Page 98 of Jake Forever
I turned to him and asked, "Don't what?"
"Don't throw yourself off."
I don't know why, but it made me laugh. A nervous reflex? Maybe. "I wasn't planning on it," I told him.
"Good." His tone grew teasing. "It's a long way down."
I glanced past the balcony rails. Itwasa long way down. Or, if I wanted to look on the bright side, we were a long way up.
Glass half full, right?
"And," Jake continued, wrapping his arms around me once again. "Ifyouwent? I'd have to throw myself after you."
"Oh stop it," I teased. "You wouldn't."
"Good thing is, we're not gonna find out." He squeezed me tighter and said, "Tomorrow, we're gonna wake up, put all this stuff behind us."
There were other things I wanted to talk about – especially the thing with my car. I needed to know who, exactly, had paid for it. But if I brought that up now, I'd have to bring up Rango, and suddenly, I just didn't have the energy.
I sagged against him, deciding I'd leave that, at least, for tomorrow. We could ponder it then, under the start of a fresh new day.
The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. A fresh start, with no fights and no drama. It all sounded so nice.
And it would've been nice – except, as I should've anticipated, it didn’t exactly happen that way.
