Sunshine on Silver Lake: Includes a bonus novella (Sweetwater Springs Book 5)

by Annie Rains

  “Well, I hope to see you there tonight.” Sophie hitched a thumb behind her. “I better get back to the boutique. “Don’t forget to come shopping before all the pretty things are taken.”

  “I’ll come by soon,” Emma promised as Sophie headed out. A few more customers strolled in after her. Before Emma could even blink, two hours had gone by and it was time to close.

  She headed toward the door and started to turn the OPEN sign to CLOSED when Jack appeared on the other side of the glass. Her heart fluttered foolishly, and she felt an even more foolish smile lift her cheeks. “What are you doing here?” she asked as she opened the door.

  “Well, I was hoping to get my sweet tooth fix, but it looks like I’m too late.”

  She cocked her head, her emotions still warring with jealousy and frustration about Sophie. She needed to tell him the café was closed, and he could come back when it reopens tomorrow. Her growing crush won out though. “Well, I can make an exception for my pretend boyfriend,” she said.

  “I’d owe you.”

  “In that case,” she said, “come on in.”

  Chapter Nine

  Jack heard the lock on the front door click as Emma turned the OPEN sign to CLOSED. “So I get private service? I must be special.”

  She turned. “You’re special, all right.”

  He looked around the empty room. “Where’s Sam?”

  “We started cleaning early. He took off on his skateboard. I hope that’s okay.”

  Jack folded his arms over his chest. “Yeah, I guess so. When I leave here, I can drive around and find him.”

  “You might find him with some girls. He’s already been noticed,” Emma said.

  Jack pulled out a chair and sat down. “It’s those handsome Hershey genetics,” he teased.

  Emma leaned against the counter. “Speaking of which, I hear you and Sophie are going on a date.”

  Jack’s smile fell away. “You heard wrong. She came into my office earlier and asked about bird-watching lessons.”

  Emma crossed her arms over her chest. “You don’t give bird-watching lessons.”

  “Not typically, no, but I know how to identify birds on the trails.”

  Emma pinned him with a look. “Just the two of you in the woods? Couldn’t she just use one of your brochures?”

  “If I’m not mistaken, I’d say you’re a little jealous.” He got up from the table and headed her way, noticing how she stiffened just slightly as he encroached on her space.

  “No,” she said. “I’m just stating the obvious. And if you and I are going to be a fake couple this summer, you can’t date other women. That’s the rule.”

  Jack stopped walking when he was a foot away from her. “I was worried that maybe you would have called off that arrangement since I didn’t deliver on my end of the bargain.”

  “It’s only been two days. I still have faith in you.”

  He looked down for a moment, wishing he wasn’t going to have to let her down. No matter how hard he stared at that calendar, open spots weren’t going to magically appear.

  “I’m pretty sure your dad wasn’t happy about you and me last night,” he said instead.

  Emma’s lips parted, drawing his attention there. He willed his attraction back in its cage.

  “I’ll have to explain things to him once I get him alone.”

  “You’re going to tell him the truth?” Jack asked.

  “Well, yeah. I can’t fool my dad.”

  “Seems to me he was pretty fooled last night,” Jack pointed out. “You worried about what he’ll think of you and me dating?”

  Guilt flickered in her expression.

  “I guess I don’t blame you,” he said. “You’ve always wanted his approval.”

  Emma straightened from the counter, which only worked to shift her closer to him. “I haven’t always wanted my dad’s approval.”

  “You’re daddy’s little girl. Not saying that’s a bad thing.”

  But according to Emma’s expression, it was one of the worst things Jack could say to her. “I’ve dated lots of guys that my dad didn’t like. In fact, he hasn’t liked any of my past boyfriends.”

  Jack smirked. “Neither have I, for the record.” He enjoyed the way her lips turned into a subtle pout.

  “What was wrong with Tim from the fire station?”

  “Too cocky, if you ask me.”

  Emma tilted her head. “Okay, well, I’d have to agree with that. And he was never my boyfriend. We just went out a couple times.”

