Runaway (5 page)

Around me the patrons drank and laughed, indulging in their conversations while Casey and Jack continued to chat fervently. Even without looking over at them it was easy to tell they were hitting it off… But my mind wasn’t on them.

It was only on Jack.

‘Anyway,’ he suddenly said, his deep, commanding voice making me jump a little as he turned back to me, ‘We don’t need to talk about me. I’m sure you’re a lot more interesting, Emma. Tell me, what do you do?’

‘What do I do?’ I asked timidly, looking over at him.

‘Yeah, y’know… For a job?’

‘Oh, I, uhh…’ I said slowly, catching Casey’s eyes over Rory’s shoulder as she looked over at me with a wide-eyed, tense expression. I could read her mind.

Are you gonna tell him that you’re probably the most in-demand actress in the country right now?

‘I’m… I work in…
Media,’
I said, nodding at him. Come on, I mean technically it was true.

‘Huh…’ Jack said, nodding at me, ‘You know, I really don’t know what that means.’

We both laughed, raising our drinks to our lips.

‘Yeah, well, neither do I most of the time.’

Jack took a little sip from his beer but my heart was racing like crazy.
Fuck it.

I downed my second double whisky, feeling the fiery liquid run through me once again as Jack watched me with a smirk on his face. As it set in I suddenly began to feel it’s effects, resting a hand on the bar.

‘I think you’ve one too many of those,’ Jack laughed, ‘Why don’t you take a minute…’

At that moment, Casey arched around Jack, her arm hooked around Rory’s, and smiled between us.

‘Hey, Emma, Rory and I are gonna head off to another bar just down the street, are you two okay to hang out here?’

Maybe in any other situation I would have been sceptical, but the drink had gone to my head, and suddenly I felt an internal honesty that I hadn’t felt in days. I kind of did wanna stick around with Jack…

‘Yeah,’ I smiled absentmindedly, my eyes flickering with the aroma of my drink as I began to giggle a little, ‘We’re fine to hang out here, aren’t we, Jack?’

‘Uhh…’ Jack looked between the three of us, then back to me as our eyes met once again, ‘Sure, why not. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she get’s back home.’

‘Thanks, we’ll see you guys later…’

And with that, Casey and Rory took off for the exit, making their way out of the bar.

‘D’you always drink like this?’ Jack asked, grinning smugly at me.

‘Not exactly…’ I said, ‘But…’

‘It’s a guy, isn’t it?’

I looked up at him sharply, my mouth hanging open a little as I eyed him up and down curiously.

‘How did you…?’

‘You really think you’re the first girl who tried to drink away her sorrows?’ He laughed.

‘Fuck you,’ I laughed, not believing the words were coming out of my mouth. ‘It’s none of your business…’

‘Fine,’ Jack said casually, dismissing it.

How could he do that so casually…?

‘Let me ask you one thing, though,’ I said.

‘Shoot.’

‘Are all guys just jerks intentionally or is it some kind of guy programming that you can’t bypass?’

Jack laughed heavily, I watching him bare his perfect teeth as he ran a hand through his hair.

‘How am I supposed to answer that?’

‘Just tell me.’

We looked at each other in the dim light of the bar for a moment, smiling lightly, Jack’s piercing look making my heart race for reason’s nobody on earth could understand, least of all myself…

‘Not everybody’s the same,’ he finally said, ‘But sometimes I think that we pick the things that aren’t exactly good for us on purpose.’

‘How come…?’ I asked quietly, utterly hooked on his words.

‘I don’t know… Maybe we like the idea that we can have something we’re not supposed to have. Or we know that it’ll go wrong but we do it anyway, so we have something to dwell on when it’s all over. I mean, look around this bar…’

We were both still leaning against the bar top facing each other, but turned to look about the room and all the people in it, talking, laughing…

‘Everybody in this room wants abundance. They want everything. But I’d wager that most of them know the unfulfillment that comes from having everything that you want and need. There’s a dullness to it. And yet people spend their whole lives trying to reach that point…’

I looked up at Jack, watching his eyes look about the room intently. His head turned, for the first time I caught something I hadn’t yet seen – a scar running down his neck vertically, clean and distinguished.

