Love Like You've Never Been Hurt (21 page)

Jack smiled, understanding only too well. That was exactly how
she’d been with him. Coming out of her hole a little way,
skittering away from him, then slowly getting bolder and coming
closer. Until now. Until she’d woken up alone this morning –
not that he would say that to Gramps.

“So what do I do?”

“You wait, son. You let her know you’re still out
there and that you are there for her, but only if that’s what
you want. It’ll be a long road, make no mistake, so you should
quit now if you haven’t got the heart or the patience for it.
I’d understand that.”

“I’m a patient man, Gramps. My heart is in this for
keeps. I’ll wait as long as it takes, do whatever it takes.”
His voice was strong with conviction.

Gramps smiled. “I kind of figured as much, just wanted to
hear it from you. Now let’s go sort out that spare, shall we?”

When they got to the truck, Gramps got inside and took some papers
from the glove box. “Might be needing these,” he said, as
he climbed down. Jack changed the tire with no problems. As he
finished up Gramps apologized again for having left the wrong spare.

Jack felt bad. “Honestly, sir. It’s no problem. I’d
messed up anyway. The tire was the least of it.”

“Don’t worry, son. It’ll work out. Now I’m
going to get along, but you give me a shout whenever you need me. I
might understand better than you think.”

“Thanks. I really appreciate that.”

He watched Gramps drive away, deciding he’d drive back to
the house before he tried Emma again. He got back in the truck and
started it up. On the passenger seat sat the doughnuts that had led
to all this. And next to them, he couldn’t believe his eyes!
Next to the doughnuts sat his keys and his cell phone. Apparently
Gramps did understand better than he’d thought. He smiled to
himself, thrilled to have such a wonderful ally, then his face fell
again as he remembered how much he was going to need one.

Emma pulled in at a drive through for coffee. She fished out her
phone and ignored all the missed calls and messages, just wanting to
call Holly.

“Hi, Sweetie. What time will you be here?”

“Look out for me at twelve fifteen or so. I’ll pick
you up at the store.”

“Em. What’s wrong? You sound terrible!”

“Thanks,” said Emma glumly. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t sound it. Did last night not go well?”

Emma stifled a sob. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Oh, Sweetie. Get here as quick as you can, OK?”

“OK.” Emma hung up and looked at the phone. All the
voice mails and missed calls were from Jack and Pete. How could he
have told Pete? She had decided on the road that the best way to deal
with it was not to deal with it at all. She wasn’t going to
listen to their messages. She was just going to go and have lunch
with Holly.

She double parked outside Holly’s boutique at twelve twenty
and pipped the horn. Her friend came running out, straight to the
driver’s door.

“Budge over, you sounded like a wreck!”

Emma slid over to the passenger seat, grateful not to have to face
the downtown traffic.

“Want to come home with me for lunch?” asked Holly.

She nodded, she wasn’t in the mood for any of their usual
places. They drove in silence for a while.

“Want to tell me about it?” asked Holly eventually.

“Not really.” She knew Holly wouldn’t push her,
she also knew that she needed to talk about it, despite the desire to
push it all away. She could feel the tears building. “I had
actually begun to trust him!” she blurted out, swiping at a
tear that rolled down her cheek.

“Want to start from the beginning?”

She nodded and started to tell Holly everything that had happened
with Jack over the last few days. They arrived at Holly’s
townhouse and went inside. Once they were settled she continued.
“Last night, he was so unbelievable. He made it all about me.
He made me feel so special. He kept reassuring me, making sure it was
good for me,” she paused and smiled. “Holly, he made it
so good for me, I had no idea it could be like that. I know I’m
not exactly an expert at this…”

Holly smiled. “Understatement of the year,” she
teased.

Emma nodded, “I know. But even I know that he must have had
massive willpower to do everything he did for me and not make any of
it about, well...” She didn’t know how to put it, “You
know, about satisfying himself.”

