Redeeming the Playboy

by Carol Marinelli

  Jack helped, and not just with the cutlery.

  ‘Janey is nearly sixteen,’ he pointed out. ‘She should be making breakfast, Nina.’

  ‘And she is.’

  ‘And you should be allowed to say you’re a vegetarian and that you don’t eat sausages.’ He looked at her. ‘You would have eaten them, wouldn’t you?’

  ‘Of course not.’

  ‘Liar.’ Jack grinned. ‘You’d go against every one of your principles just to please her. You don’t have to be her mum.’

  ‘I know that. But she needs more than just a big sister.’

  ‘No,’ Jack said. ‘She just needs you to be you and she needs to take on some of the responsibility too. What were you doing at that age?’

  He left her for a moment to ponder and when he returned with orange juice and glasses she answered his question, because at fifteen years old her part-time job in the hardware store had made a vital contribution to the family.

  ‘Working,’ Nina said. ‘And going to school. We weren’t exactly well off.’ And though he appeared unmoved, Jack was far from it, especially when, as they sat eating breakfast, talking and laughing, Janey had mentioned their mum and the Mother’s Day breakfast they’d shared just before she’d died.

  ‘Nina did all the cooking then,’ Janey said. ‘I just got to pour on the maple syrup.’ And he felt his stomach tighten as he realised, perhaps properly, all she had been through. That Nina hadn’t been much older than Janey was now when she had lost her parents, and the thought of her so young and alone and dealing with such grief brought out a rare surge of compassion in him.

  Not that he showed it.

  Instead, because they’d cooked, he found out that meant he and Nina were doing the dishes and he grumbled all the way through it. Then Janey grumbled when Nina suggested they go on the whale boat trip.

  ‘You’re going,’ Jack said in the end to Janey. ‘You can miserable with me.’

  And though Nina wanted him gone, there was a sigh of relief she held onto because handling the two of them was just so much easier when he was around. Maybe because he was actually old enough to be their parent—the nine years Jack had on her made a big difference.

  ‘Thanks,’ Nina said again.

  ‘No need to thank me.’

  They were impossible to get out of the house, Jack realised.

  Janey took for ever in the bathroom and came out fully made up, while Blake had zero attention span and had to be told five times to wash and get dressed. Nina thought that Jack, with his streamlined life, would get irritated, because it was close to eleven by the time they all headed off, but he didn’t seem fazed at all.

  Jack talked to Blake in the car about the hockey game the previous night and Janey moaned that the last thing she wanted to see was a group of whales.

  ‘A pod of whales.’ Jack turned briefly from the driving seat. ‘It’s a pod of whales, not a group of whales.’

  Nina rolled her eyes, surprised when Janey giggled.

  On deck, it was absolutely freezing, but the cabin was warm and there was endless hot chocolate. They took it in turns to go in and out, but it was more than worth it when finally a pod of whales was spotted. Far from being bored by them, Janey and Blake stayed on deck for ages—it was Nina and Jack who ducked in for some warmth.

  ‘Thanks for this,’ Nina said. ‘They’ve had the best day.’

  ‘What about you?’ Jack asked.

  ‘It’s been brilliant,’ Nina said. ‘I really do appreciate it.’ She didn’t dare ask Jack what sort of day he was having—he’d been so kind to take them on, but surely this wasn’t his ideal way to spend a weekend. After all, he had admitted that he rarely used the house and playing carer to two rather troubled foster-children on a rare weekend off no doubt had him wondering why on earth he had got involved with her.

  He was very quiet on the drive home.

  He told Nina about a couple of local restaurants, but apart from that he didn’t say much.

  ‘I’m tired,’ Blake said.

  ‘Can we just stay home and eat?’ Janey asked.

  They’d spent one night there and already Janey had referred to it as home.

  It was how he had felt many years ago.

  Yes, Jack was quiet.

  They arrived back at the house and Jack saw them in.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Blake asked when after a quick drink Jack said goodbye.

  ‘Jack’s going home.’ Nina smiled. ‘It’s Saturday night!’ she said as she followed him out to the hall

  ‘Thanks again.’ Nina smiled.

