Page 19 of Deserving Maisy
“Jack?” Maisy whispered.
Looking at her hand holding the pen, he saw it was shaking. Was she nervous? If so, about what?
“Usually the groom has the jittersbeforehe gets married,” Jason joked. “What, you regretting tying yourself to my sister again?” Then he laughed as if he’d said the funniest thing in the world.
If Jack hadn’t already been looking at Maisy, he would’ve missed the affect Jason’s barb had on her. She flinched, but it was a fleeting move. Her brother’s words obviously hurt more than she’d ever let on.
Jack moved before he thought about what he was doing. He took the pen from Maisy’s hand and leaned over the table, scribbling his name on the line above Maisy’s then slamming the pen down on the table. “I don’t regret anything about marrying Maisy. Now or the first time.”
“Right, of course you don’t. I’ll just go and get this framed for you,” Jason said, not seeming to care that Jack was pissed at him. He snatched up the piece of paper from the table, gesturing to his friend who’d performed the ceremony as he went.
The man’s eyes came up from where he was obviously checking out Maisy’s ass, and he smirked at Jack before following Jason to the door. The silence that filled the room after their departure seemed huge.
“Well,” Maisy said nervously, but she didn’t expound on what she was thinking.
“Hello, Mrs. Smith,” Jack said, pulling her close until she was plastered against his front. He looped his arms around her and held her gently against him.
Maisy looked up at him, but instead of happiness he saw apprehension in her eyes. Which was unacceptable. Damn her brother for making today anything less than joyous. “You hungry?” he asked.
At that, her lips twitched. “Starving.”
That was another thing, Jack didn’t think his wife ate enough. He hadn’t had many meals with her and her brother here in the dining room, but during the few that they’d shared, he hadn’t missed the disapproving looks Jason had given his sister while she’d been eating.
“I think Paige was going to make us a special breakfast,” she told Jack.
“You want to go somewhere?”
Maisy frowned. “Like, to a restaurant?” she asked in confusion.
“Yeah,Stellina. Like out to a restaurant. We haven’t been out since…you know, my accident. I thought maybe we could take a drive, talk, have a nice meal somewhere. You could tell me more about you. There’s so much I still want to know. It’ll be a good chance for me to court you all over again.”
“Like a date.”
“Exactly.” Jack didn’t like how shocked she seemed that he wanted to take her out.
“Okay. But we need to talk to Paige. She’s probably already started making brunch for us.”
That was one more thing Jack liked about his wife. She was very cognizant of others’ feelings. Didn’t like to put them out. Was very considerate. Every day, he learnedsomething new about her. She loved animals, wasn’t much of an outdoor girl, didn’t like seafood but for some reason could eat tuna from a can. She didn’t snore, but kind of snuffled in her sleep, and she didn’t sleep well unless she was plastered against his side. That last one, Jack loved more than he wanted to admit.
It felt…strange. Good, but odd. As if it was something new for him, someone sleeping at his side. Which was confusing since he was a married man, but then again, he’d apparently been living in Spokane while she’d been here in Seattle, so maybe it wasn’t so unusual after all. Every night when they went to sleep, she seemed hesitant to climb into bed with him, but after she fell asleep, she inevitably migrated over to his side and clung to him like she was drowning and he was her own personal flotation device. And Jack loved it. Loved the feel of her in his arms. Loved having her close.
“All right, let’s go find Paige, then we can get going. It sucks that my car was stolen while we were hiking. Piss-poor timing for sure. I need to get that replaced soon. I appreciate your brother renting one for us to use. You’ll have to drive though, as I haven’t replaced my driver’s license yet.”
“Um…shoot. I didn’t think about that. I, ah, don’t have a license.”
“You don’t have a driver’s license?”
She shook her head. “No. I wasn’t old enough when my parents died, and after, I didn’t have an interest. It was all I could do to get through every day. And considering they were carjacked, I had even less desire to get behind the wheel of a vehicle.”
Jack could understand that. Frustration pulled at him.He needed out of this house. He didn’t know why, but he felt like a prisoner here. Which sucked, because this was Maisy’s current home.
“Fuck it,” he muttered. “If I get pulled over, so be it. I’ll take the ticket for not having my license, but you’ll have to tell the cops who I am so I don’t get arrested.”
Jack was joking, but the stricken expression on Maisy’s face made him regret making light of the moment.
“We can stay here,” he quickly said.
“No! It’s fine. I’m sure you’re sick of the house. I trust you, Jack.”
