Page 14 of Jack of Hearts

Jack

I hug Lucy’s warm, curvy body closer to mine. She’s sleeping and making the cutest noises. I can’t explain it, but everything about this moment fills me with a sense of contentment I haven’t felt since I was a kid.

I could love this woman. Hell, I probably already love her. I can’t understand it, let alone explain it, but I feel it. It’s a certainty in my bones the same way I knew how or when to do something on a military assignment.

Out there you follow orders and you learn to trust your instincts. You have to or you die. This isn’t a life or death situation, at least not in a physical sense. But I know, without any doubt, that this is where I belong.

In this bed. With this woman.

We made love twice more before we finally fell asleep and nothing has ever felt so good or so right. But it’s too early to tell her that. She’d think I was a whacko. Or that I had just emotionally attached to her because she was my first. It’s not that. I know it in my soul.

I don’t like to think about my parents too much because they died when I was overseas. I missed all of it. They were hit with the first wave of the Coronavirus right after the Pandemic hit. They died together which is how they always said they wanted to go. Of course their plans had them living longer and holding hands in an assisted living place when they died.

Right now while this woman is nestled close to me, my hand resting close to her heart, I let myself go back and remember them. They were madly in love. It was like something out of movie. I was their only kid, though not for lack of trying.

I remember the way my dad would look at my mom, like she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen. He’d bring home flowers every third Tuesday of the month. He thought it was random enough that she’d think they were no-occasion flowers, a just-because kind of thing. But she caught on to his pattern pretty quickly. She never said anything to him, of course.

He told me once when I was too young to understand, that when I met the right woman, that loving her would be as easy and as necessary as breathing. That I’d feel a pang in the center of my chest at the thought of losing her. That she’d be the most amazing and infuriating person I’d ever met.

I kiss Lucy’s shoulder, then close my eyes. Someday I’d tell her how I feel. Until then, I hope beyond hope that she feels the same way.

A shrill alarm wakes me up and it takes a moment to remember where I am. Lucy’s sitting up in bed, not caring at all that the covers pool around her waist, baring her breasts to me.

“I think it’s your phone,” she says.

Right, the noise. I pull my eyes away from her perfect tits and find my jeans where I left my phone. I pull it out from the pocket and see I’ve got six missed calls. What the hell? I don’t even know that many people.

I’m scrolling through to see and the phone rings again. I don’t recognize the number, but I do know that area code is from where I grew up.

Angie. She’s clearly found another way to reach me. A number I haven’t yet blocked.

I glance up at Lucy.

“You might as well answer it, they’re just going to keep calling.”

I swallow hard and swipe to answer. “Hello.”

“Jackie,” Angie says from the other end.

I cringe, because she only ever called me that when she wanted something. “What do you want, Angie?”

Lucy tenses, but I reach over and squeeze her thigh.

“I miss you. I wanted to talk. I heard you were out of the Army finally. So where are you? And why did you block my number?”

I blow out a breath. “In Texas. A buddy of mine is from here.”

“I’m going to go make some coffee,” Lucy says, then she stands, grabs her robe hanging on the door and leaves the room.

“Who was that?” Angie asks. Her voice is sharp like she’s pissed.

“Her name is Lucy.”

“Oh is that your buddy that you went to see?” She says the word ‘buddy’ like it’s a curse word.

“That’s none of your business. Again I’ll ask, what do you want, Angie?”

“I miss you.”