How Forever Feels (7 page)

“Good thing you showed up.” Maya laughed. “Otherwise I'd have spent the whole day trying to get myself up on that damned thing.”

“Yeah, and we no sooner got moving when the stupid thing broke down—remember that? How long did we sit there?”

“Couple hours. I still think you probably could have jumped.”

“Maybe, but you weren't going to, and I couldn't leave you there by yourself.”

“Will was so mad at us.” She laughed. “Like it was our fault the lift broke down or that we were purposely making him stay on the mountain so long when all he wanted to do was go home.”

“Well, he did have papers to grade…”

“Yeah.” Maya tipped her head a little and frowned. “But now that I think about it…he seemed to get mad at a lot of things we did.”

“Like the time we were trying to get your stupid wardrobe up the stairs—”

“That wasn't my fault!”

“And you were laughing so hard you went and dropped your end and took a chunk out of the wall.”

“Because you kept yelling ‘Pivot!' I couldn't help it!”

“Thought for sure he was going to kill us, especially since he was stuck on the top side and couldn't get down the stairs.”

Maya's laugh bounced off the trees. “And then you went and made a sandwich and left me there listening to him go on and on about how ridiculous we both were.”

“Yeah.” Jack grinned. “Good sandwich, too, if I recall.”

“How did we even get it up after that?”

“I don't remember, but I'm guessing you didn't take it with you when you left?”

“God, no. I only had Jayne with me when I went to get my stuff that day, and there was no way the two of us were going to be able to lift that thing. For all I know, he's taken a chainsaw to it by now.”

The trail curled around again, opening up on a narrow rocky beach along a low part of the river. Pete headed straight for the water and stood waiting, barking, until Jack threw another stick for him.

“Isn't it great here?” Maya swept some of the sand off one of the overturned logs and plunked down on it, laughing, when Pete ran back, opting for a tug-of-war instead of dropping his stick.

“Drop it.” At Jack's command, Pete immediately released it and backed up, his tongue wagging, his eyes locked on the stick until Maya threw it. “What's after ‘for starters'?”

“Sorry?”

“The problems with Jayne playing Cupid—you said not knowing who to trust now was ‘for starters.' ”” Head down, Jack wandered along the rocks looking for a few good skippers. “So I figured that meant there was more at play here than Will messing you up.”

“Oh. Um…” Then silence.

When he turned to look at her, she had leaned over, her face in her hands, and it took her a couple seconds before she finally sat up again. By that time Jack had stopped moving and was just staring at her, waiting for the absolute worst to come out of her mouth.

“I, uh, I haven't really wrapped my own head around it yet, so…”

“Are you sick?”

“No.”

Jack's next breath came out in a giant whoosh. “Jeezus, Snip, I thought you were going to tell me you were dying or something.”

“Nothing quite so dramatic,” she said, laughing lightly. “Just something I need to sort out before I decide whether or not to drag anyone else into my life.”

And that “something” obviously had Griffin Carr written all over it. Why did that bug him so much?

“Okay.” Jack lowered himself next to her then leaned his elbows on his knees and stared straight out at the river to where Pete was busy trying to catch the rippling water in his mouth. “But if you want to bounce any of it off someone…I'm not doing anything, and the blinking cursor on my laptop will attest to that.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that.”

She might appreciate it, but would she take him up on it? Probably not. Why would she? He'd up and deserted her two years ago, hadn't responded to a single email she'd sent him, and then suddenly walked back into her life as though nothing had happened. She had no reason to trust him with anything.

Jack must have stared at Pete for almost a minute before he realized the dog had nudged the stick right between Jack's feet. He picked it up slowly, studied it for a second, then hurled it as far as he could.

“Well, whatever it is,” he said slowly, knowing he should just leave it alone, “do what's going to make you happy, not anyone else. You've earned at least that much.”

Maya shifted on the log a little so she could reach a large flat stone a couple feet away. “It would definitely make me happy.”

“Then what's the problem?”

“Jack.” Her gaze fell to the stone in her hand for a long moment. “I know you want to help, but you can't. Not on this.”

“How do you know? Maybe I could—”

“Jack.”

“Okay, sorry.” Clearing his throat, he ducked his head a little and then laughed quietly. “I'll shut up now.”

