Jack's Surrender (Holiday Cove 5)

In fact, it was all pretty stupid to me. But it was still there. The pent-up anger and resentment.

Jack looked down at our hands and I watched him, unblinking, waiting for him to say what was on his mind. But after a long moment, he glanced up and squeezed my hand. “Ready to go inside?”

Disappointment coursed through me but I nodded and returned his smile. “Sure.”

We went inside and I fought the flood of memories that assaulted me. Jack ushered me toward a tall table. He pulled my chair out and I hopped up into the seat. He handed me a menu and took his seat, bringing the chair a little closer to mine before sitting.

I already knew what I wanted to order but let my eyes wander down the list of choices anyway. I wasn’t sure what to say to Jack. I didn’t know how to get us back on track. Or if that was even possible.

After the server came and left with our orders, Jack folded his hands and set them on the table. His eyes dropped to my hands and saw that my engagement ring was missing. A stab of pain flickered in his eyes and my stomach fell to the floor. “I forgot to put it on after my shower this morning,” I hurried to explain, willing to do anything to take away the sadness in his eyes.

He bobbed his chin but didn’t reply.

I reached for his hand but then decided against it and grabbed my water glass instead. The server returned with our drinks on a tray and handed them over before hurrying away again. Jack sipped at his drink and then glanced around. I absently wondered if he was looking for a TV to watch.

“Aaron found out that I’m looking for other jobs,” he finally said, dragging his eyes back to mine.

“Oh?” My eyebrows shot up. “How’d that go?”

“He was pissed at first. We got into it over at Harvey’s.”

“Yikes. Bet that wasn’t pretty.”

Jack chuckled. “No, not exactly.”

“But now? You’re better?”

“Yeah. We hashed it out. He actually made me an offer.”

“An offer? On what?”

Jack set his tumbler down and slid it along the table between his two hands. “He said if I want to fly charter flights, he’s willing to let me rent out space at the airstrip and run my business out of the museum.”

“Oh, wow!” I frowned as I processed the information. “Are you considering it? I mean, you’ve never really talked about wanting your own business before.”

“I don’t know. It would be pretty ready-made. I mean, between Aaron and me, we could probably get enough clients to make it profitable in the first year. The airstrip would need some tweaks. That could get expensive, but I think it’s manageable. Aaron said he’d pitch in.”

“That’s really exciting, Jack.” Hope swelled in my chest. If Jack started his own business, maybe that would fill that missing space in his life and he’d finally be ready to commit to a solid path forward for us. If there was an us. Now that he had some sort of a plan, my heart ached, wondering if there would be an us.

He lifted his eyes. “I didn’t say I was going to do it for sure. I’d need to rent out the house or sell it something to get some capital, otherwise, no bank is going to even consider loaning me the cash to get started. Charter jets aren’t cheap or something that can be revived after being dumped in a scrap heap like Aaron’s collection. I’d need something that could go anywhere in the world, reliably, not just up and down the coast half a dozen times a day.”

I nodded. “Right, of course. But still…it’s a start.”

The server returned with our appetizers and broke the conversation. Even after she left, we struggled to get back on track. We talked about the food, the drinks and eventually circled back to our original conversation.

“To tell you the truth, I think the main reason I’m attracted to the idea of flying charters isn’t for the money or the change of pace. It would be to give myself a chance to go back out and travel. Remember all the fun little three day trips we did?”

I smiled. “I do. We had some unforgettable trips.”

“That’s for sure.” He gave a wistful smile. “I miss that. I think maybe now that I’m a civilian, I might like to go travel some more. See more places. I’ve been all over, but those weekends in Germany were the only trips I took that were for the pure hell of it. You know?”

“And here I thought you were bored because you weren’t being shot at,” I teased.

Jack chuckled. “I think I’ve finally outgrown the adrenaline high.”

“Congrats.”

We laughed together and then fell silent as we sipped at our drinks. As my smile faded, melting around the rim of my martini glass, a dark thought crept over me. In all of Jack’s words about what he wanted for the future; I hadn’t heard him mention me. But he did mention selling the house—our house.