Holly sat staring at her. “Help me out here, Sweetie? I
think I’m missing something. From what you’ve said, he is
a very good looking, charming, funny man, who has pursued you
relentlessly since he met you. He has asked, no begged, you to give
him the chance to prove that he’s for real. He was gentle and
understanding when you led him on and then stopped him in the height
of passion and then last night he made sweet love to you for hours
and dedicated himself to your pleasure. So, I have two questions.”

Emma nodded.

“First, what the hell happened between last night and this
morning to turn you into a miserable wreck, when you should be the
happiest woman on earth? And second,” she smiled, “if you
really don’t want him, please can I have him? I didn’t
think men like that existed outside the movies!”

Emma managed a laugh at that. “Oh, Holly. Maybe he was too
good to be true. When I went to sleep last night with his arms around
me I thought I was the happiest woman on earth. But then I woke up
this morning and he was gone!”

Holly frowned, “Gone?”

“Gone. Disappeared. No note. No call. No nothing! I tried
really hard to think that he would be back. He knew I had to leave at
eight. He didn’t show.”

“And you didn’t call him?”

“I did! Just before I left the house. I thought maybe I was
doing what you all tell me I do, getting carried away with my fears,
not giving him a chance. Holly, I so wanted him to be for real, so I
called him. But he just let it go to voice mail. Didn’t even
pick up.”

“Oh,” Holly looked perplexed. “And you haven’t
heard from him?”

Emma hung her head.

“Well?”

“He left me a message, but not until I was halfway here and
Pete left me a message first, so I bet he’s told him and that’s
just too awful.”

“Well what did they say?” asked Holly, exasperated.

“I don’t know.”

“You haven’t listened to them?”

“It’s too much, Holly. I can’t deal with it!”

“Oh, Sweetie. You don’t know what you’re dealing
with until you find out what he has to say. You at least owe him
that. C’mon, why would he have called you at all if he’s
the monster you think he is?”

“I don’t know, maybe Pete made him.”

Holly shook her head, “Em, do you realize how childish you
sound? I think it’s time for some tough love, Sweetie.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I need to tell it to you like it is and hope you
love me enough to know I’m saying this for your own good. I’ve
felt I should do this for a long time, but I’ve always been
afraid to hurt you, maybe hurt our friendship, but you’re too
important to me. I can’t watch you do this again.”

“Do what?”

“Be so childish, Em. I’m sorry, Honey, but you need to
grow up.”

Emma looked at her with tears in her eyes, but Holly pressed on.

“I know you’ve got it together in the rest of your
life. You’re strong, smart, independent, but when it comes to
men, you act like you’re still a little girl. You pretend you
don’t know what you want, but deep down I think you do. You
want what most women do. You want a man who will love you, honor you
and protect you. Those words are in the vows for a reason, you know.
You want to give yourself and your big, big heart to a man who really
will forsake all others to spend the rest of his life with you, and
only you. But you’re too scared to even try it. I know why.
It’s because you, more than most, already know the pain of
losing love. You found out way too young. When you lost your parents
you experienced the pain of loss that most of us don’t have to
go through until we’re much better equipped to deal with it.
That set you back, but you’re strong, and you were prepared to
try it again because you believed in love. Rob shattered that belief.
He made you think that the kind of love you want doesn’t really
exist. That it’s just a little fantasy of yours, but it’s
not, Em. It’s what most of us search for and a few lucky ones
get to have. You bought his lies. You blame yourself, but you were
young and he was a master manipulator. He used your fears against you
so that you would blame yourself and not him.

“
But Honey, if you stay
the way you are, you’re letting Rob steal from you. You’re
letting him steal one of life’s greatest gifts, the gift of
love. It’s yours for the taking, maybe with Jack, maybe with
someone else down the line. But finding love involves risk and if
you’re too scared to take the risks, you’ll never find
the reward. You have so much love to give and share. I have a good
feeling about this Jack, I think he may have a whole lot of love to
give you. But it’s down to you. It would take courage to risk
the hurt – and I know you were being brave to get as far as you
did with him. But if you run scared now, if you blame him and decide
he’s just like Rob without ever giving him chance, then all
you’re doing is taking the easy way out, the coward’s way
out. I believe you’re stronger than that, but you’ll have
to grow up, and fast.”

