Treading Water (18 page)

The elevator doors opened, and he led her to
his suite where they spent an hour checking the “defects” before
the game.

After the game and dinner, they rode the
elevator to Andi’s apartment. Eric was asleep on Jack’s shoulder,
clutching a new Cubs pennant in one hand, his baseball glove in the
other. Jack helped Andi undress the boy and get him into bed.

“
Whew,” she said as they
tiptoed out of Eric’s room and closed the door halfway. “He’s done
for.”

Jack yawned and followed her to the living
room. “I know how he feels.”

“
He had a wonderful time,
Jack. Thanks again for getting the tickets.”

“
I loved it when he crawled
into my lap at the game. He’s adorable.”

“
I’ve decided to keep
him.”

Jack stretched out on the sofa and invited
her to join him. “Are you still upset about your mom? She seemed
pretty pissed.”

Andi snuggled into his embrace. “I’m
disappointed. It’s not like her to be so rude.”

“
She’s worried about you. I
can understand that.”

“
It’s funny, really,
because she
loved
Alec, and look at how that worked out.”

“
She doesn’t want you hurt
like that again.”

“
This is different.” She
turned to face him. “It’s
different
.”

With his hands on her face,
he kissed her gently, a charge of excitement coursing through him
as it did every time he touched her. It
was
different. He felt it, too. “Are
you sure your mother is staying at her sister’s?”

“
Yep.”

He worked his way free of the sofa, held out
a hand to help her up, and swept her into his arms. “Which way to
your room?”

She laughed and pointed the way.

Chapter 13

A few days before Andi and Eric arrived for
Quinn’s wedding, Jack asked the girls if he could talk to them
after dinner.

“
What’s up, Dad?” Jill
plopped down next to him on the sofa. She looked more like a woman
than a girl these days, and his heart ached at the thought that
this time next year, she’d be in college. He wasn’t
ready.

While he attempted to collect his thoughts,
Kate and Maggie landed on the other sofa.

“
You remember Andi, who was
here this summer from Chicago?”

“
Sure,” Kate said. “She was
nice.”

“
And
so
pretty,” Maggie added.

He smiled. “Yes, she’s
nice
and
pretty.
I’ve invited her and her son, Eric, to go to Quinn’s wedding with
us.”

“
Is she a friend of
Quinn’s?” Jill asked. She spun her long dark hair around a finger
tipped with hot pink polish.

“
Not exactly.” He swallowed
hard. “It’s more like she’s a friend of mine.”

Kate’s eyes widened. “Like
a
girlfriend
?”

He had promised himself he’d be honest with
them. “Yes, like a girlfriend. How do you feel about that?”

They were silent until Jill finally said, “I
hadn’t thought about you having a girlfriend.”

“
I hadn’t either. You know
I wasn’t looking for one.”

Biting her lip, Maggie looked worried. “Are
you going to marry her?”

“
No, sweetie. I’m still
married to Mom, and that’s not going to change. I promise you.” He
reached out to bring her onto his lap and put his arms around
her.

“
I want you to be happy,
Dad,” Kate said. “If Andi makes you happy, I’m glad she’s your
girlfriend.”

“
Thank you,” he said
softly. She reminded him so much of Clare that it sometimes took
his breath away. “I mentioned her son Eric’s coming, too. Remember
when I went to Chicago, and Miranda taught me some sign language
because I was going to meet a hearing-impaired boy when I was
there? That’s Andi’s son. You guys will love him. He’s five, and
he’s
so
cute.”

“
Not cuter than me?” Maggie
asked with an arched eyebrow.

He laughed and tickled her. “No way. No
one’s cuter than you, Mags.”

Jill and Kate rolled their eyes at Maggie’s
baby-of-the-family act. Maggie and Kate kissed him good night and
went upstairs.

He reached for Jill’s hand when she lingered
a moment longer. “Are you okay with this, hon?”

“
I want it to be as simple
as Kate made it out to be, but it’s not, is it?”

“
No, baby, it isn’t. But
she makes me happy. That’s all I can say.”

“
I still miss
Mom.”

“
I do, too, and I always
will. I hope you believe me.”

She nodded and kissed him before she went
upstairs.

He sat there a long time thinking about them
and hoping he was doing the right thing by bringing two new people
into their lives.

Jack stood in the same spot where he first
met Andi the summer before to watch the stream of people coming off
the Chicago flight but didn’t see her or Eric among them. He was
starting to worry they’d missed the flight when he saw Eric come
around the corner, dragging Andi behind him.

Jack held out his arms, and Eric ran to him.
He swung the boy up and around. When Andi caught up to them, he
pulled her to him with his spare arm, and the three of them held
each other for a long moment.

“
It’s Friday,” Andi
whispered in his ear.

Jack leaned in to kiss her and had to remind
himself to show some restraint in front of Eric. “Thank God. Let’s
get this show on the road.”

They arrived in Newport as the girls were
settling into the boat for the sail to Block Island. Since they had
only about three hours of daylight left, they hurried to get under
way.

The girls showed Eric where to put his
things and where he would be sleeping. Kate’s friend Miranda had
taught them some basic sign language, and they were like three
mother hens with the little boy.

Jack kept an arm around Andi as they watched
the kids together. “They’re going to smother him,” he said.

“
He loves the attention. I
can’t believe they learned some sign language for him. That’s so
sweet.”

“
They wanted to be able to
talk to him and figured if they learned a few things, they could
work together. If they hit a snag, they know you’re
here.”

“
Looks like they’re doing
fine so far.”

Jack looked down at her, burning with the
need to kiss and touch her. Somehow he managed to curb the urge in
deference to their children.

“
Stop looking at me that
way,” she whispered. “This is a G-rated weekend.”

