19

Kelly and Jack walked into her mother’s kitchen for Sunday dinner and Jack had the odd sensation of utter belonging and acceptance, as if he had always been a member of this family. Kelly’s brother Liam was pulling a beer out of the fridge when they entered the room. Without missing a beat, he tossed one to Jack before he cracked his own beer open. Kelly’s mother kissed and hugged Kelly then turned immediately to Jack and pulled him into her embrace for kisses and hugs as if he were one of her own.

Jack was surprised to find himself hugging her back as if he had been hugging her at Sunday dinners his whole life. Life with Kelly was starting to be one big revelation after another. When he told Mabry that he had been bored by every woman he had dated before Kelly, Jack had immediately realized the truth of that. His life with Kelly, despite its fake beginning, was never boring. He never had that usual let-down feeling when he realized that there was nothing under the surface of a woman.