He's going on his own

"Sorry Kate." Jack replied shortly to his daughter's question, while pretending like there was something else catching his attention further into the mall. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad following her around for a while, but then again he knew full well how frustrating it would be just watching her going on one of her shopping sprees. "I have some places I'd like to visit myself."

"Well, suit yourself then!" She gave him a wry smile, before heading off through the crowd with swaying hips, and her father couldn't help but notice how every male in the mall turned their heads at least once to look when she passed on her way to the closest clothing store. For a moment he almost considered following her from a distance, just to make sure she didn't buy anything too expensive, or even more revealing than the short black top, high heels, and matching miniskirt she was already wearing.

He knew that Catherine was fully capable to take care of herself though, and in some ways he figured it would even more annoying just to watch her, than it would to actually be there and tell her off when he thought she was going too far. In that case he should be more worried about her younger sisters, but on the other hand he trusted they would never try and seek the same kind of attention as she did.

So he found himself strolling through the mall on his own instead, hoping to find some way to amuse himself until it was time to meet up with the others again, and fetch something to eat for dinner. He really wasn't in a mood for shopping though, and he barely even looked inside of the storefronts while walking down the hallways.

At some point, nearly an hour later, he actually found something that caught his attention however, which caused him to stop outside of a small boutique to look inside. It wasn't actually a thing for sale though, but rather a familiar figure who was loitering close to the entrance, and even as the clothes were different from the last time he saw her the same morning he was easily able to recognize that cute face and short, lustrous brown hair this time around.

It seemed like Sam Hornes was actually becoming a bit of a local celebrity already, as it wasn't just because of her lovely appearance she was able to draw some attention from the people around her, but still it was obviously different when she looked up to meet Jack's eyes for a moment. The brief smile she gave him made him feel uneasy, and for a good reason, as he realized that he was the one in a bad position if she decided to confront him in public.

While there was still a lot he'd like to ask her about, this wasn't the time or place to do so, and even if he'd never done anything wrong, it'd certainly look odd if it somehow came out how he'd stolen a journalist's camera and stored it in his house.

So he kept walking instead, and hoped nobody else had noticed how he'd stopped to stare at the girl for a moment, but for some weird reason he couldn't quite just let her out of his sight so easily. It wasn't like he was actively stalking her though, but rather it seemed like she choose to stay in the same area as himself, and every time he noticed she would give him the same, curious little grin in return.

It soon became like a game of some sort, where both of them kept pretending like they'd never even met before, but at the same time they could as well have been there in company. After nearly twenty minutes of this they'd still not said a word to one another, and Jack wasn't sure if she played for the sole reason of annoying him, or if she actually wanted him to close the distance at some point.

"Hey, dad...?" Another familiar figure suddenly appeared by Jack's side, and nearly caused him to spin around in surprise when he found Kim standing right next to him. She looked up at him with her curious brown eyes, and then tried to see what he'd been doing before she showed up. Meanwhile he noticed that both her sisters were with her as well, though standing a few steps back, and with a quick glance to his watch he also realized that he was already late to their meeting back by the entrance.

"Sorry." He mumbled, while trying to come up with a good excuse, and when he looked around he noticed that Sam was nowhere in sight any more. Not that he could tell his daughters he'd been stalking some cute journalist of course, but he really didn't like the idea of said journalist approaching them either. "I just forgot about time, I guess."

In the end it didn't seem like such a bad way to spend his afternoon after all, even if he was still unsure of Samantha's reasons to play this silly game of cat and mouse with him, and Jack was in a rather strange mood when he headed back to the car, with his daughters in tow. It felt refreshing to get out and see some people, even when he didn't talk to anyone, and his mysterious stalker gave him something else to think off than his traitorous wife...