  “Did you kiss him?” Jack asked, unable to resist.

  Her eyes jumped up to meet his. “What?”

  “Well, he counts if you kissed him. Or, you know, did other stuff.”

  Emma’s jaw dropped. “That’s none of your business.”

  “I’m your boyfriend, so it kind of is.”

  “Fake boyfriend, so it’s kind of not,” she countered.

  Jack put a hand over his heart as if that had hurt him deeply. “So you didn’t kiss him? Or other stuff?” He grinned. “Good. You deserve better.”

  He wanted to step even closer, but his own words stopped him in his tracks. Those were her father’s words too. She deserved better, and that wasn’t him.

  So he took a step backward, increasing the distance between them. Then his cell phone rang in his pocket. He tapped the screen and brought it to his ear. “Hello.”

  “Jack,” his sister said. Her voice sounded threadbare and tired.

  “Amanda.” Jack connected gazes with Emma, and he held up a finger. She nodded and went around the counter to continue closing the café. “How are you?” he asked, returning to the chair he’d been seated in a few minutes earlier.

  “I’m okay. They’re feeding me three square meals and talking during everything in between.”

  Jack could only imagine what topics she was discussing in the addiction facility. Their family life had been rocky. There’d never been any physical abuse, but emotional abuse, yeah. Emotional neglect too. Their mom had tried to counter their father’s negative influence, but she didn’t leave their father until Jack and Amanda were grown.

  “How’s Sam?” Amanda asked.

  Jack turned to look out the storefront window, wondering if he’d catch a glimpse of his nephew in passing. No sign of him. “He’s doing okay. Don’t worry about him. He’s spending his days at the park with me or at the café with Emma, working part-time.”

  “Oh, that’s nice,” Amanda said. “I’ll try to call his cell phone tomorrow when I can.”

  “He thinks you’re having the time of your life with your boyfriend,” Jack said, standing and walking off his restless energy. He stepped over to the glass door of the café to look out on Main Street for Sam again.

  “I know. That’s for the best right now. Tell him I love him,” she added.

  “Will do.”

  “And I love you too, Jack.”

  “Ditto.”

  They disconnected the call, and Jack stood at the door a few minutes longer, watching couples and families stroll along, seemingly without a care. Were they lying too? Or were they really that carefree? He didn’t have anything to complain about. He had a good job, a nice home, and friends who had his back when he needed it. He got a little lonely sometimes, and those little urges to take a drink sometimes tapped his shoulder. He ignored those urges. Overall, life was good.

  “All done,” Emma said from a few feet behind him.

  He turned to face her.

  “How’s Amanda?”

  He gave a nod. “She seems to be doing okay. We could all benefit from some outside help sometimes.”

  Emma didn’t look away as he stepped toward her. “Right. And some of us just avoid our issues altogether and pretend like they don’t exist.”

  Jack kept walking until he was standing right in front of her once more. “Is that what you do?”

  “Maybe.” She hesitated. “After my mom died, I distracted myself and tried not to think about he
r. It hurt too much. And now I find myself forgetting her and trying to remember. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?”

  Jack wanted so badly to reach out and touch her. Being around Emma was an exercise in willpower. “The good news is that we’re all crazy. The bad news is—”

  “We’re all crazy,” Emma said, finishing his sentence. A soft smile played on the corners of her lips.

  “Good to know because I’m entertaining crazy thoughts right now,” he said.

  Her lips parted just a fraction. He saw her throat tighten as she swallowed. “Oh? What thoughts are those?”

  This is where he needed to stop talking. “About kissing you,” he said instead. “We’re friends. Kissing isn’t allowed.”

  She didn’t turn around and run at his confession. She also didn’t laugh or criticize his words. So maybe it wasn’t the worst idea.

  “Then again, if we’re going to pretend to be together, it might be easier if we crossed that line. We can call it research.” He kept his gaze steady on hers. Was her heart beating as fast as his?