“Or,” she said, tipping her head to the side. “We could just change the subject.”

“Or we could do that.” He nodded. “Sure.”

“Then come on.” Maya pushed up off the log and started back toward the trail. “The trail loops around up here a little ways and winds back.”

With a quick whistle for Pete, Jack fell in beside Maya and immediately dismissed any topic that had to do with Will's or Maya's love lives.

“So your Tuesday group—how long have you all been doing that?”

Maya's face immediately broke into a warm smile. “A few years now. At first it was just the three of us; me, Regan, and Ellie. Regan knew Jayne from high school, so when Jayne moved back to town, we sucked her in, too.”

“Where were they before they moved back?”

“They?” Maya frowned. “Oh, her and Nick. No, Nick's always been here. He and Jayne had been best friends since kindergarten, but then she left town after high school and didn't move back until…actually, it was right around the same time I found out about Stella.”

Ignoring the bit about Stella, Jack grunted. “Best friends that whole time? Wasn't that kind of weird, him having a girl for a best friend?”

“Not for them,” she said, shaking her head. “It worked. I mean, sure, there were a lot of bumps and bruises along the way, and Nick was even married to someone else there for a while—she died in a car accident—but eventually they wound up where they were supposed to be.”

“Sounds like quite a story.”

“It was. It is. In fact…they all have good stories like that.”

“What do you mean?”

“How they got together, you know?” Her forehead wrinkled as she worked it all out. “I've never thought about it until now, but Will and I didn't have a good story. I met him at a party and that was it. God, how boring.

“Jayne and Nick were best friends for twenty-five years before they got together, and actually, he set Jayne up on a date with another guy when she moved back here. Even Brett got involved there for a bit.
That's
a story. And then Ellie and Brett…” Her smile crept back slowly. “That shocked the hell out of all of us. God, I can't even count how many times she told him to stick his badge up his ass.”

“What?” Jack choked over a laugh. “And they still ended up together?”

“It was crazy. He revoked her license, her mom got involved somehow, and then there was a whole thing with her crazy ex who was stalking her…next thing you know…bam! Another good story.”

“What about the other one? Regan—what's her story?”

That made Maya roll her eyes. “Have you met Carter yet?”

“No.”

“Well, suffice it to say their story can be summed up in one word:
sex
.”

“I'm sorry?”

“So am I.” She laughed. “They're nauseating, those two. They started out as a one-night stand and have somehow managed to stretch that night out for the better part of two years—and they still can't go five minutes without pawing each other.”

And going by how that made Maya smile, she was obviously happy for Regan and Carter. It was just too bad that smile gave way to a distant, haunted look that she had to blink hard to get past.

“There's a lot more to all of their stories,” she said, giving her head a quick shake. “But you get the gist. When they're all old and gray, they'll have great stories to tell their grandkids about how they met.”

“You'll have a great story one day, too. Can any of them lay claim to being a one-woman wrecking crew?”

Finally a laugh, albeit short and maybe a little self-conscious. “That was the scariest, most freeing, and best thing I've ever done. I can't believe he didn't call the cops.”

“He thought about it.” Ugh, he hadn't meant to say that out loud.

“I bet he—” She stopped dead in her tracks and wrapped her fingers around his elbow, bringing him to a stop, too. “Was it you? Are you the reason he didn't call them?”

Jack shrugged and tried to take a step, but she tightened her grip, her touch warm against his skin. How could something as small and soft as that hand sap all the strength from his entire arm?

“Jack?”

“I, uh, I wouldn't say I was the reason, no, I just pointed out a few things he needed to consider before he took it that far.”

“Like what?” She stared down at her fingers for a second, and while her grip loosened, she didn't let go, and he didn't dare move in case the contact broke.

“Like how he deserved it.” He hesitated a second, then sighed. “Like how having a police cruiser in his driveway would get people to talking, and that in a town this size, it wouldn't take much for anyone to find out their high school science teacher was boffing the assistant librarian in his classroom. That's probably not something he wants stapled to his résumé.”

Her blue eyes widened for a second, then softened. “Thank you. I've always wondered why he didn't press charges.”

It took him a second to catch his breath when she pulled her hand back and started walking again. He knew it would only be a second before she figured out the rest, and he was right. She made it three steps before stopping again.

