The Truest Thing - Hart's Boardwalk

I’d know Jack anywhere.

The closer I got, the clearer his profile got, his face peeking out from his hood.

Tall, lean but muscular, it didn’t matter what Jack wore, he wore it well. He was just that guy that made clothes look great. Even jogging pants and a hoodie.

If it had been anyone else, I’d have chickened out and walked away. But Jack Devlin gave me the courage to push through my insecurities. He always had. And even though it had led to the kind of hurt I’d been avoiding the last nine years, I slowed to a stop at his side.

He barely turned his head. Just flicked me a look. If he was surprised by my approach, he didn’t say anything.

The turmoil in those blue-gray eyes devastated me.

Jack looked back out at the water and I turned, my hand almost brushing his to gaze out at the ocean too. I heard his breath shudder a little and fought the urge to throw my arms around him.

I couldn’t give him that. But I could give him this.

I stood with him, watching the sun lower beyond the horizon.

Time passed.

Until there was only a flare of orange and pink where the sea met the sky.

Gathering my courage, I reached for Jack’s hand and clasped it in mine.

He squeezed my hand.

Tight. So tight.

I waited for him to let go.

He took awhile.

But eventually his grip eased.

I brushed my thumb along the top of his hand.

And then I released him.

I knew I didn’t imagine his eyes on my back as I strolled down the beach toward my house.

I always knew when Jack was watching me.

I always had.

15

Jack

Present day

Five minutes ago, the thing weighing most heavily on him was his selfish inability to leave Emery Saunders alone. He’d been doing well. He’d stuck it out and avoided her like she’d asked after he fucked up last summer. But ever since she’d approached him on the beach three months ago, to comfort him over Stu’s murder, it had been a daily battle to stay away from her.

Jack was pissed at himself for going to her store and unfairly pissed at her for her coldness.

Now, for the first time in a long time, Emery had been shoved to the back of his mind.

Ian had allowed Rebecca to return home for Stu’s funeral, but then he’d sent her right back to England. If Jack didn’t already hate the man who’d spawned him, he’d hate him for that. Anyone could see Rebecca was a shadow of who she used to be. Worried about her, Jack had kept in contact with her almost every day since she’d returned to London. And when she’d asked him to arrange her secretive return to Hartwell, Jack didn’t think twice. He did it.

Rebecca had been living in his house for the past few days. She’d been quiet, introspective. Jack was trying to give her space while she got herself together.

It didn’t occur to him that she’d go to the police now that Stu was dead and couldn’t be charged for covering up Rebecca’s crime.

Heart pounding, Jack hurried down Main Street to the sheriff’s department.

Almost five years ago, Rebecca had murdered a guy she thought was a tourist, but in self-defense while he’d attempted to rape her. Stu came in after she’d hit the guy over the head with a dumbbell and convinced Rebecca to help him bury the body and the weapon. Stu told Ian, because he told his father everything, and Ian forced Rebecca out of the country to school in England. Then he’d used her crime to blackmail Jack into the family fold. Ian said he’d tell the police where the body was if Jack didn’t work for him … and that he’d make sure it was Jack who went down for covering up the murder, not Stu. After all, it would be way more plausible that Jack, who was close to his sister, would’ve been the one to protect her, not Stu.

And Jack had known his socio-fucking-path of a father meant it, that he wasn’t bluffing. Jack knew Ian wouldn’t blink at the idea of Rebecca going to prison for murder because she wasn’t his daughter. Jack’s mom, Rosalie, had a years-long affair with an old boyfriend. Ian found out when she got pregnant with Rebecca because he hadn’t been in his wife’s bed for a long time. He’d had his mistresses to see to those needs.

Unfortunately, things had gotten extremely unpleasant for Rosalie and Rebecca in the Devlin household. Ian threatened to make Rebecca’s life miserable if Rosalie ever saw the old boyfriend again, which meant cutting Rebecca’s real father out of her life. The guy didn’t even know he had a daughter. And when Rebecca got older and learned the truth, she was forbidden from asking about him.

Over the years, they’d all heard things happening to their mom that no kid should have to hear, including their father forcing another pregnancy on her, just to prove he was a man.