Page 83 of She Wolf

“Yeah,” Jack shrugs. “Gunner, can you put my theme song on please.”

Gunner obviously can’t help himself and stares me straight in the eye for a few seconds, completely floored by Jack.

“One order of ‘High Hopes’ coming right up.” He pushes a few buttons and soon Panic! At the Disco fills the truck.

Chapter Eighteen

Gunner

Washington DC is far more structured, sightseeing-wise, and the longest stop on the trip due to the amount of stuff to do that doesn’t revolve around food.

Like any international capital, there’s a lot to cram in so we’re far more organized. The monuments are open twenty-four hours a day and Coralie thinks it might be nice to see some of them at night.

We were able to book four of the suites at the Four Seasons and Coralie, Jack and I are in the Capitol Suite as it boasts a terrace, which means more room for Jack. As it’s late afternoon, we’ve agreed to eat in the hotel this evening. Apparently, there's a really good steak house—Bourbon Steak—and tonight they are holding a patio cookout that we’ve managed to bag seats for.

As of right now though, Jack only has one thing on his mind,

“Gunner? Oh hey. So, when I went shopping with Gramma, I saw these swim trunks I wanted. Gramma said she needed to quickly get Gramps something from the men’s section and when we were there, I found these! I told her you needed some too. She said she wasn’t sure if they’d fit you, but I said you were bigger than Casey— so to get the same size as she would get Uncle Jason!”

“Oh wow,” I say when he finally hands me a pair of light blue trunks with navy crabs printed on them— exactly the same as the ones he’s sporting right now.

“Thank you so much, just wait for me to change, then I’ll take you down to the pool, okay? Your mom just went to get her massage with the girls.”

“Okay,” he smiles so wide at me, it hurts my heart a little. I grab the trunks from him and head to the bathroom to change unable to keep the smile off my face.

“Gunner, what number was Casey’s room again? Oh, never mind,” comes from outside the bathroom door. And then just as I drop my trousers I hear his little voice. “Yes hello, my name is Jack, can you put through to my Uncle Casey Madden’s room, please?...Okay thank you...Hey Casey are you coming to the pool? …Okay see ya.”

I chuckle to myself at Jack’s shenanigans.

As we enter the health club—Jack and I in our matching trunks—I let Jack check us in with a wink to Doug, the guy behind the desk. He tells them which suites we’re in and that we want to play in the pool. Doug offers us white fluffy towels that we hook around our necks and then move through the double doors and into the humid pool area.

Three older ladies are slowly doing circuits in the roped-off lap pool, heads held high out of the water as they casually chat to one another.

“Hey, kiddo let’s have a chill out in here,” Casey says making his way over to the smaller, warmer pool. It’s empty and a perfect place to wait for either our girls to finish in the spa or these women to finish theirlaps.

It’s not that Jack would misbehave; he’s just a little splashy and they seem really intent on keeping their hair dry.

Stepping into the heated water I get a playoff flashback of me, and Callan sitting in the bubbling hot water and have to shake it away. It’s big enough that Casey and I aren’t squashed together and now Jack has our undivided attention he goes in for the kill.

“Uncle Casey?”

“Yeah Jack?” Jack stands in the middle of the tiny pool, the water coming nearly to his shoulders.

“I know I’ve seen you loads since I moved into the little house, but I see Gunner more and I was thinking that you might miss me.”

Casey nods his head, and I can’t help but smile. “I really do, you’re right about that.”

Jack puts his wet hand on Casey’s rounded shoulder.

“Just because Mom and Gunner are boyfriend and girlfriend doesn’t mean you aren’t still super special to me.”

Casey blinks at him a few times. “I didn’t think so but it sure is nice to hear you say that.”

Jack nods his head. “It used to be just us, right?”

“It did, but then Knox came to stay, and then Pixie. And Gunner stopped being a scaredy cat and asked your mom out. I think everything is exactly how it should be now.”

Jack nods agreeing with Casey’s assessment.

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