Here And Now

13. You Are Enough

"Here you go, Ms. Jennings. All done." The hostess smiles at me after handing over my card to me.

"Thank you." I force a smile at her.

"If you don't mind me asking..." Uh-Oh, those questions never are good.

"You are not with him, are you?" Her eyes shine and she blushes as she stares at Jackson who has just arrived in the lobby after he went to fetch his car.

"What? No! No, Brenda." I chuckle nervously, reading her name off her tag.

"Right." She giggles, just as nervous as me. "I'm sorry, you told me last night, but I just wanted to be sure before I asked for his number. I just thought, since you know he also stayed here last night...I mean, sorry I am babbling, I'll shut up now."

She doesn't need to. I stopped listening the minute she said that Jackson stayed here last night.

"What do you mean he stayed here last night?" I ask her. It feels like a ball is lodged in my throat.

"Oh, he got a room across from yours and checked out this morning before he went out somewhere..." She continues to tell me all about Jackson's morning of how he went out sometime then came back later.

That must have been when he got us breakfast. The receptionist continues, unaware of the storm of emotions waging a war inside me.

Jackson stayed in a room here last night.

Across from mine.

I am so baffled that I don't know what to think, what to feel.

But there something warm spreading across my chest. I am well aware that it is an emotion that I reserve only for the people that I care about.

Then why is this man creating emotions he has no business meddling with, without even trying at all?

"Can you give this to him please?" The girl -Brenda- hands over a tissue with her phone number on it. Besides her name and a lipstick mark.

Seriously? A lipstick mark?

I turn around wordlessly and walk over to my kids. I place my hand on Kayla's shoulder and put another one in Dexter's small palm as we make our way towards where Jackson is leaning on his car.

"Here." I thrust the napkin at him and tilt my head towards, Brenda, who for all her babbling with me is now smiling shyly at him.

He glances at her and gives her a polite smile before shoving the napkin in his pocket.

There's a different kind of heat in my chest now.

Get a grip, April.

The man is single, he can date, sleep, and roam around with whoever he likes.

Like Brenda.

I open the car door because I don't want him seeing the emotions all over my face.

However, I stop short when I see two car seats in the back.

"Oh, that." Jackson notices me staring at them and scratches the back of his head.

He does that a lot. And now I think, with sinking realization, it seems to be whenever he is nervous.

He's a lot nervous. It is so unlike the confident, charming and persuasive man I first met.

"My sister has five kids, and she lives like really close to me so I like borrowed two from her." He rushes out the words.

"She had brand new car seats?" I raise a brow at the sticker on the seats.

"Well she's got brand new babies." He says without missing a beat.