  He never did satisfy his sweet tooth in coming here, and she was the sweetest thing he knew. Willpower shattered and weak, he leaned in slowly, holding her gaze and searching for any sign that she wanted him to stop.

  Emma didn’t flinch. She was so still that he wondered if she was even breathing.

  As he dipped toward her, he reached for her hand and felt her fingers tighten around his. He saw her eyes close, and his did the same, preparing for something that he’d wanted forever.

  “Uncle Jack?” a voice called from the back as a door slammed shut. “Uncle Jack?”

  Emma yanked her hand away, and her eyes flew open. Jack didn’t move for a second.

  “Uncle Jack?” Sam entered the front of the café and looked between him and Emma. “Were you two kissing?”

  “No,” Jack said honestly. Regretfully. A second longer and they would’ve been though. But they hadn’t, and now the moment was gone. “Everything okay?” Jack asked.

  Sam nodded. “A bunch of kids are going out tonight to see the fireworks. Can I go too?”

  “Fireworks. Right.” He looked at Emma, who was avoiding eye contact. Somehow, he suspected, if he let Sam walk out of here right now, she’d turn Jack down if he asked her to join him on a picnic blanket in the park tonight. So now was his chance if he wanted to spend more time with her. And he did. He wasn’t sure if that was right or wrong, but it’s what he wanted more than anything in this moment. “What do you say, Em?”

  She looked over at him. “Hmm?”

  “Be my date to Music in the Park tonight? I don’t want to watch the fireworks alone.”

  “Uncle Jack, she’s your girlfriend,” Sam said. “You don’t have to keep asking her out.”

  Jack smiled. There were perks to having his nephew around. “She might be my girlfriend, but that doesn’t mean she has to spend every second with me. Maybe she’s tired of looking at my mug for today. I know I’m not tired of looking at her.”

  The color in Emma’s cheeks deepened. She looked at Sam and back at Jack. “Okay, I guess.” She nodded. “Fireworks and music in the park sound fun.”

  * * *

  What was she thinking? She and Jack had almost kissed. In fact, they’d been so close to kissing that Emma had closed her eyes, taken a breath—ready to hold it for as long as the kiss lasted. Her entire body had flooded with endorphins just from the simple act of him reaching for her hand. Even now, an hour later, those endorphins were still firing in her body.

  Emma finished making a third sandwich and slipped it into a Ziploc bag. She carried it to the picnic basket that she’d already filled with sliced fruit, bagged chips, and bottled water. Then she headed down the hall toward her bedroom to finish getting ready for Music in the Park, her mind whirling with thoughts and emotions.

  This was Jack. She’d crossed the line with him once, and he’d failed her in a big way. She’d gone solo to her senior prom, which was embarrassing enough. Her friends all had dates so she’d spent an hour against the wall before shrinking into the shadows and out the door to go home.

  Adding insult to injury, she’d gotten a flat tire on the road leading back to her house, and because she’d left her cell phone at home by accident, she’d had to walk the last mile to her front door while wearing heels. To add more misery to what was supposed to be one of the best nights of her high school life, one heel had broken, and she’d twisted her ankle. Instead of magical, it’d been one of the worst nights of her life, second only to the night her mom had slipped quietly from this world. Emma’s world.

  Emma changed into a pair of red capri pants and a T-shirt that read I’D RATHER BE IN SWEETWATER SPRINGS in dark blue print. She sold them at the café along with a few other novelty items.

  Being stood up for her senior prom was good reason to never want anything romantic with Jack again. He didn’t even have a great excuse for not showing up. On her long walk home that night, she’d wondered if he’d gotten into a car accident. Maybe he was in the hospital dying. Perhaps he’d hit his head and had amnesia. Or he was being held hostage at gunpoint at the florist shop where he would’ve likely stopped to get her flowers. What if he hadn’t come because he was rescuing a woman trapped in a car that was dangling off a bridge somewhere?