“
What?
No way.”

She gave him a gentle nudge. “Yes, way.”

“
We’ll see about that…” He
glanced into the cabin and noticed Jill watching them with a blank
expression on her face. Realizing how strange it must be for her to
see her father with another woman, he stepped back from
Andi.

“
It’ll take some time,”
Andi whispered.

“
I know.”

Frannie and Jamie arrived and greeted Andi
with hugs.

“
We’re so glad you could
come this weekend,” Frannie said.

“
I understand
congratulations are in order for you two,” Andi said.

Jamie hooked an arm around Frannie as she
showed Andi her engagement ring.

“
It’s gorgeous, Frannie.
I’m so happy for you.”

“
If you’re done with your
female bonding ritual, we ought to get going,” Jack said
dryly.

“
You be quiet,” Andi
said.

Jack rolled his eyes at Jamie as the women
continued to oooh and ahhh over Frannie’s ring. She told Andi about
wedding plans while Jack and Jamie eased the boat out of the dock
and prepared the sails. Jack motioned Eric over to him so he could
outfit him with a life jacket and handed another to Maggie.

The brisk westerly wind gave them a quick,
easy sail to the island. Jamie was at the helm when they arrived in
New Harbor on the island’s north end. After securing the boat and
visiting with their friends at Payne’s Dock, they piled into the
old station wagon Jack kept on the island to drive to Haven Hill.
The girls brought their bags to stay at the house with Quinn, who
had invited them to hang out with the bridal party the next
day.

Andi let out a gasp when she saw Haven Hill
for the first time. The rambling twenty-room “cottage” with the
sweeping front porch stood high on a hill, its shingles
weather-beaten from more than half a century of fending off the
elements on the island’s south end.

The noisy group fell out of the overcrowded
car and charged inside. Eric followed close on Maggie’s heels while
Andi stood back to get a better look at the house that bustled with
workers making final preparations for the wedding.

“
It’s beautiful, Jack. I
can’t wait to see inside.”

With the kids inside, he slipped an arm
around her. “I love it here. This house made me want to be an
architect. It’s inspired every house I’ve ever designed.”

“
I can see why.” They
walked along the driveway so Andi could get a better look at the
widow’s walk that faced the Atlantic Ocean. “It’s amazing. How did
it come to be in your family?”

“
My grandfather bought it
right after World War II for two hundred thousand, if you can
believe that. The guy who built it died just as construction was
being completed, so his estate needed to sell it. When my
grandfather died, he left it to my mother. We spent summers out
here when we were growing up, and Clare always brought the girls
out, too.”

He walked her in to show her around, and she
exclaimed over the comfortable yet elegant furnishings that gave it
the atmosphere of a beach house but with classic touches like the
grandfather clock that stood in the front hall next to a winding
staircase.

“
I
love
it,” she said when he led her to
the large back porch outfitted with comfortable wicker furniture
and a hammock that overlooked the ocean. “I can imagine whiling
away an entire summer on this porch.” They watched the kids
disappear down the steep stairs to the beach. “Show me the
rest.”

He took her through the large open rooms
downstairs that would be used for Quinn’s wedding.

“
I want to show you the
upstairs.” Jack steered her to the second floor.

“
Which one’s yours?” she
asked with a coy smile after he had shown her several
rooms.

He grinned and led her into one of the
house’s two master suites, where he pressed her against the wall to
kiss her the way he’d longed to for hours. Ten passionate minutes
later, he groaned with frustration and tore himself away to check
his watch. “The ferry will be in soon. I need to send Jill to get
Quinn and her family.” He leaned his forehead against Andi’s in an
effort to cool off. “We’ll continue this conversation later.”

“
I’ll look forward to
that.”

After dinner with Quinn, her fiancé, and
parents, Jack, Andi, Eric, Frannie, and Jamie headed back to the
boat. Eric was out cold by the time they arrived at the marina.

“
This is getting to be a
habit,” Jack said as he carried her sleeping child to the
boat.

“
One I could get used
to.”

“
Oh, yeah?” He cocked an
eyebrow at her as they boarded the boat. Frannie and Jamie had gone
to the marina bar to have a nightcap.

After they tucked Eric into his bunk, Jack
opened a bottle of wine, and they took it up on deck with a heavy
blanket.

“
Look at the stars!” Andi
said.

The night sky over the Great Salt Pond was
alive in the total darkness. The pond, which was packed with boats
in the summer, had thinned to just a few hardy souls. After the
long weekend, the island would all but shut down until spring.

“
It’s the best stargazing
in the world,” Jack said.

“
I can see why you love it
here.”

“
I met Clare out here.” He
shared the story of how they met the summer after he graduated from
Harvard.

“
That’s right, you went
to
Harvard
,” she
said in a mocking tone.

“
Oh, God, don’t start on
that. Clare never got over teasing me about it. I went there for
graduate school with Jamie after Berkeley. Where’d you
go?”

“
Parsons. I lived in an
apartment across the hall from David while he was at NYU. That’s
how we met. His father founded Infinity. David went to work there
right out of school and hired me. Three years ago, his dad retired,
and David became the CEO.”

“
Funny how your career
ended up being decided by the apartment you rented in New York.
Mine has revolved around the friend I met the first day at
Berkeley.”

“
It’s worked out
well.”

He had seen her office and apartment and
knew it had worked out better than well for her. Holding her close
to him, he pulled the blanket up around them. “I missed you so
much,” he whispered in her ear. “A month apart is far too
long.”

She leaned her head back on his shoulder. “I
hate to say it, but it looks like it might be six weeks before I
have another free weekend. Things are nuts at work. I have to go to
Juneau for at least a week early next month, so it could be
Thanksgiving before I have enough time to get away again.”