Emma stared at her for a long time, tears rolled down her face,
but she said nothing.

“You want to chew on that while I fix us some lunch?”

Emma nodded.

Jack arrived at the supplier’s yard. He’d left Emma
three messages, he wasn’t going to leave any more. He’d
ignored Pete’s call earlier, not wanting to get into explaining
anything. He sighed. He had to get on with his day and this meeting.
He sat in the truck a moment, trying to put things back in
perspective. He might have acted a little crazy this morning, but he
had to get a grip. He was dating a woman – yes, he was dating
her, he was not going to let this mess things up – a woman who
had some baggage to deal with and who was afraid of getting hurt. He
remembered Gramps’ description of her as a mouse. She’d
run back in to the safety of her mouse hole. He figured he’d
have to get used to this. She’d come back out and he’d be
there, waiting to move forward. He smiled to himself. He really was
patient and he’d never failed at anything he’d set his
mind to. Now he’d set his mind – and his heart – to
winning Emma for his own. The stakes were higher than any he’d
ever known; the rest of his life was on the line and he didn’t
intend to fail. With that thought he gathered his usual confidence
and headed in to the office to meet with the owner, Bill Meyers, whom
he knew was keen to work him a good deal. Word had gotten out that
the Phoenix Corporation might be starting a new development out at
Four Mile Creek. Meyers wanted in on that and was ready to cut Jack a
great deal on whatever he needed for the construction of Pete’s
house.

After a productive afternoon Jack drove back out to Emma’s
place. He’d decided that he would move the RV over to Pete’s
lot. If she wanted to stay mad at him, it would be easier for them
both if he weren’t living on her driveway. His own preference
would have been to stay put, to make her face him. He was pretty
certain he could persuade her, and he smiled thinking of ways he
could do just that. But he didn’t want to crowd her either. She
might take longer to come back out of the mouse hole if he was
sitting right outside. He also hoped that she might come to him, of
her own accord – perhaps that was a little too optimistic, but
a guy could hope.

After he had moved the RV he walked back along the beach to Emma’s
to collect the truck. He’d written her a note and he taped it
inside the screen door, making sure it wasn’t going to blow
away or fall. With that done he went down to town for groceries and a
six pack, since he might be spending his evenings sitting alone in
the RV. On his way out of the store he bumped into Missy.

“Hey, Jack! How’s it going?”

He smiled, “Oh, it’s going Missy. How about you?”

“Only going, huh?”

He gave her a shrug and smiled, not wanting to elaborate, “I’ll
get there.”

She nodded, “I hope so. Please know I’m in your corner
– and Ben too, if ever we can help at all.”

“Thanks, Missy. That’s good to know.”

“
We can see what you’re
about. We love our Mouse and we can see that you would be good for
her.” She laughed, “Even if she can’t yet.”
She looked up to watch a beautiful blue convertible streak down the
road. Jack followed her gaze; he was a sucker for a nice car and that
one was a beauty.

Missy looked at him. “You might want to work on that dopey,
love-struck look you’ve got going on though!”

“Sorry, Lexus SC430, nice vehicle.”

Missy slapped his arm with a grin. “That’s what you
may call it.”

“It is, I know, I almost bought one when I moved to LA. Not
sure I’d want one out on these roads though.” His eyes
returned to the car as it disappeared around the corner onto West
Shore Road.

“Well, around here we call it the Mouse-mobile.”

“That was Emma? She’s back already? And that’s
her car?”

“Yes, yes and yes,” laughed Missy. “So I imagine
you’ll be hitting the road up there too.”

Jack hesitated. He wanted nothing more than to chase her back up
to the North Shore, but he didn’t want to pressure her. He’d
left the note.

Missy was watching him closely and raised an eyebrow.

“Man, I’ll bet Scott dreads that look,” he
laughed.

“Only when he’s messed up. Want to tell me about it?”

“I’m trying to give her some space, that’s all.”

“OK, well you can come and hang with me and Scott for a
while if you want to?”