"But, Guys," Suzanne looks up from her Mai Tai. "I'm not ready to leave yet." Her tears start flowing and dripping into her drink. Sarah looks at me from behind the bar, our little tribe is disbanding. Just when I have made friends. Formed special friendships, one is moving away.

I know I'm being selfish; I don't want her to go. I need Suzanne's quirkiness in my life. She is headed home to a place that is miserable for me.

"We can live anywhere, why can't we live here?" Wrapping her arms around me, Suzanne weeps and doesn't let go. "I'm flying out tomorrow."

I completely understand why she doesn't want to go back to Maine. But why would want to stay with us than go back and be with her husband? Her new husband? Her husband she is supposed to be on her honeymoon with right now?

I've been so caught up in my own drama, I haven't paid much attention to Suzanne's situation, mostly because she never mentions her husband. I don't even know his name? I honestly forgot she was married.

"Don't you miss him?" I ask fishing for his name.

"I guess so." She pulls herself off me and sits up. "I wish he was here and not up there."

"I'm sorry Suzanne. You'll be able to come down any time? Right?"

"You'll be able to come up and visit? Stay with me? The both of you?" She turns and begs me and Sarah not to forget about her after she leaves.

"Of course." Sarah lies; the only way she is going to leave this island is if there is category 5 hurricane directly headed toward it and there is a mandatory evacuation order in place.

"I think we need to have a little going away party tonight." I'm trying to sound upbeat and lighten the mood.  I've been the one who has been moping around and Suzanne has been the pick-me-up. Now it's my turn to reciprocate. "Let me text Jack, maybe we can hang out up at his house?"

"You mean your house too?" Suzanne reminds me with a big smile as she rejoins us.

"I guess you're right." I'm not used to the idea of me and Jack let alone me and Jack living in the same house.

"That would be nice. We could all have a nice night to say our goodbyes."  It didn't take long for her to give in to having to head north. "It's been a few weeks since I've seen Henry, I do miss him."

"Well, you'll see him tomorrow night." Henry! That's his name, all this time, and never once has it come up. I'm glad she's feeling better about it.

I pull out my phone and start texting to planning our farewell party:

Hey, What cha doin?

Jack texts an immediate response:

Thinking about you

I send a few emoji hearts and I get a few in return. I love new relationships when everything is hearts and kisses.

Suzanne is flying home tomorrow,
would it be ok to have a small get together
tonight at the house so we can say good bye

Promptly, Jack responds
What can I do to help?
I'll have someone run into town to
pick up food and stuff
how many?


We figure out some details and I work out a time with the girls.

***

"You are getting along better." Turning around, a familiar, smiling face. "Looks like we got it all."

"Hi! Yes, Thank you!" I'm a little caught off guard, in a good way. "Dr. Easton, I didn't know you coming."

"Simon. Please. Jack and I are friends, we like to get together when he is on the island." Then he bends forward and whispers, "But, I think he really wanted me to check in on you." Simon puts his hand on the small of my back.

"I'm actually doing great. My foot is healing up a lot faster than I thought."
"That's great! Do you mind if I have a look?"

"No, not at all. It would save me a trip back to the clinic." I Hold on to Dr. Easton's arm for balance and we walk over to the sofas by the pool. I plop down and swing my leg up. Dr. Easton pulls off my flip flop and unwraps the bandages that Jack helped me put on this morning.

"Wow! You are a fast healer" Holding my foot and putting his face inches from it. Examining it very closely, "How long have you been able to put a little weight on it?"

"A few days." Watching him closely in case he changes his expression and my foot isn't as healed as he first thought.

"There is no sign of infection at all, the wounds are healing nicely." Looking back up at me, Dr. Easton looks very proud of himself. "But, I think you should let Jack pamper you a bit longer. How are you feeling with your other situation?"

"The pregnancy? Oh, I'm doing OK." It really doesn't seem real to me. Plus, with everything going on. Staying on the Island. Moving in with Jack. I haven't had time process what is going on. "Is there a possibility there could be a false positive or something? I haven't even been sick or anything. I just don't feel like I did with my other two pregnancies. I don't feel any different.?"

"There is always that possibility. We can retest. Would you be able to come in tomorrow morning?" He set my foot back down on the sofa. "Where does Jack keep the bandages? I'll wrap you back up."

"I put them in the cabinet next to the sink where all the cases of the Sharpies are." Pointing through the open wall of glass allowing that outside to be inside and vise-versa.

