The Truest Thing (Hart's Boardwalk 4)

“There are some people in this town who will think that I don’t. That I just used her. But they’re wrong.” Jack rubbed a hand over his head, feeling a little exhausted. “I love her, Cooper.”

“I believed you the first time you said it. I think I believed it that first night she walked into my bar, and you looked like a fucking angel had fallen from heaven just for you.” That was just like Coop. To know his friend so well. To know Jack had been taken with Emery from the moment he saw her. “Did you feel that way about Jess?”

A small, satisfied smile prodded Cooper’s lips. “We ran into each other in the rain, right outside the bar. And I got that funny feeling on the back of my neck.”

Jack grinned. He knew about all Cooper’s “funny feeling.” While Jack had great gut instincts about people, Cooper had a weird sixth sense. Anytime something important was about to happen in his life, he got a strange tingle down the nape of his neck. “So you knew, huh?”

“I knew it meant Jess wasn’t just a gorgeous tourist passing through. I knew it meant I should make an effort to get to know her. And I’ll never ignore that feeling again.” He took another sip of his coffee. “Have you told Emery yet? About how you feel? Did you write that letter Bails suggested?”

“Nah. Em doesn’t trust me. If I said that now, whether to her face or in a letter, she wouldn’t believe it. I have to show her. She thinks I just want to be friends. So we can co-parent. I told her I want to be at every appointment and that we’re going to hang out. Become best buds.”

Cooper’s grin was slow and wicked, and Jack knew he understood. “You’re in it for the long game. Stealth attack.”

Jack grinned back. “You know it.”

“I’ve just realized I can’t tell Jessica any of this shit, can I?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Fuck.” Coop made a face. “The woman can smell it when I’m keeping something from her.”

“Then wear more cologne.” Jack narrowed his eyes. “They’re best friends, Coop. Jess can’t tell Em what I’m planning or Em will run in the opposite direction.”

His friend heaved a giant sigh. “I won’t tell her. I promise. But you owe me.”

“So every time we have a secret from our women, we owe each other for not telling them?”

Cooper burst out laughing.

“What?” Jack frowned.

It took awhile for Coop’s amusement to die down and then he stood, smacking Jack on the shoulder as he passed. “It’s cute you think you’ll have secrets from Em once you’re together.”

Jack rolled his eyes at his buddy’s smugness. But it didn’t bother him. Not at all. Because his friend seemed certain he and Emery were a sure thing … and that gave Jack the reassurance he needed.

There was a part of him that still wondered if he should leave Emery to some guy who deserved her more.

But if Coop, the best guy he knew, could forgive him and still think he was worthy of Emery Saunders, then Jack didn’t feel so selfish about it anymore.

After all, he couldn’t imagine anyone could love Emery the way he loved her.

With every molecule of his entire existence.

And he was already far gone for the kid growing in her belly.

Scared? Yeah. Worried about starting over with a new career at his age and having enough money to care for his new family? Definitely. But excited.

And so fucking in love he could barely stand it.

31

Emery

The next day, during lunchtime, when my place was usually busy with locals looking for their caffeine fix, only tourists popped into the store to buy books. When Jess and Cat walked through my door, I struggled but won the fight against bursting into worried tears.

Jack had just called and told me he’d been asking around and found out what was going on. Dana Kellerman had been working her deceitful little mouth. She was the full-time receptionist at Jennifer’s Hair & Beauty, a salon where she used to be the part-time receptionist when she was content to live off Cooper’s money. Did that sound bitchy? Did I care? The woman was vicious!

“Apparently,” I relayed to Jess and Cat as they sat across from me in the store’s reading nook, “Dana has been telling anyone who cares to listen that I trapped Jack. And how awful that is after everything Jack’s been through with his family. She’s made me the villain. No one will come into my store. I mean, some people were already appalled because I’m pregnant out of wedlock. It’s like it’s 1959 or something.”