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“Tell me more.”
“We need to protect him from this Scott character. I don’t trust him at all.”
Jack rubs the sleeping baby’s back. “Good Lord, between you and Merc. I had to listen to him the whole time Lo was out with Scott.”
I rub my too-cleft-y chin. “So, Mercy and I agree, Scott is going to be trouble.”
“Mercy does have a sixth sense for this, I won’t deny that, but the kid was so excited before he left.”
“Kid? You’re not that much older than him.”Wearen’t. Jack and I are the same age.
“Sorry. You’re right. It’s probably the whole having a kid. Suddenly, I feel like a real adult.”
I don’t want to touch that. They’re still in a honeymoon phase. They haven’t had any real problems. It was such a mistake for them to share a child and a home so soon, but hopefully to my benefit. Jack sips his coffee.
“Want my advice?” he says.
“Yes, or to devise a plan of some kind.”
“Honestly, I think you’re in the best position. There’s only so much Merc can forbid Logan from doing. He is an adult, if a naïve one in this arena. You’re his boyfriend,” he says with “boyfriend” in air quotes. “If you’re really worried, I’d play that angle to hell.”
“You’re not trying to discourage me. Your intuition must be tingling too.”
“A little. Never even met the guy, but sometimes your gut just goes off despite everything outwardly telling you different.”
“I’ll do my best to watch over him. I promise.” Taking a sip of black coffee, the bitterness hits my tongue and I swirl it in time with my thoughts. If Scott hurts Logan, I’ll destroy him.
Jack’s smiling with that extra sparkle that reaches his green eyes. “Wow, Rhett. You care about him a lot, eh?”
Gripping my right wrist in my left hand, I rub my thumb over my Logan teeth marks. He’s forever imprinted into my skin. “He’s an odd combination of fierce and vulnerable that I find interesting. I might be his only friend.”
“Yeah, he wouldn’t call Brittany. He ripped up her number.”
I shrug. “I can easily get it again.” In fact, I can do a lot more than that. I’m willing to meddle for his own good.
“You have that look in your eyes, the one that says you have a plan and will not be stopped. I don’t even wanna know.”
“How about you?” I say. “Are you okay?”
Jack sighs. “I am. Better than okay … except.” He hesitates. “Y’know, you’re actually the perfect person to talk about this with. I’m freaking out about the move. Don’t you dare say I told you so, but I don’t want to leave my two guys. Like, I’m going to go, I have to play hockey. I’ll regret it if I don’t, but I wish Merc and Stan were coming with me and Lo. At least I get Lo. Don’t tell him I said this, but we’ve had him about as long as we’ve had Stan and so it feels like he’s our second kid, even though that’s super weird for a whole lotta reasons.”
Yeah. Logan would skin him alive if he heard how Jack thinks of him. He’s also right that I do want to say I told you so. I may not have known that Jack takes honey in his Americano mistos, but I knew he’d love being a family man. I knew he’d find it hard to be away from his child. This one’s not even his.
“Gah. We’ll figure it out. Please tell me it’ll all be okay even if you have to lie to me.”
I don’t have to lie. It will be okay for him. This is even better. By the time we’re back together, he’ll have experienced my foresight firsthand. “Everything’s going to be okay, Jack. It’ll work out.”
“Thanks, that was reassuring. I actually believe you.”
A lady on her way up to the counter stops by to admire the baby. “What a little darling, congratulations, you two,” she says.
Jack and I exchange a look, neither one of us knows what to say to her, and by the time we’ve come up with words, she’s already off to the counter.
“Awkward,” Jack says. “Sorry.”
He doesn’t have to be. I’d always wondered what that would be like, having people congratulate us on our newborn.
“That reminds me,” Jack says. “Maybe you and Lo aren’t a fit. He hates kids. Only just started recognizing Stanley as a human. Meanwhile, you want a boatload.”
