by Annie Rains
“I’m sorry for inviting you here,” Granger said. “This is the last place you should be.”
Jack shook his head. “If you stop inviting me here, we’re going to have words. I like the tavern. I like hanging out with you guys for some odd reason.” He smiled at his friends. “I get to drink Coke and watch you two make fools of yourselves. It’s a great pastime.”
Granger and Luke stared back at him. Maybe he’d made a mistake in telling them.
A waitress stepped up to the table. “Need anything, guys?”
Jack raised his index fingers. “Yes, matter of fact. These two made a bet and lost, and they owe me a drink. But since I’m the DD, can I get another soda?”
“Sure thing,” she said.
“And these two need another beer,” he added. “I’m buying.”
“You got it.” The waitress walked away, and Jack looked at his friends as if to prove a point. They could still drink with him. Please don’t treat me differently.
“How’s the tree farm?” Luke asked, looking over at Granger.
Granger lowered his gaze to his drink. “Well, let’s see. The fire in the spring wiped out half my lot. It’s an abnormally hot summer, which isn’t helping the surviving trees or the new ones we planted.” He looked up. “Which means this Christmas is looking bleak for sales.” He lifted his drink to his mouth, didn’t give Jack so much as a cursory glance, and took a healthy gulp.
“Anything we can do to help?” Jack asked.
“The Sweetwater Springs Fire Department loves a good cause,” Luke added. “Just say the word.”
Granger shrugged. “Thanks, but unless you have some kind of miracle liquid to pour on the new trees and make them grow into full-grown spruces by the holidays, I don’t think so.”
“Fresh out of miracles,” Luke said with a frown. “I used my miracle quota when I got Brenna to fall in love with me.”
The guys laughed as the waitress placed their fresh drinks in front of them.
“We’ll figure it out,” Granger said. “I’m just glad no one was injured in that fire.” He looked over at Luke as did Jack. They both knew about Luke’s burn injuries from childhood.
“I can drink to that.” Jack held up his glass.
“To surviving,” Granger said, which had a different meaning for them all. He tapped his glass to Jack’s and so did Luke, a serious beat passing between them.
“To surviving,” Jack and Luke repeated in unison before bringing their glasses to their mouths and drinking.
Then the conversation returned to normal, which was exactly what Jack wanted.
* * *
Emma’s body was buzzing, and it had nothing to do with the drinks she’d had at the tavern.
Jack pulled into her driveway after dropping off her friends and cut the lights.
“So that sweet tea I offered you earlier still stands. Want to come inside?” Her heart was beating erratically. She wasn’t thirsty in the least.
Jack looked at her for a long second. “I’m not sure going inside your house right now is the best idea. You’ve been drinking, Em.”
“Not since our dance over an hour ago,” she pointed out. “And not enough to where I don’t know what I’m saying and doing right now.”
Jack pinned her with an assessing look. “To be clear, what are you saying and doing?”
She laid a palm on his forearm, the touch of his skin igniting a spark of heat that zipped straight through her body. “I’m saying, if we want to kiss, we should. If we want to hang out with one another, we can. If we want to do more…” She didn’t complete that sentence, but she was pretty sure Jack could fill in the blanks. “There’s nothing stopping us, Jack.”
“Except each other. That’s always been the case,” he said in a low voice. “One of us has always held back. We’ve taken turns doing that. So what’s changed?” he asked.
“Nothing, I guess.” She shrugged a shoulder. “And everything.”
He reached up and trailed a finger down the side of her cheek, looking at her in a way she’d never been looked at before. Like a man who adored her. “I don’t want to mess things up with you, Emma. But I want more. I want the freedom to kiss you any time I want. To hold your hand. To touch you.”
Emma’s mouth was suddenly dry.
“I want to go inside your house and have that tea with you.” His gaze didn’t waver. “I want more than tea.”
Her breath hitched, and her heart skipped a beat. “I want more than tea too.”
