13. Jack
13
JACK
THE OTHER WHITLOCK
“D ude, what crawled up your ass and died?” Drew asked as he dropped down onto the weight bench beside me.
“Nothing,” I grunted as I dropped the weights and gave up on working out in peace.
He tipped his head back and let out a sharp laugh. “ You’ve been a moody son of a bitch since you showed up this morning.”
“Didn’t sleep,” I grunted as I grabbed my shirt and water bottle.
He arched an eyebrow and cocked his head toward the bunk room. “ Then go take a fucking nap. I’m in a good mood today, and you’re ruining it.”
“Fuck off,” I said dismissively.
“Children.” The two of us snapped to attention as Chief strolled through. “ I can hear you picking at each other all the way upstairs. Now , unless you’d like to wash the rig again , I’d highly recommend you cut it out.”
The engine was sitting outside the bay, sparkling in the sun as it dried off from the wash this morning. It was barely nine a.m. and it was already nearing triple digits.
"Yes, sir,” we groused as the two of us went to our separate corners.
When the Chief headed back upstairs, Drew piped up again. “ Weren’t you off? You should be rested and chipper as hell.”
“Long day. Didn’t sleep,” I grunted as I gripped the pull-up bar and started a set.
“You were home all day,” Drew said. “ Remember ? I asked if you wanted to drive down to that bar in Beaufort with me, and you said no.”
Ah, shit. Drew had asked if I wanted to go down to Jokers with him. I should have. It would have been more respectable than peering out my window every five seconds to see if Aurora was attempting anything quite as stupid as starting a fire on a windy beach lined with dry grass while tipsy.
Part of me felt bad for losing my shit on her. The other part of me didn’t regret a damn thing. She should've known better.
After the scene I had made on the beach the night before, Aurora and her friends had stayed in the house for most of the day yesterday. Part of me hated that even more than watching them make poor decisions outside. It left me to stew on what they were doing. If they needed help. If she was in the same sour mood I was.
Maybe Drew had a point about me being in a mood . . .
I was in the same funk I had been in for the last forty-eight hours, and it was all because of her.
“What’s going on with the neighbor? The niece?”
A grunt as I dropped down from the pull-up bar was my only response to Drew’s question.
He let out a sharp laugh. “ Ah . I should have known. You’re into her.”
“I was,” I said as I held out my hands in defense. “ Happy ?”
“Was?”
I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to ease the stress that had knotted up there ever since Aurora had stormed out of my place. “ I said some stupid shit. She got mad. I got mad. It is what it is.”
“What happened?”
I gave Drew the basic details— Aurora coming over to eat. Things getting hot and heavy. Me opening my mouth like a fucking idiot rather than just kissing her. When I told him about the fire on the beach, his demeanor shifted.
Drew was easy going ninety percent of the time. That other ten percent was when he was working and had a game-face on. I could always trust that, when the tones dropped, he was all business.
“I may have overreacted,” I admitted when I got to the end of the story—how I had thrown Aurora onto her couch, made sure her ankle was up and iced, then stormed out. “ She was just having a good time with friends. Lord knows she deserves to have a little fun after everything she’s been through.”
Drew lifted his eyebrows. “ She in trouble or something?”
But I just waved it off. It wasn’t my place to share Aurora’s business with Drew . “ Nah . Just some personal shit.”
“You didn’t happen to clue her in as to why you have a tendency to jump down people's throats when they’re not making the exact personal safety choices you deem appropriate?”
I glared at him.
“I’ll take that as a no.”
“I don’t need people to make the same choices I would. I just need them not to be willfully reckless.”
“Did you ever stop to think that the drive and motivation that make you a good firefighter also make you a terrible friend?”
I hated when Drew got philosophical with me. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, it was usually because I was being stupid, and he was the only one who was ballsy enough to say it to my face.
I knew exactly what he was talking about, and I knew that he was right. But that didn’t mean I liked it.
A digital bell chimed overhead and the intercom crackled. “ Visitors ,” Chief clipped before turning off the feed.