“Without a police report, though, he couldn't have put in an insurance claim.” Her chin dropped to her chest for a second before she shook her head and sighed. “You paid for all of it, didn't you?”

“No.”

“Then you paid for most of it.”

“I don't know.” It wasn't a lie, but it felt like one, so he shrugged slowly and added, “It's not like we kept receipts.”

A long moan ripped from her throat. “Jack.”

“What?” He laughed. “We couldn't just let the water keep dripping through the ceiling, could we?”

She moaned again, but Jack just nudged her with his elbow until she started walking again.

“Truth is,” he said. “Of all the times I've seen Will mad—including the time the wardrobe got stuck in the stairwell—I've never seen him
that
mad. Funniest damn thing ever.”

She didn't need to know that Jack had laughed himself silly when he first walked into the post-Maya disaster or that at one point he'd had to physically restrain Will from calling the cops. To this day he still didn't know why Will had called him first instead of the cops, but for Maya's sake, it was damn lucky he did.

“I mean, isn't that just kick-you-in-the-crotch, spit-on-your-neck fantastic?”

Rachel Green,
Friends,
“The One with Ross's New Girlfriend”

A deal was a deal, so on Friday night at six o'clock, Maya walked through the door of The Grill and let the hostess show her to a table.

Overlooking the pond at the ninth hole of the golf course, the L-shaped restaurant had two entrances, one that led to the parking lot and one that led out to the hotel lobby. Maya kept an eye on both in case Tim came in and didn't see her.

Twenty minutes later, having finished half her glass of wine, she pulled out her phone to check that she had the date right. Ten minutes after that she pulled it out again and spent a chunk of time scrolling through every update the auction houses had posted about their stock of sunflowers and mums, and five minutes after that, she paid for her glass of wine, and left.

Truth be told, it was the best date Jayne had ever set her up on, and Maya kept her receipt as proof that she'd held up her end of the bargain.

“Snip!” Jack came strolling through the parking lot just as she opened her car door. “What are you doing here?”

“Big date tonight, remember?”

Pete ran over and pushed his shoulder into Maya's knees hard enough to send her staggering back against her car.

Laughing, Maya took Pete's head between her hands and kissed his nose. “There's my best guy. How's my sweetie?”

Stopping near the front bumper, Jack glanced down at his watch. “What time's dinner?”

Maya stopped scratching Pete long enough to look up at Jack and grin. “He stood me up.”

“He what?” Jack's eyes widened. “No shit?”

“No shit.”

“Wow. That's, uh…” Jack's eyes darkened for a second. “What a prick.”

“Nah, it's fine, really,” she said. “Just goes to show I wasn't the only one Jayne was pressuring, I guess.”

“D'you want to come up?” With the leash dangling from his hand, he gestured toward the hotel. “I was going to order room service but we could eat in the restaurant if you want. I know you had your heart set on that stuffed baked potato.”

She didn't mean to hesitate, didn't even know why she did, but it was enough to make Jack start backpedaling.

“It's no big deal, I—”

“No,” she said. “That'd be great. You sure you don't have other plans, though? Maybe some hot chick you picked up since I last saw you?”

“We've picked up a few of those, haven't we, boy?” Jack scoffed as he clipped the leash on Pete and started toward the lobby. “They're probably lined up outside our room right now, so you might need to elbow your way by.”

When they stepped off the elevator onto his floor, Jack took a second to look up and down the empty hall.

“Look at that,” he muttered. “Maybe they're all off having dinner with your bike dude somewhere.”

“Very funny.”

The other elevator chimed just as Jack pushed open his door and waved her and Pete through.

“Jack!”

Maya froze just inside the room, hoping she'd imagined that voice and knowing full well she hadn't.

With his hand still on the door handle, Jack blinked at Maya for a second, exhaled loudly, and stepped back out into the hall, letting the door slide almost closed behind him.

“Hey, what's up?”

“Stella's got her book club over tonight, so I thought I'd watch the game here instead.”

Maya didn't know what she should do—stand there quietly or pull the door open and say hello to Dickhead? Come to think of it, of all the things she wanted to say to Dickhead, “hello” wasn't even in the top ten, so it was probably best to keep quiet and move away from the door.

