“I told you that he wouldn’t give me details beyond that everyone liked you and you seemed to be enjoying yourself.” Seeming to catch on, her friend redirected her questioning. “What could he have told me?” Amy asked with giddy emphasis.
Someday she would tell Amy all about her adventure with Jack. Today wasn’t that day. For now, what had happened between her and Jack was private, special and outside the ordinary.
For Taylor, he’d cut away the last of the weights that had held her down. She was ready to embrace her future.
“What Duffy should have told you is that he, Jack and I worked the tent together and I think they are both wonderful men.”
Very true. They were both wonderful men. Both modern-day gypsies of a sort. Both very special in their own ways.
“That’s it?” Disappointment coated her friend’s words.
Taylor could picture Amy’s expression. Her forehead would be scrunched with doubt. Again, she was grateful Amy couldn’t see her face as she might see more than Taylor wanted to reveal.
“If you’re asking if your matchmaking paid off,” she said, deciding to just address what Amy really wanted to know, “maybe Neil immunized me forever, especially from someone who’s also a doctor. You know how I feel about that.”
She felt guilty for deceiving her friend but when she and Amy were face to face she’d make sure Amy knew meeting Jack had been a good thing.
A great thing.
A spectacular and marvelous thing.
“Now, tell me about this guy you’re seeing?” Taylor injected a lot of pep into her tone. “Jack mentioned you were dating his best friend. Give me details.”
Amy’s giddiness was almost palpable over the phone. “Dating might be presumptuous, but Greg is amazing. I want to be dating him.”
“Jack seemed to think you two were an item already.”
“Good to know,” Amy admitted, sounding pleased. “But it’s early days, especially as Greg doesn’t live in Warrenville but about an hour away in Nashville. Long-distance relationships suck.”
Yet another reason it was good she and Jack had ended when they had. Trying to keep up a relationship when they lived hundreds of miles from each other wouldn’t have been any fun.
Not that they would have needed to have a long-distance relationship.
Taylor’s stomach did an excited flip-flop.
Not for however long Jack would be working at the Warrenville emergency department.
“Speaking of long-distance relationships, I miss you,” Amy told her. “How did your interview go?”
As thrilled as she was about the job in Warrenville, she was also a little nervous
.
Because of Jack.
What they’d shared had been perfect, right? A beautiful interlude that had ended a little prematurely but which had otherwise been something from a fantasy.
Coming face to face with him day after day in the real world would dissipate their surreal experience. Then again, how much longer would he even be there before moving on to some other music festival or event?
“Really well.” She’d barely hung up from the call when Amy’s call had come in. “They offered me a position in the emergency room.”
“What? Why didn’t you tell me that first thing?”
“How could I? All you’ve talked about since we got on the phone is Jack.” Ugh. Her tone had been a bit harsher than she’d meant it to. She wasn’t anti-Jack by any means, but she did have reservations about being near him day after day.
“Sorry. I know I’ve gone on and on about Jack.” Amy sighed. “I really thought the two of you would hit it off.”
They’d hit it off all right. Like electric sparks that sizzled.