by Cathie Linz
Nathan scooped his stepdaughter up in his arms. “Aren’t you the beautiful princess.”
“You look pretty too.” Toni patted his cheek.
Sue Ellen dabbed at her eyes. “Just think, in another few months I’ll have a little one of my own.”
“You’re going to have your own Bambi?” Toni was impressed. “I want one too.”
“Come on you.” Skye took her from Nathan. “Let’s go before you con your way into getting more pets.”
“It seems fitting that a veterinarian is getting married in a church named after the patron saint of animals,” Nathan noted with an elbow jab at Cole. “Unless you’re wishing you eloped like Skye and I did?”
“No way.” Cole didn’t appear the least bit nervous. “I’m exactly where I want to be.”
“No you’re not!” Maxie exclaimed as she hurried to join them. “You’re not supposed to see the bride before the wedding.”
“That’s an old wives’ tale,” Leena said. “I wanted our photos taken while we look good.”
“Why wasn’t I consulted about this?” Maxie demanded.
“Because it’s my wedding,” Leena said.
“I need the parents of the happy couple to join them for photos,” the ever-cheerful Phil said.
Cole’s parents were very sweet. They played well with others, as the T-shirt saying went.
Despite the early sparks between Maxie and Leena, the wedding went off without a hitch.
Nathan escorted Emma down the aisle of the beautiful church to the musical accompaniment of Pachelbel’s Canon. The stained glass windows created splashes of color on the marble floor around the alter, lending a mystical feel to the setting.
Bart Chumley sat near the front of the church, not because he was the mayor but because he was a good friend and mentor to Leena.
Emma found herself getting emotional several times during the ceremony as her thoughts flashed back through the many childhood memories she shared with Leena—walking around in their mom’s high-heel shoes, arguing over which New Kids on the Block member was the cutest, lamenting over the length of time between Johnny Depp movies.
Emma and Leena had shared a bedroom for the first nine years of Emma’s life, until Sue Ellen had moved out at eighteen and Leena had moved into her bedroom. Emma had had a hard time sleeping that first night because she’d missed the sound of her sister in the same room.
And now here Leena was, moving on again into a new chapter in her life. And once again Emma was having a bit of a hard time. Of course, she was thrilled for her sister, who was marrying a great guy. Emma had always liked Cole. She kept telling herself that she wasn’t losing a sister, she was gaining a brother-in-law.
And it really was inspiring to see the love on both their faces as Leena and Cole repeated their vows. Sentimental tears threatened again, but she was saved from making a fool of herself by catching sight of Jake in the third pew. He was seated directly in her line of vision, and he was grinning at her as if he knew what she was thinking.
Jake was wearing the same black shirt and pants that he’d worn to Sue Ellen’s reception.
Naturally that reminded her of him peeling off his clothing before skinny-dipping at Serenity Falls at midnight. The look he gave her heated up as if he, too, was remembering that night.
Then there was last night . . . Emma’s face flushed as images of how he’d used the burgundy tie he was wearing to tie her hands to the bedpost of his bed and have his totally wicked way with her, much to her delight. Hours earlier he’d made a point of putting a sock on the apartment doorknob, giving them the freedom to move around his apartment without worrying about Oliver showing up.
Emma hadn’t felt guilty about giving Oliver the boot for the night since he’d spent the time at Lulu’s apartment.
Love or lust, call it what you would, it was definitely in the air in Rock Creek these days . . .
and nights.
Emma was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn’t even realize the ceremony was over until Sue Ellen nudged her. Leena and Cole were already kissing before turning and walking out of the church.
“Get a move on,” Sue Ellen hissed. “I have to pee really bad!”
Jake couldn’t get over how great Emma looked. He’d watched her throughout the ceremony, unable to take his eyes off her. She’d left his bed early that morning, her face flushed from their night of awesome sex, her lips still rosy from his kisses. And now here she was, at the reception, her hair curling with a silky abandon that made him long to reach out and wrap a strand around his finger. She wore more makeup than usual, making her eyes stand out. The pink shimmer of her lip gloss tempted him to kiss it all off.
