Page 20 of The Do Over
“Do you want to fall in love?” He asked her, curiously.
“Yeah. I think so. As much as I don’t think love is for me, I think I want to try,” there was a hint of a smile in her voice. “I think I want to try commitment with the next person. Even if it doesn’t end up that way, I’ll know I tried.”
For some reason that he couldn’t figure out, Jack’s heartbeat responded to her words, picking up speed.
•••
According to the bridal designer who was supposed to give them Emily’s dress, the gown was almost ready but not quite done. They decided to wait until evening but by dusk, she still wasn’t done.
She told them that if they came the next day, she would work overnight to make sure they could have it.
But they lived in the next town, so making two trips—four when you count back and forth—in two days, wasn’t something that either of them were ready for. They came to a mutual agreement to stay at a decent motel that was close by and then come the next morning to get the dress.
As though the universe had planned that they would not let him have any excuse for not expressing his feelings,the motel they ended up at had only one room left. Apparently, there was a conference happening a town—something about a book reading—and the rooms had been booked.
The good news was that the room they had left had two single beds since it was supposed to be taken by friends who had canceled at the last minute. So Jack and Sophie took it.
“I call dibs on the big bed,” she said, as soon they walked into the room, heading for the bed that looked slightly bigger than the other one. The two beds were big enough for two people though. They’d just have to sleep really close to each other.
He shrugged and headed for the other one.
“I don’t mind. As long as I don’t see anything suspicious on the sheets, I’m fine to lay my head on any bed.”
Sophie turned up her nose at that and he chuckled.
“What?” He asked.
“You shouldn’t have said that,” she hastily got up from the bed. “Keeping your thoughts to yourself would have been nice because I can’t stop thinking about getting UV lights so I can check every nook and cranny of this room. But if I find even the tiniest spot, I’m going to lose my shit and end up sleeping in the car.
“Which,” her shoulders rose and fell heavily, “is going to make my body ache and then I’ll be in a terrible mood all week long. And I don’t want to spoil the fun.”
Whilst she rambled on, Jack had left his bed to stand in front of her. He put his hands on her shoulders.
“Take a deep breath, Sophie.”
“I-“
“I know,” he nodded patiently. “But take a deep breath first. You’re going to give yourself a raging headache with all the thoughts running around in that pretty head of yours.”
She did so, taking deep breaths as he asked and exhaling heavily. Eventually, she sank down on the bed and he sat beside her.
“Better?”
“Maybe? I don’t want to get black lights anymore but I don’t think I’m going to lay on these sheets and not think about the people who have done the nasty on it.”
“Understandable,” Jack nodded. He got up. “Give me some minutes.”
“Where are you going?”
He smiled.
“You’ll see.”
He left the room, strode out of the motel, walked to the car, and opened the trunk. Being a single dad meant that he had to carry thenecessarysupplies wherever he went, whether Aidan was with him or not.
And although the nanny had been taking care of his son, the first thing Jack did when Andrew gave them the car was to put a care bag in the trunk, which had sheets and pillowcases. He got them out and went back into the motel.
“Here,” he said to Sophie. “You remove the sheet from your bed and I’ll do it with his one. It’s a spare of mine, so you can rest assured that it’s safe.”
