One Hot Secret by Sarah J. Brooks

Chapter 7

Grace

“Have you ever broken your leg?” I ask Jack.

He doesn’t immediately answer, and when he does, the answer he gives doesn’t make sense, and I’m too tired emotionally to pursue it.

“Sort of.”

I’m distracted by our surroundings as we drive through my street. Most of my growing-up memories are centered around this one street. I see Tracy’s house as we drive by, and as I peer at the single-family home, her mother steps out of the house. I freeze and shrink in my chair, trying to make myself smaller. She looks straight into the car, but she doesn’t recognize me. The next house is Dora’s house. Their houses were next to each other and mine further down the street. We had made a threesome in all of our teenage years until we fell out when I was sixteen.

A whisper of pain comes over me when I remember the day that would remain etched in my memory forever. We had planned to meet that Saturday at Dora’s house. I’d been late as I’d been finishing a landscape I’d been doing for my mother’s birthday.

I entered Dora’s house the way I did my own without knocking and headed upstairs to her room. The two of them were glued to the computer, and they didn’t hear me enter. I stood behind them and peered at what they were reading on the screen.

I froze when the words started to make sense. I dropped my gaze to a sad-looking nine-year-old child underneath a bold headline splashed across the screen.

The Doomed Love Child.

A shrill scream filled the room. It took me a moment to realize that the scream was coming from me. I ran from the room. That was the end of our friendship. They tried to apologize, but I blanked them, and they came over less and less.

The car comes to a stop in front of my childhood home, bringing me back to the present with a jolt.

“I’ll go and help your dad get out of the car,” Jack says, getting out.

I follow him. He goes to the passenger side and quickly takes charge. He converts a process that would have been painful and embarrassing into a smooth procedure. He gently raises Dad’s feet and swings them off the floor of the car to the ground. In minutes, my dad is out of the car, and with Jack’s gentle guidance and help, he’s hobbling toward the front door, which my mother is holding open.

He even gets Dad’s mood to improve, and as we follow them into the living room, Mom grips my arm to hold me back.

“He’s the one,” she whispers excitedly.

I laugh. “We’ll see.” I don’t want to dash her hopes, but as perfect as Jack is, it is too early to tell if we have a future. We barely know each other, and there’s a lot that Jack hasn’t told me about himself.

We stay and have a cup of coffee with my parents, and then we leave. They’ll have someone coming in from the hospital to show my dad how to move around.

“You were great with my dad,” I tell him. “You’ve won my mother’s heart.”

“It’s nothing,” he says.

I’m super curious about him. “How did you know how to get him out of the car?”

“I’ve garnered a lot of information over the years, most of it useless, to be honest. I’m glad that this time it helped,” Jack says.

“I’m so relieved that my dad is fine, and it was nothing worse than a broken leg.” I sink back into the seat and allow myself to relax. The panic that had gripped me when we were driving to the hospital has dissipated.

I glance at Jack’s profile, and gratitude flows through me. “Thank you for driving me,” I tell him.

“You’re welcome,” Jack says.

I rarely ask personal questions, but there’s something about the evening or maybe the day itself that makes me more uninhibited than I would normally be. The sun is slowly dipping behind the clouds, leaving a brilliant orange hue in its wake.

“Tell me about your family.” I hold my breath waiting for him to answer.

“What do you want to know?” Jack says without taking his eyes off the road.

“Everything.”

He chuckles. “That’s a big task, but I’ll try. I’m an only child.” His voice takes on a faraway tone as if, with a single sentence, he has moved to another time and place.

“I’m an only child too. Did you long for siblings?” I ask him.

“Constantly.” I feel Jack’s stare. “What about you?”

“Only when I lived with my biological parents. Then I constantly wished for a sibling to share in the nightmare that my life was. After I started living with my adopted parents, I stopped obsessing over a sibling. Life became good.” I can’t believe I said all that. I’ve never told anyone this.

“I never stopped wanting a sibling.” Jack's voice is tinged with sadness, and it makes me want to throw my arms around him and comfort him.

He doesn’t explain any more, and I don’t ask. I feel as if I’ve asked as much as I can for now. The highway grows deserted as we get closer to LA.

The sound of the car, the silence of the night, all lull me to sleep. The next thing I know, someone is shaking me.

“What?” I wake up confused, but one look at the handsome face staring at me reminds me of where I am. I feel a trickle of drool, and I wipe it off with the back of my hand.

“You are home,” Jack says.

I sit up in my seat. “Sorry I fell asleep and left you without company.”

“It’s fine; you’re beautiful to look at when you’re sleeping,” he says.

“Flirt.” My heart swells with gratitude. It would have been tough to drive myself back and forth. I lean across and kiss him on the cheek. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Can I leave with your car and pick you up in the morning?” Jack says.

“Yes, of course.”

“Is seven okay?”

“I’ll be ready.” I lean across, and this time, I kiss him on the mouth. He strokes my cheek, and then I pull back and open the car door. “Good night.”

I notice that he doesn’t move the car until I open the building door and shut it behind me. Despite the exhaustion I feel, I’m grinning like an idiot as I ride the elevator up to my floor. I feel as if spending the day with Jack has made me know him a little bit more.

Inside my apartment, I go to the kitchen and make myself a badly needed cup of coffee. When it’s ready, I fish out my phone as I sip my coffee. Isla has called me three times. It’s half-past nine.

I apologize for calling late when she picks up.

“Nonsense,” Isla says. “I was worried about you, and I’m glad you’ve called. Where were you all day? I’ve called at least three times.”

“I know, sorry.” I tell her about my dad and about Jack driving me home.

“He met your parents,” Isla says after asking how my dad is.

I giggle at the tone she uses. “He took me to visit my dad in the hospital. He really is wonderful.”

“You sound like a woman in love,” she says.

“No, it’s nothing like that. I don’t even know him that well.”

“I know. You answer you don’t know to every question I ask you about Jack. What is he hiding?”

I sigh. Isla is super dramatic. She sees mystery where’s none. “This may come as a surprise to you, but there are actually people who keep their lives private.”

“Let me ask you this,” she says. “Has he ever taken you to his place?”

“It has only been a short time, Isla,” I tell her, a defensive tone creeping into my voice.

“Be careful, is what I’m saying,” she says. “You’re so trusting, Grace.”

“Relax,” I tell her. “You’re always saying I need to have more fun, and now that I’m doing it, you sound like my mother.”

She laughs. “Okay, I’ll stop.”

“Let’s talk about Mark. How is that going?”

Isla sighs dramatically. “Still dragging his feet. We can’t date forever. We need to take a step forward. Mark doesn’t seem to realize that.”

“You need a ring.” My tone is blunt.

“Yes.”

“You should talk about it with him,” I suggest. It’s not the first time that I’ve suggested that she prods him in the right direction. There are some guys who are just clueless. I wait for her indignation, and she doesn’t disappoint.

“I can’t do that,” she exclaims. “He’ll think I’m desperate.”

“I think you’re becoming desperate,” I point out.

She giggles. “You’re the only one who can get away with saying something like that.”

We chat and giggle a little longer. By the time we say goodbye, I’m yawning with exhaustion, but I coax myself to the bathroom for a quick shower.

Afterward, I slip into bed, but sleep doesn’t come easily. All I can think about is Jack. In a short time, he has become a part of me, and I can’t imagine not continuing with what we have. I’m not ready to define it yet, but I’m loving it. Something special is brewing between us, and I’m more excited than I’ve ever been about a relationship.