Page 12 of Deserving Maisy
Jack stared down at her. “Seriously? All I have is this T-shirt and one pair of underwear?”
She giggled nervously. “No, of course not. And Jason is getting you more stuff today.”
Jack carefully mulled over everything he’d just learned. Everything sounded so bizarre. But he couldn’t put his finger on why; plenty of married couples separated these days. Regardless, he felt off-kilter and confused.
Maybe because it almost sounded like Maisy was making things up as she went along. He was fairly certain she was lying through her teeth, but since he didn’t remember anything about her, he couldn’t say for sure. Nor did he have any idea why she might lie to him. “So, I have no clothes, no belongings, nothing.”
“You have me,” Maisy said quietly but firmly. “And I’m going to do everything I can to make sure we’re okay from here on out.”
Her words sounded sincere and almost desperate.
“I have a feeling I don’t deserve you,” Jack said.
To his surprise, she looked sad at his words. “You don’t,” she replied. And she didn’t give him a chance to reply. “Now, are we gonna get up or what? Paige is gonna be upset if we don’t get downstairs in time for breakfast.”
“In time?” Jack asked.
Maisy shrugged. “My brother likes to eat at certain times.”
Jack wanted to know more about Jason. Hell, he wanted to know everything about his wife and her family. He hadn’t moved from his position over her, nor did he feel any great need to shift away. Despite his misgivings, he liked being this close to her. Liked the way her fingersunconsciously rubbed his arm. “Tell me more about yourself,Stellina.”
“Um, what do you want to know?”
“Everything.”
She giggled nervously once more. “I’m not that interesting.”
“I highly doubt that. Tell me about your family.”
Her smile faded. “My parents died when I was a teenager. Carjacking. They were both shot and killed. Jason moved back home to look after me. You might remember him saying yesterday that I don’t do well with stress. I was kind of out of it for a while, couldn’t function well without medicine to keep me from freaking out all the time. I dropped out of school, got my GED…and here I am.”
“I’m so sorry about your parents, Maisy. How did we meet?”
It was a simple question, but she looked like a deer in headlights. “Um…online.”
“Online? Don’t tell me I was on a dating site,” Jack said with a laugh.
But she didn’t crack a smile. “No, um, a friend of my brother’s set us up. We talked for a while online, then we met, and that was that.”
As far as explanations went, it was extremely lacking, but because she looked so tense and stressed, Jack let it drop. He supposed it wasn’t important. They’d met, fallen in love, then got married. “What’s the plan for this weekend?” he asked.
She relaxed under him, proving that it was a good idea to stop asking about their courtship.
“I don’t know the details. Jason said he’d take care of it.”
“Right. Well, I can’t say I’m thrilled that I got hurt, or that my apartment complex burned down, but Icansay that I’m thankful for a second chance with you. I promise I’ll do whatever I can to make our marriage work. But I need you to talk to me. If I do something you don’t like, tell me so we can work it out. I don’t want to get to the point of another separation. Okay?”
Instead of answering, she pinched his upper arm.
“Ow,” Jack complained, even though it hadn’t hurt. “What was that for?”
“Just making sure you’re real and not a dream,” she told him. “Men don’t say things like that. They don’t like to talk.”
“I do. I mean, I think I do,” Jack told her. “If it means you don’t want to move out of my house, my bed, my life, I definitely do.”
Maisy brought a hand up and cradled his cheek. “I’m going to make this right.”
It sounded like a vow. A vow he didn’t fully understand. He leaned down and kissed her. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, but he lingered for a long moment. The electricity he’d felt when he’d first touched her yesterday was back in full force. Shooting down his spine and going straight to his cock. It was surprising, really. The kiss was chaste, merely a meeting of their lips. And yet it felt life-changing.
