Doug paced between the swing set and the slide. When Jackie had texted, asking if he wanted to talk, he suggested this place, where they’d had their first serious conversation. Now it might be the place of their last.
Jackie arrived a couple minutes late, hurrying across the soccer field as if she were trying to make up time. He didn’t care; he’d seen her coming a block away, so it wasn’t as if he thought he’d been stood up.
She picked a swing. She pushed herself on her tip toes, letting her momentum move her through the warm August evening air. “Our last talk didn’t end very well.”
He sat beside her. “No. It could have gone worse, but not by much.” He’d been lucky she kicked him out of her place before things became even more heated. “But now I have a chance to apologize.”
She grinned at him and, for a second, he thought she was going to tell him he didn’t have to. “Proceed.”
Fair enough. He deserved it. “I didn’t want to say anything about my contract until I was sure I could break it. I’m sorry you heard about it from Louise and not from me. But I’m sorrier about not talking to you about Winnipeg and how much I wanted us to move there. It’s been pointed out to me repeatedly that I did a better job hiding how I felt than I thought.”
“I accept your apology.”
That particular band around his chest vanished. “What about the rest of it?”
“That’s what this talk is for.”
She wasn’t going to change her mind. He could tell. The set of her jaw. Her calmness, which had been absent the other evening. “I’ve been thinking,” she continued. “Like, truly thinking about moving to Winnipeg, and I can’t. I’m sorry.”
“Why not?” He wanted the details, to see if there was some way he could change her mind.
“I’m not a city girl. I tried. Really tried,” Jackie told him. “Not just school.” She meant her college program. It was a given she’d be in the city for that. “I stayed in Winnipeg for a year after that. I found an apartment and a roommate, got a job. I went to all the festivals, took some fun night classes to meet people. I did everything right, and I hated every minute of it. You would be my only reason for going, and as much as I care about you and want to be with you, I don’t think that would be fair to either of us.”
Her words were honest but brutal. She was right; she’d given it a shot. “Some people are city mice; some are country mice. There’s nothing wrong, and everything right, about knowing and being who you are.”
“What about you?” Jackie asked.
“What about me?” He wasn’t upset if that’s what she was thinking.
“Do you think you gave Hopewell a fair chance?”
“Um…” She must have been taking lessons from Patricia on how not to pull punches.
“Be honest.”
He’d done the same thing she had. Gone out. Participated. “Hopewell is no place for a city mouse.” He had to admit, for a city mouse, he was pretty comfortable in the country. Victor Lang had contacted him again, upping his offer to stay to include a part-time medical office assistant to schedule his appointments and help keep his paperwork up-to-date.
“How long before Dr. Singh starts?” Jackie asked.
“She’ll be here in November.”
“Then no matter what, I have you for the next two and a half months, right?”
“Absolutely.” She couldn’t go, and he wasn’t staying, but like he’d said before, that didn’t mean they couldn’t enjoy all the days they had left.
“Excellent.”