‘I think I’d like another drink,’ I said, meeting this stranger’s eyes once again as he turned to face me.

Jack smiled down at me before turning behind him and saying ‘bartender’…

And that was the last thing I remembered…

Chapter Six

A drowning, a screaming, the kind of terror you only feel when the worst is happening… I hear the muffled shouts, the gargling suffocation beneath the surface and-

I sat up sharply in bed, gasping for air in the early morning light. I couldn’t count the number of times I had awoken like this, moist with sweat and shaking, my heart racing as I curled myself up into a ball where I sat on the bed, lowering my head.

‘Stop it…’ I breathed deeply, clenching my eyes shut tightly, ‘Stop…’

I finally calmed myself down after several minutes of shock, before raising my head and looking about myself.

It hadn’t even occurred to me… Where was I?

I moved a little in the sheets, feeling my head swaying in the aftermath of last night, trying to get a hold on myself before examining my surroundings.

I was in a small double bed in a plainly furnished room, with nothing but a set of bedside drawers and a cupboard opposite. The walls were lined with clean, perfectly set oak.

What had happened last night? Was I back at the house?

But, climbing out of bed in nothing but my blouse, my underwear and my socks, I quickly realised that I certainly wasn’t back at the cabin. The dock outside had two rowing boats tied up to it.

And mine didn’t.

I thought back to last night, running a hand through my hair – when I suddenly remembered.

Meeting Jack. Getting drunk. And then…

Oh, God…

I clasped my hands over my mouth, my eyes going wide.

We hadn’t had sex, had we? He must have brought back here after last night… Had we…?

I found my jeans hung over the end of the bed, pulling them on and checking my phone. 8am. It was still early.

I made my way out of the bedroom, finding myself in the upper floor corridor of the house before making my way towards the stairs and descending them into the living room. It was set out in pretty much the same way as mine was, plainly furnished with a few neatly placed things, a record player, a chessboard, and other general miscellaneous things.

But where was Jack? Had he already headed out to work or something?

‘Jack?’ I said loudly, ‘Jack, are you here?’

I was a second away from heading upstairs to see if he was still in his room when I heard it. The dull, hard smacking sound of something being hit, hard and sharply. It had come from outside. I didn’t think much of it until I heard it a second time a few moments later… And then a third.

I headed to the back door, finding my boots and my jacket and pulling them on. I briefly checked myself in the camera of my phone – messy hair, tired eyes, but it could be worse – and headed out the unlocked back door.

And I pretty much stopped dead in my tracks at what I saw.

But it was in the best kind of way.

When I had looked out of the bedroom window upstairs I had only seen the dock – I hadn’t bothered looking straight down before the porch, where Jack was now stood. And what a sight he was.

While he was covered from the waist down in the same pair of jeans from last night, his feet clad in a pair of worn, workmans boots, his chiselled torso was exposed to the early morning breeze in the oncoming sunlight through the trees, his toned chest and defined abs tensing and relaxing with every movement he made. In one muscular arm he held a woodcutters axe as his dark, piercing eyes surveyed over a pile of logs by the porch. He looked over them intently, his eyes squinting with thought before he reached down with his free hand and retrieved one, moving over to the severed root of a tree trunk a little way from the porch and setting the log down upright.

I had never felt more captivated by anything in my life than the sight of him, clasping the long, wooden handle of the axe tightly in his hands, bringing it up over his head, the steel blade catching the sunlight in the slightest of ways as his toned, muscular body tensed up and he brought it down in a wide, hard swing. It head the wood dead centre, the hard, smacking sound making me shriek a little as I jumped, even though I knew it was coming.

Jack looked up sharply, our eyes meeting as his curious look turned into a smile behind his darkened stubble. He was still ridiculously good looking, even this early in the morning and after a hard night of drinking.