"Sharpies?" Dr Easton asks. "You don't have a cast to sign?"

"No, They are Ken's." I chuckle, obviously I don't have a cast and I wouldn't have cases of  permanent markers to sign a cast. " They are for signing autographs for his fans."

"Aaah. I see." Dr. Easton disappeared into the house and when he came back out, he had an armful of supplies to rewrap my foot.

"Thank you" Grabbing his hand, I give it a squeeze "I'll be there in the morning."

Jack joins us as Dr. Easton was finishing up. "How is the patient?"

Dr. Easton pats Jack on the back "She is doing great! Healing up very nice." Then directs his comment to me, "No marathons in the next week or so." Dr Easton rubs my leg

I giggle, as if a marathon was ever on my agenda, "You got it." Dr. Easton rubs my leg before
walking over to a table where some hors D'oeuvres were just placed out.

"Scoot up a little, I'll sit with you." And I bend forward and Jack sits down behind me and puts an arm around me. I lean back and rest against him.

Jack's staff is busy hanging lights, cooking, bar being set up, moving furniture for Jack's local band buddies. There is a lot of commotion for a little going away party.  "How many people are coming?" I asked when I see all the food being prepared.

"Only about 25 or 30."

"I thought that it was just going to be me, you, Sarah and Suzanne?"

"Oh no, a party is a party" I spin my head and look at Jack grinning from ear to ear, "I love spending time with friends and besides, now I get to show you off."

I take hold of his hand draped over my shoulder and enjoy the moment. The sun is setting over the sea, the warm breeze is blowing salty floral scents into our faces, and we will be surrounded people who are a big part of Jack's life here on the island. But we are saying goodbye to my only tie to my prior life. Saying goodbye to Suzanne, and I will miss her being around.

"You know. Why don't you have Suzanne check on your boys when she gets back to Maine?"

Jack's idea is brilliant! Suzanne could be like an undercover spy and feed me information about how the boys are doing, good or bad. "Jack! That is a great idea!"

"Well, you said she lives in the next town over from where the boys are living, and Frank doesn't know she is friends with you."

"Who is Frank?"

"Your ex-husband."

"Ben."

"Whatever the guy's name is. It would be the perfect way to get some updates on your boys. She will probably need something to do up there, this will be a perfect mission for her"

I spin around enough to put my arms around his neck and look into his haint-blue eyes "It is perfect a perfect idea" I am overcome with excitement, and I press my lips hard against Jack's. I am unprepared when his hands move and hold my head and as he presses his lips back against mine. He keeps me there, Unable to escape. I feel a pull between making everyone go away so Jack and I can be alone and for Suzanne to hurry up and get here.

Quickly the outside preparations invade my senses when someone drops a glass and pulls us out of our cloud and I sit back. "When is everyone getting here?" Over Jack's shoulder, someone is sweeping up the interruption.

"Any minute?" He sounds out of breath.
"Finish this later?" I let my hand follow down the buttons of his linen Hawaiian shirt until I get to his khaki shorts.

He grabs my wrist. "Are you sure you want to stop?"

"Guests." I remind him and kiss his tanned, disappointed cheek. "We have guests any minute."

The doorbell rings, Ringo barks and soon we have a house full of friends.

Suzanne, of course, is crying.  "I don't want to leave" she takes as sip out of her mango mimosa in between sobs, "I don't have any friends up there."

"Suzanne, we just went through this."

"I know, I know." She takes a bite of the pineapple that garnished her glass. "This is. So good." She weeps and she sits down with me.

"I have a job for you once you get up there."

"What? What kind of job?" She stopped crying and looked at me.

"I need you to check on things with my boys. I need you to make sure they are Okay." I hope she realizes how important this is to me.

"Of course, I can do that. I can get all the information you need." She wipes her eyes and hugs me. "I can help you with this. Give me the Pricks address, I'm on it."

"I'll text what I have" Suzanne looks happy now, maybe because she feels like she has a purpose.

Sarah walked over and sat with us and the three of us talked and enjoyed our last evening as a threesome as Jack talked with some of his other friends and his band played island music for everyone to enjoy.


***


The party is a wonderful sendoff for Suzanne. I spend most of my time on the outdoor sofa, propped up against Jack with his arm wrapped around me. We listened to the music and watched everyone dance and have a great time. Low-key night for both of us as we watch Jack's friends enjoy the drinks and the music. Ringo is curled up at our feet, unbothered by the noise of the party going on around us.

