Jack had no clue what they were talking about, but it was hard to miss the sudden interest the two were sharing as Daisy stood. “Here, Jenna. Switch with me,” she said, easily maneuvering the girls next to each other.
Jenna slid over to see the screen a little better. “Make sure you get the griffin.”
Lily didn’t say anything as she continued to play, but after a minute, she grinned. “Thanks.”
Natalie suddenl
y squealed, getting all of their attention. “Something’s pulling on my string. I think I have a fish!”
Sure enough, the line was pulling, causing the tip of the rod to bow. Jack grinned at her excitement before securing his pole and heading over to help her reel in the first catch of the day.
He shared a look with Daisy, who appeared just as pleased that the ploy worked.
Maybe this outing was going to be fruitful in more ways than one.
Chapter Seven
A couple of hours later, Daisy set her plate down and sat back on the blanket they’d spread on the beach, turning her attention to the kids playing in the water.
All in all, the day had turned out better than she’d hoped. They’d managed to catch a total of four fish—one each for Jack and Paul, and two for Natalie—the girls had reached a sort of temporary truce, no one had drowned or thrown up, and she hadn’t made too much of a fool of herself before they’d found somewhere to dock and settle in for lunch.
But it was more than that. There had been a certain peace that had fallen over her, happiness even, with the sun bright and warm overhead, the feeling of the wind rushing past her face as Jack had opened the sails and took them clipping along at a good pace over the silver surface of the water. The giggles and laugher of the kids around them added to the day’s perfection.
Having a gorgeous specimen of a man ready and willing to jump in harm’s way if necessary hadn’t been too bad, either.
Angling her broad-brimmed straw hat to protect her sensitive skin from the blinding rays overhead, she snuck a glance at Jack from over the top of her sunglasses. His plate nearly licked clean a few minutes before, he sat back on his elbows, his strong legs crossed in front of him as if he hadn’t a care in the world.
A gust of wind sprang up, blowing his hair down over his eyes, and Jack ran his hands through it in an attempt at smoothing it back into place. She remembered what those same fingers had felt like as they’d slipped through her hair, working the braid out in order to detach that pesky hook.
It had been difficult to sit still, the touch more intimate than she’d expected. It had been a relief when he’d finally pinched the hook in his fingers and removed it, leaving her to retreat to the other end of the deck, hoping to calm the rapid beating of her heart.
“Mom! Watch this,” Jenna said, ducking down under the water, as if Daisy hadn’t been watching them the entire time already. A few seconds later, she emerged from the water triumphant and Daisy gave her a thumbs-up before she dipped back under to try her new trick, Lily offering tips next to her.
“Looks like they’re starting to thaw a little toward each other, thanks to you,” Jack said.
“Oh. It was nothing. Jenna was only jealous of the attention Lily was getting from her brother and sister. Give her another day and she’ll be begging me to tell the kids to leave her alone again.”
He shook his head. “Your ex is an idiot for missing out on opportunities like this. The kids aren’t going to be young forever. Was he always so…undependable?”
She tilted her head to the side as she thought about that. “Leo used to be better at being present in our lives. At least early in our marriage. It was probably only the last handful of years that his selfishness took hold and he found reason after reason to put his work first—or at least what I’d thought was his work. Turned out those late-night office hours were just an excuse for him and his latest TA to get better acquainted.”
“TA?”
“Oh, his teaching assistant,” she explained. “Leo teaches economics at the local community college. He taught at four different community colleges during the course of our ten-year marriage, from Boise to Flagstaff.” They’d actually been living in Flagstaff when Leo decided that the barely legal girl he’d been seeing was special enough for him to leave Daisy and everything they’d built behind him.
“I’m sorry,” he said, turning his head toward her. But his sunglasses’ lenses only mirrored her image and she couldn’t tell what he might be thinking.
“It’s fine. I’ve accepted that Leo has a lot of faults, most of which I’d been blind to when we were married. Such as infidelity,” she added wryly. She dropped her hand to the sand and sifted her fingers through it, the heat and grittiness a nice distraction from the pain that still hadn’t quite healed. “But I am glad that he missed the kids enough to move to Salt Lake not long after we did so he could see them more. At least as his schedule permits.”
“That’s awfully generous of him,” Jack said, his judgment obvious. He glanced to Daisy’s plate, where half of her chips remained uneaten. He reached over, grabbed one, and popped it in his mouth. “I’m curious. How did you two meet?”
She paused, glad now for the shade from her hat that might hide her reddening cheeks. It was too embarrassing to admit what a fool she’d been. “My Econ class. He…he was the TA.” This time Jack dipped his head so that his blue eyes could be seen above the rims of the glasses. “He actually hit on you? Asked you out? Wasn’t that some sort of university violation?”
“I know, I know,” she said. “It’s clear now that his ethical standards weren’t very high. My brothers tried to tell me at the time that getting mixed up with him was a mistake. But then again, they’d hated every guy I brought home so it didn’t really mean much. I was naive and immature and easily caught up in the whirlwind that was Leo. In his late twenties, he was older, worldlier, and had this nerdy sexy professor appeal that blinded me to everything but him.”
Jack’s jaw hardened and he nodded, looking away for a minute. “The guy was a predator.”
“You sound like my brothers.” She shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe he was, in his way. But it doesn’t quite let me off the hook for my stupidity. I found out I was pregnant just shy of my graduation, right as Leo finished his graduate studies and received a job offer in Boise. He proposed and, at the time, marrying him had seemed like a good idea.”