  He kissed her more thoroughly than he had the last time they had been in this hall, wondered perhaps if he could be persuaded to stay again.

  ‘Have a great night …’ It was Nina who pulled back.

  ‘Sure,’ Jack said. ‘You too.’ He was just a tiny bit rattled and couldn’t work out why. ‘What do you think you’ll do?’

  ‘I’m sure we’ll find something, and we might try ice skating tomorrow …’ She gave him another kiss. ‘See you then.’

  ‘Nina …’ He should really just turn and go, really not say what he was about to, but his mouth was moving faster than his brain. ‘What was that little snipe for?’

  ‘When?’

  ‘“It’s Saturday night!”‘

  ‘Well, it is Saturday night and I remember you telling me you hadn’t had one off in ages that hadn’t been taken up by social and networking events,’ Nina said. ‘It wasn’t a snipe.’

  ‘You’re sure?’ Jack checked.

  ‘Jack …’ Nina was not going to get into this. ‘I hope you have a good night.’

  And he drove off towards the lights of a very busy city. Jack knew how to spend a free Saturday night. And he was free, he told himself when he headed to his favourite bar and met up with a few colleagues. But when he found himself being chatted up by an exceptionally good-looking brunette, whose baggage contained only the lipstick it held, he couldn’t seem to concentrate on the conversation. His mind kept drifting back to the house and all that was going on there.

  And he was free too to leave the bar alone, even to the pout of the stunning brunette, but Jack was unsettled and even a bit angry.

  Nina hadn’t even asked him about his plans.

  Which was how he wanted things. The last thing he wanted was to get involved in a relationship with Nina Wilson, and the irony that he had revised that from fling wasn’t lost on Jack.

  She was carer to two children and he wanted none of that.

  He wanted straightforward, uncomplicated, and Nina was none of that either.

  ‘Jack!’ As the lift door opened he saw Monica standing there, not in tears this time but wearing a smile.

  ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘As you said, there doesn’t always have to be a reason …’

  Jack smiled as she walked over to him, but it sort of halted on his lips as he said words he’d thought he never would.

  ‘I’m seeing someone.’

  He was, and for the first time he said it.

  ‘What?’ Monica smiled. ‘For all of two weeks? It can’t be that serious.’ She pressed her lips to him, ran her hands down his chest.

  ‘Yeah, well, it is.’ Jack’s hands halted hers.

  ‘Doesn’t matter …’ Monica purred.

  But as he kissed her back, Jack knew that it did, that for the first time he was serious about a woman and that he could be about to lose his formidable ‘between the sheets’ reputation here, because he wasn’t even turned on. He stopped kissing her back, because he wasn’t enjoying it and because …

  ‘Actually, it does matter.’

  He saw Monica to the lift and then let himself in and checked his phone. No, of course Nina hadn’t called him.

  Neither did he call her, because for the first time he was seeing someone, for the first time things were starting to look serious, for Jack at least.

  He had no idea how Nina felt. She seemed delighted to keep thin
gs casual, didn’t care a bit that he was out tonight.

  Jack didn’t know what to think.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ‘JACK!’

  Blake was delighted to see him. ‘Janey got hurt.’

  ‘I’m fine,’ Janey insisted. ‘I fell over, ice skating.’ She rolled up her sleeve and showed a rather spectacular bruise, as Nina came through to the lounge and he saw the tension on her face.

  ‘Great, isn’t it?’ She rolled her eyes. ‘I’m sending her back black and blue.’

  ‘It was an accident, ice skating,’ Jack calmly pointed out.

  ‘It will be fine, Nina,’ Janey said, and he heard the younger sister trying to reassure the older, actually heard the rare tenderness in Janey’s voice. And despite appearances, despite the horrible things she said at times, Jack realised Janey really did love Nina.

  ‘So how did you all go?’ Jack followed her into the bedroom where Nina was packing.

  ‘Okay, I guess, but Janey took herself off to bed at eight last night and this morning she didn’t want to talk. Still, it was fun ice skating till she fell. How was your night?’

  ‘Yeah, okay.’ He didn’t even have to be evasive, Nina simply didn’t want the details.