That was the station-wide warning for “make sure you have pants on and be on your best behavior.”
Drew grabbed a towel and mopped up his face before pulling his station t-shirt back on. I was halfway through doing the same thing when someone called my name.
“Wharton,” Chief said as he strolled in. “ You decent?”
“Yes, sir,” I said with my head and one arm in my shirt. The rest was bunched up around my shoulders.
“Ladies,” Chief said toward the door.
That caught my attention. I yanked my shirt down as Aurora and her friends crowded in the gym doorway.
Chief looked around. “ Maybe take ‘em outside or show ‘em around.” His mustache twitched. “ It smells in here.”
“Hey,” I said as I scrubbed my hand down my face, just to make sure the beads of sweat were gone. “ Uh —hi. I . . .” I stopped stammering long enough to get my bearings.
Aurora didn’t look too sure of herself either. What was she doing here? Was I hallucinating her standing in the middle of the station?
Drew sidled up to me and extended his hand. “ Drew Anderson ,” he said with a smile. “ You must be the other Whitlock .”
Aurora’s brows lifted, and she glanced at me for a fleeting moment before nodding. “ Aurora .”
“Pleasure to meet you, ma’am,” he said with a flirtatious smile that I wanted to punch clean off his face.
And Aurora fucking blushed.
Jealousy ripped through me, cutting to the core.
“Um, these are my friends,” she said to Drew as she turned to the ladies. “ Whitney West and Willow Winslet .” Her gaze lifted to me. “ We made some pies to bring by as a thank you. You know—for cleaning up the bonfire after we went inside. Well , Whitney made them. Willow and I were there for moral support. I can’t bake.”
Willow clapped a hand over Aurora’s mouth to stop her rambling. “ What Wander means to say is ‘thank you.’”
The momentary jealousy quickly morphed into amusement.
Drew laughed under his breath. “ I can take them up to the kitchen. You ladies want a tour?”
Whitney and Willow shared a giddy look.
“Weird question,” Whitney said. “ But are you okay with being recorded? We’re authors, and this might end up in a book. In -person research is always the best.”
Drew grinned. “ As long as you get my good side.”
“Pretty sure you don’t have a bad side,” Willow said with a snicker as she pulled out her phone and opened the camera.
Aurora shuffled the covered pie tins into Whitney’s hands. Drew winked and cocked his head toward the open bay door before clapping his hands. “ Alright , ladies. We’ll head upstairs first. Please remember to keep all hands and feet inside the ride at all times.”
I was fairly certain I saw wedding rings on Whitney’s finger, but Drew had Willow eating out of his hand.
Aurora hung at the back of the pack, a little hesitant to join the tour. A soft gasp escaped when I grabbed her hand to hold her back.
I cocked my head toward the bay doors. “ Come on. They’ll be fine with Drew for a few minutes.”
The morning sun was bright and blazing; not a cloud in the sky. I leaned against the frame of the open bay and hoped our conversation wouldn’t carry.
“Hey.”
“Hi,” she said quietly. “ I hope it's okay that we popped by. Movies and TV shows always make it seem okay.”
I chuckled. “ We have people drop in a lot. Bringing food is even better. The guys will like that.”
Aurora sighed. “ In the harsh light of yesterday morning’s hangover, I realized we were pretty stupid to drink and light up a bonfire at the same time. So thanks for putting the fire out before something happened. And for cleaning it up for us. I definitely did not want to trek through the sand this morning.”
“How’s the ankle?” I asked as I craned my head to the side to get a look at it.
She was in a pair of foam flip-flops, but still had her ankle wrapped.
“A little sore. Kind of stiff. But not too bad.”
I nodded. “ Rest another day or so, and you should be good as new.”
“The girls have been helping with the house. It’s been nice to have extra sets of hands.”
“How long are they in town?”
“They leave this afternoon to drive back to Raleigh and fly out.” An acute sadness washed over her like clouds eclipsing the sun, turning high noon into dull grays.