He leaned in and brushed his lips over hers, kissing her sweetly at first. The kiss evolved and deepened until their hands were running over each other as they sat in the front seat of the truck. His hand traveled along her back, moving down to the hem of her shirt and slipping underneath to caress her bare skin. She nearly moaned at the pleasure of skin-to-skin contact, even though what they were doing was innocent enough. Then his hand circled around to the front of her body, his fingers trailing from her navel upward to the band of her bra.
“Just say the word and I’ll slow down.”
That’s the option that Emma’s mind was rooting for. Her heart, however, was ready to jump all in with Jack. No more resisting. No more pretending. She’d resisted and pretended long enough.
“You’re not going too fast,” she told him. “But maybe we should move this inside. I can make that tea, and we can talk.” She scrutinized his expression, and he didn’t seem disappointed in the least. He was still looking at her like she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. And that made her want to pull him into her bedroom and rip his clothes off. “Or we could just go inside and skip the tea,” she said, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to his mouth.
“I’m following your lead tonight.” Jack reached for the handle of his door and pushed it open. Then he ran around and opened the passenger door for her. “Lead the way, Emma.”
Emma didn’t allow herself time to think once they were inside. As soon as Jack closed the front door behind him, she stepped into his arms as if she’d been waiting her entire life to do so. And maybe she had.
They’d already kissed, but never with the green light to keep going. If she wanted to have sex with Jack tonight, it was almost a sure thing. And it’d been so long since she’d been with anyone. Her body was screaming yes. Her heart was screaming yes. Her mind would probably have a few reservations, which was why her mind wasn’t allowed to offer an opinion tonight.
Jack groaned as he pulled away. “You feel so good, Em.”
Barnaby barked at their feet, making Emma laugh. She looked down at her furry friend and then bent to scoop him up. “Sorry, pal, but you don’t get to stay inside this time.” She carried Barnaby quickly to the back door and placed him on the porch. “I’ll open this in a little bit,” she promised. Then she closed the door again and sealed off his doggie door, which was the equivalent of hanging a DO NOT DISTURB sign for dogs. Hurrying back to Jack, she hoped he hadn’t changed his mind.
He quickly stepped toward her, getting back to where they’d left off. His hand moved down her back and tugged at the hem of her top, lifting it over her head as they moved into the dining room and then stumbled down the hallway toward her bedroom.
An unspoken question filled the silence as they finally took a breath and looked at each other in the shadowed darkness of the room. Was this really going to happen?
Emma kissed him first, giving an unspoken answer. Yes.
Chapter Sixteen
Jack shifted to look at a sleeping Emma, snuggled against him. Her breathing had slowed half an hour ago, and her body had seemed to melt into his.
As he lay here, his mind was running at lightning speed, jumping from the woman in his arms to what had just happened to what might happen next.
Next, they might wake up as a real girlfriend and boyfriend. Next, Emma might freak out and want to slow things way down. Next, he might freak out. Not because he had any regrets. He didn’t.
A soft moan escaped Emma�
�s mouth. He stroked her hair off her face, gazing down on her as she slept. She looked so peaceful in this moment. Was she dreaming of him? He wanted nothing more than to stay, but instead he slowly slid out of her embrace and out of bed. He was responsible for a fifteen-year-old this summer, and he needed to be at home.
He quietly dressed and headed down the hall toward the kitchen. He bumped into the table and then stumbled over a stack of books on the floor as he looked for a pen and paper, shocked that Barnaby didn’t come barking after him. Emma had let her little dog back inside the house between getting a glass of water and returning to bed for cuddling. Barnaby had simply huffed at the two and then curled up on his large pillow beneath the window.
Aha! Jack located a pen and notepad and carried it to the counter where there was a thin sliver of moonlight shining from her kitchen window. He started to write.
Dear Emma,
I’m sorry I had to leave without saying goodbye, but I didn’t want to wake you. Sam shouldn’t be left alone overnight. I’ll call you in the morning.
