years. Avoided him like the plague since he’d returned home. He couldn’t help himself. He had to push. “What happened between fuck-off and showing up on my doorstep, Jessie? It had to be damned bad for you to come to me, in the middle of the night, no less.”
“I don’t want to talk about it. I…I can’t.”
He noted the crack in her voice, the trembling of her hands. “Okay.”
“Please don’t grill me.”
“Fine.”
“Or think you have to save me.”
“You want to make it on your own.”
She stopped in her tracks. “You don’t think I can?”
“Didn’t say that.”
“Just because I didn’t finish college or devote my life to some noble cause…” She trailed off and looked for a place to ditch the beer. She looked embarrassed, upset and exhausted.
“Why don’t we revisit this discussion after some shuteye?” Jack relieved her of the empty bottle, then grabbed the milk and cookies. “You keep Maddie company while I change my sheets.”
“I wish you wouldn’t call her that. Nicknames are…I don’t know.”
“Humanizing?”
“Undignified.”
“Jessie is undignified?”
“My name is Jessica. Jessica Lynn.”
“Sounds stuffy,” said Jack.
“To you, maybe. But it’s my given name and I’m proud of it.”
“Okay.”
“So you’ll call me Jessica? And Madeline, Madeline?”
“Probably not.”
She blew out a frustrated breath. “Why do you have to be so headstrong?”
He looked at her and smiled. “Runs in the family.”
She opened her mouth, closed it. After a thoughtful pause, she changed the subject. “Why do you have to change your sheets?”
“No furniture in the other two bedrooms yet,” he explained. “You and Maddie take my bed. I’ll take the couch.” Before she could argue, he slipped into the living room. His niece was fast asleep. So was Shy. They were curled up side by side—one hand, one paw on the stuffed bear.
Jessie groaned. “I hope she doesn’t get attached to that dog.”
Jack hoped the exact opposite.
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