Chapter 17 #2
“I expected Jill and maybe Kate might be upset about it. I had a feeling Maggie would be happy to have Eric here, and if I’m part of the deal, she’ll put up with me.”
“Can we tell Eric later? I’m totally drained.”
She hugged him. “Of course we can. Let’s go watch a movie and be lazy.”
“Sign me up.”
Jack awoke to the blare of the TV with Andi and Eric asleep next to him on the sofa. He moved slowly, trying not to disturb them as he retrieved the arm that’d gone numb under them.
Andi stirred, and when she saw the pickle he was in, she lifted her head to let him up. She giggled when he shook his arm, grimacing as the blood flowed into the limb.
He stretched and yawned. “That was, without a doubt, the best nap I’ve ever had.”
“This one will be up all night,” she said, running a finger around on Eric’s cheek.
His eyes fluttered open, and he swatted at his mother’s hand. He pushed her away when she continued to nudge him awake.
“Uh-oh, he’s grumpy.”
Jack sat on the sofa and tickled Eric’s feet.
Eric’s eyes flew open again, but this time he smiled when he saw who was tickling him.
“That’s so not fair!” Andi said, laughing. “You’re becoming his favorite!”
Jack shrugged, but he was thrilled by his burgeoning relationship with the little boy.
Eric sat up, stretched, and rubbed his eyes.
“Feel better after a snooze?” Andi signed.
He nodded and moved closer to Jack, who put an arm around him.
Andi looked at Jack, and he nodded.
“Honey, Jack and I have something we want to tell you.”
“Are you getting married?”
“No, sweetie, but Jack has asked us to come here to live with him and the girls.”
Eric’s eyes brightened. “Really?” He turned to look at Jack. “Would you be my dad, then?”
Jack’s heart skipped a beat. “Would you like that?”
Eric nodded.
Andi blinked back tears.
“I’d love to be your dad,” Jack signed and then pulled Eric into his arms. He reached out to include Andi and held them close, filled with contentment as the sun set and darkness fell upon the room.
After dinner, the three of them played two rounds of Candy Land. Eric won both times, giggling at Jack’s agony when he got stuck in the Molasses Swamp for the third time.
Andi signed to Eric that it was bedtime.
Jack stopped her when she started to get up. “Let me.” He picked Eric up and slung him over his shoulder. Jack held the squirming boy so he could give his mother an upside-down kiss.
Andi watched them go upstairs, thrilled that Eric had such a wonderful man in his life. She was giddy with happiness as she went into the study to put away the game.
On the way back, she paused to look at the family portrait hanging in the hallway off the kitchen.
Judging by the ages of the girls, she figured it had been taken about a year before Clare’s accident.
They were casually dressed, and Jack’s arm was around Clare.
He and the girls were missing the hint of sadness in their eyes that Andi still caught occasional glimpses of in each of them.
Although she’d seen many photos of Clare, for some reason she felt drawn in this time. She shuddered at the chill that went through her when Clare’s startling blue eyes seemed to issue a challenge. Andi shook it off, straightened the photo on the wall, and went to finish cleaning up the kitchen.
Upstairs, Jack wrestled Eric into his pajamas, helped him brush his teeth, and tucked him into bed with the stuffed dog he slept with. He pulled the covers up, tickling him as he went.
Eric giggled and crooked his finger to bring Jack closer.
He lowered his face.
Eric kissed his cheek and signed, “I love you.”
Overwhelmed, Jack kissed Eric and signed, “I love you, too, buddy. Good night.” Flipping the light off, he blew a kiss from the doorway and went downstairs.
He slid his arms around Andi from behind. “Your son is awesome.”
She had been wiping the countertop and loading the dishwasher. Turning to him, she put her hands on his shoulders. “What happened?”
“He told me he loves me.”
“Oh, Jack, of course he does. You’re so good to him.”
“He knocked the wind out of me when he asked if I’d be his dad. I’ll never forget that. I can’t wait to get you both here for good.”
She went up on tiptoes to kiss him. “Me, too.”
He wrapped his arms tight around her as he kissed her. When they came up for air, he hoisted her over his shoulder—just as he had done to Eric—and carried her upstairs.
They fell onto the guest bed laughing. He kissed her without breaking the intense eye contact between them. “I love you, Andi,” he whispered. “I love you so much.”
“I love you, too. Happy New Year.”
Andi and Eric flew back to Chicago for the last time before their move.
