Chapter 7 #2
“Who knew I’d be interested in mixing marriage with the apocalypse?” he whispered reverently as his eyes softened, before dropping to her lips. “Someday doesn’t have to mean today… and just because you’re not ready to give this a chance, doesn’t mean that I’m not standing here, waiting patiently.”
There was a note of something in his voice that stopped the sharp remarks in her throat from escaping.
She could clearly hear the hope and see the longing in his eyes, making her nervous and almost skittish.
Joe never looked at her like this… ever.
Again, zero game from Jack – he was just here, tossing around comments as facts, despite how outrageous and preposterous they were in her mind.
“Why me?” she whispered painfully, her voice soft and fragile despite the sounds of the busy department store around her.
The intercom was paging for a price check, someone else nearby was complaining about the wheel on their cart, and another person was telling their child to behave…
but Heidi was lost in Jack’s eyes and the crazy words he bandied about like it was nothing.
“Why are you even saying things like this to me?”
“Why not?” he answered just as quietly, his eyes searching hers. “Everyone deserves someone to treat them good, to make them happy, heck – to bring a smile to their face… and I just happen to be a guy who’s willing to tackle a lucky girl that I met on the road by sheer coincidence.”
“This is crazy. You’re crazy…”
“I think you’ve said that before,” he replied, giving her a soft half-smile. “I didn’t deny it then, and I won’t now. Maybe that’s me – a crazy guy who believes in happily ever afters and a little fairy tale magic.”
“What about this remotely strikes you as ‘fairy tale magic’ or ‘destiny’?” she asked, unwilling to pull her hands from his chest despite the turbulent feelings his words were creating in her. “We’re nothing.”
“Everything starts somewhere, if you try hard enough,” he murmured and made a slight motion with his head. “I’m gonna get a few things for Mimi while I’m here, so take your time, and I’ll go get us a shopping cart.”
“I could leave you here, take off and run away,” she tossed easily in a hushed breath, almost taunting him as he released her hands, stepping back. “I’ll just leave…”
“I’ll miss our conversations.”
Heidi did a double-take. She did not expect him to say something like that or to give in so easily.
She had expected him to say ‘No, don’t go’ or make some snide comment about how he had the keys, or ‘It’ll be a long walk’…
but none of that happened. Instead, he looked almost sad, almost like his words were true – that he would actually miss their conversations, banter, arguments, and her nitpicking.
“We fight all the time,” she corrected, needing to have the last word.
“You’re fighting,” he countered simply. “I’m enjoying every syllable you make in my general direction.
Now, I’m gonna grab a cart for us. It’s up to you to decide if you want to be here with me – or if you want to leave,” he finished and then did the unthinkable.
He pressed the truck keys in her hand a moment later before walking off.
The keys.
Jack gave her the means to leave him if she wanted…
and she was absolutely shell-shocked. No one ever let her decide, let her take the reins, let her choose what would happen next.
Everything was an argument back home with Joe, dividing her from her friends and family.
He was never supportive unless it suited him, but Jack was going to get a shopping cart for them.
He was picking up things for his grandmother – and somehow, she knew that he would be happy pushing around a buggy full of maxi-pads, pink fuzzy slippers, and goodness knows what else…
just because he was getting to hang out with her.
This was so weird… and strange.
In fact, Heidi stood there so long that she saw Jack coming back with a cart several minutes later.
His face was quiet, almost solemn, almost like he was waiting for her to leave him stranded – expecting her to take this chance and run.
The relief in his gaze when their eyes met made her heart wobble precariously in her chest.
“Did you find a pair of shoes?” he asked simply, but his eyes - his eyes were everything.
“I was thinking,” she replied, handing him the keys.
“About what?”
“If I should get sneakers or flats,” she fibbed, knowing that was distinctly not what she was thinking about in those moments.
No, in those few moments she had been pondering what it would be like to have an actual relationship with someone that wasn’t one-sided.
“You know, giving me your truck keys doesn’t mean much because I don’t know where I am.
You gave me the keys to push your own agenda…
but I’m not you. I wouldn’t leave someone at the store. ”
“Heidi?” he began, his voice cracking as his eyes met hers. “I would never have left you either. You can make this about the shoes, the truck, us, whatever… but I’m glad you’re still here.”
Blinking several times, she looked away and swallowed. His words utterly disarmed her. Why was he so nice, so sweet toward her? Things like this didn’t happen to people like her – did they? And then she felt him touch her elbow as he bent his head slightly toward her.
“Breathe,” he murmured. “No one’s pushing you – except you. I’m going to leave the cart with you in case you find something you like, and I’ll be back in a few minutes. Take your time and just enjoy getting out for a bit.”
“With you?” she shot back, unable to resist – but unable to meet his eyes.
“With me,” he breathed and then touched her shoulder before walking away. Heidi looked over her shoulder, watching him walk off, her mind swirling with so many feelings and questions.
An hour later, Heidi had a new pair of sneakers, a pair of flat slip-on shoes, a T-shirt, a pair of jeans, and a few toiletries to replace the ones she’d used at Mimi’s as a courtesy.
Jack picked up a few things for Mimi that honestly made her smile at how thoughtful he was, caring for her.
He bought his grandmother a few word-find books, a zip-up robe, a package of curlers, and a small, scented candle.
