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Chapter Thirty-Seven

AVA

I walked out of the bathroom. Ella and Layla looked up from their phones. “You look spiffy,” Layla said. She lifted her nose in the air and wiggled it. “And I smell your fancy shampoo.” She sat forward and nearly dropped her phone. “You’ve got a date.”

“No, I don’t. I’m just going to a friend’s house for a glass of wine.”

“What friend?” Ella asked.

“All right, busybody girls’ club, don’t worry about it.”

Ella looked at Layla. “It’s Professor Grumpy.”

Layla nodded. “That’s what I have my money on. Let’s see—showered and washed hair, and not with the generic stuff, the stuff that smells tropical. Trying to recreate the ambiance of your time on the deserted island?”

I grunted to show my annoyance. “I’ll be back soon,” I said as I picked up my keys.

“Uh, we won’t wait up,” Ella said. They snickered excitedly as I walked out.

I got in the car. Jack lived near the university, about a twenty-minute drive from the cove. When he’d sent the text, I read it several times to make sure I read it correctly. I hadn’t expected his response. Not in a million years had I expected him to tell me that he needed a friend right then and that I somehow fell into that category. I hesitated before deciding to go. The truth was I’d missed his wry humor, and though I hated to admit it, I missed talking to him. We left Costa Rica with hardly a word to each other, and nothing about that felt right.

The drive gave me time to relax. Surprisingly, I’d had a case of nerves about seeing him, especially in a situation where we weren’t surrounded by students and science labs or in a place where we were fighting off mosquitos and sloshing through mud. I tried to find a source for the case of nerves, something that was rare for me, but the only answer I could come up with only made me more anxious. It was impossible to believe that the butterflies started up because I liked Jack. How could I possibly fall for a man who was so clearly not a suitable match? Temporary insanity—that was the explanation I was sticking with. Maybe I’d come back with more mosquito bites than I realized.

Jack lived on the second floor of a rather sad-looking apartment complex. The outside of the building was in bad need of a fresh coat of paint, and the community pool area was closed for remodeling. The whole pool had been drained, and there were cracks in the plaster bottom that someone had tried to fix with gray cement. That seemed to be the extent of the remodel.

I climbed the stairs and turned right to Jack’s apartment. The paint on the door was as faded and cracked as the paint on the plaster facade. I knocked. The butterflies took off again when the door opened.

Jack was wearing a green T-shirt that looked good with his tanned complexion. It seemed he’d showered, too. His thick dark hair was combed back. He’d shaved, and I was sure I could smell aftershave through the scent of my own fruity shampoo.

“Thanks for coming,” he said. His expression showed that he’d just gone through something. The cocky grin and that confident twinkle in his eyes were gone. Holly’s health scare had wiped him out. “Come on in, but I have to warn you, it’s pretty shabby. Gwen has the house, of course.”

“Divorce must be so hard.” I followed him inside. “Good to hear Holly’s better.”

Jack was acting unusually shy and far from the usually self-assured man I knew. “Her fever broke. No sign of a bacterial infection.” He walked straight to a bottle of wine on his small kitchen table and poured us each a glass.

Jack gazed at me as he handed me the glass. Our fingers touched as I took it from his hand. “I’m really glad you came, Ava. I consider myself to be a fairly strong, confident person, but when it comes to Holly—” He shook his head as we sat at the kitchen table. It seemed he’d gone through a storm of emotions in the past few hours. “I’ve never been so scared in my life.”

I reached over and took hold of his hand. “I don’t have a child, but I can only imagine.”

I took a sip of wine. “Hmm, nice.”

“I’ve got some snacks—cheese puffs and some salt and vinegar potato chips. And I’ve got a lot of dinosaur-shaped pizza bites if that suits your culinary fancy.”

“Spoken like a true dad. I’m good with the wine. Is Holly going home tonight?”

“They want to keep her overnight, which, of course, makes me anxious.”

“I’m sure it’s just a precaution.”

“That’s how they explained it. Still, I can’t wait for her to be bouncing around the house again singing off-key Taylor Swift songs and retelling everything that happened at recess.”

It was hard not to find him irresistible when he talked about his daughter. His eyes sparkled, and he had a beaming smile that could melt anyone’s heart. Even mine, apparently. And that was when it hit me—my crazy, tangled emotions when it came to Jack. One minute I was yelling at him, feeling ridiculously defensive, the next I was kissing him and then I was running away from my feelings about him as if my hair was on fire. It was becoming clear now. My past relationships had always felt more like a whim, but being with Jack was different. It wasn’t just a whim, a flight of fancy relationship. Being with Jack felt far more real, far more intense. Whether we were angry at each other or on good terms, like now, I felt incredibly connected to the man.

“I met Nate.” He took a sip of wine.

“Nate?”

Jack took another sip. “Gwen’s new boyfriend.”

Suddenly, my stunning revelation felt heavy in my chest. It seemed only I felt that deep connection. He still had feelings for Gwen, and now she had a new boyfriend to compound his heartache.

