Jack Who? (Book 1 Draft Version)

CHAPTER 15

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“I cannot believe you are doing this Marissa.”

“Doing what mom?”

Tristan, after being awake long enough to eat some macaroni from his lunch tray and look at the activity books his gram brought, fell into a doze, leaving me essentially alone with my mother. He had slept after breakfast also, and I had caught some more sleep curled on the short couch beneath the window until my mom showed up.

“Doing THAT.”

“I'm not doing anything.” The false declaration was impatient.

“I have been more than patient, thinking you might confide to me on your own. But you never do, do you?” Indignantly, she carried on with the tirade, “Always have to be so secretive. As if what goes on in your life is so much more important than the rest of ours.”

“I'm not talking about this right now.” Keeping my voice low, in case the little boy in the bed was not fully asleep, I turned my back to her as I finished the fruit from my own lunch.

“For five years you have hidden the identity of this man, and then he waltzes right into our lives and you are going to continue –"

“Mother! Stop!”

My phone blipped with a text and I circled to where it lay on the foot of the bed by Bandit and Tiggy.

RUSS
Sorry overslept
1:30 PM


RUSS
Should I come by or wait?
1:30 PM


My mom is here
sent 1:31 PM


RUSS
Im guessing thats a negatory
1:31 PM

The texts passed back and forth and I even sent a few more after my mother's pointed throat clear. It was hard to believe this was happening, what ever 'this' was. And I wasn't going to mess it up, before it even began, by throwing him too quickly to the wolf that was my maternal parent.

All day, I relived the kiss, over and over, and even imagined taking it farther. The anger and humiliation of the phone call and following legal letter was not forgotten. But, if many wonderful little things could cancel out one big thing, similar to the way that we had jokingly ratioed fifteen texts to one phone call five years ago, he was on his way to redemption.

My mother's insight could be uncanny, and this was one of those times. A habitual early riser, waking before daylight each morning, she napped each afternoon. But today she wasn't budging. My father stopped by after his workday, and even that didn't send her scurrying as it normally did. Tristan's supper was delivered by a perky aid, and I had just set the tray up to where he could easily eat when the first guitar lick blared.

My parents' reactions were much the same as the waiting room occupants last evening, but Tristan's eyes rounded with pleasure. “Answer it, Momma! Please!”

Tristan's reaction further confused my mother and father, but I did as my son said. As if I could refuse calls now...The feel of Jack's lips gently brushing mine had me quickly pressing my screen.

“Hi,” As I spoke, I held up a polite finger, not the one I wanted after seeing my mother's frown, and took the call to the hall.

“Hey,” The smile in his voice carried through the cell towers. “Coast clear yet?” Heaving a sad sigh, I responded to the negative, and he replied, “I don't mind meeting them you know. I was just hoping, I guess I was just thinking that...Mariss, is this even the right time for me to meet Tristan? Should I wait until he is not feeling so—I don't know what to do.”