I cringed. “Rodger?”
“Mmhmm. It’s like he has some kind of radar for right as I’m about to move on with my life. Anyway, I didn’t listen to all of them, but having him whining and complaining about missing me was kind of a mood killer. Aaron was nice, but I think the whole thing kinda turned him off. It’s probably for the best, though. He wasn’t exactly husband material anyway, right?”
“I don’t know, Rach.” I didn’t know him very well, but from what Jack had told me, he was a bit of a tomcat, which was definitely not Rachel’s style. “What are you going to do about Rodger?”
“Block his number.”
“Good girl,” I replied with a smile.
Rodger was one of her ex-boyfriends that had truly broken her heart and although they’d been over for a long time, he tended to cycle back through her life every six months or so to try and get her back. I was proud that she was setting a hard line with him. And, if I was really honest, I was somewhat relieved that she and Aaron hadn’t hooked up. I didn’t want things to get complicated between them, especially after the past couple of days of easy friendship between the three—and then the four—of us.
“Is Boomer back yet?” She asked, ready for a change of topic.
I grinned. “Would I be talking to you on the phone if he was?”
She laughed. “Fair enough. When is he getting back?”
“I don’t know,” I said, shrugging. I looked up at the clock on the wall in Aaron’s office. It was nearly six o’clock. The museum closed at six, and although I didn’t know Aaron’s work routine, I figured he’d be looking to lock up fairly soon. “I haven’t heard anything.”
“When are you coming home?”
“I don’t know.” I sighed, hating the question, even though I knew I had to get an answer. “I got a lot of work done today, but I have meetings I can’t do over the phone, and I need to get back to the office. It’s just hard to imagine not being with Jack after everything…”
“That’ll be hard. I wish I had better advice.”
“That’s all right. We’ll figure something out.”
“How was last night?” Rachel asked, a smile seeping into her tone.
“Amazing,” I said, unable to stop the wide grin that spread over my face at the cascade of memories.
Rachel laughed softly. “Good! I’m so happy for you, Holls.”
“Thanks, Rach.” Her words warmed my heart. She didn’t know me when I was married but had gone through most of the fallout from the divorce, and I knew she was always cheering me on to get back to my happy place. “I’ll call you when I get back in town, okay? We’ll go to Pietro’s. My treat.”
“It’s a date!”
As soon as I ended the call with Rachel, the phone lit up again. This time, it was a text message from Jack, letting me know he was on his way back. I finished what I was doing in the office, closed everything down, and went back over to Aaron’s house to get ready to see him again.
A flurry of emotions swirled through my stomach as I got changed, put on a fresh coat of lipstick, and spritzed perfume on my wrists and in my hair. As excited as I was to see Jack again, I knew we’d have a night of heavy conversation ahead of us, as we figured out what we’d do next. Before he got deployed, we’d promised to give our relationship six months, and only after he was home, would we make any big decision. However, after everything that had happened, things had accelerated, both in my emotions and feelings, and the logistics of the situation.
Princess and Hunter started barking and my heart jumped a few beats. He was back.
I ran outside, the two dogs thundering after me, and we all stopped at the end of the drive as Jack’s Camaro came to a stop.
“Hey, baby,” Jack said, gathering me into his arms as soon as he got out of the car. He held me tightly, not speaking, for a long moment. “How was your day?”
I shrugged. “In a word. Overwhelming.”
“I’m sorry,” he replied, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “I thought we could go down to the beach and walk for a little while.”
I nodded. “That sounds nice. Should we take these little monsters with us?” I asked, smiling down at the two dogs who were wagging their tails in turbo speed.
Jack laughed. “I don’t think we have a choice.”
“Yeah, probably not.”
Jack ducked into the house to let Aaron know we were leaving, and then we took off, following the trail down the bluff to get to the beach.
“So, what did they say? Can you tell me anything?” I asked, as we reached the sand.
We stopped to slip out of our shoes and the dogs tore off ahead of us, running for the water’s edge to chase a pack of seagulls that were bobbing on the shallow waves. “Just cutting right to it, huh?”