  Everyone was trying to ignore that the small holiday was over, trying to pretend that everything was fine. It was Blake who couldn’t hold out.

  ‘I don’t want to go back.’

  Jack was loading up the car when Blake said it.

  ‘I know,’ Nina answered, as she always did, because Blake never wanted to go back, only this time it was different. ‘Couldn’t we stay another night?’ Janey asked.

  ‘We can’t,’ Nina replied. ‘Blake’s got school tomorrow and we’ve got to go and sort things out.’

  Nina watched as Jack locked up the house and when he climbed into the car and drove off, he didn’t really say much. For once it was Janey who was talking.

  ‘What are we doing tonight?’

  ‘Sleeping,’ Nina said. ‘And we can set up your bedroom.’

  ‘Jack can do that,’ Janey said.

  ‘Uh-oh …’ Jack shook his head. ‘I’ve got to head home once I’ve dropped you guys off.’ He glanced in the mirror as he said it and saw Janey’s frown, but didn’t pay too much attention to it.

  ‘I think I might go back to Barbara’s tonight.’ Janey’s voice from the back seat broke into her thoughts.

  ‘Barbara’s?’ Nina swung around. ‘I thought the whole point of running away was because you didn’t want to ever go back there!’

  ‘Yeah, well, I’ve changed my mind.’

  ‘Janey …’ Nina was struggling to keep exasperation out of her voice. ‘Let’s just leave things as they are. We can have a nice night, just the two of us, and sort things out, talk things out …’

  Jack glanced in the mirror again and saw that Janey was back to looking out of the window, realising then that the last thing Janey wanted was another night alone with Nina.

  Why?

  He said nothing, just kept driving, but his mind was working overtime.

  Why wouldn’t Janey want a night alone with her big sister? He went through things just as he would with a patient, doing his best to take all the emotion out—except it was impossible to extract emotion from this equation.

  Janey was back to scowling and as they approached Manhattan Blake started to cry.

  ‘I’ll see you in a couple of weeks.’ Nina daren’t say it might be sooner, not until she had spoken with his social worker. There was an appointment next week for them to come and see her flat—the wheels tended to move really slowly when a child wasn’t in danger. Jack said nothing. He really didn’t know how to deal with the situation. He could see Janey’s angry expression in the rear-view mirror, could almost feel the daggers she was hurling at him embedding in his back.

  ‘Just here,’ Nina said as they approached the house where Blake lived, and Jack wondered how she did this every fortnight. Saying goodbye once was bad enough, but having to do it week in and week out must kill her. He helped her to get Blake’s case out of the boot and saw her pale face as she did her best to stay calm for Blake, who was really crying now and clinging to her.

  ‘Of course you can show me your poster.’ She glanced up at Jack. ‘I might be a while.’

  ‘Take your time.’

  ‘Can Jack come and see it?’ Blake asked hopefully, but Jack shook his head.

  ‘I’m going to wait in the car.’

  Nina didn’t blame him. He wasn’t trying to impress Blake, or be his best friend, or proxy father, but she felt the sting of his rejection and it compounded her thoughts that she must end this soon, because after just one weekend Blake already hero-worshipped him. He’d already had enough loss in his life and she didn’t want him falling in love with Jack, only to lose him too.

  In fact, Jack would’ve loved to have made this transition easier for Blake, would have happily gone in and looked at his hockey posters, but he had a feeling that there was a rather more difficult conversation to be had and that it was about to take place.

  Jack’s instincts were rarely wrong.

  ‘Happy now?’ Janey demanded as soon as he got into the car. ‘You give him the best weekend, driving around in your flash Jag, and then drop him back …’ She was going ballistic and Jack just sat there. ‘Mr Nice Guy!’ Janey sneered, and Jack sat there as she told him how he thought he was better than them, better looking than them and that he was messing around with her sister.

  Jack anticipated what would come next, warned Janey that if she spoke like that again, he would get out of the car and go and get Nina, which was when Janey burst into tears. In the end there was no need for a long talk—all Jack really had to do was listen.

  ‘Can you tell Nina this?’ Jack asked.