“You gonna miss ‘em?”
“Yeah,” she admitted. “ We usually only see each other a few times a year at book signings or industry events, but now . . .”
“You won’t be at those,” I finished for her when she couldn’t get the words out herself.
“Yeah,” she croaked.
“Look, about the other day at my place?—”
“It’s forgotten,” she said quickly. “ Truce ?”
But it wasn’t forgotten. Not even close. No way would I forget the way she felt beneath me. No way would I forget the feel of her body in my hands. The way she tasted. The way she breathed my name and tightened around me, trusting me to carry her while we leaped off that cliff of ecstasy together.
No way would I forget the anger and hurt in her eyes when I had put a hard stop to the moment because I was a selfish bastard.
I didn’t know what had possessed me that night. There was something about Aurora that called to me like a siren, drawing me out to sea.
I knew the end only had one outcome. Part of me was ready and willing to drown in her, even though I knew I’d never come back from it.
“Don’t forget it,” I said, moving closer to cup her cheek. “ I’m sorry I pushed. I was out of line, and I owe you an apology. I’m sorry.”
Her cheeks flushed like a sailor’s sunset. “ Like I said?—”
“No,” I clipped, swiping my thumb across her lips. “ Don’t forget it, because I’m not forgetting. I don’t want to forget.”
“Jack . . .” The breath that carried my name was my damnation. Aurora’s eyes closed as she leaned into my hand. “ I can’t do this.”
“I’m not asking you for anything right now, Roar . We don’t have to explore anything if you don’t want to. But I will take every chance I can find to remind you how good that kiss was.” I leaned in, my mouth brushing the shell of her ear. “ Because it’s all I can think about.”
Her swallow was audible, even as I backed away.
Aurora ran a hand through her hair and let out a sharp breath. “ We found another letter. Well , Whitney did.”
“No shit?”
She nodded. “ There was a brick in the fireplace with the same stamp that was branded into the floor. Whit noticed it was loose and pulled it out. The letter was inside the brick.”
“Was it from the same person as the one we found in the floor?”
“No. That was the weird thing. The one we found in the fireplace talks about the Salem Witch Trials in the present, which means it has to be from a hundred years before the floor letter.”
I could see the wheels spinning as she worked the problem over and over in her mind.
“What are you thinking, Roar ?”
She sighed. “ I don’t know. Whitney doesn’t think it’s a letter at all.”
“What do you mean?”
“She thinks it’s a manuscript. With some of the formatting and style choices, it makes more sense than it being a personal letter.”
A reckless piece of hair danced in the wind and tickled her nose. I looped it around my finger and tucked it behind her ear. “ And what do you think?”
She let out a sharp sigh. “ I think I don’t have time to go on a wild goose chase, and I should stick to painting and ripping up molding.” Aurora tugged her phone out of her back pocket and glanced at the time. “ I’ve gotta get back. I hired a roofing company because I’m not falling to my death by trying to DIY patch the holes up there.”
“Smart girl,” I said as I trailed my finger down the graceful slope of her throat. “ It’d be a shame if you broke this pretty neck.”
Aurora chewed on her lip. “ Are you off in the morning?”
“Yeah. I’ll be over. Same time as usual.”
A relieved smile graced her features, lightening the grooves of worry on her forehead. “ Okay .”
I gave her hand a squeeze, then let go as I heard the girls and Drew growing near. “ Let me know if you find any more letters.”
She let out a soft laugh. “ I doubt I will.”
“No going on adventures or wild-goose chases without me.”
“Promise,” she said, looping her pinky around mine and giving it a squeeze. “ Truce ?”
“Truce.” There was a levity to her that hadn’t been there a few minutes ago. A weight had disappeared.
I turned to head back inside to meet Drew , but Aurora stopped me with a hand on my arm. I turned and was sucker-punched by the tenderness in her eyes.
“Stay safe. Alright ?”
I cracked a smile. “ Promise .”