‘Morning,’ he said casually, releasing the handle of the axe, leaving it’s blade lodged in the chopping block. The surface looked like it had taken a thousand hits in it’s time.

‘Hi…’ I smiled back, ‘I, uhh… I don’t really know what to say to you…’

‘What do you mean?’ He asked, wiping his moist brow and placing his hands on his hips.

‘Well… I only met you last night, and now I wake up in your house, and…’

‘Sorry, I wanted to take you home,’ he panted, catching his breath, ‘But you were so drunk that you could hardly speak properly. I had no idea where you were staying.’

‘Oh…’ I said, feeling my cheeks run red. ‘Sorry about that… I didn’t mean to place all that on you.’

‘That’s okay,’ he said, his voice almost a growl in the quiet morning air, ‘More than happy to accommodate you.’

I smiled back. ‘Look, there’s something I’ve got to ask you… We didn’t, uhh… I mean, we didn’t…’ I pointed back at the house as I spoke, trying to enunciate what I meant.

‘Fuck?’ Jack said bluntly, looking me up and down, a smug grin on his face. ‘No, why?’

‘Oh…’ I said, not knowing exactly how I felt right now. A little laugh escaped me at the bluntness of his words. ‘I couldn’t remember, I drank that much… And my jeans were slung over the end of the bed, so a part of me was wondering if you’d taken them off…’

‘No,’ Jack laughed, ‘That was you. You actually seemed pretty keen to be rid of them, if I remember correctly.’

I smiled uncontrollably, looking down at the floor, unable to meet his eyes because of how embarrassed I was.

‘Where is it that you live, anyway?’ He asked.

‘Just across the lake,’ I said, looking out across the still water. I made my way down the porch steps looking out at it between the trees. ‘I actually don’t think it’s too far from here.’

‘That’s good,’ Jack said. He took a few steps towards me, I unable to keep myself from looking his shirtless body up and down. A smile rose to his face as he looked over at me. ‘Did you just check me out?’

‘I- what? No…’ I said quickly, my heart racing as I tried desperately to keep my eyes on his face, or
anywhere
but on him…

He stopped before me, looking me in the eyes with that analytical gaze I vaguely remembered from last night. I hated that he spoke so bluntly about everything, how open he was, how it didn’t bother him in the slightest… But at the same time there was a feeling he was giving me that I couldn’t explain. I suddenly felt overwhelmingly aware of myself, of my mind and my whole body, like I was policing myself…

And, above everything else, I felt so intimidated… In a way that felt better than I could even explain.

‘Why’s that good?’ I finally asked.

‘Because it’s not far away from here, I can walk you back and get to work in good time.’

‘Oh…’ I said, ‘You’ve… You’ve gotta work.’

‘Yeah,’ he smiled, crossing to the porch railing and retrieving his shirt before putting it on and doing up the buttons. ‘It’s a Monday morning. That’s what normal people do on Monday’s, unfortunately.

So fucking cocky…

‘Make sure you’ve got everything and we’ll get going.’

And without another look he made his way over to the bar, his perfect body breezing past me as he did so, heading inside.

***

‘So why are you really in Watertown?’ Jack asked, a few minutes after we headed out of the front door of his lakehouse and took off along the quiet road the circled the lake, sauntering along in the clear morning air. He had pulled on a shirt and a jacket, and now we were side by side, his towering, dominant figure by me.

‘What do you mean ‘really’?’

‘Come on… Twenty-something girl like you who can spin guys heads whenever she wants, dull little town way upstate… It doesn’t really make sense.’

I looked over at him, seeing him smile back with that sarcastic, cocky grin he seemed to always have on his face in some shape or form.

‘It’s… Kind of difficult to explain,’ I said, running a hand through my hair.

‘Try.’

‘I’m…’ I started, not knowing what I was going to say exactly. I couldn’t really tell him, could I? I had come here to get away from all that, not to bring it down on me again. But then Jack was one of the most engaging, genuine people I had met in a long time… ‘I kind of…’ I sighed. ‘Look, you wouldn’t even believe me if I told you.’