As far as hotel rooms went, this one was pretty basic—clean enough, but nothing fancy and certainly not equipped for long-term residents.

The queen bed took up most of the room, with maybe two or three feet of walking space separating it from the tall TV cabinet that also served as the dresser. A mini fridge, microwave, and coffeemaker sat stacked on the door side of the TV, and on the window side sat the typical hotel desk—narrow and pretty much useless if you were trying to do anything other than read the room service menu.

Decorated in typical hotel fashion, the room had a huge gold-framed mirror hanging above the headboard—again, useless unless the person only needed to see their head—and on the wall dividing the living space from the bathroom hung an unremarkable landscape print; probably the same one hung in every room.

Other than that, the only other furniture was a small round table with a wooden-backed chair that matched the one at the desk. Stacked neatly on the table were Jack's MacBook, a thick pad of lined paper with a giant black ink splotch on it, and the fountain pen she and Will had given him when his first game sold.

Going by the size of that ink splotch, he still hadn't figured out a way to unblock himself. That couldn't be good, but in a room like this, how was he ever supposed to be inspired? Sure, he was set up at the window, with lots of light, but his view consisted of the parking lot below and the swampy marsh to the north. Not exactly stimulating.

From where she stood near the window, she could still hear the voices out in the hall, but she couldn't make out what they were saying, which was probably just as well. She should have just gone home. Maybe that's why she hesitated outside; it was her gut telling her to leave. Instead, she was trapped inside the room with no means of escape and Dickhead standing on the other side of the door.

Instead of sitting in either of the chairs, she lowered herself to the floor next to Pete and leaned back against the wall under the window. Pete stood up, turned in a tight circle, then plopped down next to her again, sighed, and rested his chin on her thigh.

“I know,” she murmured. “No one needs this much drama, right?”

From out in the hall, Will's voice got louder, closer. “Jeezus, Jack, what's the problem? Let's just watch the game.”

The door whooshed open, but before Will could step in, Jack's arm shot up, blocking his way. Will's gaze immediately locked on Maya, who stared straight back at him, not blinking, and continuing to rub Pete's head. With his dark wavy hair and blue eyes, Will was still as good-looking as ever, yet it was almost impossible to believe she'd loved him as much as she once had.

“What the—?” As the door started to swing shut again, Will let out some kind of snorted choke, shoved Jack's arm out of the way and caught the door before it got halfway closed.

“Will,” Jack said, his voice low and tight. “Don't.”

“Don't what?” Stepping fully into the room now, Will took his eyes off Maya only long enough to scan the room.

Pete's tail swished a couple times, but he stayed right where he was, and if Maya hadn't already loved that dog, that would have sealed it for her right then and there. She hadn't been in the same room with Will since the day they finalized their divorce, and the only thing she liked better about this time was he didn't have his skank with him.

“Well, isn't this cozy.” Nodding slowly, Will turned to Jack, who'd come in behind him. “My best friend and my wife cuddling up in a hotel room.”

“Ex-wife.” Jack had already moved around Will so he stood between them. “And don't be a dick.”

“Ha!” Will barked. “I'm not the one being a dick here, bro.”

She probably shouldn't have snorted right then, but surely to God he was kidding, wasn't he?

“We weren't doing anything.” Jack lifted his hands slightly, palms out. “I ran into Snip out in the parking lot; we were going to go grab a bite.”

Maya could have kissed him for not mentioning the fact that she was there because she'd been stood up.

Will stuffed his hands deep in his pockets and just kept looking between them with those accusing blue eyes, which was rich considering that of the three of them, he was the only one who'd done anything wrong.

Maya refused to cower, refused to let him think for one single second she had any reason to feel guilty, because she didn't. Neither did Jack, but he obviously wasn't comfortable, so with a low sigh, Maya eased Pete's chin off her leg and pushed herself up.

“It's none of his business what I'm doing here, Jack.” She never took her eyes off Will as she spoke. “He's the last person on earth who gets to judge me about anything.”

That wiped a shade of smugness off Will's stupid face.

“Unlike him,” she went on, “I'm not going to make you feel like you need to explain anything or choose which one of us stays and which one goes. That's his game, not mine.”

“Maya.” When Jack reached out to stop her, she shrugged him off, but as she did she dragged her glare away from Will and gave Jack a smile.

