Chapter 17 Jack
SEVENTEEN
JACK
“If the baby wants cookies, the baby needs cookies,” my beautiful wife protested dramatically in front of me. “Do you want your son or daughter to starve?”
Fuck, this woman was funny and beautiful and sassy—the best combination—and all mine.
“Axel is on his way over there now. Why don’t you just text him and ask him to bring you something back?” I suggested, having just talked to him on the phone a few moments ago as he left a meeting with one of our clients.
The door to the front office where we worked chimed, letting us know someone had entered. I glanced at the door, noting an older couple coming in slowly.
“You text Axel for me so I can help these people,” she directed with a smile on her face, and I knew I would do anything to keep that smile there.
“Did you say Axel?” asked the woman who had just come in. “Axel Skarsg?rd?”
“Umm, yes. Can I help you?” Ruthie’s demeanor and voice quickly changed to her administrative assistant mode.
“We are Ingrid and Karl Skarsg?rd. Axel’s parents,” the woman added politely and with a thicker accent than I had first noticed.
Her comment also got my attention because, while I didn’t know the whole story, I knew Axel was not close to his family. I also knew that if he’d known they were coming here, he wouldn’t have made a pit stop at the bakery.
“Does he know you’re coming?” I asked, not trying to step on my wife’s toes, but given everything that was going on recently with Axel and Stella, I wanted to dot all my i’s and cross my t’s before telling a pair of strangers his location.
The woman paused for a moment, glancing back at her husband, who had yet to say a word. “It is a…uh…surprise visit.”
That part was obvious, but what had my attention was the coldness in her voice.
“I’m sure if you text him and let him know you are here, he will come back earlier,” Ruthie chimed in. “He just stopped by Scandinavian Sweets.”
“What?” his mother asked.
“Stella’s place—his girlfriend’s bakery,” Ruthie added after a long pause when she realized she didn’t understand.
The confusion on Axel’s mother’s face told me what I needed to know. Not only did Axel not know they were here, but they didn’t know about Stella or his relationship with her, which also meant they likely didn’t know much about him at all.
“If you’d like, Ruthie can take a message and pass it along when he gets back,” I explained.
“Ah, yes.” The woman nodded, suddenly pretending to know what Ruthie was talking about.
She spoke in Swedish to her husband and he replied in the same.
During this time, Ruthie glanced up at me, and I gave her a silent headshake to subtly tell her to not give any more information. Her knowing nod told me she was picking up on the same cues I was.
“Please. Can you tell me where this Scandinavian bakery is?” The woman put on a fake smile, trying to seem genuinely interested.
“He’s likely already left and headed out to his next location,” I commented. “Why don’t you two just have a seat, and we can try to reach out to him for you.”
His parents spoke quietly to each other again in Swedish before his mother finally spoke again.
“Thank you, but we are very tired from our journey. We will go to our hotel to rest and will see Axel for dinner.”
They turned to leave without saving time for goodbyes. The moment they were out the door, Ruthie turned to me.
“I thought he didn’t talk to his parents. And why wouldn’t they tell him they were coming all the way here from Sweden?”
“I’m guessing because they didn’t want him to know,” I responded but I maintained my gaze on them as they walked to a black SUV, where a driver came out to help them into the vehicle.
They’d hired a driver, either because they didn’t feel comfortable driving here or they were used to someone else driving them around.
“Text Axel to tell him what you…I mean the baby…wants and give him a heads-up about his parents. I’ll fill him in on all the details when he gets back and find out what he wants to do.”
I had a bad feeling about this but also didn’t want to overreact until I knew the whole situation.