Page 43 of Justice for Aleta

“It’s an anniversary dinner!”

She frowned.

“You know,” he tried again. “Come on. You haven’t forgotten. I know you haven’t.”

A look of utter disgust crossed her face. “Jack, you can’t be serious.”

“What? Don’t you want to celebrate?”

Aleta’s eyes went wide and her lower lip trembled. “Celebrate? I hardly think it’s something to celebrate!”

Jack was confused. “I thought you’d be happy that I thought of it and went to all this trouble.”

“Happy? You thought I’d behappy? What kind of monster are you?” Aleta threw her napkin down and ran from the room.

By the time Jack caught up to her in the bedroom, she was sobbing. It wasn’t making sense. Why was she so upset? “Babe, I thought it would be nice to do something like this. Why are you upset? I don’t get it, Aleta. I went to a lot of trouble because I love you and I thought you’d?”

“You’re joking, right?” she bellowed. “Why in the world would I want to celebrate the day my baby died?”

Oh my god, what the hell is today’s date?Jack ran through everything, that day’s date, the length of time since the accident, and the accident date…

It had been five months to the day. He hadn’t made the connection, but it was obvious she had, and that didn’t surprise him at all. It was more surprising to him that he’d been so careless. “Oh, god, no, Aleta! Last week! We had our first kiss a week ago! No, no, no, baby. I’dneverplan a celebration for that! I’m so sorry! I didn’t even realize! Please, babe, forgive me? I didn’t mean to upset you. I was trying to do something nice to let you know I was thinking about the last week. It wasn’t about anything else, I promise! Oh, shit, I feel like such an ass…” Jack couldn’t believe what he’d done, and he didn’t blame her for being upset.

“One week since our first kiss?” Aleta asked in a hiccupping sob.

“Yeah. One week exactly. I wanted to celebrate it. God, babe, I didn’t look at the calendar. I wasn’t thinking about that at all. OfcourseI wouldn’t celebrate Joshua and Jorie’s deaths. No, that was a horrible day for you, and for me too because I love you. I’m so, so sorry, baby. So sorry. I?”

“It’s okay, Jack, really. I’m sorry I had such a come-apart. But I’ve been thinking about it all day, and I’d managed to forget for a little while by having some fun at the boutique, and then I came here and everything was so beautiful, and I thought you were going to say you’d done it because it was a hard day for me, but when you said celebrate… I couldn’t…”

Jack took her in his arms and held her tight as she whimpered against his neck. “Babe, I’d never intentionally hurt you that way. I’m not going in to the post so I’m not looking at a calendar, and I hadn’t even thought about the date. But that’s no excuse. It was really, really insensitive of me, and?”

“No.” She pulled back and took his face in her hands. “It’s really sweet. Really. And I’m sorry it hit me so wrong. You went to a lot of trouble, and it’s wonderful, really. Thank you. Thank you so much for remembering and for wanting to do something nice for me. I want to start again. I want to go back in there and have fun, okay? I need that. I need you.”

Jack pulled her up against him again and held her tight. God, he loved her so much. How was that possible in such a short time? Didn’t matter. It was real. Her arms wound around his neck and her cheek rested on his shoulder. “I love you, Aleta. I was so excited to do this for you. And I’m sorry that?”

“I’m excited that you did it for me,” she said, her voice muffled by his shirt. “It’s beautiful, and it’s so sweet. Let’s go back in there, okay? Those little hens are really cute. I bet they’re delicious.”

“Probably a little cold now,” Jack said, hugging her tighter.

“Doesn’t matter. They’ll still taste good. And I bet you made some kind of crazy-good dessert too, didn’t you?”

He had to laugh. It had been a week, and yet she seemed to know him so well. “Yeah. Lemon chiffon cake. But I’ll confess, I didn’t bake it. I bought it. I had a recipe, but I looked at it and decided that was waaaay above my pay grade.”

Aleta leaned back and laughed loudly. “Above your pay grade! Jack Fletcher, I really believe you can do anything you set your mind to!”

“I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m flattered you’d think so. Come on. Let’s go carve into some tiny chickens, shall we?” Taking her hand, he led her back to the dining room and helped her into her chair.

They were celebrating one week since their first kiss. No matter what else had happened on that date, he’d always remember it that way. It was the day his life began.

* * *

The sightof her above him was almost more than he could stand. He watched as she let herself down on his hardness over and over, her back arched and tits bouncing, and reached down to stroke her clit as she rode him, listening to her moan as he drove her wild. Her hips bucked, her back bowed, and she threw her head back and wailed.

And the phone rang.

“Oh, shit,” Jack muttered as he reached for the phone.

“Don’t, Jack,” Aleta warned, dropping onto his chest.

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