“I’m sorry.” It was the only response I could come up with because frankly, the breath had been taken out of me. I was about to let Jack know my true feelings, but thankfully, he brought up his ex and her new boyfriend before I’d confessed everything.

Jack looked up with confusion. “Sorry about what?”

“I’m sorry she’s found someone else.”

Jack chuckled. “I’m not. I’m relieved. My only concern with her dating was how it would affect Holly’s life. He seemed genuinely concerned about her, and Gwen seems smitten.”

I stared shyly down at my wineglass. “I guess I misread that.”

“That’s all right. So, the class was all right for you?” He shook his head. “Why am I even asking? They’ll be disappointed to see me on Wednesday after having the cool Professor Lovely to themselves for two hours.”

I rolled my eyes. “Not at all. In fact, Sherry and, hmm, I think her name was Olivia, were quite disappointed that Professor Sinclair was out. Something tells me those two sit up front with their cute little chins on their fists and sparkly stars in their eyes while you’re standing there in your rolled-up shirtsleeves talking about plant genetics.”

Jack took a sip of wine to avoid answering.

I pointed at him. “Aha, I’m right, aren’t I?”

Jack shrugged. “I don’t usually roll up my sleeves unless there’s a demonstration.”

“Not surprised.” I sat back and tilted my head at him. “You’re my Professor Ulrich. He was dreamy with that touch of gray in the sideburns and these little creases on the sides of his mouth whenever he smiled. He’d wear flannel shirts and jeans to class, and we’d all sigh audibly as he walked into the lecture hall.”

“Ah, one of those rebellious types, eh? Or maybe he just liked the way flannel made his female students swoon. Never pictured you as that type, Lo.” He got up and went to the cupboard.

“What type?”

“The type who’d waste her time on a crush.”

I scoffed. “I had crushes. Admittedly, not as many as my sisters, but there were a few boys in school who turned my head. They usually turned out to be total duds. Some men are easier to admire from afar.”

Jack returned with a bag of cheese puffs. He tore them open, and we each took a handful. Jack held up one bright orange puff and turned it back and forth to look at it. “It seems to me that two scientists would know better than to put an object like this into their stomachs.” He pushed it into his mouth and crunched it. “But so delicious.”

We had a frank discussion on the tastiness of cheese puffs that was interrupted by his phone ringing. A lump formed in my throat at his reaction to hearing his phone. He picked it up off the table and his expression assured me it was Gwen.

“Gwen?” His voice was shaky.

I got up and left the table. I didn’t want to listen in on a private call. I walked out to the living room and stared out the front window. There was a view of the torn-up pool area and not much else. His voice sounded lighter after a few seconds, which was good to hear.

Jack walked out a few minutes later. “Had to tell Holly goodnight. She sounds so much better.”

“That’s wonderful to hear.” I turned back to the window. I needed to decide whether or not to confess my feelings for him, and doing so was easier without looking at him. What I hadn’t expected was for him to stand behind me, close enough that I could smell the wine on his warm breath.

“I see you’re admiring my million-dollar view. That pool remodel seems to be stuck in limbo. I heard the owners of the building didn’t like the first contractor.”

“I have to admit, I’m very spoiled when it comes to views. My grandmother’s cottage, where four of us still live, overlooks Whisper Cove, and it’s probably the most scenic stretch of beach on the coast. It was our playground growing up.”

“Sounds ideal.” His voice was deep and smooth like dark chocolate as it floated over my shoulder.

“It was. It is.” I took a deep breath. “Jack, I’m sorry things ended the way they did in Costa Rica.” I spun around. We were so close our toes nearly touched. “You asked what I was scared of. I think I was just scared about how strong my feelings were for you. I’ve never felt that way?—”

Before I could finish, he pulled me into his arms for a kiss. We stood there in the center of his tiny apartment and kissed until we both needed to come up for air.

“Hmm, cheese dust and wine,” he said. “Not a bad combination.”

I smiled as I snuggled against his chest. His arms went around me. “Do you think we can make this work without—I don’t know—one of us ending up in jail for murder?” I asked.

“Think it’ll be really fun to find out.”

I peered up at him. “Are you ever serious, Professor Sinclair?”

“Yes, I’m seriously, madly and wildly in love with you, Professor Lovely. I have been since the first moment I met you.”

“You mean the moment when you literally ignored me and rudely refused to acknowledge your newest coworker?”

“I was in defense mode,” he said.

“Yep, I know a little something about that mode. Oh, wait, I forgot. You said that Brimley would look even less favorably on a romantic relationship than our contentious one.”

Jack smiled. “Did I say that? Think I was just telling myself that. I actually have no idea how he’ll feel about it.”

“Well, I suppose as long as we’re not making out in the hallway like two teenagers in high school it’ll be all right.”

“Wait a minute? Was that a possibility? I always wanted to be that guy in high school.”

“That guy?” I asked.

“Yeah, the lucky guy kissing the hottest girl in school right in the middle of the hallway.” He pressed his mouth over mine.