  ‘No,’ Janey sobbed. ‘Because she panics about everything, she feels guilty about everything. I know you think she’s good at her job, and calm about things, but she loses her temper when it comes to us and she’ll go crazy when she finds out …’

  And Jack smiled an invisible smile, because Nina would do that. ‘I’m scared she’ll get into trouble and lose her job or something.’

  ‘Your sister is not going to get into trouble,’ Jack assured her, ‘and neither are you—you’ve done nothing wrong.’ He was very certain on that. ‘Can I speak with Nina about it?’ he asked. ‘I can come back to the apartment and we can talk about it tonight …’

  ‘No!’ Janey begged, her hand moving to open the door.

  ‘Don’t run off, Janey.’ Jack was stern and she shrank back in the seat. He would have spoken some more but all too soon Nina was coming out of the house, doing her best not to cry, waving to a tearful Blake, and somehow Jack had to sort this, would sort this, but he wondered how best to go about it. Nina was going to freak, he knew that, which meant Janey was likely to run again …

  ‘Please don’t say anything,’ Janey begged as Nina got into the car, all falsely bright and cheerful.

  ‘Right.’ She smiled at Janey. ‘Let’s get back to the flat.’

  Except there was no way Jack was going to drop the two of them off at Nina’s flat.

  ‘We could go back to my place,’ he suggested.

  ‘No.’ Nina was adamant. ‘I want to have some time with Janey before we go to the social worker in the morning.’

  Jack drove through the wet streets, his mind working overtime, but as they drove past Central Park he knew what to do and Jack indicated and turned into the hospital.

  ‘Do you need to check on someone?’ Nina asked as Jack slid into his reserved parking spot.

  ‘No,’ Jack said. ‘I want to get Janey’s elbow examined.’

  ‘It’s just a bruise,’ Nina said. ‘I know I made a fuss, but I was just worried about having to face the social worker tomorrow with Janey covered in bruises. I was being ridiculous. She’s fifteen, she fell, ice skating …’

  ‘Still, it’s better to get it all documented,’ Jack said, gettin
g out of the car and holding the door open for Janey.

  Nina frowned, surprised that Jack thought it necessary, but more surprised that Janey so willingly got out of the car.

  They walked into Emergency and Jack had a word with one of the nurses to ask which doctors were on.

  ‘She doesn’t need to see the Head of Emergency,’ Nina said, when she heard Jack asking for Lewis to examine Janey.

  ‘He’s a great guy,’ Jack said. ‘I trust him implicitly.’ He gave Janey a thin smile. ‘I’ll just go and have a word with him. Nina, why don’t you get Janey into a gown? He’ll need to examine her for range of movement …’

  He wanted Lewis to see Janey, and with good reason. Not only was Lewis an excellent doctor and trusted colleague, but he would understand more than most the complexities of dealing with a very troubled young girl.

  ‘I’d rather you hear it from Janey.’ Jack spoke briefly with Lewis. ‘Assuming, that is, that she talks, but basically we’re not here about her elbow.’

  ‘Right.’ Lewis nodded.

  ‘And if she doesn’t talk to you,’ Jack said, ‘then maybe she might need a night of observation waiting for the orthos to have a look.’

  ‘Let’s just see how it goes,’ Lewis suggested. ‘She’s here with her sister?’

  ‘Nina Wilson, the social worker.’ Jack nodded. ‘She thinks that I’ve brought Janey here just to get her arm examined, but whatever happens I’m going to have to step in. I’m just hoping that Janey will talk to you.’

  ‘Sure.’ Lewis nodded. ‘How about you introduce me?’ Lewis called for one of the senior nurses to go in with him and smiled and introduced himself to an anxious-looking Janey.

  ‘Okay,’ Jack said. ‘Nina and I are going to go and get a coffee. As I said, Lewis is a friend of mine, you’re in very good hands.’

  It was only then that it dawned on Nina what was happening, or maybe it had started to a couple of moments before. She was about to say no, to insist she was staying with Janey, but she realised then that there was another reason that Jack had brought them here.

  She had seen scenarios like this on endless occasions. She was being removed from Janey to give her sister a chance to talk.