  Nope. Jack’s excuse was that he fell asleep and forgot. She wanted to hate him more than anything. But she couldn’t. Because he was Jack, her friend since childhood. The boy who’d walked her to school every day and fought off the mean girls. He was the boy who’d put his arm around her when she’d first learned about her mom’s cancer and had stayed with her when she’d cried all night, riding his bike home in the darkness after she’d fallen asleep. He’d stayed during her mom’s cancer treatments too. And he’d been there for Emma after her mom was gone.

  Jack could do everything wrong, and she’d still adore him because of what he’d done right.

  Emma looked at herself in the mirror, telling herself that it didn’t matter if she looked attractive. Even that kiss wouldn’t have been real. Jack had called it research. And tonight was part of the façade. A couple needed to be together on a holiday. Folks would be expecting them to share a blanket under the stars and fireworks.

  She slipped her feet into a cute pair of strappy sandals and headed into the kitchen to get a glass of water. Jack and Sam were picking her up. Then Sam would go find his new friends at the park, leaving her and Jack alone. There was as much of a thrill in that prospect as there was trepidation. What if he reached for her hand again? What if he leaned over and really kissed her this time?

  The doorbell rang, and Barnaby took off running. Emma headed to go answer.

  “Hi,” Jack said when she opened the door. He was wearing a pale blue polo shirt that made his dark hair appear even darker. She wanted to reach up and run her fingers through it to see if it felt as silky as it looked. Jack’s tan also seemed darker, the way it always did in the summer months, making his blue eyes brighter.

  “Hi.” She remembered to breathe, settling the unrest in her body. “I, um, prepared some sandwiches and chips. A picnic of sorts. I have enough for Sam too, even though I doubt he’ll join us.”

  “The boy can eat,” Jack said. “If not, I’ll eat his share.” He winked, and she practically melted in a puddle at her doorstep.

  “I’ll get the basket of food, and we can go.” She turned, forcing herself to rein in her hormones and emotions.

  “Wait.”

  She turned to face him and then noticed him pull a hand from behind his back and offer her an arrangement of flowers.

  “I almost forgot these,” he said.

  “What is that?”

  “Wildflowers. I stopped into Halona’s shop, and I guess it was my lucky day. She was arranging some of the older flowers to give away. She said they’d last about a week longer.” Jack shrugged. “Anyway, she told me to use them to brighten someone’s day.”

  “So you brought me old flowers
, huh?” she teased as she reached for them.

  Jack looked mortified. “No, well, I…”

  “A pretend girlfriend doesn’t get the new ones?” she continued.

  “You’re more than a pretend girlfriend, Emma,” he said. “If I’d have thought you’d be okay with it, I’d have bought you a dozen roses. The red ones, not the yellow.”

  Her lips parted. She didn’t quite know what to say as she cleared her throat and looked down at the wildflowers in her hands. “I love flowers from Halona’s shop. Thank you. Although I’m sure your mom would’ve appreciated them too.”

  Jack nodded. “Maybe so. But choosing you was selfish on my part.”

  She looked up at him. “Oh?”

  “I guess seeing you smile brightens my day, so it’s a win-win.”

  Emma frowned. “We can’t do this, Jack.”

  “Do what?”

  She lowered the bouquet. “I’m not sure what we’re doing, but we shouldn’t be. Almost kissing. Flirting.” Her heart was suddenly hammering in her chest. It felt like she couldn’t breathe, not until she got everything that was on her mind out in the open. “If we’re going to pretend we’re dating, we need to set some boundaries. This is just for show. When there’s no one else around, we should just be us.”

  He was watching her with a serious expression, the kind he got when he was thinking something over. “What exactly does acting like us entail?”

  “You know. The way we’ve always been. At arm’s length. No flirting or bringing each other flowers. No kissing as research.” She pulled her gaze from his. No hand-holding or fantasies about running her hands through his hair and over his muscled chest. “That’s the only way this will work. Neither of us wants a relationship.”

  “What makes you think I don’t want a relationship?” he asked.

  She shifted the arrangement of flowers to her other hand. “Because you never keep anything romantic going for very long. You flirt and go on a couple dates, and then lose interest.”