Page 61 of I Found You
I ordered an iced coffee—and two pieces of lemon blueberry crumble cake to go—and tried to get a conversation started on neutral ground.
“I didn’t realize you were going to be here today. How did you get here? Is your truck working?” I asked Jackson.
“Yeah. I mean, Mom asked me if I could come grab a coffee with you two. But no, the truck’s still not running. Mom picked me up.”
“I met your boyfriend too. He’s handsome as can be. Good for you,” Josie said.
“She picked me up from the garage,” Jackson added unnecessarily.
“He’s not my boyfriend. He’s just a… friend.”
Jackson gave me a side-eye look, and Josie let out a laugh.
“Well, I’m not sure what the kids are calling it nowadays, but he introduced himself as your boyfriend, so if he’s not, you might want to let him know that.”
I could feel the blush creeping up my face. Wyatt and I hadn’t talked about titles or labels. It was a known fact thathe’d never had a girlfriend. We talked all the time. And we’d both been honest about how we felt about each other. Well, maybe I downplayed it a bit so as to not scare him off. But were we official now?
Josie moved on to a new topic, saving me from examining her words for now. We talked for nearly two hours, and once the original awkwardness had passed, it was actually really nice. I wasn’t counting any chickens just yet, but I was pleasantly surprised every time I saw her and she continued to be sober and clean. Jackson was another story. I could see him falling into her orbit. I wanted to believe in her, I did. But she had let me down too many times. I just hoped that she wouldn’t show Jackson what that type of pain felt like.
I had to get Jane from daycare by five o’clock, so we said goodbye to Josie, and Jackson hitched a ride with me.
“So,” I started, glancing at him from the corner of my eye.
“So.”
“Do you want to talk about Josie or Trey?”
“Neither.” He sounded like I asked if he wanted to stick a fork in a socket or rip his fingernail off.
“Josie it is, then,” I said, feigning positivity. “What are you thinking?”
“I don’t know. She looks good, I guess.”
“She does.”
“She’s looking for an apartment in town, so that’s kinda cool.”
“Sure,” I hedged.
“You have to give her a chance, Mae. She’s really trying.”
“I know. I am giving her a chance.”
We drove in silence for a minute.
“She’s pretty funny. I can’t believe she remembered somestupid story I made up when I was like four.”
“Well, the diaper king was a very memorable hero,” I smiled at him.
After picking Jane up from her first successful day and dropping Jackson back off at the garage, I went inside to say hello to Wyatt, but I couldn’t find him. I sent him a quick text to let him know I’d stopped by and headed home.
His truck was parked outside my house when I turned onto my street. I pulled into the driveway, and before I had a chance to unbuckle my seat belt, he was already at my door.
“Did you tell Josie that you were my boyfriend?” I asked as he helped me out of the car.
He closed the door behind me, answering in a single word. “Yes.”
“Why?”
