Never Again

Part Twenty Two

After a lengthy and awkward silence, Jack’s smile appeared a lot easier than it was, “we can discuss details as time goes on, but look around Erin, you can’t raise a child here. It’s completely unsuitable. It’s small, there’s a huge flight of stairs just to get to the road...you’re not going to want to carry a pram up and down that every time you want to go for a walk...And this is hardly the greatest part of the city either.”

Erin hid her extreme resentment at his judgement, as best she could, but his presumption angered her, as did the casual way he lounged in the seat watching her, so relaxed when she was barely holding it together,  “please don’t stand here and make such sweeping statements. I’ve had an extremely busy day. You might think this has been an easy transition for me, but it hasn’t. I’m still trying to get my head around this. Can we talk about this tomorrow?”

He made to protest he was nowhere near ready to leave, but he knew when he was defeated, and he knew that was now. So he answered with a nod. There was time to talk, he’d come here in a temper wanting to make demands, but he was leaving a lot calmer, he just had to play Erin correctly, then she’d see that his suggestions were the right ones. He kind of admired her spirit, her independence...after all that was one of the main things that attracted him to her. He could hardly rue that as an attribute now, he wasn’t that stupid.

Erin smiled sadly, “come for dinner tomorrow, we can talk then.”

Jack knew he was being dismissed, but he was okay with that, after all he had a lot to deal with in his own mind, and an invite back was more than he expected, maybe more than he deserved. Nodding he made for the door, “I’ll be here at seven.”

Jack slid back into his car and fired the engine; he felt like hitting the motorway and blasting as much speed as he could muster, taking out his frustration on his expensive well tuned Italian engine, but that wasn’t practical, plus he owed Danni an apology. He’d been so bullish to her. So he wound his way across the city to his friend’s home.

                “Sorry Dan.” He offered when she opened the door. He was calmer now, almost defeated by the stress of everything. It was overwhelming.

She smiled and pulled him into a hug, “no worries, it was all a bit of a mess...how was it?”

Jack pulled back and looked down at her, she was so understanding, her smile so knowing, and suddenly he felt the strange sensation of prickling at his eyes, there was no way he was crying, he’d not cried in as long as he could remember, but he realised he felt more emotional than he’d ever been before. Taking a deep breath he tried to vocalise his thoughts, but he didn’t know what to think, “I don’t know. I went in angry...not a good move.”

Laughing gently she led him into the lounge where Scott was stretched out on a sofa watching the golf.

                “Reilly, how was it?” He smiled in an understanding way, but didn’t move from his lounging posture on the sofa.

Jack sat on a seat opposite, “sorry for earlier man, I was out of order.”

Scott shrugged it off, “I was freaked when Danni told me she was pregnant, and we were married, thinking about it, you know it was on the agenda? Can’t imagine how freaky it must be for you, out of the blue like this!”

Jack nodded, “I don’t know whether I’m coming or going!” Slumping back in the seat he groaned and the couple laughed. “Don’t laugh; I really don’t know what I’m doing!”

                “It’s a lot to take in love, but just don’t do anything rash, give it some time.” Danni offered.

                “So telling her she’ll be moving lock, stock and barrel into my house ASAP wasn’t the most tactical move.” Even he could see how ridiculous that was, but there was something about Erin that made him become a caveman, she brought out a ridiculous, unrelenting side of him that he’d never really acknowledged before. Probably because she was the only person who’d penetrated his independence. No one had ever ‘got’ to him before. Not like Erin did anyway.