‘Fair enough,’ he said.

‘Anyway, I should be asking you the same thing.’

‘What’s that?’

‘What are you doing here?’

‘Working, I told you last night.’

‘Yeah, but… You don’t seem like the type either.’

‘And why’s that?’

‘I don’t know… You just seem…’ and then I spoke without thinking, ‘You just seem kind of hot and not exactly the type…’ I clenched my eyes shut at the sound of my own words.

So that was what it was like when you don’t read rehearsed lines.

‘Oh, so you
do
think I’m hot,’ he laughed, sliding his hands into his pockets.

‘No, that’s not what I said-’

‘I think it was.’

‘Shut up,’ I laughed. For a moment I realised that I felt happier talking to Jack than I had felt for the past few days… Before I had to ask- ‘But, seriously, what’s the real reason you’re here?’

Jack paused for a moment as we walked, the smile falling from his face as he looked around at the trees and the lake. I couldn’t remember a whole lot of last night, but I did remember the same contemplative look on his face he had had when I asked him something last night… Although I couldn’t remember what it was.

‘I guess it suits me,’ he said simply, ‘It’s quiet. I can work during the day and relax during the night. And then do it all over again. Gives me time to think.’

For a second I almost asked what exactly he was thinking about, but decided against it. I had only known him since last night… Although I already felt like I wanted to ask.

‘Casey,’ Jack suddenly said, staring straight ahead.

‘What?’

‘Your friend’s name. It’s on that mailbox. I’m guessing this is your house?’

I looked over at the mailbox and sure enough read my best friend’s name – I had been so caught up in our conversation that I hadn’t even realised that we had reached the house.

‘Oh, right… Yeah, this is me…’

I hadn’t thought about my best friend last night, but she was about to grace us with her shameless presence, right now, as it happened.

We had stopped before the end of the path, about to say our goodbyes… I wasn’t even sure if I was gonna see Jack again, even if he was the only thing that I was thinking about right now. And then-

Jack and I turned out heads in the direction of the front door, seeing it open as Casey came stumbling out in a dressing gown… And she wasn’t alone.

Rory came out to… In exactly the same clothes he had been wearing last night at the bar. The embraced, smiling at each other before kissing wildly as both Jack and I stood there, mouths agape, staring at the two of them.

‘Casey?’ I said loudly, causing the two of them to quickly separate and whip their heads in our direction.

‘Heyyyy, Emma…’ She said, ‘… What, uhh… What are you up to?’

She turned back to Rory and said goodbye to him, before he set off down the path towards us.

‘Nice,’ Jack said flatly, shaking his head and smiling at Rory, ‘Come on, we’ve gotta get to work.’

Rory smiled at us both and set off down the path, beckoning Jack to come with him as he took the walk of shame.

‘It was nice to meet you, Emma,’ Jack said, turning back to me and smiling. He stuck out a hand, which I shook in a formal manner, feeling the roughness of his skin in the process, his touch sending a warm shiver through me. ‘Maybe I’ll see you around town…’

‘Yeah…’ I said, ‘Yeah, maybe…’

The two of us looked into each other for a moment, caught in early morning air, before Jack smiled and nodded at me, turning away and heading up the path to catch up with Rory. He didn’t look back.

I watched him go, until he had turned the corner and drifted off out of sight. And then-

‘Emma. Abigail. Clarke. What the
fuck
was that…?!’

Casey came running down the path in her slippers from the house, standing next to me and looking up the road in the direction Jack and Rory had just gone.

‘The guy from the bar? Rory’s friend? Jack? You stayed at his house? What happened? Did you guys… No, you
didn’t…!’

Casey glared back at me, open mouthed as she indulged in her imagination for a minute.

‘No we most certainly did
not,’
I said, punching her on the arm. ‘Besides, how can you pull that on me? You’ve been caught red handed.’