The boy looked between Lizzy and Jack for a moment with quiet curiosity. “You guys are weird.”
Jack burst out laughing and released his hostage. Lizzy stuck her tongue out at him and checked the box off with a flowery twist of her wrist.
“There.” She hugged the clipboard to her chest for a second.
“Mom,” Elliot said, “you promised to help me with the science fair project.”
“That’s right.” Shannon turned to Lizzy with an apologetic grimace. “I did promise.”
“Go on,” Lizzy said, shooing them away with her hands. “Jack and I’ll put the books back.”
“Thank you. I swear these school projects are more work for the parents than the kids.” She hugged her son to her side andheaded toward the back room. “Come on, kiddo. Let’s go do some homework.”
Lizzy watched them go with a smile. Jack draped a friendly arm around her shoulders and tugged her to his side. She returned his one-armed hug as casually as she could even though she wanted to melt against him.
“What do you say we take a lunch break?” he said.
“Lunch?” It was past three and she was starving, but their lunch break yesterday had taken an hour and a half out of their day. She wished there was a more efficient way to relax and savor the moment. “Sure…”
“You don’t sound too sure,” Jack said, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
Before she could answer, he stepped away from her, taking his warmth with him. She was briefly tempted to protest, but he’d already walked off. He picked up his backpack from the floor.
“Ta-da.” He held up two brown paper bags with fanfare.
“What are those?”
“I packed our lunch to save us time. It’s not good for you to skip meals.”
“Aww, Jack.” Her heart melted into a puddle, and she made grabby hands for her lunch. She was dying to see what he’d packed.
He handed her one of the paper bags, and they sat down cross-legged on the floor. She opened the bag and eagerly pulled out its contents. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cut into triangles. Some baby carrots. A box of apple juice. And… Oreos. Her eyes almost rolled back into her head. ShelovedOreos.
“I hope I didn’t get your hopes up.” Jack rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s just a boring sack lunch.”
“Are you kidding? This is incredible.” She took a giant bite out of her sandwich. “Oh, my God. How is this so good?”
“You’re just hungry,” he said, looking pleased nonetheless. He bit into his sandwich. “Damn. Thisisgood.”
“Did you use grape jelly?” She poked the straw into her juice box.
“Yeah. That’s how my mom used to make them for us.”
“Classic.”
She chewed her second bite more slowly to enjoy the nostalgic flavors. The sticky saltiness of the peanut butter perfectly complemented the cool and tangy sweetness of the grape jelly. The soft, squishy white bread was the ideal conduit for the heavenly combination.
“Can we have this again tomorrow?” she asked.
Jack chuckled and finished off his sandwich in two more bites. A smudge of peanut butter and jelly clung to the corner of his lips. She reached across with her hand, wiped it neatly off, and stuck her finger into her mouth, licking it with a smack. Only when his eyes widened did she realize what she’d done.
Shit. What was she thinking? Well, she obviously wasn’t. But they were best friends, for God’s sake. What was the big deal? They’d eaten off each other’s plates plenty of times. The problem was they had never eaten off each other’s faces before.
Shit. Jack’s shell-shocked expression didn’t alter as he stared at her mouth. There was a glint in his eyes that looked a lot like… hunger. Desire burst into flames inside her body in response. But for him, it was probably because he was still hungry. For food.
Shit. She grabbed four baby carrots and stuffed them all into her mouth at the same time. Jack finally blinked—several times—before the hungry look disappeared to be replaced by amusement. A corner of his lips—the one she’d so nicely cleaned off for him—quirked into a lopsided grin.
She worked to chew the four pieces of carrots as they slipped around her mouth and jabbed into her cheeks. But, she was tenacious, and she at last swallowed. If it weren’t for the Oreos, she would’ve claimed to be full and jumped back to work to avoid the awkwardness.