All things completely unnecessary in his rush to go shopping with her – in fact, it was almost like he was buying things to have an excuse to tag along.
“Do you like Tex-Mex?” he asked politely, putting their bags behind the driver’s seat of the truck in the small well that held a pair of jumper cables that were easily seen.
“Are you hungry?” she replied, honestly a little surprised. They’d just eaten breakfast not too long ago.
“I can always eat,” he chuckled in response, giving her an easy wink. “I might not look like it, but I won the pie-eating contest two years in a row and…”
Heidi couldn’t help it – she burst out laughing. The idea of him entering a pie-eating contest, much less winning it, seemed so normal and yet unreal. This man was shoveling down whole pies?
“Where’d you put them – your leg?”
“My hollow head,” he countered, grinning, and she began laughing even harder.
Right there, in the middle of the parking lot, she was cackling wildly and almost near tears.
She needed to laugh, needed this feeling of joy that came with it, and to think that some podunk town’s police officer, some guy completely not on her radar, was the one bringing joy to her life in that moment – well, it didn’t go unnoticed.
No, in fact, she was ‘noticing’ it quite a bit as she fought to keep from sobbing at the frustrating truth of it all.
She didn’t want to like Jack…
This place was a tiny corner of hell…
And she was still stranded.
“I like you laughing much better than grumbling at me,” he offered simply, holding open the driver's side door of the truck. “C’mon – and let’s get outta here.”
She chuckled, shook her head, and turned away – only to feel him touch her elbow, physically swinging her around as he pointed to the seat – his seat. “What?”
“Hop up and scooch.”
“What the heck is a ‘scooch’?”
Jack rolled his eyes in mock-amazement. “Well, Miss Thing, here in the holler we’ve got a thing that we do…”
“You don’t need to make your drawl any thicker,” she interrupted, but he continued on unbothered.
“When we reckon it’s time to go or some varmint parked a little too close…”
“Oh my gosh, you did not just utter the word ‘varmint’ – did you?”
“Then we open the door for a lady, no matter what side of the vehicle, cause it’s the po-lite thing to do…” he dragged out, emphasizing ‘polite’ and mocking her. “And most folks will take a seat – and scooch on over toward the other side of the bench.”
“You could have started with that,” she pointed out, mumbling under her breath as she climbed in on the driver’s side – and ‘scooched’ over to the passenger side, before doing a double-take and turning to glare at him. “You’re not even parked close to the other car.”
“Naww,” he grinned, wagging his eyebrows. “But you sure scooch nicely, and now my entire seat has been blessed by that curvy backside of yours.”
“What?” she yelped before rolling her eyes. “Never mind – and don’t elaborate any further. Let’s just go.”
“Go eat?”
“Just go,” she sighed heavily, closing her eyes in surrender. “I cannot keep up with you, so if you want this to be something special, then you win…” After a few seconds, she cracked an eye, looking at him, and paused. He was sitting there in the driver’s seat, staring. “What?”
“I don’t want to win like that.”
“What do you mean?”
“You gave up.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t ever give up on things you want. You don’t have a defeatist personality.
You’re a survivor, so why would you let someone have the upper hand…
when it’s your hand? You’re in control, remember?
” She was speechless at his words and the fact that he was lecturing her.
“This isn’t you. You aren't a quitter, so don’t give up the fight. There’s no fun in that.”
“I’m not defeated…” she muttered, turning away.
“Then don’t tell me I won,” he began, his eyes holding hers. “Tell me what you want, and it’s my job to make it happen.”
“It’s not your job…”
“You’re right,” he shot back, causing her to look sharply back at him again.
There was something in his voice that caught her attention, almost like she’d pressed a button with him or a painful record scratch.
His eyes were hot, intense, powerful… and she wasn’t sure what to say in that moment as he began to unload verbally at her like he was about to set her straight.
“It’s not a job – it’s my pleasure, my honor, my everything, to make sure that the woman with me knows there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.
If you want dinner, then we’ll go eat. If you want to go shopping, then get ready, because I’m carrying the bags while you browse to your heart’s content.
If you decide you want to stare up at the stars on a warm summer night, then I’ll lay out a blanket for us, and you can use my arm as your pillow…
but this is my right as a man who knows how to take care of his woman,” he said passionately, staring her down, his voice terse and low – almost like she’d insulted him by giving up…
and his words blew her mind. “And before you say that you’re not my woman – you’re here, with me, so that currently makes it true. Now, what do you want to do?”
Heidi was speechless.
“What do you want to do?” he repeated, stressing the words slowly, softly, pointedly as he waited. “Name it and…”
“You mentioned getting a few things for your house,” she stammered, completely shocked by this powerful and masculine side to him.
So far, he’d been the easygoing guy, the ‘nice’ guy, but in that moment, hearing his words, that changed things…
and opened her eyes. While he might not have originally been her type of guy – he was a man, through and through.
“So?”
“So, I’m not hungry yet, and I’d like to see what you are getting,” she admitted, unsure how to take this new side of him. “And cool your jets, buddy. You’re making me nervous by acting all tough and pushy.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said simply, starting the truck, like nothing had happened between them - but for her, everything had. She was seeing him differently for the first time… and liked it.