Page 10 of Just One More Thing

Because I do.

Too damn much.

Ten years should’ve dulled something. Should’ve made her easier to look at than this.

It didn’t.

“Mo.”

Her name comes out before I decide to say it, but at least it sounds like a man saying it now, not one who’s been carrying it around for ten years.

She turns slowly.

Our eyes meet.

There’s no confusion. No polite squint while she places me.

Just knowing.

I see the exact second it hits her. Her fingers tighten around the cup. The smile falls away. Her whole body goes a little still.

“Jake.”

My name sounds different in her voice now. Careful in a way it never used to be.

I take one step toward her. Then another. Hank’s leash slips loose in my hand. Even he stops pulling and looks from me to her and back again.

She looks familiar in the worst possible way. Someone I used to know how to reach for.

I should say something normal.

How are you.

Welcome back.

You look good.

Instead I stand there, knowing exactly what it costs to say too much. To build a whole future around her and watch it come apart in a single sentence.

Her mouth parts. Closes. Opens again.

I can see she wants to say something. I want her to. God, I want her to.

I want her to tell me why she left. Why she didn’t come back. I want to know if she ever missed me the way I missed her.

I open my mouth.

“Jake! Jake!”

A hand grabs my sleeve hard enough to jerk me sideways.

One of Bethany’s servers is standing there, out of breath and half panicked. “Flooding. The Knuckle.”

I just stare at him, the words not landing.

I look back to Mo.

“I—“ I start.