“Don't worry about it,” she said, squeezing his hand as she walked by. “I'll see you later.”

She'd just stepped around them when she heard Jack curse quietly behind her.

“Hang on, Snip.”

She pulled open the door but hesitated when he stepped up behind her, his huge frame completely blocking Will from her view.

His jaw tightened a little as he wrapped his hand around the edge of the door and looked down at her. “I'm sorry.”

“You've got nothing to be sorry for,” she said. “Don't worry about it.”

His eyes softened a little, until it looked as though the green and brown had melted together. “Are we still on for Sunday?”

“Of course.” She didn't know why it took her so long to blink, to stop staring at him that way, as if she'd never seen his eyes do that before, because of course she had. The only difference was that this time something inside her melted, too. “I'll pick you up around four-ish.”

“Sounds good.”

“Great.” A second ago she couldn't blink at all and now she couldn't stop. “See you then.”

As she turned to go, Jack's hand curled around her elbow, gently tugging her back so he could lean down and press a soft kiss against her cheek.

“G'night, Snip.”

The door had barely closed behind Maya when Will started.

“What the fuck was that?”

Jack strode right by him and lifted the phone from its base. “Yeah, hi, can I get the salmon burger with yam fries and a green salad…sorry, hang on a sec. D'you want something?”

Will just shook his head.

“That's it. Room 312. Thanks.” He hung up and walked straight to the tiny fridge under the microwave. “Beer?”

“Yeah.”

After shoving a can into Will's hand, Jack grabbed the remote and flopped down on top of the bed with his legs stretched out and the pillows propped up behind him.

Will slumped down on the chair by the table and used the bed to rest his feet on. “Since when did you start kissing my fuckin' wife, Jack?”

“Ex-wife,” Jack corrected, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. “And I've been kissing her goodbye since I met her. I kiss your mom and sister goodbye all the time, too, and as far as I know that's never been a problem.”

It was night-and-day different, actually, but Will didn't need to know that. And now that Jack thought about it, maybe it was a problem. Before, kissing Snip goodbye had been a natural thing, but the few times he'd done it this week had been different and seemed to make her a little uneasy, almost twitchy.

Speaking of twitchy, Jack scanned right through the TV guide twice before finally finding the game, and the whole time, Will just kept staring at him.

After another couple seconds, Jack jerked his hands up slightly. “What?”

“You're telling me there's nothing going on between you and my wife?”

“
Ex
-wife.” It took a huge amount of effort to keep his voice even. “And yeah, that's exactly what I'm telling you.”

“Then d'you want to explain why you're going on a date on Sunday?”

“It's not a date.” Jack bent his arm up behind his head and sighed. “Jayne invited me for dinner. Snip's going too, so we're going together. It's no big deal.”

“No big deal? You hardly mentioned Maya in the last two years and now all of a sudden you're going out for dinner together and you're making friends with her fuckin' posse—sounds like a hell of a big deal to me.”

“Jeezus, what are you—a twelve-year-old girl?” Jack toed off his runners, kicked them to the floor, then grunted. “Snip and I have always been friends; the only reason we didn't talk for so long was because of you.”

“Me?” Will barked. “I never said you couldn't talk to her.”

“Uh-huh, right. Maybe not in so many words.”

“What the hell's that supposed to mean? You and I were friends way before—” Will stopped, blinked slowly, and shook his head. “Shit, I
do
sound like a twelve-year-old girl, don't I?”

Jack opened his eyes as wide as he could and nodded. “Li'l bit, yeah.”

“Fuck.” It took Will a couple more seconds before he finally blew out a long breath. “I just don't get why you'd want anything to do with her—the crazy bitch destroyed my house, Jack.”

“Yeah, she did.” That pretty little thing, whose soft scent still lingered in the room, was obviously a hell of a lot tougher than Will ever knew, and for some reason that struck Jack as hilarious. “You're lucky she didn't hack off your dick and stuff it down your throat while you slept.”

For a second there, he thought Will was going to get even more pissed, but then he shook his head and chuckled quietly.

“I'm still sort of surprised she didn't,” he said.

“Keep being a prick like you were tonight and she still might do it.” Jack waved the remote toward the TV. “Are you done bitching now? Can we watch the game?”