The Love Experiment (Stubborn Hearts 1)

“I know.” Mom and Dad had argued about dumb things all her life, like who moved the car, whose turn it was to unstack the dishwasher, but she knew they were happy together. “He’s uptight about a big story and a tough deadline and he got delayed coming home and the pizza was cold and Martha was being annoying, so he thought I hadn’t fed her and he got angry with me.”

“And you told him right where he could put that tantrum.”

“I did, but he already knew. He went out for a minute to cool off and when he got back it was as if he was frightened about how I’d react.”

“How did you react?”

“Hugged him and gave him pizza. He didn’t have a great family life, left on his own a lot. His parents are surgeons and he always came second to their careers. I guess he thought he didn’t deserve to be forgiven.”

Saying that aloud made it obvious. Jack reacted as if he genuinely thought she’d leave him over a blowup that had nothing to do with how they felt about each other.

“You okay, honey?” You couldn’t hide in silence on FaceTime.

She wished Jack was here now and she could explain to him that knowing how insecure he was about them hurt more than his clickbait crack. “I only now realized how much Jack deserves to be loved and how little he understands that.” And how much she would love him to make up for what he’d missed out on.

They talked about Jack’s shoulders and forearms next, in detail, and she got news from home and neither of them mentioned Ernest, and it was easier not to be sad about him forgetting her when the call ended, because Martha had made a surprise attack on her abandoned bowl of frozen yogurt and Derelie made the surprise discovery that cats get brain freeze.

Martha’s tongue darted out and she took a bunch of quick licks of the melting yogurt before Derelie could snatch the bowl away. Martha’s mouth opened, her pink tongue stuck out and she stayed that way, her head cocked, her eyes wide, her ears flattened as her big body made like furry iceberg.

“That’ll teach you.” Derelie could hardly get the words out for laughing. Ernest loved ice cream, but he’d never suffered brain freeze. “You’re a freak, Martha.”

Martha came back to life, retracting her tongue, passing a paw over her mouth in disgust and retreating to a place of safety under Jack’s desk, where she gave Derelie narrow-eyed, cruel-hearted, “you’ll get yours” looks.

As if on cue her cell rang—the ringtone she’d installed for Jack. Not quite the Oscar Mayer jingle, but a close approximation. He didn’t know about it yet. He’d pretend to be annoyed. “Hey, where are you?”

“I’m standing behind a pillar at the Plaza watching Bob Bix and a dozen of the other doctors we suspect of being crooked drinking to

p-shelf liquor and patting each other on the back.”

“It’s like when we watched Bix have dinner with Noakes and Whelan.”

“They’re here too.”

“You’re going to get your proof, but oh my God, Jack. Can you make the deadline?”

“No, but I’ve got enough to convince Madden to give me until Monday. I talked him into pulling the mismanagement story. I’ll have to spend the weekend working on this. I’m going to get Bix. I’m going to get all of them.”

“I’m so happy for you.”

“I have to cut out. I’ll be back tomorrow morning.”

“I love you.” She’d tell him till he believed it in his bones.

He made a sound that told him she’d taken him by surprise. “You’re sure it’s not just part of a fucked up experiment?”

“If it is, I’m your forever lab rat.”

The next sound he made might as well have been the audio that went with brain freeze. “Last night—”

“If you apologize again I’ll get mad at you.” He would hear in her voice she was joking.

“The way I feel about you scares the hell out of me.”

“That’s what all the lab rats say. Tell me you love me and go catch the bad guys.”

He told her he loved her in a tone deep with emotion, crackling with heat and wicked with the promise of one crazy good reunion.

He didn’t make Friday’s editorial meeting but she sensed the moment he arrived in the office. She had no legitimate excuse to go to him and he didn’t spend long at his desk, disappearing into meeting rooms with Phil and the lawyer. It was difficult to concentrate on her own work.