“How are you holding up?” Nancy Crumpler’s question interrupted his thoughts.
“Fine.” Jake still felt like an ass for confronting her the way he had.
“I’m assuming you haven’t had that talk with Emma yet?”
“What talk?” Emma said from behind them.
Nancy shot him an I’m-sorry look before turning to Emma. “You look so lovely in that dress,” she told her. “Don’t you agree, Jake?”
“Yeah.” And to think he used to be a smooth talker. Apparently those days were gone, along with the rest of his racing career.
“The dress is a big improvement over my last bridesmaid’s dress,” Emma said with a laugh.
The sound made Jake hot. Since when did a woman’s laugh turn him on? Especially since Emma snorted when she laughed really hard. He knew that because he’d tickled her until she’d snorted and then he’d laughed with her, not at her.
She was really smart about a lot of things and really innocent about others—like sex. He got such a thrill out of teaching the sociology professor the pleasures to be had in that arena.
She might have the advanced degrees but he had the experience to tutor her in the darkly erotic arts and sciences.
“What talk was Jake supposed to have with me?” Emma looked a little nervous at the possibilities that came to mind.
“Nothing important,” Jake reassured her. Standing behind her, he slid his arms around her waist and kissed the top of her head. “Nothing for you to worry about.”
“Are you sure?”
He squeezed her fingers. “I’m positive.”
“Everyone, it’s time to cut the cake!” Sue Ellen called out.
Nancy moved to join the gathering crowd.
The multitiered wedding cake was wheeled onto the dance floor where the bride and groom stood ready. Jake eyed the cake with a frown.
“What’s that on top of it?”
“A Kate Spade bag. Not a real one of course, one made out of icing and sculpted to look exactly like the designer’s purse.”
“Why?”
“Because Leena is into bag love versus shoe love. The way she tells it, shoe love fades as your feet get bigger and your shoes pinch you. But bag love remains and lasts forever. Cole is a keeper, he’s bag love. That’s why the bag is on their wedding cake.”
Jake didn’t know what to say to that so he remained silent. He tilted his head so he could see Emma’s face.
“You’d probably have a mini snowboard on top of your wedding cake,” Emma said before clapping her hand over her mouth. “Not that I’m thinking about your wedding cake. Or your wedding. I wasn’t trying to drop a hint or anything. Jeez . . .” She scrunched her face and shook her head. “Just shoot me now.”
“I’d rather kiss you and strip you naked,” he whispered in her ear.
“Mmm, sounds good,” she murmured, leaning back.
He just about came undone when she rubbed her sexy bottom against him. “What are you trying to do to me?” he growled.
“Remind you what a fast learner I am.” She tossed him a sexy look over her shoulder that instantly made him get even harder.
“Trust me, I’m not likely to forget.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“So, Jake, have you had a chance to go try A
dele’s sweet potato fries at Maguire’s yet?”
The intrusive question came from Walt Whitman, the mayor of Serenity Falls, who’d barged right into their private moment with his usual disregard for others.
Jake’s curt “No” should have been enough to send the guy on his way.
But it didn’t. “Maybe Julia can convince you.” He grabbed the arm of a woman walking by.
“Julia, come over here and convince Jake to come to Maguire’s. This is Julia Maguire.
She’s married to Luke, one of the owners of Maguire’s.”
“You’re the librarian,” Emma said.
Julia smiled. “That’s right. And you’re the sociologist.”
“The kick-ass sociologist,” Jake added.
“And Julia is the kick-ass librarian,” a dark-haired guy said as he joined them. He stuck his hand out to Jake. “Luke Maguire.”
Jake recognized a fellow rebel.