He debated whether to write Love, Jack. There was too much implied in that word. Later, Jack? Sincerely, Jack?
In the end, he just wrote his name. Then he grabbed his keys and quietly let himself out, locking the front door behind him.
Ten minutes later, he walked into his own home, headed down the hall, and fell into bed.
“Uncle Jack?”
Jack’s eyes popped open. “What are you doing up?” he asked, seeing Sam’s shadow in the doorway.
“I was waiting for you,” Sam said.
Good thing Jack had decided to come back. “Everything okay?”
Sam fidgeted with his hands. “I want to talk about Mom.”
“Now?”
When Sam didn’t immediately answer, Jack sighed. Then he sat up and got out of bed. “All right. We can talk. How about I make some tea?” He hadn’t gotten any at Emma’s after all.
“Old people drink tea at midnight,” Sam said. “I’m fifteen.”
“Old enough to know better than to insinuate your favorite uncle is old.” Jack clapped a hand on Sam’s back as they walked toward the kitchen. “You don’t have to tell your friends you liked it.” He pointed at the kitchen table. “Sit. It’ll only take a minute.” And in that time, he needed to make a choice about what to tell Sam.
He’d told his friends about his struggle with alcohol tonight. He and Emma had also decided to stop pretending.
The water bubbling in the kettle was the only sound for a minute.
“Are you going to tell me the truth this time?” Sam finally asked.
Jack glanced over his shoulder as he poured hot water from the kettle over the tea bags in the mugs. “Yes.” A moment later, he sat down and looked at his nephew. Sam was in that weird age between a child and a man. A child needed to be protected, but a man learned to handle things as they came.
“Your mom isn’t on a vacation this summer,” Jack said.
“Duh. Where is she?”
Jack didn’t want to break his sister’s trust, but there really was no other option. “She’s sick, but she’s going to be okay. She’s in a facility that’s helping her work on her issues so she can be a better mom to you.”
Sam frowned. “What kind of facility?”
“It’s a place for addiction rehabilitation. I’m not going to get into the details,” Jack told Sam. “All you need to know is she’s going to get better and come home. Everything will be fine.” Jack reached a hand out to lay on Sam’s shoulder. “Your mom wasn’t trying to keep things from you. A parent just wants to do what’s best for their child. Your mom didn’t want you to worry about her. She wanted you to enjoy a carefree summer. There are so few in childhood, and they go so fast.”
Sam nodded. “I get it.”
“Good. So then how about you try to do that for her? I know your preference isn’t to be here in a new town, away from your usual crowd. But it’s not so bad, right? You’re making friends and finding new hangouts.”
“It’s actually kind of fun here,” Sam admitted. He grew quiet for a second. Then he looked up at Jack again. “Can I go visit my mom? Just to see that she’s okay?”
Jack sucked in a breath. He’d need to tell Amanda that Sam knew the truth for that to happen. “Let me talk to your mom first, okay?”
Sam nodded. Then he stood, having never even touched his tea. “I’m going to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“You’re working at the café tomorrow, aren’t you?” Jack asked.
Sam nodded. He looked at Jack thoughtfully again. “Is my mom the only thing that you were keeping from me? Is there anything else?”
There was Emma, but that seemed irrelevant now. “Nothing else,” Jack said. “Good night.” He stood to go to bed as well, leaving his barely touched tea on the table. He’d go to bed, but he doubted he’d get good sleep. Tomorrow he’d call Amanda and let her know that Sam knew where she was. He’d also find Emma and see if things had changed between them. Sex always changed things, one way or another. Hopefully he hadn’t made a mistake…or two…tonight.
* * *
Emma stirred in bed and rolled over, opening her eyes to the empty side of the bed next to her. The memories of what had happened hours before bubbled up in her mind, reminding her that she hadn’t gone to bed alone. No, Jack had been with her, holding her in his arms.
Where was he now?