"How are you doing?" Jack whispers in my ear.

"I'm going to miss her."

"I know you are." Jack's squeeze made me feel like everything will be alright.

We watched Suzanne insisting on lowering the limbo bar another notch after she successfully cleared the low height it was set at. Suzanne's audience of drunk men cheered when her big boobs didn't knock the pole off the stands. Honestly, I was impressed too, but of her agility, not by the size of her breasts.

After Dr. Easton left for the evening, more and more people arrived, and soon the party turned into a drunken farewell party.

Is this how Jack's parties are all the time? Rowdy fraternity party after rowdy fraternity party? I wonder when Jack will ditch me on the couch and go party with his friends.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure anything."

"Why do you have a Limbo Pole?" I gasp when I envision Jack having late night drunJack parties and the limbo pole turning into a horizontal stripper pole.

Jack laughed "I don't know? Island custom? Something fun to do at a Caribbean pool party?"

But a vision of "strip-limbo" sticks with me and I can't seem to shake the idea that the adult version isn't as innocent as the game we played at a six-year old's birthday party.

"It's all in good fun" Jack

"Strippers?" I look at him with a serious scowl, "Do strippers show up? Your drinking buddies act like you host bachelor party after bachelor party."


"No." Jack flattens his voice to assure me, "No strippers. Ever. And I don't want to be a bachelor anymore."

"Good" I believe him.

The rowdy drunks over by the limbo pole are in a circle toasting as they are about to take a  group shot of tequila.

"To nipples, because without them, boobs would be pointless." The tan drunk with a blue Hawaiian shirt and a chrome-dome screams as he holds up his glass.

"Here is to condoms and rattle snakes! Two things I don't fuck with! Cheers!" The tan drunk with pink Hawaiian shirt and the mullet screams, tapping his glass to chrome-dome's glass.

"These are your friends?" I turn around and look at him to see his reaction to how offensive his 'friends' sound.
"Acquaintances" Jack answers me.

"Good." Shifting back around, and realizing that my moving in is a 180º change in Jack's lifestyle that I am unsure he will be able to sustain.  I settle back in Jack's arms just in time to see Suzanne's latest attempt.
The limbo bar is set a little over two and half feet according to the markers on the posts. Suzanne downs a shot of tequila, squeezes her breasts together and yells, "Girls don't let me down now."

"She may not feel that drink right now, but she will tomorrow on the plane." I shake my head.

"You're probably right." Jack agrees, "But there is no way she is going to squeeze under there." His eyes were fixed on the main event. "If she does, it will be a new Lido Deck record."

"Lido Deck?"

"That's what I call my pool deck, the 'Lido Deck'"

"Oh, Cute." I smile and the band starts playing a familiar Limbo song I remember from when I was a little girl in elementary school. "You should write a song about the Lido Deck."

"No." Jack playfully tickles my ribs and makes me jump, "Maybe you should."

Chants from the Jack's drunk friends start in. Blonde – E, Blonde – E, Blonde –E. Suzanne slaps the sides of her boobs, bends back awkwardly inches her feet forward. To give herself more clearance, she pulls her breasts to the sides with her hands and lets her head fall all the way back so her nose clears the pole too.

Suzanne's audience is quiet as though they are watching a golfer tee-off at a golf tournament. And, when she broke the Lido Deck Limbo record, they went nuts. I heard "Great form!" 'Amazing balance!" and "Limbo Queen" being said loudly from Suzanne's onlookers.

Sarah came over and sat down on the sofa with us. "Where have you been?" 

She is laughing at Suzanne's success. "I was over there." She pointed across the pool to a man sitting at a table. "I've been talking to Seamus over there and we are going to go for a walk on the beach."

Jack and I both look over at the same time, unable not to keep from looking obvious. "Did you guys just meet?"

Sarah is all smiles. I don't think it is too often she gets to meet someone that doesn't come into the bar. "Yes! Wish me luck!"

"You won't need it." Jack says with encouragement. "Have fun."

"And he has an Irish accent!" Sarah mouths as she gives me and Jack a hug then spins around and rushes over to Suzanne to tell her good buy.

Jack catches me yawning and looks over to the band and gives a signal by drawing his finger across his neck. "Let's call it a night. Suzanne already won a trophy that doesn't exist." 

