The reminder of their life together sat hard on my gut, but I brushed it off, forcing myself to resist the temptation not to try and one-up him. I had absolutely no leg to stand on in a contest of which one of us knew him better. Hands down, it was the better-looking man in the room.
“Do you want to come with us?” I asked instead.
“Oh, no, thank you. I promised Kirk I’d help run some jumps today.”
“Are you a pilot?” I wasn’t sure how the skydiving business worked exactly.
“No. I’m a tandem instructor though. Kirk and I started skydiving as soon as we turned eighteen. He fell in love with it big-time and forced me to get certified with him so we could work summers in college at a skydive center. We grew up and went to school in Arizona so we could skydive year round.” He must have seen confusion on my face, because he tried explaining more. “A newbie gets strapped to my front so they don’t have to worry about any of the technical things like pulling the chute open. That’s called jumping tandem.”
“Oh. Still sounds terrifying,” I said with a nervous chuckle. I was low-key anxious even going to a place where planes and skydiving was happening. The idea of actually going up in one and jumping out of it were vomit-inducing.
Millie set a toasted bagel on a plate in front of me and handed me a tub of cream cheese. “Eat this so we can get going. Ty, you’d better get your ass to the drop zone before they go up without you.”
Clearly the lady was ready to start her day.
And it was a great day. Millie and I had similar reactions to the items at the fancy baby boutique. Everything was to die for mostly because it was tiny. She ended up selecting a few super-soft sleeper suits and a little wall art for the nursery that had a gorgeous colorful patchwork unicorn on it with the phrase Just Be You written above it. We both squealed as soon as we saw it because it was perfect.
Throughout the morning together, I felt more comfortable with Millie and began to regret running out early last night. What kind of message had my actions sent Jack? Did he think I didn’t like his family? Would he think that meant I didn’t like him or want to be with him?
Because I did want to be with him. Of course I did. I was fooling myself if I thought I could keep from telling him my feelings.
“We should totally go back for that uncle T-shirt set,” Millie said, reaching for the radio station dial.
“They didn’t have one big enough for Jack. I checked.” I batted her hand away before she could change it to a country music station. Again.
“They had it in your size, silly,” she said, shoving my hand away and trying again.
It took a second for the words to sink in. “Me?” I squeaked. “Why me?” The poor woman had fallen too hard for our fake relationship.
“Don’t bullshit me, Teo. You’re it for my brother, and I can see he’s it for you too. I’m thrilled. Kirk and I stayed up late talking about it and making plans.”
“W-what are you talking about? We… we’re just…”
“Faking it? Yeah, nice try. Jack told me how you were pretending to be a fake couple, but he has never, ever, ever talked about a man like he talks about you. He’s never looked at a man like he looks at you. Teo, I know what Jack looks like when he’s faking it. Believe me, this isn’t it. It’s one of the reasons I’m convinced this is serious for him.” She turned in her seat to face me more fully. “But the biggest clue he’s batshit crazy over you? He cried when he thought he’d lost you.”
I wondered if I should pull off the road to keep from sideswiping the curb. My hands were shaking from nervous anticipation. “Huh? What… what are you saying? When?”
She waited until I pulled into the parking lot under the Nose Dive sign and put the SUV into park before answering me. “He showed up here late one night during the week looking like dog shit. The minute I opened the door, I knew it was about you. He was devastated.”
“When? When was this?” My voice was croaky and weird, but I had to know. I couldn’t even imagine Jack being that upset over me. Surely he was upset about something else.
“The night after he found Chris at your apartment and ran six miles home. He was afraid if he didn’t come here for the night, he’d go back to your apartment again.”
My stomach fell, but at the same time, my heart soared. He cared about me. This wasn’t one-sided like I’d feared. But that didn’t mean he was ready for a relationship. Did it?