Jack Who? (Book 1 Draft Version)

PART TWO~CHAPTER : 35

♪♫••═════ PART TWO~CHAPTER : 35  ═════••♬ ♭

The jar of the wheels hitting pavement woke me, and as turbulent as some of the flight had been, I marveled that I had slept through the last part. Tristan, who was buckled in the connected seat, appeared to also be waking up.

This plane was smaller than the one we had arrived to LAX on, weeks ago with Jack, but just as comfortable. Upon hearing about my mother, Jack had immediately made the arrangements with the jet charter company he belonged to, overriding my protests that I would fly commercial.

Logically, he had reasoned from miles away, "Mariss, it's paid for. No reason to pay extra by buying a ticket when it's covered in the monthly fee."

No reason except the smaller jets, even as nice as they were, freaked me out.

I hadn't known to put Olivia on the security list, and since Tristan still could not walk long distances, we had to wait for a wheelchair that I could push to the main concourse where my friend waited.

"Rissa!" Olivia body slammed me. "I'm so glad you are back. But sorry about your mother." As my friend exclaimed over Tristan, swearing he had grown, I assured myself, as well as my friend, "It's supposed to be a minor surgery. I mean, I know no surgery really is when you consider everything, but it should go well."

"It will," Olivia agreed and when both looked down to see Tristan's unsure gaze as we spoke of his grandmother, Liv quickly diverted his attention. "Guess who is in the car?"

"Bally!" Tristan's astute guess was an exclamation, and I smiled to see his face light up.

A breeze was gusting as we walked to the car, and the pleasant instead of scorching temperature at this time of year reminded me of LA. Olivia could not get enough of watching Tristan walk, and once we reached the car, Bally did not know who to snoot first in her excitement.

"So Tristan, are you still eating chicken strips, or have you gone all sushi like your Momma?" Liv followed the signs out of the airport and onto the highway as she continued to draw happy smiles from us both with her banter.

I cracked my window, drawing in breaths of the Gulf air instead of the Pacific and tried to sort out what I was feeling. On one hand, this homecoming felt wonderful even if it was for a bad reason. However, there was a niggling feeling that a part of me now belonged in LA.

Walking into my house was strange. The walls seemed to close in, and everything seemed smaller. Despite sleeping an hour on the plane, I dropped in exhaustion to the couch. Propping my feet on the table, I sipped at the iced coffee I had ordered when Olivia had hit a drive through for Tristan's chicken strips.

"Mom, my channels!" Tristan wailed while flipping through a television of static.

Olivia quickly solved the problem with a DVD.

Jack had insisted on sending my bills to his accountant. My pride had kept me from being happy with the arrangement, but I had been too happy with the idea of being with him to argue about anything. Obviously, the accountant had deemed active cable in an empty house a waste of funds.

Once Tristan was engrossed in the program, Liv propped her feet on the sofa table and asked, "So. Did you talk to Jack yet about the paternity test?"

I had vented the entire story on my friend within hours of finding the letter. Now, I explained that in light of finding out about my mother, I had put off the discussion with Jack. My curiosity was killing me to know what reasons he would give, and my anger festered knowing no reason would be acceptable, but it was something I wanted to do face to face instead of over Skype or the phone.