The head of the band makes an announcement "It's getting late, and the new Limbo Queen needs to catch a plane tomorrow." This is immediately met with boos from Suzanne's new following. "Thank you all for coming out to the Lido Deck. As always, we will help you get home safely if you need a ride."

"What does that mean?" I ask Jack

"Ramone will drive anyone who had too much to drink home. I don't want anyone drinking and driving."


"I like that." I nod my head agreeing that it is a great idea to take care of overserved guests. "Suzanne should stay here.

"The Limbo Queen? Yes. She should." Jack moves me forward a little so he can move from behind me. "I'm going to thank everyone for coming and we can go to bed." Jack softly kissed my lips and walked over to a group of his happy drunk friends.

Suzanne came over and sat with me. Ringo still hasn't moved. "Did you see me?"

"Oh boy! Did I ever!" I smile and put my hand out for Suzanne to pull me up.

"I have the record!" Suzanne starts to bounce with excitement and hugs me.

"Why don't you stay here tonight." I hug her tight. "That way we can have breakfast together and bring you to the airport." Suzanne hugs me hard and then starts crying,

"I don't want to go." Suzanne starts crying and hugs me harder. "I don't want to go back."

"Come on, let's go inside."

I'm walking better. Putting a little more weight on foot. I hardly use Suzanne for a crutch walking into the house.  If Suzanne wasn't so upset, I would make a joke about "taking a step in the right direction." But Suzanne isn't in the mood for jokes right now. She is drunk and she is afraid she is going to be lonely even though she has a new husband.

We go into the guest bedroom where Suzanne will be sleeping, and we lay down on the bed together to talk.  I find out that Henry, Suzanne's husband opens trendy restaurants in big cities all over the world. He keeps them trendy by introducing new up-and-coming chefs moving them around his locations as a "chef in residence"

He finds the chefs in all the big culinary schools in Europe and basically gives them the artistic freedom to create their own menus and keep everything fresh.  It is really taking off the restaurants have a huge following.  Downside, Henry doesn't have a lot of time for Suzanne right now.

Henry also has four children, some who are older than Suzanne. That must be very awkward.  I guess the kids don't really speak to her.

They live in a big house on Prout's Neck; An oceanside peninsula in Scarborough that is filled with large homes of very wealthy people. Henry must be doing very well for himself. Suzanne is very lonely. If Henry isn't around, which sounds like most of the time right now, then she has no one. She is alone in a big home with a beautiful view of the ocean.

Suzanne's situation in Maine is similar to mine. Not the money part. I have nothing in Maine but loneliness.

If her Henry isn't with her or my boys aren't with me, our worlds are empty in Maine

"Thank you for being my friend." Suzanne said before she drifted off to sleep. I brushed her hair back off her face and wiped the tears off her cheeks with my thumb and covered her up. 

I made sure she had a glass of water next to her. She will need it if she wakes up in the middle of the night. I shut the light off and hobble off to find Jack with Ringo close behind. I'm glad I can hobble now.



***


The alarm on Jack's phone went off at 6am.

"Why?" I mumbled into my pillow.

"Good morning, Cutie!" Jack's hand combs my hair off my neck and tickles the exposed skin with his soft wake up kisses. I feel the tingles all the way in my toes, and he is all I need to be woken up.

"Why are you awake?" My body is waking but my mind is still groggy.

"Morning workout! Zeus will be here soon!"

"You work out with a guy named Zeus?"

"Well, I named him Zeus, his name is really Roger, but Zeus is more fitting."

"Does he carry a lightning bolt or something?"

"Maybe not a lightning bolt, but definitely a barbell." Jack Get up! Let's make some breakfast." Jack bends over and kisses me. More incentive for me to get up. "What time does Sleeping Beauty need to be at the airport?"

"Not until later afternoon."

"Good! Good! We have some time." Jack pulls on a light gray T-shirt and sits on the bed beside where I'm lying. "I'll make you some breakfast." 

He kisses my lips and disappears out the bedroom door.

Jack whips me up a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs with veggies and some toast. We finish up just as Zeus arrives.

I get it. I completely see why Jack calls him Zeus. Well over six feet of perfectly defined muscle capped with blonde, luscious, long locks. I am certain I saw him on the cover of a romance novel in the grocery store back in Kennebunk.

"Nice to meet you." I extend my hand out to shake his.

"Are you going to join us this morning?" He takes my hand. It is more than double the size of mine and one hundred times stronger.

