Jack Who? (Book 1 Draft Version)

CHAPTER 16

♪♫••═════CHAPTER 16 ═════••♬ ♭

The house was quiet. Tristan was down for the night, and Bally, as usual, lay sleeping at the foot of his bed. The television in his room, was from Jack, delivered a couple of days ago, shortly after Tristan was discharged from the hospital. As a result, the television, located in the main room, was now off much of the time. Jack called every night while Tristan was in the hospital, always talking to Tristan for several minutes each call. Since coming home, the calls had dwindled to every other night, but we sent at least two dozen texts to each other throughout every day. Wandering the house, I picked up toys, doing general straightening to absolve any guilt I felt for not wanting to do the dishes.

Opening the desk drawer, I replaced Tristan's art box of colored pencils, crayolas and such, and when I pushed it closed, the laptop perched on it came to life. This was not unusual. A lot of times, if Olivia forgot her tablet, she would entertain herself with the laptop, stopping in the middle of what she was doing to tend to Tristan, or take a call, or whatever. Although it startled me, it was simply waking from hibernation, and I closed my palm over the mouse with the intent to power it off.

Before I pointed and clicked, the banner of a popular Hollywood gossip blog blinked, and I smiled at the habits of my friend. Just for the heck of it, I carried the laptop to the couch and dropped down, propping my feet comfortably on the table as I clicked through the images, reading of the latest celebrity exposes.

Noticing a search box, I typed in the name that never left my mind. Once the page links came up, I further narrowed the results by images and began to fondly view the likenesses to the face I missed and hoped to see again soon. In our last phone conversation, Jack mentioned the possibility of flying in for a few days at the end of the week.

Various links to other blogs continuously beckoned, from the edge of the page, and suddenly one caught my eye. 'The Hottest Stories Right Now'

'Jack Stone Caught Creepin with ex Leanna Miranda Gavin at the Sky Bar '

A click brought the story up, and I studied the picture, inquisitive of anything to do with Jack, even ex girlfriends. Why had I not engaged in this entertaining pastime before? No sooner had the thought crossed my mind, than it became the opposite of fun.

While I was drooling over the picture, I was disregarding the date. Apparently, the blog was not exaggerating the claim of 'Right Now.'

The picture of Jack with his arm curved around the beautiful brunette had been snapped earlier in the evening. This evening. Stunned, I stared across at the blank television screen, then back down to the vivid laptop screen to recheck the date.

When the ugly fact was conclusive, I opened another tab and typed in 'Leanna Miranda Gavin.' For several minutes, I scrolled pictures of the woman, who was, of course, a lingerie model. To see her clad as scantily as Jack had obviously seen her only doubled the pain.

Restraining the urge to throw the laptop at the wall, I surged from the sofa, and with one arm swept the basket of remotes from the sofa table where they bounced along the area rug and clattered onto the vinyl wood floor.

Thinking back over some of the flirtatious texts, I reanalyzed them, wondering if I was reading too much into them. I thought of past times of flirting with Clayton, or any of the other guys, with no care of what I was doing. They didn't mean anything to me, so I treated them all the same. Did I not mean anything to Jack? Was he just playing the same word games I often had with the opposite sex? Was he just kissing or accepting a kiss when it felt right in the moment with no want of a future?