The Anatomical Shape of a Heart(45)

But after the movie was over, instead of our retreating into his room—which is what I was hoping for, in all honestly—the party came to an abrupt end.

“Car out front!” Andy called out. “Hide everything!”

Everyone scurried around the decks, tossing drinks overboard, putting out cigarettes, and hiding the last bottle of Fernet inside the grill. As the madness subsided, the side gate creaked, and a couple walked around the side of the house.

“Might as well get this over with,” Jack mumbled, taking my hand.

“This” turned out to be one person I vaguely recognized: Mayor Vincent, who looked a lot less in a hurry than the first time I’d seen him, at the hospital. And walking at his side was a dark-haired woman in a lavender summer dress.

“You’re home early,” Jack said.

“And on first sight, nothing appears to be on fire,” the woman said, elbowing the mayor.

“Well, not now,” Jack said. “An hour ago, this place was a raging inferno.”

The mayor, who was a touch shorter than his son and wearing khakis and a button-up shirt one shade darker than the woman’s lavender dress, peered hard at Jack’s face. “You been drinking?”

“Tonight?”

“Jackson—”

“Kidding!” Jack said. “Jeez. Lighten up.”

The mayor did not care for this suggestion, like, at all. “I’ll lighten up when one of your friends wrecks his car and says he got drunk at our house. How’s that going to look in front of a judge, huh?”

“No one’s driving, Dad. You can relax. Your reputation remains sterling.”

“We’ll talk about this later. In the meantime, why don’t you make sure everyone gets to the Muni stop without waking the whole damn neighborhood.”

Yikes. His father was kind of scary—definitely not the smooth and friendly Mayor McDreamy I knew from the news. Not like I’d ever really paid much attention to him before Jack walked into my life. But still. Kind of a jackass, just like he was when I first saw him that afternoon at the hospital. And he had barely even looked my way, unlike the woman at his side, who was studying every stitch in my clothing. Who was this? Did the mayor have a girlfriend? Some sort of escort while his wife was institutionalized? When the woman’s gaze met mine, I expected to see the same kind of dismissive vibe the mayor was giving off. Instead, she smiled like she knew me.

“Hi,” she said, one oddly familiar dimple making an appearance as she extended a hand. “You must be Beatrix. I’m Marlena Vincent, Jackson’s mother.”

I shook her hand robotically, suddenly seeing how much more Jack looked like his mother than like the mayor. But if this was Jack’s mother, and Jack’s sister was overseas, who was in the hospital?

19

Two nights later, I got the answer to that question when I walked outside the anatomy lab. Jack was leaning against a tree, one foot up, hands in pockets. My heart leaped. I hadn’t seen him since he dropped me off at my house after the party, after which he apologized for his father’s lack of charisma and his mother’s surplus of it. She was excessively nice. She knew not only my name but my age and what school I went to, and that my mom was a nurse at the hospital. She’d even seen some of my drawings online, and she was “so very glad” Jack had found a “friend” with whom he had something in common.

I didn’t bother correcting that we were no longer “just friends,” since he’d all but melted my panties off when he pushed me against the door of his bedroom. And she was so polite, it was difficult to do anything much but be polite right back, especially when King Mayor was there, lording over everyone.

“Hey,” Jack said, pushing off the tree.

“Hi.” I stopped in front of him, feeling a little awkward. He’d kissed me good night when he dropped me off after the party, but it was a tiny, tender kiss, and that had been two days ago. And even though we’d texted and talked on the phone since, both of us had been busy, and now it felt a little like the morning after. What were we supposed to do? Were we together? Could I just jump him right here in front of the premed students strolling up and down the sidewalk? Because I wanted to, but at the same time I was also nervous to touch him. And it didn’t help that he’d called yesterday, sounding all mysterious and saying he wanted to show me something after my drawing session.

“How did it go?” His hands were still in his pockets, which made me feel guarded.

“Fine.” Drawing Minnie was never really fine, but I certainly wasn’t going to provide gruesome details or whip out my sketches. Ever again. “So, what’s on tonight’s agenda?”

“Walk with me?” he asked, extending his hand.

I took it, and he twined his fingers around mine, which instantly made me feel more relaxed. Him too, I guess, because he leaned down and quickly kissed my forehead in front of some professors. And that made my stomach flutter.

After a brisk walk in the twilight, we ended up at a four-story building. The psychiatric hospital. Jack didn’t say anything, just looked down at me like he was asking for approval. And when I nodded, he opened the door and ushered me inside.

The person at the desk recognized him. “I called Dr. Kapoor and got approval for a guest,” Jack said.

After a couple of phone calls, a muscle-bound orderly in green scrubs met us at a locked door, and we headed up in an elevator with him to the third floor. After Jack made introductions, Rupert told him, “Gotta be quick. Don’t want to get her wound up this late, and you know how she is about new people.”