More heart-aching revelation. Pepper swallowed around the knot in her throat. “I’m sorry, too. I push too hard. You’re a great big brother when you’re not smothering me. And you chose the most awesome woman to fall in love with, so I know not all hope is lost.”
He snorted. “Lynn is awesome. And she’s going to kick my butt for being an idiot.”
“She’ll have to go through me,” Pepper said as she laid her hand over his for a moment and squeezed tight, blinking hard to keep tears from filling her eyes.
He dropped her in front of the apartment doors, flashing her a thumbs-up before he pulled away and left her.
Pepper grabbed the hidden key Jack had shown her all those months ago when she’d crashed at his apartment for the week. She let herself in and found him sprawled on the couch, one hand absently running over the dark gray cushions.
He lifted his head at her entrance, a tired look in his eyes. “I’m not in the mood to talk about that damned car, Pepper.”
“Screw the car.” She was at his side in a nanosecond, nudging until he sat up and made room for her to settle next to him. She put her arms around him and hugged him tight. “That’s not why I’m here. Tell me what’s wrong, Jackjack.”
She felt his answering sigh travel through his whole body. His chin fell on her shoulder, his breath tickling the side of her neck as he spoke. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
“Bullshit.” She eased back and gripped his cheeks with her hands. “It’s not nothing, and I am worried. I saw the look on your face when Parker and I were arguing. I know it annoys you when we fight, but it was different this time. It was like you were…” She searched for the right words. “Seeing a ghost, maybe?”
“I may as well have.” His voice cracked slightly. “Watching people fight isn’t exactly new to me.”
She hesitated, sweeping her fingers over the strong line of his jaw. “Your parents?”
He nodded. But he didn’t elaborate.
“You’ve never talked about them, for as long as I’ve known you,” she said cautiously.
A derisive sound left his mouth. “Wasn’t much to talk about. My parents fought. My mother left. End of story.”
Pepper gently touched his cheek. “We both know there’s more to it than that.”
“What the hell else is there to say?” The vehemence in his tone startled her. “There was a reason I spent every waking hour at your place when I was growing up. Your house was my salvation, Pepper. Just being around you and Parker and your parents…” He breathed heavily. “It was everything I wished I had, okay? And when I was there, it meant that I didn’t have to see…”
He trailed off, but she didn’t let him stop. “To see what?”
“My goddamn zombie of a father!” he burst out.
Pepper’s eyes widened as Jack shot to his feet, raking both hands through his hair as he paced to the window, staring into the darkness. “It was like living with a coma patient,” he mumbled, anguish etched into his voice. “After Mom left, he barely said a word to me. Barely looked at me. I was a living, breathing reminder of the woman he loved—the woman he’d frickin’ forced into marriage.”
She couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped. The only detail she’d known about Jack’s background was that his mother had walked out on him and his dad, but this revelation…it sent a spike of agony to her heart.
Jack caught her shocked look and laughed harshly. “Oh yeah, you heard me right. My dad knocked her up when they were nineteen. She didn’t want to keep me but he talked her into it. And then he pretty much strong-armed her into marrying him.”
Pepper’s heart split in two. She rose from the couch and marched up to him, stilling his frantic pacing by planting both hands on his chest. “Oh God. Jack.”
“She didn’t want to be a mother. Didn’t want to be a wife.” His eyes darkened. “My dad was desperate to make a good life for her, but she couldn’t keep on pretending. I used to sit in my room and hear them screaming at each other. Dad would beg her to try harder, she’d yell at him for making her be there.”
Tears pricked Pepper’s eyes, her hands trembling as she stroked his chest, which was heaving with each ragged breath he sucked into his lungs. “I’m so sorry, baby.”
Jack didn’t seem to hear her. He kept talking in a faraway tone. “Eventually she had enough. I came home from school one day to find her packing her bags.” His voice shook again, harder, ringing with torment. “She didn’t even kiss me goodbye. You know what she did?”
Pepper wasn’t sure she wanted to hear it, but she forced herself to whisper, “What?”