After giving him a narrow-eyed stare, Luke seemed to reach the same conclusion. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Walt puffed out his chest. “Jake here is considering building a sports resort in this area, and I’ve been telling him how wonderful Serenity Falls is.”
“The place sucks,” Luke said.
Jake cracked up.
Walt sputtered and turned purple.
“The fries are good, though,” Luke added.
“They’re part of the wedding dinner here,” Julia said.
“You’ve gone and ruined it,” Walt said.
“The dinner? No, it should be great,” Julia said.
Her answer seemed to make Walt even angrier. “I don’t mean the dinner and you know it.
Ignore them,” he told Jake. “They’re troublemakers.”
“My kind of people,” Jake said before he and Luke exchanged high fives.
“I’ve got to return to the head table for the toasts,” Emma said.
Jake watched her leave.
“Man, you’ve got it bad,” Luke quietly noted.
Luke’s words stayed with Jake for the rest of the evening. He couldn’t take his eyes off Emma, and his thoughts were equally stuck on her. He watched her talk to her mother and immediately knew that Maxie said something to drive Emma nuts.
“Are you okay?” Jake asked Emma a short time later.
“Yes.” Emma sighed. “It’s just that sometimes family issues are complicated.”
Jake looked at Nancy across the dance floor. “Yeah, tell me about it.”
Jake held out until Monday afternoon before making his way to the Broken Creek Trailer Park.
Like Nick’s Tavern, the place had seen better days. He parked his Jeep in front of a trailer that was neater than most of the others.
This time he wasn’t going to sit there waiting like he had in front of Crumpler’s Auto Parts.
This time he was going right in. No thinking about it. He’d done enough thinking to last him a lifetime. Seeing Emma with her family at her sister’s wedding had hit home the fact that he needed some answers about his own family.
He opened the screen door and rapped on the Harley logo pasted on the front door.
Zoe came to the door. “Yes? Can I help you?”
“I know this comes out of left field, but I’m just going to come out and ask you—did you have a kid and give it up for adoption thirty years ago?”
Zoe’s face paled. “How did you know?”
“Because . . . I’m that kid.”
Chapter Sixteen
Jake had had no idea how Zoe would react so perhaps he shouldn’t have been surprised when she shut the door in his face . . . but he was.
“Well, that went well,” he sarcastically muttered to himself. Once again he felt like an ass.
What had he expected? That she’d greet him with open arms?
As he turned to leave, the door opened again. “I’m sorry,” Zoe said, tears slowly streaming down her face. “I just wasn’t expecting this. Come in, please. We need to talk.”
He cautiously entered the trailer. It was nothing special—living room with kitchen to the right and a hall presumably leading to bedrooms to the left.
“Would you like something to drink?” Zoe asked.
Hell, he’d like a bottle of freaking vodka, but getting ripped wouldn’t solve anything. He’d been there, done that. “No thanks.”
She motioned for him to sit on the overstuffed brown couch. She was no longer crying, which was a relief to Jake. “Did the adoption agency tell you where to find me?”
“No. A fire burned most of their records. The only lead I had was that my birth mother came from Rock Creek, PA, and her age. The other possibilities were ruled out until you were the only one left.”
Zoe wiped away her tears with the heel of her hand. “Does Lulu know?”
“No one knows except for you and me.”
She nodded as if relieved.
“Look, I’m not looking for any maternal affection or anything here. I just want some facts, that’s all. Any medical problems I should be aware of?”
Zoe blinked. “Huh?”
“Medical problems that might be inherited. Cancer, that kind of stuff.”
“No.”
“What about my father?”
“What about him?
“Any health problems there I should know about?”
“He died in a motorcycle accident before you were born. He liked going fast.”
“So do I.”
She kept her gaze fixed on him as if he were Bigfoot and had just stepped out of the woods.
“I can’t believe you’re real.”
He shifted, uncomfortable with the awe he detected in her voice. He wanted to keep things as impersonal as possible. He hadn’t come here for hugs and kisses.