She got up and slid her feet into a pair of slippers. Then she shuffled down the hall, her body feeling slightly off-kilter because she’d done some drinking before she’d taken Jack back to her home and bed. Now she felt dehydrated in addition to being confused. There was no evidence of another person in her house. She walked into the kitchen and glanced around, noticing a handwritten note in plain view.
She stepped over and picked it up, reading it quickly.
He was gone. An ache pinged in her chest, but she understood why he’d needed to go. Hopefully Sam was the only reason he’d slipped away. As far as she was concerned, last night was amazing.
Instead of letting her mind jump to conclusions, she hurried about her morning routine, took a few minutes to play with Barnaby, and then headed to open the café.
“What happened after Jack dropped me off last night?” Nina asked at some point in the morning.
Emma turned to face her employee after serving the last customer in line. Sam was working in the back, unboxing supplies that had just arrived yesterday. “Not much. We may have decided to stop pretending to be a couple though.”
Nina’s large smile dropped into an immediate frown. “What? No. I thought you two had actual sparks. I thought maybe you might turn into something real.”
Emma grinned. “I said we decided to stop pretending. I didn’t say we weren’t going to see each other anymore.”
Nina’s brows dove toward her nose. “I’m confused. So you’re going to keep seeing each other? But for real this time?”
Emma shrugged. Unless Jack had changed his mind after leaving her bed. She didn’t peg him as the love ’em and love ’em type. He wasn’t the kind of guy to have long or serious relationships either, which worried her a little. She didn’t want to lose him in her life. “Jack and I are just taking things as they come,” she told Nina.
“But you’re hoping that things work out between you two?” Nina asked.
Right now, Emma was just hoping not to screw up a relationship with one of the most important people in her life. “I’m hoping for the best. Whatever that is.”
“Well, I’m glad about this change of events. And I’m glad to see you smiling instead of sulking over a couple bad reviews.”
Emma shook her head. “I’m staying away from that website from now on. I can’t please everyone, and I have enough things to deal with. I can’t afford to spend a night sulking over an anonymous reviewer who thinks my coffee tastes stale.”
Nina gasped. “Someone wrote that online?”
Emma pressed a hand to h
er heart. Just thinking about the comment made her heartbeat speed up anxiously.
“Our coffee is fresh. Always, no exceptions. Who wrote that review?”
Emma shrugged and took a breath. “I don’t know, but I’m staying off the A-List. Constructive criticism is fine and adding the tables outside has been great. But the big race is two weeks away and there’s too much to do to sulk over a bad review.” She held up a finger. “Which reminds me, I still need to have the T-shirts made. Paris Montgomery is designing the graphic for the shirts. I need to contact him today and see how that’s coming along.”
Nina prepared herself a cup of coffee during the lull of customers at the counter. “How many people have signed up so far?”
“Just over two hundred, which is way more than I ever could have imagined.”
“That’s twenty dollars a person to register, right?”
Emma nodded.
“Whoa. That’s quite a chunk of change for the Women’s Wellness Center.”
Pride bloomed inside of Emma. The donation would be in her mother’s memory, and that felt amazing. “Not to mention that some people just made donations through the website instead of registering. Donations alone have contributed over a thousand dollars.”
Nina’s eyes widened over her cup of coffee as she sipped. She lowered her cup back down. “But you have to pay a fee for the park, right?”
“Since we’re joining with another event, there’s no fee. I got a lot of sponsors at the Ladies’ Day Out event the other night, which should pay for the T-shirts. I just need to follow up with a few of the ladies.” Emma grabbed a notepad on the counter and wrote that down as a reminder to herself. “See? Too much to do to worry about a couple of bad reviews.”
Nina took another sip of her coffee. “This is not stale brew. Can I reply to that review and tell that person to get their taste buds checked?”
“Don’t you dare,” Emma said on a laugh.
Nina narrowed her eyes. “You’re glowing a little bit this morning. And you never did answer my question about what happened after Jack dropped me off. You said you decided to see each other for real but you didn’t say what happened.”