Now it was her turn to tell the people in her life about their plans, but as worried as she was about how her mother would react, she was relieved their children now knew.
She and Jack had taken Eric to tour the Rhode Island School for the Deaf.
He’d met the woman who would be his teacher, and she’d signed that she couldn’t wait to have him in her class.
The director also put Andi in touch with a carpool from Newport.
Andi decided to tell her mother about the move the next evening and asked Eric not to mention it to his grandmother before she could. He was sad when Andi told him his grandmother probably wouldn’t move with them, but he promised he wouldn’t tell her.
After breaking the news to her coworkers during an emotional day at work, Andi tucked Eric into bed and worked up the courage for what she needed to do next. She found her mother in her room watching one of her favorite TV shows.
“I can come back later,” Andi said when she saw what was on.
“Come in. It’s a rerun.” Betty clicked off the television and looked at her daughter. “Everything all right?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“Oh?”
Andi sat on the edge of her mother’s bed and hesitated for a moment. Here we go. “Jack has asked us to live with him in Rhode Island.”
“You’re going.”
Andi nodded.
“How can you uproot your whole life for a man who can’t even marry you?”
Andi struggled to keep the anger out of her voice. “Because I have more of a life with him in five minutes than I do in a whole year here, and that’s enough for me.”
“I’ve told you how I feel about this.”
“You’re welcome to come with us. We’d all love that, and there’s plenty of room.”
“Thank you anyway, but I’ll be staying right here in Chicago. This is my home, and I won’t be leaving it.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way. I wish you could be happy for me.”
“How can I when I see you setting up yourself—and Eric—for disaster? He’s married, Andrea. I’m deeply disappointed in you—and in him. I appreciated his kindness when Eric was sick, but it doesn’t change anything.”
Andi got up to walk to the door. “We’re leaving on the eighth of next month. I’ll help you move in with Auntie Lou before then, if that’s what you’d like.”
“That’s fine.”
Saddened, Andi went back to her room. The conversation had gone pretty much as she’d expected, but she had hoped her mother might’ve changed her mind about Jack—especially after everything he did for them when Eric was sick.
She knew that if his situation had been different, Betty would’ve been delighted to see her daughter with a man like him.
Just like Jack had said about Jill, it wasn’t personal.
But knowing that didn’t take the sting out of her mother’s words.
Before she called Jack, Andi decided to take a shower and try to get her emotions under control.
In Rhode Island, Jack faced a daunting task of his own.
He’d decided to pack up Clare’s things while he was alone in the house, which was eerily quiet with the girls away, Andi and Eric back in Chicago, and Frannie on her honeymoon.
Jack couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so alone, and it seemed like a good time to face the dreaded task.
Starting with Clare’s large walk-in closet, he folded her clothes and placed them in boxes. He made a separate pile of things he was certain the girls would never want, which he would donate. Working fast, he tried to think about anything other than what he was doing.
Once he’d finished with the hanging clothes, he moved to the closet shelf, packing away sweaters and purses. When he reached up to grab the next item, his hand hit a large envelope, hidden beneath a pile of sweaters.
He spilled the contents on the bed and froze when he realized he was looking at every card he’d ever given Clare—Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, birthdays, anniversaries, and all the silly notes he’d written her over the years.
Staring at the pile on the bed, he felt like he’d been gut punched. He opened one card, a Valentine, dated 1994, in which he’d written, “I love you today, I’ll love you tomorrow, I’ll love you forever.”
The magnitude of the loss roared through him as if it had only just happened.
He sat on the floor next to the bed as the sharp pain of it assailed him all over again.
He heard the phone ring and knew it would be Andi but couldn’t make himself move to get it.
Only the sound of the phone ringing a second time jogged him out of his stupor.
It was after ten, and he realized he’d been sitting there for almost an hour.
He reached for the phone. “Hello.”
“Jack? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Can I talk to you in the morning?”
“You’re scaring me. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine. I’ll call you in the morning.”
“All right. I love—”
Clicking off the phone, he lay awake all night next to the pile of paper on the other side of the bed.
He knew Andi would be worried about him but couldn’t bring himself to call her back.
Not yet. He just couldn’t believe Clare had kept everything, and the sheer size of the pile on the bed said volumes about the years they’d spent loving each other so completely.
He studied the small mountain of paper Clare had saved and let his thoughts wander again to the night he met her on Block Island.