waited for him to kiss her, to be inappropriate, to cross the line, so she could ask him to leave, but he didn’t act inappropriately at all.
‘Can I help with anything?’
‘Hey, Jack …’ Blake called out from the lounge room. ‘They’re live from The Garden …’
‘No TV with dinner,’ Nina called.
‘Spoilsport.’
Yes, she was a spoilsport, she had to be. She drained the pasta and grated the cheese as Blake set up the table, and she added the herbed breadcrumbs and a load of Parmesan and then took the bowl out to the table.
‘Jack goes for the Islanders.’ Blake was delighted to have a rival right here in the room and Nina was furious with the schedulers too as she sliced garlic bread. Did tonight have to be the night that Blake’s team the New York Rangers clashed with the Islanders?
Of course she would have let Blake watch it. They would have been on the sofa, not at the table, if Jack hadn’t arrived.
‘Please …’ Blake begged.
‘Fine,’ Nina snapped, and on went the television again and off went the dinner from the table, Blake heaping his bowl and Jack too before heading for the sofa. A reluctant Nina joined them.
‘Garlic bread …’ She put the steaming plate onto the coffee table.
‘Not for me.’ Jack smiled. ‘I don’t want garlic breath.’
Very deliberately she took a piece. And another. She wanted her breath to stink for him and he knew it because he held his fingers in a cross and laughed at her efforts.
It was a brilliant game—possibly the best of the year.
It had sold out weeks ago. Nina knew that because she had been hoping to get tickets and take Blake, but not seeing it live was more than made up for that night.
At times Nina struggled with Blake’s needy, demanding ways and she wondered how long it would take Jack to tire of the constant questions, but tonight if anyone was noisy and excessive it was Jack, standing and shouting at the television at times, making Blake laugh at others. She stood in the kitchen, the popcorn popping in the microwave, feeling a lot like the chips she was spitting as a roar went up from the lounge.
‘Bite your lip!’ Jack shouted as a roar went up from the lounge and she heard Jack explaining illegal hits to Blake in a way Nina never had known how to—that if a player made another bleed, then it meant a longer penalty for the opposing team.
Blake was delighted!
In fact, every word Jack said seemed to have Blake fall in love with him just a little bit more.
‘I’m going to set up your room,’ Nina said, because she could not stand the adoration on Blake’s face. She had honestly thought Jack wouldn’t come inside, or if he did that he’d clear off pretty quickly. Now, though, he’d won over another Wilson heart.
‘I can do that after the game.’ Jack stood in the doorway at the mid-game break and watched her angrily setting up the furniture.
‘He’ll need to go bed when the game’s finished,’ Nina said.
‘It will take me five minutes.’
‘You do a lot of DIY, do you?’
‘Fine,’ Jack said, ‘be a martyr.’
‘I’m not being a martyr. I’m just trying to set up his room.’
He didn’t get her problem. Jack was having a great evening and just didn’t know why it angered her so much, but he gave in then. ‘Look, sorry I invaded your time with Blake. I honestly had no idea that he’d be here tonight. My mistake. I can go if you want …’
‘You’re not invading my time with Blake, Jack. I don’t think you understand how messed up their lives have been, with people tripping in and out, each one promising that this time things will be different. I don’t want that for them here. I don’t want my personal life invaded.’
‘So you’re not going to have friends over or date or …?’ He shook his head, went to say something, but Blake called out from the lounge that the game was back on. When Jack headed out, Nina sat back on her heels because, no, she didn’t want to make up the bed and, no, she didn’t want to be a martyr to her brother and sister, but the last thing she wanted was to hurt them, and losing Jack would hurt.
Perhaps he truly didn’t see it.
Didn’t fully realise the effect he had on her, the effect he was having on Blake—that if he appeared too long in their lives, it would hurt when he left.
But right now the best she could do was enjoy tonight, so she headed out, sat on the couch next to him and tried to simply live in the here and now, which was actually a very nice place to be, because even when Blake’s team lost, he told her he’d still had the best night.
‘I’d better go,’ Jack said, after he’d finished setting up Blake’s room.
‘No!’ said Blake.
Yes, thought Nina as she walked Jack to the door, but of course Blake didn’t want him to leave.
‘It’s time for you to get ready for bed,’ Nina called, but unfortunately she was looking at Jack as she said it.
‘It’s a bit early for me, but if you insist.’
‘Ha-ha.’ She stood in her hallway. ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘Blake had a great night.’
‘So did I,’ Jack said. ‘Don’t I get a kiss?’
‘I smell of garlic.’
She could hear the phone ringing, wondered who it was this late at night, and the panic that was ever present flared just a touch as Jack carried on, oblivious.
‘I love garlic,’ he said as he moved in for a kiss.
‘Nina …’ Blake called. ‘They want to speak to you.’
She knew in that moment who it was and walked into the lounge with her heart thumping.
‘Nina Wilson.’ She closed her eyes, because Jack had followed her back into the lounge and now Jack had a ringside seat to her life. ‘No, she hasn’t been here.’ He watched her open her eyes. ‘No, I had no idea. Of course I’ll ring …’ She took a deep breath. ‘If Janey calls, I’ll let you know.’
And a lovely, albeit reluctantly lovely, Friday night disappeared in a puff. If she had thought her cheap, herby dinner might put him off and had been wrong, then this surely would.
‘Janey’s run away.’
‘Does she run away a lot?’
Nina shook her head. ‘She’s been skipping school and there’s been just that one time I told you about a few weeks ago when she came to my place …’ Nina headed to the window, looked out at the freezing night. She could feel panic
