Jack Who? (Book 1 Draft Version)

CHAPTER 41

Sorry for the long lame wait, I know some of you are ending your summer getting back to school and your reading for fun time will be gone so without further adieu--->

♪♫••═════ CHAPTER 41 ═════••♬ ♭

"I think he finally passed out." Jack came from Tristan's bunk to sit beside me on the couch.

The two busses had divided, and I didn't blame everyone that could from leaving 'Mary.' Only Liz and Chris remained, and we had gone directly to bed the second the bus began to roll.

"Mariss, honey, could you say something?"

"Did he get a snack?"

With an irritated grunt, Jack let his head fall back against the wall.

"What do you want me to say?" Without looking away from the muted flat screen in front of me, I felt the forlorn quake in my inquiry and the desperation in the following demand. "Everyone knew except me, right? I'm not just imagining it? Those pictures leaked, and no one told me."

Beside me on the cushion was Tristan's tablet. A search of my name had pulled up Randi and my lingerie shot's side by side on a dozen different sites.

"They did, but I thought we had it contained. According to Reed, they didn't show back up again until now. I didn't even know until the other night."

"But you already knew of them when I showed you? When I texted them to you in the plane? You had already seen them?" His silence spoke volumes, and I fought the feelings of betrayal. The statement in the plane came back to me. Hadn't he said something like 'That is what these pictures were, a birthday present?' "Oh my-holy fu-" At last, I faced him. "Is that why you were so mad at me? Why you didn't speak for two weeks?"

"No honey. No." He reached for and dropped his thumb to my wrist in circular motions. "I guess it was around that time that they leaked, a few days after my idiocy on the phone. "But I would never be mad at you for that. They are beautiful. Now Randi might be mad. They outshine anything she has done."

Instead of debating that blatant but sweet lie, I let the love swirl in my soul and asked, "Emma did this, right?"

"She swears she didn't."

"She did. Who else would?"

"The dude that took them?"

"Why do you assume it was a dude?"

"I don't know. Was it?"

Now I was the one to ground out a frustrated scream and concurrently shove to my feet. Swiveling around at the tiny doorway, I lambasted, "I just don't get why you didn't tell me!" Then turning to the hallway of bunks on either side, I kept my voice raised. "Why no one told me! You are a Jack-ass! You are all Jack-asses!"

"Momma?"

The tiny voice made me want to scream again. This time, in guilt. Instead, I took a second to assure our son all was okay and even climbed into his bunk with him. When Jack's face peered in the curtains, I reached an arm up to whip them closed. I heard him move off from the sleeping area, then the clink of a bottle from the fridge.

♪♫¨♫♪

"Don't be too hard on him," Liz dropped to sit across the table from me sometime the next 'morning.' Whatever time it was, Tristan was eating cereal, and I was glumly watching him as I poured coffee down my throat. "You had run away from all this BS once, and he had just convinced you to come back. Hell, none of us wanted to tell you. The new publicist had contained it once, and we thought he would be able to make them all disappear again."