Zoe started talking very fast but not very coherently. “I had to hit rock bottom. It took me twenty years to do that. I’m married now to a great guy. He’s a therapist. Helps troubled kids. He helped me. He said I had to come back here and face my fears or I couldn’t move on. I’ve got two stepsons, aged eight and ten, and I’ve been a good stepmom to them. I need to make peace with my past.”
“Meaning Lulu?”
Zoe nodded.
“You never wondered what happened to the kid you gave away?”
“I knew you were adopted by a wonderful couple, and I heard they moved to California with you. I couldn’t keep you. I was a sixteen-year-old runaway.”
“Did you do drugs when you were pregnant?”
“What?! No!”
“Who are you to be asking my daughter questions like that?” growled a big bear of a man from the doorway. He entered the trailer, glaring menacingly at Jake. He looked like a card-carrying member of the Hell’s Angels, every inch of his arms covered in tattoos.
“Who am I?” Jake repeated. “I’m the bastard baby she gave away.”
Old Biker Dude turned his attention to Zoe. “Is that true?”
She nodded.
He looked back at Jake. “You want some lasagna?”
“I, uh . . .” Jake didn’t know what to say to that.
“It’s homemade. Everything looks better after you’ve had lasagna.”
“This is my dad, Jerry Malick,” Zoe said. “He’s a good cook.”
“You’re that extreme sports guy, right?” Jerry said.
Jake nodded. “Did you know your daughter had a baby when she was sixteen?”
“I had my suspicions, but we never really talked about it.”
“You never wondered what happened to your grandchild?”
“Of course I did, but I wasn’t even sure there was a grandchild. She disappeared. Ran away.
I didn’t have any contact with her for years.”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “I gathered she’s not good at staying in touch.”
“So how about that lasagna?”
Old Biker Dude was certainly one laid-back guy. “I’ll pass on that for now. I’d rather have some answers.”
&
nbsp; Zoe reached for her purse. She pulled out a wallet and riffled through the back compartment until she pulled out a tattered color photo. “This is your father.”
“My birth father,” Jake corrected her. “My father is the man who raised me until I was twelve.”
“What happened when you were twelve?”
“My parents both died in a car accident.”
Zoe’s face went pale and another round of tears slid down her face. “I didn’t know,” she whispered.
“Hey, I didn’t come here to lay any kind of guilt trip on you. Like I said, I just wanted some information.” Jake belatedly looked at the tattered photo he held in his hand and felt like he’d been sucker punched. The guy looked an awful lot like him. Same dark hair, same cocky tilt of his head.
“His name was Brady,” Zoe said. “He was seventeen. A rebel. His grandma raised him. She died shortly after he did. She was his only relative.”
Jake didn’t know what to say. He clutched the old photograph so hard he got a cramp in his hand.
But still he didn’t let go or look away. He couldn’t.
He heard Zoe ask him, “What happened to you after your parents . . . died?”
He couldn’t answer her. He was consumed with an avalanche of unexpected emotions. Was this what he’d been looking for? Had he finally found the answers he’d been seeking? A teenage runaway mom, a rebel teenage dad—not a new story by any means. But it was part of his story.
“You know, I love Lulu to death, but I did kind of wonder what it would be like to have a grandson,” Jerry said. “I just wasn’t expecting to get a full-grown one out of the blue.”
“Lulu doesn’t know,” Zoe said.
“Lulu doesn’t know what?” Lulu stood on the threshold of the trailer, outside the screen door.
“Jake, what are you doing here? If you’re trying to get me and her”—she jerked her thumb in Zoe’s direction—“together, you can just forget it.”
“Come on in, Lulu.” Jerry held the screen door open for her. “This discussion involves you.”
“You set me up,” she accused her grandfather. “Told me you made lasagna and had leftovers.”
“That’s true.”
“You didn’t tell me she’d be here.”