," I say, nuzzling against him.

"We're not letting this shit ruin the last night of our weekend," Jack says, but I can tell it definitely ruined it for him.

"I just wanna say something," I start, "I never loved him, Jack. And now you see why I couldn't. This Nick, this
mean
guy, he was always there, always part of him. He only wants me because I don't want him. That's it. He always thought what he said about me, he just wouldn't say it out loud while we were sleeping together."

"You don't believe what he said, do you?" Jack asks, pulling my hand up and placing it over his heart. "You know that's not what happened, right?"

"I didn't fuck my way anywhere," I say. "We're in a relationship, not just a bed."

"Damn straight," Jack says, planting a forceful kiss on my mouth. "My little pistol."

His hands find their way to my ass like usual and he squeezes.

"If I asked you to fuck me right now, would it be bad timing?" I ask.

"Hell no," Jack says. "I think right now is the perfect time." He lifts me up by my ass and wraps my legs around his waist. I panic and grab onto him, sure that he'll drop me.

"Hold on, baby," Jack says, carrying me to his room with ease. "I'm gonna fuck
my
woman hard tonight."

What might happen tomorrow or the day after is unimportant as Jack pushes his bedroom door open and carries me through. It disappears altogether as his teeth bite at the skin between my thighs. I completely forget why I was ever tense when his dick slips inside me and blows my mind.

Joann Webster pulls up outside the house and parks behind Jack's silver Chevy. She attempts to balance two armfuls of books from her car so I run out to help her.

"Hello, dear!" she says, dumping a few books into my outstretched arms. Jack's disappeared somewhere on his property, leaving his mom and me to sort through all this stuff.

"Hi," I smile. "You've got a lot of magazines here." I juggle them and open the door for her. She steps through and drops her stack of books on the counter, then turns and takes mine to do the same. I close the door behind me as she puts a few pieces of mail in the basket on the counter.

"Yes, I know, but I only need to find one dress. At my age, I won't be wearing white and I don't need some mermaid froufrou dress. How hard can it be?" She smiles at me and then grabs me for a hug. She smells sweet, like honeysuckle.

"I remember helping my sister plan her wedding; it can be difficult to find the right dress. Do you have any idea what you want?"

"Oh, hell no," she says, opening the first magazine. "All these girls are babies. Stick thin babies," she scoffs. She closes that magazine and moves to the next one.

"Are you having it at a big venue?" I ask, flipping through the magazine slowly.

"We're going to get married at my brother's farm, out in the county."

The county is where the people are whole lot simpler in their aspirations and the land is a whole lot prettier. It's where people go to find some quiet.

"Oh, that'll be lovely," I say, eyeing an ivory dress that would be perfect for her. "What about this one?" I say, pointing to it.

"Oh, that's beautiful," she says, pulling the magazine toward her. "Dog ear that one, honey."

I fold the corner of the page and look at the diamond on her finger. It's not garish or overwhelming; it's a fairly simple princess cut diamond with a platinum band. It's elegant, like her.

"Do you ever think about getting married?" she asks me as she inspects another dress with a long train.

"Um, I guess so." How should I have answered that? Should I tell her that I'd never thought about marriage at all until her son came into my life?

"I'm sure Robert told you about his divorce," she says. "Nasty business. I always thought there was something to that girl, turns out it was something bad."

I sit in silence and continue to turn the magazine pages.

"Not that Robert was such a good husband," she says, turning to look at me. "But he's learned from that, he's grown. I'm proud of how he picked up the pieces after that marriage fell apart. I'm also happy that you've helped him put them back together."

I know my emotions are all over the place from everything that happened last night with Nick, but where these tears come from is a good place.

"I love him so much already," I blurt out, one lone tear slipping down my cheek. I reach up to wipe it away, but his mom beats me to it. "I just don't want to lose him. He's such a good man. Your son is a good man."

"He loves you, Carly. He does. I don't think you have anything to worry about when it comes to losing him." She lets her hand rest on my jaw. "You shouldn't worry about that at all." Her hand falls to my lap and takes mine. She smiles at me and squeezes my hands between her slightly aged ones.

If only she knew how complicated things have become because of my life before Jack. I don’t want to be the reason he goes to jail. I don’t even want to think of him being there.

"Why don't you call him Jack?" I ask.

"Oh," she says, waving her hand. "I refuse to link him to that damned sawmill. It caused more than a few fights between his father and me. I know I can't say too much about it; it's provided a
very
nice life for me and will continue to do so for Robert, but I hate that damned mill sometimes. I think it's a job, not who he is."

I nod politely. I guess I can understand that, but he'll always be my Sexy Jack.

The stack of magazines get dog eared here and there as we sort through them all and tell each other about our lives. She tells me stories about Jack and all the shit he got into as a kid. He must've been a real handful. We pull things from this magazine and that one as she talks. Thankfully, Joann and James are having a small ceremony and a rustic one at that.

"Now, I have something to ask you," Joann says, looking up from her last magazine. "James and I aren't having a traditional bridal party, as I'm sure you understand," she says with a smile. "But we will need someone to stand with us. James is going to ask Robert and I'd like to ask you."

I'm floored. This is the second time we've met, but it's the same kind of instant familiarity I have with Jack. Even if I wanted to say no, you can't say no to this type of favor.

"I'd love to, Joann," I say. She throws her hands up and then grabs me in a tight hug.

"I'm so glad you said yes," she says, patting my back.

"I'm honored that you'd ask me," I say.

"Oh, now we have to find you a dress!" she says, diving back into the magazines.

I laugh a little and grab the nearest one, opening it and flipping through it as Joann mutters to herself about which color I should wear.

§

Joann gets ready to leave, but not before insisting I take the magazines that have her two favorite dresses for me in them. We made plans to go dress shopping after Christmas. Jack pulls up on a black Kawasaki Brute Force ATV and kills the engine. His cheeks are red from the chill and his hair is all over his head.

"Did you two manage to sort anything out?" he asks, walking toward the steps.

"We did,' Joann says with a grin. Her purple coat sets off the light hazel color in her eyes as she hugs her son.

"Good," Jack says, pulling me to him.

"James might stop by the mill tomorrow, if that's alright," she says, pulling on her gloves.

"Sure," Jack says. "Tell him he can come by any time after noon."

"I'll do that," she says and gives me a wink.

I let go of Jack and go to hug her.

"Thank you," I whisper in her ear.

"For what, honey?" she asks.

"For Robert," I answer.

She puts her gloved hand on my forearm and gives it a little squeeze. "I couldn't have given him to anyone better," she says. Inside, my heart does a flip flop.

"I'll see you two soon, I hope?" she leans around me and says to Jack.

"Sure thing," Jack says. He waves at his mom as she walks down the steps and to her car. "What was that about?" Jack asks me.