Page 24 of Against the Current

Jackie hated how black her heart felt.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. “Honey? Are you in here?”

Josh poked his head inside and gave her a half smile that evoked his relief at having found her. “There you are. I wondered what happened.”

Jackie turned to block the small window. She didn’t want Josh to know she’d been spying on Ryan. “I just needed some space.”

Josh remained in the doorway, seeming uncertain if that meant he wasn’t wanted. But the look on his face melted Jackie’s heart just a tad. Josh noticed and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. He sat on the edge of her bed. “Come over here.”

Jackie joined him. Together, they lay on her childhood bed, listening to the murmur of hundreds down below. Everybody had a wonderful story to share about Jackie’s father. Jackie had had enough. She wanted to grieve in peace.

“Mom is loving this,” Jackie muttered.

“She’s grieving,” Josh reminded her. “Everybody does it in their own way.”

“She loves all the attention,” Jackie said darkly.

Josh wrapped his hand around the back of her head and kissed her cheek. Jackie knew she was being outrageous and acting like a child. But she didn’t know how to react to this properly. She could make sandwiches. She could take showers. She could get places on time (unlike Trisha). But she couldn’t feel positive about any of it.

“I think it’s helping your mother to have so many friends and family around,” Josh said quietly.

Jackie groaned. Why did he have to be so good-hearted all the time?

“I know you’re right.” Jackie propped her head up with her elbow and studied Josh’s features. His eyebrows were thicker and curlier than she remembered. She wondered when that had changed. How many hundreds of times a day did she look at his face? Still, there were things to learn about it.

“I love you, you know.” She sounded defiant and broken at the same time.

“I love you more than anything and anyone,” he said. “We’re going to get through this.” He pressed his lips together, pondering something, then added, “And we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure Ryan’s wife feels all right with us.”

The aura of dominance in Josh’s words surprised Jackie.

Jackie wanted to protest. She wanted to say that she didn’t have time for that girl right now.

But she knew Josh was right.

He went on before he dropped the subject altogether. “I love your mother dearly. But she’s given that girl nothing but misery. If we love Ryan, we have to step in.”

Jackie steeled herself. She had to help.

“I just hope too much damage hasn’t already been done,” Josh added.

A few minutes later, Jackie managed to pick herself up and return to the wake, where she was accosted by a great-aunt who wanted to talk her ear off about her stock portfolio and her eighteen-year-old tabby cat. Jackie scanned the crowd, pretending to listen, looking for Ryan and Trisha. Maybe they were hiding out somewhere, avoiding the Suttons. The look of awe on their faces had reminded her of something she couldn’t quite name. Was it a joy she could no longer fathom?

As the wake cleared out, Jackie’s mother cornered her in the kitchen. She held a glass of white wine and spoke eloquently, like the queen of England minus the accent.

“I think I’ve made my stance known to Ryan,” she said.

Jackie snorted. Maybe she’d had one too many glasses of wine.

“Do you have something to say, Jacqueline?”

“Ryan knows your stance, Mom. You aren’t vague.”

Dana’s eyes glinted murderously. “Perhaps I’d better mention to him that the will is now completely in my name. His grandfather’s generosity died along with him. Everything is up to me now.”

Jackie lost her breath. Would her mother really remove Ryan from the Sutton will? Would she pull the rug out from under his life like that?

Would she do that to Jackie and Josh, too?

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