"Ah, no. I think I'll sit this one out." I don't want to make a fool of myself. "Maybe next time."

"I hope so." His overly bleached teeth blind me when he smiles. "I make working out lots of fun!"

"You guys have a good work out." I give Jack a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'm going to check on Suzanne."

"We will be on the Banana Deck." Jack points over to the side of the house the bedroom Suzanne is sleeping in. "You can come watch if you want."

Banana Deck? Cute. He names all his outdoor living spaces.

Jack and Zeus head out for their workout and I want clean up after breakfast.

I know that Jack has his "staff" to clean and they are very good. There is no sign that last night's tequila party/going away party ever happened. But, I want to familiarize myself with the kitchen. If I am going to live here, I want to know my way around this kitchen.

I start going through all the drawers and cupboards, learning where the glasses, dishes and the silverware are kept.  Everything in his kitchen, from his French porcelain dishes to his All-Clad pans to his La Cornue range screams high quality.

I don't think Jack can cook anything other than eggs. Someone on his staff must be a chef and outfitted his kitchen for him. They have nice taste.

Once everything is picked up, I want to check in on Suzanne.

Knocking on the door frame, I poke my head into her room, where she's spread eagle on the bed, snoring. At least she is alive after all she drank last night and she should be thanking Jack for ending the party before she ended up naked in the pool or something worse. I wonder if she will remember anything from the evening?

I close her door and find the Banana Deck.

Outside, there is a roof, with a haint-blue ceiling. Jack is running on a weird treadmill – instead of the base being flat, it curves up at both ends – while Zeus is yelling "I know you can run faster than that!"

Jack's fresh grey T-shirt he put on this morning is now dark gray and soaked with sweat. "30 Seconds" Zeus commands. And when the thirty seconds are up, Jack hops of and is bent over, he is out of breath and his sweat dripping is on the ground.

"Good job." Zeus goes over to a digital stopwatch mounted on the wall and programs it. "Get set up for the AMRAP I wrote on the board." There is a white board mounted next to the stopwatch. Jack, still out of breath, he loads weights on a metal bar and fastens them on with a clip. He leaves the ensemble on the floor and puts a wooden box next to it.



"Tater Tot"

18 Minutes

AMRAP
6  205# Power Clean
6   24" Box Jump
6   Toes to Bar


Geeze, I'm know I do not want to start my morning with him yelling at me.  I'm dying to find out what an AMRAP Tater Tot is? Is it some treat Zeus gives Jack for finishing his workout?

Zeus doesn't give Jack much time to recover from his run when he starts the countdown.

"Three. Two. One." Zeus starts the wall mounted stopwatch with a remote and Jack is off.

He lifts the weights six times up to his neck and drops the bar to the ground. Even though the ground has a thick rubber mat covering the entire area, it still makes a loud crashing noise with each release.

Then, Jack jumps six times up and down on the box and then jumps up on his jungle gym and hangs while he swings his toes up to touch the bar six times.  Then he goes back and starts the weights again.

Zeus is encouraging, but mostly a hard ass, making sure he does all the moves correctly. If his toes "almost touch" the move doesn't count toward the six needed.

After eighteen minutes, Zeus called "Time" and Jack fell to the ground.  He rolled over onto his back, soaked in sweat with his chest heaving. 

Zeus left Jack to die and came over to talk to me.

"I think you should really give this a try." Zeus flashed his neon whites at me.

"I definitely could not do this."

Suzanne appeared, rubbing her eyes adjusting to the daylight, looking like hell.  Her hair all tangled and still in her clothes from last night.

"Is someone drilling a well or something?" I guess the dropping of the weights woke her up.

Still unable to see, she walks into Zeus.

"Oh my God!" Suzanne says softly, under her breath and turns around and runs back into the house.

"That's our friend, Suzanne." I explain. Jack is still lying on the ground.

"She needs my help too."

"Hmmm, Maybe." I walk over to Jack. "Do you need some water?"

"Water.." He reaches straight up with one hand. "I need water." I bring him over his water bottle. "Thank you. He makes me get it myself."

"Yes, he should get it himself." Zeus says. "It builds character."

Jack sits up and sips his water. "How did I do?"

"A little better than the last time you did Tater Tot." Zeus was reading from his iPad. "At least you didn't get worse. Let's go, you have more to do."

