“I felt bad that your glasses were lost in the move.” Ryn smirked.
“And by lost you mean tossed.”
“I didn’t throw away your glasses. Anyway …” She grinned.
Jackson loved that grin, those freckles, and her eyes that lit up just for him and the miracle he held in his arms. But without a doubt … he knew she threw away his glasses.
Ryn opened the box and pulled out a shiny pair of black Clark Kent glasses.
“You can’t buy someone glasses as a gift. You don’t even know my prescription.”
“Pfft … drop the act. They were vanity glasses and we both know it. I looked through them … they weren’t prescription.”
“It was minor.”
Ryn slipped his new glasses onto his face. Then she cocked her head to the side, lips twisted. “They just don’t look the same without the tape.”
“If and I mean if in the most hypothetical sense … if my glasses were vanity glasses, then why would you buy me new ones?”
Ryn shrugged then leaned in to kiss Livy’s chubby cheek.
“Unless … the glasses are for you.”
She scoffed. “Why would the glasses be for me?”
“Because you like me to…” he pressed his fingers over Livy’s ears and whispered “…fuck you wearing nothing but those glasses.”
Even after nearly a year of marriage and the birth of their first child, he could still make her blush from nose to toes.
“And we’re one week from the day.”
Ryn cleared her throat. “The day?”
“I’ve noticed the past few days you’ve wandered into the bathroom, opening and closing drawers for nothing in particular, at the exact time that I’m showering. I’ve watched you ogle me.”
“Livy’s extra diaper supplies are in our bathroom and the ogling to which you are referring is me glaring at you because you get a shower. Since you went back to work two weeks ago I’ve had three showers.”
“Sorry, my new job is demanding.”
“You’re a computer geek and you work from home.”
Jackson shook his head. “You don’t even know what it is I do, and I would offer to help more but I don’t have boobs.”
“She doesn’t eat twenty-four hours a day.”
“Yes, but she fusses easily.”
“So?”
“So … I don’t like it when she’s upset with me.”
Ryn laughed. “She’s not upset with you. She’s a baby. Babies cry.”
“Because they want boobies.”
“Oh my God … let’s go.”
As if on cue, Livy started crying. The second Ryn took her and held her to her chest she stopped crying.
Jackson held the door open with one hand, diaper bag and carrier in his other hand. Ryn narrowed her eyes as she walked past him. “Boobies,” he mouthed.
“Shut it,” she whispered.
He let the door close behind him and just stood there for a few extra seconds, watching Ryn toss a blanket over Livy on the way to the car. With a long sigh, he looked up at the bright clearing in the late afternoon sky. Beyond all certainty he knew there was a God, one who didn’t keep score. One who, in spite of all the lives Jackson had taken, still found him deserving of everything.
*
He loved her. No … he adored her. That was the only explanation for Luke leaning against the door of the GTO when Jessica arrived home.
“We’re not having sex in my GTO.”
She smirked. “And yet … here you are.”
“I just came down here to tell you that.” He stood with his back straight, arms crossed over his chest.
“Today was my last day with Dr. Harper.”
“I know.”
“Did you also know that last week my pussy doctor gave me the green light to get pregnant?”
“I know that Dr. Brannon is an OB-GYN, not a ‘pussy doctor.’”
“Says the shrink.” She curled her fingers into his front jeans pockets.
“How can we have a baby if you think marrying me is bad karma since Lake’s accident?”
Jessica knew it bothered Luke that they weren’t married yet. She wore the ring but they never set a date. Too many plans in her life had taken a turn for the worst. No plans with Luke. Just one day at a time.
“You went to medical school, yet you don’t know how to make a baby?”
“You know what I mean.”
“I do. I also know that my parents married before my mom had me and Jackson and their life together—although filled with moments of happiness—was tragic. Then there is the story of Tom and Felicity Jones. Now, I do believe you were at that wedding and how are they doing this many years later?”
“We are us. Do you get that?”
Jessica nodded and held up her hand to show him her ring. “One day at a time. We’ll get there. But right now I want a Livy. Jackson is terrible about sharing.”
She could see him, feel him thinking. Luke’s mind was incessant and logical, but with her his thoughts were visceral.
“Don’t overthink this, Jones. Get your ass in the back of the car.”