"Isreally goodmom" James said with a mouthful of lobster.
"Swallow before talking Jimmy." Elizabeth nudged him
"The kid's right, though. You've really perfected the recipe." Jack said from across the table.
"It's the salsa." She said, trying to be modest.
"I think they both compliment each other nicely." Jack and Elizabeth shared an odd look at Rey's assessment, a silent exchange filled with Do you think she knows? How could she? "Thanks for dinner guys. It really is good." Rey said shoving a taco in her mouth.
Jack told a few more harmless stories over dinner while Rey and James shared stories of their own, filling in some of the gaps over the past few years. Elizabeth could not take her eyes off of Rey as she was telling stories about their life with Will. Her every mannerism was Jack's. The way she explained everything so animatedly, was so uniquely his. She never realized, or she had forgotten. It must have been harder on Will than he let on. It certainly explained why her and Rey's relationship had become so strained. She was reminding her more and more of Jack.
They finished dinner and moved to the living room to play a game before sending James up to bed. He wanted to play Euchre since there was four of them and declared loudly he wanted to be on his mother's team.
"I have to warn you, it's been a long time since I've played this." He said across the table to Rey.
"I won't hold it against you." She smirked at him.
James started to shuffle the cards and Jack put a hand to his forearm. "Hold it. Check his sleeves. This one's a cheat."
"I don't cheat." James said offended.
"Yes you do" Elizabeth and Rey said simultaneously.
"I'm afraid the evidence is stacked against you, kid. Now empty those sleeves." Jack ordered.
"See? Empty." James said shaking his sleeves.
They proceeded to play the game, Jack and Rey won the first two games. James and Elizabeth won the third, but after that it was a clean sweep for the next four games in favor of their opposition.
"Come on, mom. We can't let them win again." James urged her.
"I'm doing the best I can, sweetie." Elizabeth answered.
"Hey, no table talk." Rey said from behind her cards, biting her bottom lip as she was deep in thought.
"I wouldn't call that table talk exactly, but still, she's right. Keep a lid on it you two." Jack muttered with the same look of concentration, all the way down to the bitten bottom lip.
Elizabeth looked between the two and shook her head. Scary.
The game went on. Again, Jack and Rey won the first three points handedly.
"They're cheating!" James said throwing down his cards.
"How can they be cheating? You're the one dealing." Elizabeth calmed him.
"Only two points left, until total annihilation." Rey joked.
James dealt out the cards and Elizabeth watched as Jack and Rey both organized their cards. They never looked at one another, they only fiddled with their fingers, scrunched up their faces, bit at their bottom lip…realization dawned on Elizabeth. "You are cheating!"
"We are not!" Jack exclaimed.
"Oh really? James, deal again. Play this hand completely still, don't touch your face, move your eyes, no movement." She said to Jack.
"How am I supposed to play my cards?" Jack asked confused. "Liz, you really think we came up with a way of cheating without talking?"
"No, I suppose you're right. Let's just finish the game. It's getting late and it is way passed a certain somebody's bedtime.
They all picked up their cards and started strategizing. Jack looked at Rey with a smile and she nodded back at him. "I'm sorry. I can't let you go on believing you're such terrible card players. We were cheating."
"I knew it!" Elizabeth and James said together
"You catch on quick, girl" He said to Rey, still impressed that it only took a few hands for her to catch on to his signals.
"Standardized testing would indicate that I'm too smart for my own good and that I bore easily." She said proudly.
"There are worse traits to have. Trust me." Jack assured her, having intimate knowledge of being bored with school.
"A family full of cheats. Am I the only honest one in this room?" Lizzie asked, and at once the room got unbearably quiet.
"Time for bed, James. Come on." Rey said, getting up from the coffee table and leading the bleary eyed James from the table.
"Rey…"
"Goodnight." Rey cut off her mother and quickly went upstairs.
Once he was sure they were well out of ear shot. "I think it might be safe to assume that she knows something's up." Jack said getting up from the floor and moving to the couch.
"I'm a terrible mother." Elizabeth said resting her forehead on the coffee table.
"No, you're not. Come here" Jack beckoned her to sit next to him. She reluctantly got to her feet and walked to the couch, curling into him automatically when she sat down. "She's a victim of circumstance. We all were. If this, this, and this happened or hadn't happened…well it would just be different. You raised two magnificent kids with Will. Who knows how badly we might have screwed them up?"
Elizabeth laughed at that. "I just worry she won't understand. I don't want her to resent me. Or hate you."
"I think we're far from that, but I do think she probably doesn't want to be treated like she's some oblivious kid. I mean, Christ, Lizzie, she looks just like me."
"I know. It's eerie isn't it? Seeing the two of you together…it's like being in an episode of the Twilight Zone."
"Why didn't you tell me? I can't have been gone that long when you found out."
"I was scared to tell you. I was afraid you wouldn't want to have anything to do with us. One more thing to tie you back down here. You were so happy to leave, and the letters about all your adventures…how could I have taken that away from you?"
"You didn't even give me a chance."
"What chance did I owe you? A letter every month, a phone call every three, always saying you missed me and that it wouldn't be long before you came back. We both knew you weren't coming back. So, I waited and waited for you to ask me to come with you. Never, not once, not even an inkling of want was written on those pages. My heart was broken."
"I didn't ask you in any of those letters because I was saving up money to ask you the right way. But eventually I did ask."
"What do you mean?"
"Your dad would never have let you run off with me, unless it was legally binding." He said grabbing her hands, her ring finger pinched between his own.
