The Anatomical Shape of a Heart(38)

And he was, or he seemed to be—enough that he finally fought off Mom’s ministrations and stood with no problem. He made self-deprecating remarks in front of Heath and Noah, And after it was determined that Jack was back to normal, he said he had to get home and promised Mom twenty times he could drive himself.

“If you don’t make it back safe, your dad will sue me,” Mom argued.

“I can drive his car, and Heath can follow on my Harley,” Noah suggested.

Jack shook his head. “I appreciate your good intentions, but I’m trying to impress a girl and not look like a total putz, so I’m leaving now. Thank you for dinner. It was excellent, and I mean that.”

“It was probably food poisoning that did it,” Heath joked. “Jack’s just the canary in the coal mine. The rest of us will be on the floor before the night’s over.”

Mom smacked him in the arm as we all headed outside, and because Heath was staying over at Noah’s, they were leaving, too. So I had to walk Jack back to Ghost under my family’s watchful eyes.

“I know you’re tired of answering this, but are you really okay?” I asked. “I’m so sorry about Minnie.”

“Not your fault. Seriously, I’m just tired.”

Some tiny voice in my head whispered that he wasn’t exactly telling the truth, but I decided not to hammer him on it. “Despite the bad ending, I’m glad you came.”

“I’m glad you hunted me down at the Zen Center.”

“It was only fair. You hunted me down at Alto Market.” I crossed my arms and shivered in the night air as he unlocked his car door.

“What are you doing for the Fourth?” Jack asked. “You scheduled to work?”

“I don’t think so. It’s already here?”

“Day after tomorrow. My dad will be showing his face at Pier Thirty-Nine for fireworks over the Bay, which, as you know, might be a moving patriotic display or a muddled cloud of pink fog, depending on the weather.”

“We used to hunt a spot to watch them, but it’s not worth the hassle.”

“Then, how about a movie at my place? Andy and a few other people are coming. It’s been an Independence Day tradition over the last couple of summers, since I always have the house to myself.”

“Sounds fun.”

“Okay, well, since Nurse Katherine is watching us, I’m going to leave now with half my male pride intact.”

“We should advertise: Lose your machismo at the Adams family home. We’re like the opposite of that skeevy roll-on underarm testosterone treatment.”

“Even having lost my machismo, I can promise it’s not enough to keep me away,” he said as he slipped into Ghost and rolled down a window. “Good night, Bex.”

“Good night, Jack.”

I watched him drive off and waved at Heath, who looked ridiculous on the back of Noah’s motorcycle. Then I headed back up to Mom. It took her all of one minute to end up in my room, perched on my bed where Jack had sat earlier.

“Okay, what really happened?” she said.

“I don’t know. Like I said already, I was showing him my art—”

“Dammit, Bex. Normal people don’t want to look at that stuff. It’s grisly.”

“I know.”

“You used to be so creative. Why don’t you paint anymore?”

“I like doing this, and it’s practical. I’m thinking about my future, which is what you’ve always drilled into me. And it’s not that different from what you do at work—or what you’re all jumping up and down about Heath going back to school to learn. My art could help save lives one day.”

She grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look at her. “Heath and I aren’t blessed with a gift. If I had your talent, I wouldn’t be stressed out, working graveyard and missing out on my kids’ lives.”

“But—”

“Art shouldn’t be practical. It should be emotional and expressive. There are other ways to save people’s lives than drawing teaching diagrams for med students. You could do something bigger. Something that makes people happy—and that makes you happy.”

I pushed free from her grip. “I’m not unhappy. I’ve told you that a thousand times. Why don’t you believe me?”

“Because you’re the most stubborn person I know.”

“Tenacious,” I corrected. “It’s a gift.”

She sighed dramatically. We both looked anywhere but at each other until she finally said, “People don’t faint for no reason. Could be an indication of something more serious going on with Jack’s heath, or could’ve been emotionally triggered. Anything he’s stressed about at home?”

Besides his mom’s seizure and having the mayor of San Francisco for a father? Gee, I didn’t know. “He’s definitely going through some serious stuff right now with his mom.” I couldn’t tell her any details about Jack’s mother—not even the little I knew—because what if Mom said something at work? It might spread all over the ER and get back to the Vincents or someone in the press. I already spilled Jack’s vandalizing secret to Heath, which was bad enough.

“His mother?” she mused. “Oh, that’s right. There was that break-in.”