just gave her a smile that spoke of the other night at the office.
‘I’m serious, Jack.’
‘As I’ve said before, there’s no such thing as a perfect family.’
‘What about your brother?’ Nina asked, but Jack shrugged.
‘There’s a six-year age difference.’
‘Same as there is with Janey and Blake,’ Nina said. ‘There’s an even bigger one between Janey and I.’
‘Which meant we didn’t see each other at school.’
‘What about at home?’
‘We went to boarding school.’ Jack knew his words didn’t quite wash, given how she fought so hard to unite her family. ‘They’re difficult people,’ Jack said.
‘Families are.’
Blake appeared then, asking again if they could get take-away.
‘I’ve already said no.’
‘I don’t mind going out to get something …’ Jack offered, and had no idea why it incensed her so much, had no idea Blake had been begging for it all the way home.
‘I’m making dinner,’ she said.
‘Is that an invitation to join you?”
‘It’s just pasta.’
‘Great.’
Nina slammed around her small kitchen as Jack sat on the sofa, chatting to Blake. She could hear them both laughing and it annoyed her further. ‘Jack!’ she called over her shoulder as she filled a large saucepan with water. ‘Can you come here for a moment?’
‘Sure.’
He came to the door.
‘Go easy on him.’
‘Sorry?’
‘Blake’s really needy …’ She was so angry that he’d turned up like this, because two minutes in it was clear Blake was already a huge Jack Carter fan. ‘Just don’t make any promises you can’t keep.’
‘Do you think I’m stupid?’
‘No,’ Nina answered tartly, ‘but we’re just friends if he asks.’
‘Really!’ Jack raised his eyebrows. ‘I told Blake I worked with you and had a patient that we needed to discuss, but I can upgrade us to friends if you like …’
‘Colleagues is fine.’
Trust Jack to have been one step ahead.
Except she didn’t trust Jack, because he was terribly easy to like, and from his past reputation terribly quick to leave.
So she made Blake’s favourite dinner, herb and breadcrumb pasta.
Quick, tasty, cheap and nothing at all like Jack was used to.
She melted the butter in a pan and added a couple of cups of breadcrumbs and then threw in a load of herbs and tried not to listen to the laughter from the lounge as she put the crumbs into the oven and added the pasta to the water.
He walked into the kitchen and searched for a corkscrew then handed her a glass of wine from the bottle he had brought.
She 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