Page 14 of Reuniting with Lucy

“Thanks, Curtis,” Lucy said. “I know you would have helped.”

Jack ignored them and returned to his seat. He was fairly certain Lucy’s fiancé ordered the same type of prissy coffee that other guy had, and having inadvertently insulted him made him feel a little better. Petty? Perhaps, but oh well. What kind of man doesn’t stand up for his woman?

“Fancy way of admitting you’re a virgin…Good one, Jack,” Gene said, still chuckling. “Mind if I use that sometime?”

Jack snuck a glance at Lucy. She was staring at him and mouthed, “Thanks,” before turning back to Curtis. His heart warmed a little.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Jack finished work for the day, locked up the trailer slash office, and was walking to his pickup when his cell phone rang. After checking caller ID, he reluctantly answered. If he didn’t, she’d just keep calling.

“Hey, Mom,” he said, throwing his bag onto the passenger seat and climbing into the truck.

“Honey, I’m glad I got a hold of you. How’s New Bern?”

“It’s great. What’s up?” Jack loved his mother dearly, but her constant meddling in his life was one reason he’d left Wilmington. Well, one of many. He stuck the phone between his shoulder and ear and started the engine.

“Not much. Dad wanted me to find out if you plan to come back for the annual meeting. It’s next month. Also, your birthday’s coming up. Do you have plans?”

“Mom, I’m thirty-three years old. I don’t really celebrate anymore.” He turned onto the main road.

“That’s ridiculous. It doesn’t matter how old you are, you should always celebrate. We could come to New Bern and take you to dinner.”

“Let’s play that by ear. It’s still a ways out. Things are pretty busy here, so you can tell Dad I can’t make the meeting.” Jack’s father owned and ran a multimillion-dollar hotel chain and had been after Jack and his brother to start the process of taking over for some time now. That was another reason he’d bailed on Wilmington. He wasn’t ready to make that transition yet. If ever.

Jack earned his MBA, intending to work with his dad, but after only a few months in the stuffy corporate environment, he knew he wasn’t cut out for office life.

After a long talk with his father, he’d been put in charge of overseeing the building of new hotels and renovations of the old ones. He’d jumped in with both feet, learned the construction trade from the very best, and now had the knowledge, experience, and license to call himself a contractor.

Once his marriage fell apart, he traveled the country, helping build and renovate hotels for the company. Watching something go from a pile of dirt to a magnificent hotel was a satisfying rush he’d never get from a corner office. Suits, ties, and weekly meetings weren’t his thing, which explained his reluctance to take over.

When Spencer, his old college roommate, called to ask for help, Jack jumped at the chance. It was not only an excuse to get out of Wilmington for a while, but an opportunity to take some time to think about his life and what he wanted to do with it. Between his father pressuring him to take over the business and his mother pressuring him to marry again and have kids, he’d grabbed onto the New Bern project like a drowning man would a life vest. He just needed a little more time to figure things out.

Seeing Lucy Parker again had thrown a major wrench into everything. There was a flash in time when he thought she was the one. In the space of a heartbeat, he’d felt something intense and rare. He was pretty sure she’d felt it too, which was why it was so hard to understand why she’d been kissing someone else that night. Why it had cut him so deeply. He burned through a lot of women after that painful night. One after the other doing something to make him doubt that true love really existed.

And now, after ten years, he finds out it was all a misunderstanding. That he’d blown it by not following up with her. That he was paying the price for his stubbornness and immaturity.

Well, he had enough on his plate without worrying about something he couldn’t do anything about. He asked for a second chance, and she’d shut him down. Not much he could do about it now.

He said goodbye to his mother and pocketed the phone as he parked and headed into the gym. It had been several days since he’d had a workout, and he wasn’t used to missing so many. He adhered to a strict workout regimen and got crabby when he didn’t stick to it. It had taken him a few days to move and settle in New Bern and another to find a gym worth joining. This one was near his place and had a ton of free weights. It didn’t seem too crowded, was clean, and had a sauna. It would do for the time he was here.

Midway through his second set of curls, he saw two guys approach another kid working out on a bench near him. All three looked to be in their late teens, and Jack got the feeling that maybe they went to school together.

One of the two was giving the teen on the bench a hard time and basically being a douchebag. The kid ignored him, but that only made the jerk amp up the douchebaggery. This was the second time today he’d witnessed someone picking on somebody. Had he moved to a town full of assholes?

“You just lifting the bar?” a tall, muscular teen said. “You know most people put weights on the end?” The kid was handsome and knew it, but obviously had a confidence problem. Why else would he pick on someone smaller than him? After a few more jabs, Jack walked over to the group and put himself between the lone teen and the bullies.

“Hey, champ,” Jack said to the skinny kid on the bench. “How’s the cancer treatment going? Been fighting it for a year now, huh?”

The bully’s eyes widened. “He has cancer?” he asked. His friend hadn’t said anything in the first place but now looked thoroughly chagrined.

“I have no idea,” Jack said, turning to the bully. “But neither do you. You don’t know anything about him, yet here you stand, judging him.”

“He’s not sick,” the boy stammered defensively. “He’s just weak.”

“Maybe, maybe not. Does it matter? He’s here trying to work out, just like the rest of us. Why don’t you take your tea party somewhere else? My friend and I have work to do.”

“Fine,” the bully said. “We were leaving anyway.” He stalked off, assuming his buddy would follow, but the friend stayed behind to apologize.

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