“Well, I still feel like shit about it. You two have something very real, and I love you both. So I’m hoping you’ll forgive me.” She patted my hand and headed for the door that led to the showroom of her shop. “You know, I have just the clasp that will hold this together for you. Give me a second and I’ll grab it from the display.”

“Clasp? But we didn’t even decide what metal—”

She closed the door, and I heard the audible click of a lock. What in the actual hell?

The back door that led to the parking lot opened, and Jackson walked in.

My heart jumped, like someone had used the paddles to get a rhythm back. I’d missed this man so much that I wasn’t sure I was still a complete person.

He closed the door behind him but didn’t throw the lock. Instead, he faced me and leaned back against it, which pretty much felt like the same thing. His face was clean-shaven, his baseball hat was on backward, and his MIT T-shirt stretched across muscles I knew all too well. Every single part of him looked good enough to eat, but his eyes…those brought me to my knees. They were red-rimmed and swollen. He looked haunted.

“I thought you left today,” I said, breaking the silence but not the tension.

“Five hours,” he answered, tucking his hands in his pockets.

“Finley?”

“Claire and Brie took her up to the water park. Figured keeping her busy would be best. We…” He swallowed. “We said our see-you-laters this morning to make it easier on her.”

“I’m so sorry.” That explained the swollen eyes. My heart ached for him.

“Thanks. I put your number in her cell phone. She asked for it. The phone’s only for deployment, so we can FaceTime, and I doubt she’ll bother you—”

“It’s fine. I’ll pick up whenever she needs me.” I missed Finley just as much as I missed Jackson, and I hadn’t been prepared for that. Hadn’t been prepared for any of this.

He pushed off the door and came toward me but stayed on the opposite side of the line of worktables that divided the small room in half.

My gaze flew to the door.

“You can leave at any time. I’m not trying to trap you. Just talk to you,” he said softly, bracing his palms on the table between us.

“Nothing’s changed.” It couldn’t. It didn’t matter how I felt about the incredible man standing in front of me. Survival had to be my first priority.