Jack and Djinn (The Houri Legends, #1)(23)

“That sounds fun. You’ll have to wait while I get ready, though.”

“Okay.” He hopped down and plopped himself on her couch, grabbing the remote for her little TV.

Miriam showered quickly, trying not to think about Jack sitting just a few feet away, trying not to hope that he’d let himself into the bathroom. He didn’t, and she moved quickly from the bathroom to the bedroom, a towel wrapped loosely around her torso. She felt Jack’s eyes on her for the split second she was visible in between the two rooms, and wondered if he’d been waiting for that one glimpse.

While Jack watched TV, Miriam got ready, choosing her outfit carefully and taking time with her makeup. She hadn’t seen or heard from Ben for almost a week, which was worrying her, making her nervous. She’d tried to keep herself busy with work, and she’d made up her mind to enjoy this day off. She’d texted with Jack a few times, but she hadn’t seen him since the party.

Pretending she didn’t miss him was exhausting.

Jack had his Jeep again, and this time he had removed the canvas top. With the radio blaring, they pulled out of the parking lot and headed to Comerica Park. They didn’t talk much on the drive over, and Miriam didn’t mind the silence between them. In fact, she found it comforting and refreshing to be with someone and not have to talk. With the wind blowing between them, tangling her hair, Miriam was as close to being happy as she’d ever felt. Jack’s hand rested on the gearshift, flecks of paint on the backs of his knuckles, grease permanently caked into the creases, a couple of knuckles still split from his fight with his brother. Miriam slipped her hand in his, and twined their fingers together, feeling the electric brush of excitement thrill through her, even at so innocent a touch.

He took her to the New Parthenon, where they had saganaki and gyros, and shared a pitcher of beer.

“Do you drink much, Jack?” The question just popped out. Miriam hadn’t even been aware she was thinking it, but once it was out, she was glad she’d asked.

Jack seemed unsurprised. “No, not really. When I’m out with friends, I’ll have a few beers, or maybe with Doyle after work sometimes.” He leaned forward and took her hands in his. “Listen, Miriam. I want you to understand how much I’m not him. Okay? If you want to ask me something, just ask. I won’t be offended.”

“It’s not like I’m comparing the two of you—”

“You should, Miriam.” He rubbed her knuckles with his thumbs. “Seriously. Compare me to him. I don’t want to be anything like him. At all. If there’s ever even the slightest similarity between me and him, you should drop me like a bad habit, okay?” He was exuding intensity, his eyes fixed on her.

“You’re nothing like him, Jack. I’ve never met anyone like you. You’re so different from him, from anyone I’ve ever dated…. It’s kind of scary, honestly, how different you are.”

“Scary? What do you mean?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know…it’s—I’m used to one kind of thing, you know?” Miriam said. “All the guys I’ve dated have been similar—”

“Assholes?” Jack interjected around a swig of beer.

“Yeah, I guess so. I don’t know why, but I just seem to attract the *s.”

“Well, I’m not an *, and you attracted me,” Jack said with a smirk. “But seriously, though, I don’t think it’s a matter of you attracting them so much as you choosing them. You don’t think you’re worth a real man, a good man.”

Miriam felt kind of insulted by that. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Jack raised his hands, palms out, in a pacifying gesture. “No, listen to me. I have this cousin, Bridget. Her dad, my uncle, he’s an alcoholic. He used to beat Bridget and her mom. Called her all sortsa names, kicked her out of the house when she was eighteen.

“She always ended up dating these guys that were just…god, *s—” He said the word like it was the ultimate epithet, the worst thing he could think of calling them. “I mean, real douchebags. They treated her like I wouldn’t treat a dog. Hit her, called her names, just like Uncle Danny had. One even pimped her out to his friend, and she just went along with it, god knows why.

“She stayed with these guys no matter how badly they treated her, and no one could talk her out of it, even after Uncle Danny left. I think she just didn’t understand that there was any other kind of guy, that she had any other options. It’s what she’d grown up with, you know? All she knew. And if that’s all you know, you stick with it. If your dad didn’t love you, if he didn’t treat you right, then you keep trying to fill that hole where his love should’ve been. You fill it with men who are like him, and that will never work. I don’t know about your dad, if he was like that or not.”

Jack touched her chin with a finger, tipping her head up to look at him, but she wrenched her face away and withdrew her hands, staring down at the table. She couldn’t look at him, not with the welter of emotions boiling inside her. She scraped the tabletop with a fingernail, and where her nail dragged across the surface, a hissing noise and a thin trickle of smoke followed. A line of scorched black was incised in the table. Jack noticed it, lifted an eyebrow, but said nothing.

There was silence between them, and an unusual tension. “It’s not like that, Jack,” Miriam said, trying not to sound sullen and angry. She knew her anger was surfacing because he was right.