Page 81 of Love on Deck

“You’re giving me less reason to feel sorry for your childhood, you know.”

Jack’s gaze shifted to me. “I never wanted you to feel sorry for me. My childhood was amazing.”

My heart tweaked at that. I could see how it was, and being around his family, witnessing their genuine warmth for one another, was really a beautiful thing to behold. “Then what happened to make you want to leave all of this?”

“My ego was too big? The bubble that is small towns felt stifling. It can be claustrophobic.”

My eyes swept over the large, open sky and the quiet street on the other side of the trees. Houses dotted the road that ran perpendicular to the buildings and ended at an elementary school or daycare down on the end—something with a playground. But claustrophobic? It felt far from that. Inhaling the crisp, fresh air, I faced him again. “I have a hard time seeing anything negative about this place.”

“Just wait until you break up with your high school girlfriend and it makes front page news.”

“Maybe the issue is less that the town is nosy and more that you needed to learn how to set boundaries.”

Jack dipped his head, holding my gaze. “Don’t get all philosophical now. I was trying to bare my soul to you. You’re supposed to be impressed or want to soothe my inner child. Either of them work for me.”

He was deflecting. “You know I’m right, Jack.”

“If I tell you you’re right, will you come over here?”

“Depends on what’ll happen to me when I do.”

He lowered his voice. “I think you’ll like it.”

My pride hummed softly. “I am right.”

“Yes, you are.” He reached for me.

I stepped to the side. “You don’t actually mean that.”

“Of course I do.” He reached for me again.

I stepped back again until my feet bumped into the bottom step of the porch.

Jack lunged for my arm, pulling me back before I could climb the steps. “Don’t!”

I landed in his arms. “What the heck?”

“It’s not safe. The entire porch is rotten, so you could fall through at any point.”

“Yeah right. You just wanted to rescue me so I’d feel beholden to you.”

His arms tightened. “Did it work?”

“Kind of.”

Jack shifted so his hand was free, and he pushed my hair behind my ear. “You look pretty today.”

“I’m in an old sweatshirt and jeans. The same ones I wore yesterday.”

“My compliment stands.”

It was hard not to reciprocate his smile in kind. He was a charmer, but his eyes were steady and green and sincere.

He twisted a lock of my hair around his finger, his face hovering just over mine. “Do you want to go around to the back entrance? It’s safer over there and I can give you a mini-tour of the house.”

“Yes.” I was eager to see the interior. The exterior was obviously deteriorating, but the house still had a romantic quality to it. Or maybe that was just the warmth buzzing through me, putting romance-colored glasses over my perception.

“Okay. But first...” Jack leaned down, pulling me flush against him, when his pocket started buzzing. He pulled it out and released me to answer, his voice tight. “Hey, Tuck. What’s up?”

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