Page 67 of Promise of a New Beginning
He heard the hope in her voice that he’d come to love, and he knew the answer to the question he’d asked himself earlier. He had no interest in driving back to Bedford Corners when Savannah was right here in the city.
“I’ll be here when you get home for as many days as you’d like me to be.” He walked into her bedroom and began taking his clothes from his backpack.
“I’m a needy girl, Jack. I never used to be. In fact, I’ve never wanted any man to stay overnight at all. But with you, I want nothing more. So let me know if I smother you.”
“Impossible.” The word flew from his lips.
Chapter Thirty-Six
JACK LOVED SHOWERING in Savannah’s bathroom. Her sweet scent was everywhere. The steam in the shower held the coconut aroma of her shampoo, and when he stepped from the shower, the clean towels smelled like her linens and clothing. As he brushed his teeth, he picked up her perfume bottle and was reminded of their first kiss. The night everything about her became ingrained in his senses.
He rinsed and dried his toothbrush, and as he was putting it back in his toiletry bag, he stopped and instead put it in the toothbrush holder beside hers. For a moment he stood and stared at the plastic handles.How could two three-dollar toothbrushes hold so much meaning?He didn’t want Savannah to feel as though he’d overstepped his bounds, though he assumed she wouldn’t feel that way after the things she’d said to him and having given him a key. Just in case, he tucked the rest of his toiletries in the bag and zipped it up, then put it back in his backpack.
Ten minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and Jack felt a rush of happiness. He opened the door and found his mother and Siena on the other side.
“Two beautiful women? I am a lucky guy.” He hugged them both as they came into the apartment.
“You didn’t think I’d let you guys go shopping without me, did you?” Siena breezed past him in her jeans, T-shirt, and very fashionable cropped jacket. She scanned every inch of the living room. “Or that I’d pass up the opportunity to see who’s rocked my big brother’s world?” In the next breath, she zeroed in on the photograph that Jack had only just discovered.
“She called when I was on my way over. I hope you don’t mind.” His mother’s hair was pulled off her face with a large leather clip. She wore dangling green earrings and a flowing white blouse atop a pair of linen pants and looked as stylishly casual as she always had. In each of Jack’s memories of his mother, she was smiling. Siena got her natural beauty from their mother, though their mother put more effort into her children and her art than she did her looks. Sage was blessed with their mother’s artistic talent. As Jack looked at his mother, who was trying hard not to nose around Savannah’s apartment, he was thankful for the loving and stable home she’d given them, and while his father may have been too harsh at times, his mother had probably been too soft. His parents complemented each other well. Even with the trouble he and his father were currently experiencing, Jack had to admit that his father’s strength was what made him a strong man to begin with—and his mother’s gentleness was what allowed him to love so deeply.
“Jack, is this Savannah?” Siena held up the picture frame. “She is gorgeous.”
“That’s her and her brothers,” he said.
“Do you mind if I take a look?” his mother asked before reaching for the picture.
She was always so considerate, and it struck Jack how she and Savannah were alike in that way. “Not at all, Mom. Go ahead.”
“What a lovely family. Look, Siena, she has a big family like ours.”
“They’re really close,” he said.
His mother set the picture down on the shelves and patted his hand. “We will be again, too.”
“I’M NOT SURE why I’m even here,” Jack teased. They’d gone to three different clothing stores, and Siena and his mother wouldn’t let him buy anything he picked out. Jack held up a white dress shirt.
Siena scrunched her face. “You’re not an old man, Jack.”
“I’m thirty-seven. That’s pretty old,” he said.
“When you get to sixty-seven, then you can say you’re old. Until then, you’re approaching middle age.” His mother winked.
Siena pulled out a black dress shirt with white embellishments. Something Jack could see Dex wearing. Her eyes lit up as she showed it to him. “Now, this is cool, Jack. You’d look so hot in it. Try it on.”
Jack shook his head. “I’m not twenty-five, Siena. I’d look ridiculous.”
“He’s right. That’d be good for Dexy but not Jack.” His mother sifted through the fitted shirts and came away with one that was light blue and another that was dark blue. She held them against Jack’s chest. “Siena?”
Siena turned around and her eyes grew wide. “Oh, perfect. Either one. He has those magnificent dark blue eyes, so he could wear the dark one with a light tie, or go light and spruce that one up with a dark tie, or a Jerry Garcia tie. Those are always fun.”
Jack shook his head, enjoying every second of his mother’s and sister’s smothering and realizing how much he’d missed it.
With shirts, slacks, belts, and even boxers purchased, because his mother insisted,When you turn over a new leaf in life, you should have new things to solidify the path, they headed back out to find a restaurant for lunch.
Jack was enjoying spending time with Siena again. Her energy was contagious, and she appeared oblivious to the gawks from men they passed on the street. Jack found himself walking closer to her just to keep the ogling to a minimum.
“Why are you practically on top of me?” she asked as they entered a little café and waited to be seated.