"Don't tell me that." She said holding back a sob, "Please don't tell me that." She kept her eyes focused on his hands.
"When you didn't answer me, I assumed you'd found someone else and moved on. Then I saw the wedding announcement in the stupid newspaper, and I stopped sending them."
"When my father found out I was pregnant, he went crazy. He wanted to hunt you down and kill you. Every letter that came to the house after that day was burned in the fireplace, no matter how much I argued with him. He wouldn't even let me answer the phone."
"And then he had you marry Turner to avoid the scandal? Unbelievable."
"I had already tarnished my reputation enough, he said. But Will was a saint for going along with it. Taking in Rey, loving her like she was his. I owe him for all of this." She paused. "We were happy."
"I could have made you happy." He said sadly. "If you would have just said something. Told me how you were feeling, told me about Rey, I would have."
"We were just kids, Jack. You don't know what you would've done."
"Lizzie, I took that job to build a life for us. A life for us away from this godforsaken place."
"We talked about getting out of here together, remember? Then you up and left me here with that fucking boat, and you didn't come back for fifteen years!"
"I did come back once." He corrected.
"Seven years ago, and we didn't even speak."
"I'm not blameless in this, I know. We both made mistakes, mistaken assumptions, and I maintain, as I always have, that your father was an ass hat, may he rest in peace, but, Lizzie-and I'm being dead serious- you leave that fucking boat out of this." He teased with a small smile.
She laughed through her sobs and snuggled her face into his chest. "I'm so sorry, Jack."
"I'm sorry too."
They sat there holding each other for a long time in silent reverence, letting out final tears, and starting anew. Jack lifted her face, so he could look into her eyes without the past hanging over their heads. "Want to go for a walk?" He asked softly. She nodded.
They walked hand in hand all around the property, catching up and reminiscing.
"I'm sorry about Will." He said finally. "I hadn't really gotten around to telling you that."
"Me too. He didn't deserve that. He was a good man, a good dad, a good husband, but you want to know the craziest thing? He would have stepped aside in a second if you had ever come back."
"Even after James?"
"It might have been harder for him then, but he loved you too, Jack. He had every opportunity to hate you, but he almost always came to your defense. He knew. He knew we'd never have the same connection you and I had. He knew he was the second choice. It was something that always hung between us." She said sniffling.
They ended up back on the couch in the living room, under a shared blanket, boxes of pictures and photo albums strewn about around them.
"Her first birthday party, she'd stuck both of her arms elbow deep into the cake. It got everywhere." She laughed, flipping through an album that was placed on his lap. Jack smiled sadly. Elizabeth pointed to another picture. "First time on the boat. She was a natural. Still is. She really is so much like you."
"What made you choose Rey?" He asked, still perusing the photos.
She was silent for a moment, and he turned his head to see her holding back tears. "It's short for Rachel." She said at last.
"You named her after mom?" He asked sincerely surprised.
"She was the closest thing I had to a mom, and I thought it could be a nice way to pay homage to you, even if you didn't know." She wiped a stray tear from her face.
"Did she know?" He asked.
"Of course she knew, but I swore her to secrecy. She was a huge help to me. Her and Rey were very close." Elizabeth sat, hands folded in her lap.
"So you knew I'd been calling, asking about you, about the baby? How often were you there when I called?" He angled himself toward her after setting the photo album on the coffee table.
"I was still mad at you, and partly felt so guilty about marrying Will. She tried to get me to take the phone so many times." Elizabeth laughed at the memory of Rachel shoving the phone into her arms, hearing Jack's voice on the other end blathering on to no one.
"She loved you. I got an earful from her every time I called, begging me to stop being so stubborn and come home. She was very thankful for your help when she got sick. Were you there when she…?"
"I had left just a few hours before. She made me promise to tell you…someday…at all. I had decided to hash everything out with you when you came for the funeral, prepared Will for what was to come, and then you showed up with that girl. I couldn't do it."
"That was my assistant. Armor I convinced myself I needed. I couldn't bear the thought of coming back and seeing you with him, living happily together with your kid. So I had her come with me. It was all for show." He admitted ashamedly.
"So many missteps." She sighed. He lay back on the sofa, pulling her with him. She lay her head on his chest and shut her eyes.
"And missed steps." He said stroking her hair, watching as her breathing deepened. "I never stopped loving you." He whispered in her ear.
The words sent a shiver up her spine and her body started to shudder as tears started spilling again. He gathered her closer and she continued to cry softly into the crook of his neck.
"You smell the same." She murmured, breathing in his scent. "You smell like the sea." She nuzzled against him and pressed a soft kiss just underneath his jaw. Jack shut his eyes at the contact. She grabbed his face turning him to face her. "Tell me I'm not dreaming this. Tell me it's really you, that you're really here." She demanded, running her hand along his cheek stopping to rub her thumb along his bottom lip.
"I'm here, Lizabeth." He said searching her face, getting lost in her eyes. He pressed a kiss to her forehead at the look of desperation he found there and brought his hand to cup her face. "I'm here." He whispered again. She shut her eyes and he pressed another kiss to her forehead, to her eyelid, then to her cheek, finally capturing her mouth in a soft pleading kiss. She pressed her body into his, entangling her arms around his back, savoring the feel of his lips on hers again. They broke the kiss, resting their foreheads against the other's, Jack brushed her cheek with his thumb, giving her a soft smile. She smiled sheepishly back at him, keeping her eyes trained on his mouth. Jack pressed another kiss to the side of her forehead as he pulled her tighter against his chest, and the two fell asleep grasping onto each other, unwilling to let the moment slip away from them.