Page 31 of Jack

Chapter 19

Ava

I shot another glance at Jack as we pulled into the parking lot of Sam’s Diner, a place to get good, cheap breakfast in town. We already went to the auto parts store and picked up a new tire. I had no idea what to expect from him. One minute he was practically kicking me out of his house, the next he was buying me a new tire and breakfast.

Last night was one of the most incredible nights of my life. Even if this thing with Jack crashed like a derailed train, I would have a hard time regretting last night. It wasn’t just the sex, though that was mind-blowing. Jack, perhaps inadvertently, showed me parts of himself that were sincere and complicated. It galled me to admit how offended and hurt I was this morning when he tried to rush me out the door, how it exposed the feelings I was developing for him.

When we got out of the car and entered the restaurant, I was surprised to feel Jack’s hand at my back. It was early enough that we found a booth fairly easy. We put in our order and sipped our coffee as we regarded each other with mutual wariness.

“You seemed to know a lot about tires, like what all different types are, and stuff.”

Jack nodded and took a sip of his coffee. “Yeah, I love cars. I’ve been working on them since I was a kid.”

I looked at him in astonishment. “Really? How did you learn about cars? Your father?”

Jack threw back his head and let out a shout of laughter. “My father? Fuck no. He wouldn’t know a tire iron from a curling iron.” Jack shook his head, still chuckling to himself. “There was a guy, Buck, who used to come out and service our cars when I was young. When I was ten, my dad bought a ‘69 Nova Super Sport that needed to be maintained more often than the other cars. My dad bought it because he heard it was a good investment that would appreciate, but it needed some work. Buck worked on it on the weekends, and I would help him.”

I stared at him for a moment, digesting this unexpected piece of his personality. “Do you still see Buck?”

Jack nodded. “Yeah, I help him out sometimes when his garage gets busy. He had daughters, so he sees me as a stand in for a son, always talking about leaving the business to me.” Jack grinned indulgently, like he was humoring Buck, but I could tell the relationship was important to him.

“Do you–”

“Hey, Jack!”

I jerked my head to the right and found a cute, blonde standing there grinning from ear to ear.

“Hey, Casey,” Jack replied kindly, if unenthusiastically.

Her gaze darted to me as she waited to be introduced. Jack sighed. “Casey, this is Ava. I’m not sure if you’ve seen each other in school. Ava, Casey.”

“Hi, Casey, nice to meet you.”

Her smile dimmed slightly, and she looked over her shoulder. “Hey, Ava, nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot of nice things about you.”

I felt my eyebrows leap into my hairline. I hadn’t realized I’d done anything to merit being topic of anyone’s conversation. “Oh, well, thanks.”

She nodded her head, smile still intact, and looked over her shoulder again. “Well, I shou–”

“Hey, Case, someone spiked Ava’s tire with a screwdriver last night. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

Casey eyes widened. “No, oh my god, Ava, that’s terrible. I’m so sorry,” she said, reaching out to pat my hand consolingly.

Jack stared at her with eyes like green laser beams. “Do you know where Shelby was last night?”

“Oh, Shelby? She was with me last night. We had a sleepover. Jack, you can’t think Shelby had anything to do with Ava’s tire.”

“I can’t?”

Casey sighed, her shoulders slumping slightly. “Look, Jack, I know Shelby’s a handful, but she’s not, like…violent.” Casey grimaced as she said this, as though she wasn’t completely convinced of her own words. “And I was with her the whole night. We got drunk and passed out, so there’s no way she could have done this.”

Jack appeared to be buying none of this. I guess his opinion of the guilty party had definitively shifted from my ex to his ex. “Uh huh. Okay, Casey, well if you see her, feel free to pass on a little message. If anything else happens to Ava, or anything that belongs to Ava, she’s going to hear from me, and I guarantee she won’t like it.”

Casey gulped and nodded her head spasmodically. “Okay, Jack, I’ll tell her, but I swear it wasn’t her.”

“Right. Bye, Casey.” Jack’s dismissal coincided with the delivery of our food, his attention swiftly moving from Casey to the four-egg omelet he’d ordered.

Casey looked so uncomfortable I felt sorry for her. “Right, bye guys. It was nice meeting you, Ava,” she said nodding her head in my direction.

---