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“So, you sleeping with her? You said I’d gotten the wrong impression. I assumed you were talking about my wife.”
Jack sputtered and started to say, “That’s none of your business.” But then he paused, because, well, as long as Allison was still technically Stark’s wife it kind of was Stark’s business. The two might be separated, but their body language when he walked into the room earlier made Jack wonder if there was a reason that neither had ever actually filed for divorce. And clearly, Stark at least wanted it to still be his business.
With a pang, Jack remembered how he had felt when his ex-wife started dating again. He had known things were over between them, and they’d already started planning the divorce, but that didn’t make it any easier to watch her flirting with some other guy when she was technically still his wife. Jack didn’t want to think about how he’d have felt if he’d still been trying to make their marriage work.
Given the looks Stark had been shooting Allison over the last two days, he seemed intent on fixing his marriage. In which case, Jack didn’t really want to be that guy sticking his nose in the middle of everything.
If Allison no longer wanted to be married to Stark, well, then chances were they’d get divorced sooner or later now that Stark had returned to Eureka, hopefully sooner. Jack could wait and make a move then. He figured trying to date someone who might still be in love her not-quite-ex was probably not the best foundation for a relationship anyway. Having been a rebound too many times, Jack decided to wait for a sign that Allison was actually over Stark (like serving him divorce papers) before trying to see if he himself had a chance with her. In the meantime…
Jack turned back from where his eyes had drifted during his moment of distraction and found Stark with a raised eyebrow and a mocking look on his face. Ugh. He really didn’t know what Allison saw in him. Then again, Jack had just seen Stark without his shirt and, well, he could see there were tradeoffs. Nathan Stark was just too damn attractive for his own good. The problem was, he probably knew it too.
Even more flustered by the turn his thoughts had taken, Jack cleared his throat and ran a distracted hand through his hair. He might not like the guy, but Jack had had his unfortunate moment of empathy and felt that he had to tell Stark something.
“Look,” he started awkwardly, “Allison’s an amazing woman, but I kind of have a thing against getting involved with someone who’s still currently married. So, uh, if you came back to Eureka looking to fix things with Allison, don’t worry about me getting in your way.”
Stark had snorted and raised his eyebrow skeptically again, but didn’t seem inclined to immediately respond further, so Jack tried to regain his footing in the conversation. Yeah, enough indirectly talking about emotions with a virtual stranger.
“Of course if she dumps you, that’ll be a different story.” Jack grinned and watched Stark’s eyes narrow. Then he shrugged and continued before Stark could cut in, “But as long as you guys are still married or working things out, I’ll try to cut back on any major flirting.”
Then, perhaps out of a desire to make Stark as uncomfortable with this conversation as Jack was – or because Jack had just seen those abs – he impishly added, “…with either of you.”
Watching Stark half-choke and accidentally fumble his tie, Jack mentally patted himself on the back before skedaddling out of the room with a wave over his shoulder. He’d made his point and had gotten the last word (or at least he’d run away before Stark could recover and start mocking him). Now he had to focus on his job and track down a ghost.
Or a non-corporeal something-or-other.
Jack wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to this crazy town.