Not Quite Dating(20)

“No. Mr. Blowhard’s wife wasn’t too fond of opening the door and finding us there.”
“Ouch.”
“Monica and I never even had a chance to feel the Pacific Northwest rain they always complain about. Mom took us to the airport, where we stayed for nearly two days until we could get a flight home.”
“Two days? Why so long?”
“My mother didn’t have the foresight to buy round-trip tickets or even have enough money to buy our way home. A friend of hers wired money, but we still had to wait on standby in the middle of the night to catch a cheap flight. It was a mess.”
“Kind of takes the fun out of flying,” he told her.
Jessie sipped her wine again. “What about you? Your parents still married?”
“Ah, no.”
“You don’t sound too sure.”
“Well, my mom took off when I was in my early teens. She kept in touch, in her own way—a phone call here, a letter there. She kept my dad on the hook until my sister graduated high school, then she filed for a divorce.” He remembered that day. “It was June. The weather in Texas was starting to heat up. My dad was working too many hours. Then one day I walked in and found my dad sitting in the den, drinking whiskey.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad.”
“It was one in the afternoon on a Wednesday.”
“Oh. I take it that was out of character for your father.”
Jack saw true concern lace Jessie’s features when he glanced over at her. “My dad works hard,” he said in a low voice.
“It sounds like you admire your father a lot.”
“I do. He worked hard and managed two kids without the help of a mom. When my mom was around, he worked harder than anyone I knew. We didn’t see him very much, which might be why she left him. I don’t know. I don’t remember her complaining. Once she left, he was around more. He took taking care of my sister and me to another level. A better level. Anyway, Mom filed for a divorce, and now we exchange Christmas cards. Sometimes not even that.” Last year she was living in Italy with a guy named Pierre or some other god-awful name.
“Your dad took it hard, didn’t he?” Jessie set her glass aside and sat farther back in the seat.
“I think he always wanted her back. Even after leaving him for all those years, he would have taken her back without even an ounce of explanation as to why she left.” Which was sad beyond words. Why anyone would worship his mother was beyond any reason that Jack could see.
“Did your dad ever try to explain what happened with them? Why she left?”
“No. He’s never talked about it. The only thing I came up with is that she didn’t love him. He took care of her financially; she didn’t really want for anything. They didn’t fight. But what did I know…I was a kid.”
“Has your father remarried?”
Jack shook his head. “No.”
“He must still love your mom.”
He thought so, too. He knew now it had been a one-way love from the beginning.
“If it makes you feel any better, I don’t even get a card from my dad at Christmas.” Jessie shifted in her seat, kicked her shoes off, and tucked her legs under her.
“Really?”
“Not a word since he walked out on us.”
“Why did he leave?”
Jessie’s eyes gazed beyond the moonroof as she spoke, her thoughts deep in the past. “He wanted nothing to do with parenthood or monogamy. My mom said he cheated on her from the beginning, but she was willing to look beyond it.”
“Why would any woman look beyond that?”
“Having two kids to feed makes women do all kinds of things. But I’m sure she would have buckled eventually. Anyway, Mom filed for divorce and pinned him down long enough to get the papers signed. After that, he was gone.”
When Jessie shivered, Jack pressed the button and closed the moonroof. He found a switch and clicked on the seat heaters. “Was that hard on her?”
Jessie shrugged. “I’m sure it was. But she quickly replaced him with husband number two, then three. Lately she just shacks up with them long enough until the new wears off, then finds another.”
“That’s cold,” he said.
“It’s the truth. She lives just outside of Fontana, but my sister would rather live with me and Danny than deal with her drama all the time.”
Jack stretched his arm out along the back of the seat. “That’s just smart. No one needs that kind of instability in their life.”
“True.”
“You and your sister are close, then?”
Jessie brushed away a lock of hair that had fallen in her eyes. “Very. What about you and your sister…close?”
“We get along, but I wouldn’t say we’re close. She’s wild, doesn’t want to grow up.”
Jessie laughed. “This from the guy I met coming back from a weekend in Vegas with his buddies, ‘borrowed’ this evening gown and shoes for a near stranger, and sneaked the hotel’s limo to give a girl a ride home. If you’re calling her wild, I think it runs in the family.”
Jack tossed his head back, laughing. He guessed he didn’t exactly look like a choirboy in Jessie’s eyes. “Since you put it that way…”
“Do you see your family during the holidays? I’m guessing you didn’t for Thanksgiving since you’re still here.”
“I try and get home, but it doesn’t always work out. What about you? Did you see your mom on Thanksgiving?”
“Couldn’t avoid it. When Renee Effinger—that’s my mom’s name—invites you, you better go. If you don’t, be prepared for some serious guilt the next time you see her. It didn’t matter that I’d worked the morning before, didn’t matter that none of us like her cooking, you’d better come.”