Jack gets up from the floor leaving his outline in sweat and goes over to turn on a big industrial size fan.

"Wow!" I say looking at the wet floor. "You sweat a lot"

"If I don't leave a sweat angel, I didn't work out." Jack gets his phone and takes a picture of his sweaty outline. "Right Zeus?"

"You're not done yet. Put your phone away." Zeus commands.

"I gotta go." Jack gives me a kiss and goes back to his torture.

As I was walking out I noticed a galvanized tank full of water and ice. "Jack? What is that for? Are you having people over for beers?"

Jack walked over to me. "No. That's an ice bath for after my workout." I look at him with disbelief. "It's for after my work out to help with recovery."

"You get in there?" I have flashbacks of miserable blizzards, sleet, whiteout conditions. "You get in there with the ice?" I think I am the only kid in Maine who hated when school was cancelled because of snow.

"Yes!" Jack says with way too much enthusiasm, where is he getting his energy? "It helps with recovery!" He starts jumping up and down.

"Jack. That sounds absolutely miserable." Why would anyone do this to themselves? "What if your body temperature drops and you become hypothermic? Do you have an electric blanket?"

"I only stay in for four minutes. I won't be in long enough to become hypothermic." Jack explains. "It will be okay, Isa. I do this several times a week a I have yet to become hypothermic."

Why would someone escape the cold and move to the islands only to take a bath full of ice?
It just doesn't make sense. I know, being from Maine,  I wouldn't willingly subject myself to an ice bath. Maine winters are more than enough for me.

"You can watch me and do the countdown if you want." Jack suggests. " Then,  if I get into trouble, you will be right here to help me."

"You are crazy, but all right." I can't believe I am going to watch someone willingly get into a tub of ice.



#


"I'm going to go check in on Suzanne."

I knock on Suzanne's door and go in; She is back in bed. I crawl in with her.

"You okay? Can I get you anything? Some Advil or something?"

"I actually feel fine, just hungry and tired."

"I'll make you something. Why don't you get showered and come have some breakfast?"

"Who is that god?"

"Jack calls him Zeus."

"I can see why."

"Go take a shower, then come eat something." I get up and pull the covers off her. "I'll be in the kitchen"

We sat outside on the Lido Deck while Suzanne ate her breakfast, and we drank coffee.

"I will find out everything I can about Ben and the Boys." Suzanne promised.

"I know you will." I know that Suzanne is the only connection I have left to find out what is going on in Maine. If anyone can find out what is going on up there, she will.

"I may use some unethical tactics." She laughs. "I may have to pull the same shit on him he has pulled on other people."

"Suzanne, I do not want you to get yourself in trouble. He is not a nice person. I don't want him to do anything to you."

"He's a bully. He's not going to hurt me." I don't believe her. He has hurt people. He has hurt me.

"Don't worry." Suzanne hugs me. We hear Zeus yelling at Jack from the other side of the house. "I can't believe he pays for someone to do this to him."

"Jack?" I hear metal hitting the rubber floor. "He said that he has to stay in tip-top shape for his concerts. They are very physically demanding."

"And what's with the Greek God Drill Sargent?" Suzanne gives me a salute.

"I don't know. He tried to recruit me this morning." I laughed; no way am I going to put myself through what Zeus puts Jack through.

Suzanne and I laughed and enjoyed our last morning together until is time for me and Jack to bring her over to Saint Thomas.

"Thank you for the party last night." Suzanne hugs me, and I don't want to let her go. "I'm glad I was a great source of entertainment for everyone."

Jack unloads Suzanne's bags at the curb so the skycap can check them.

"Oh, you were entertaining, Limbo Queen" Jack said and joined in on our hug.

As Suzanne was walking into the terminal she turned, "I'll keep you posted on what I find out about the Ass." And she blew us a kiss and we waved back at her.

Jack opens the door to the Expedition for me and I climbed in. We caught the car ferry before it left and drove on board.

"To be honest, I really liked not being part of the party last night. I liked just hanging low with you." Jack reaches over and rests his hand on my knee as we reach the ferry back to Saint John.

"I like just being with you." I say softly, completely content. "This could work. You and me."

"I really want it to." Jack squeezed where his hand is resting. "More than anything."

We sit in the Expedition, Jack's hand on my knee and my hand on his arm. Staring out over Pillsbury Sound as we make the crossing back to Saint John.

"Let's go home and have a nice quiet evening."

"I'd love that."