Wrecked and Yours Trilogy: A Second Chance Love Story

by CeeCee James

  Miranda pantomimed to her sister, Call me. Cassie gave her a thumbs up.

  “It was nice meeting you, Leif.”

  He waved. “You too.

  Turning, Miranda could see Jason’s anger in his squared shoulders, and she put her hand on his back to steer him out of the room. As soon as she shut the door, Jason let loose a string of curses. “… pencil neck little—”

  She grabbed his hand and yanked him along to the elevator, her face burning bright red as the nurses turned to see what the ruckus was about.

  “Calm down, Jason.”

  He took some deep breaths while they waited for the elevator.

  “I just want to say, I understand you’re upset. But, remember, she’s an adult.”

  That had the opposite effect and his eyes sparked again.

  The elevator arrived and Miranda dragged him in. “You know what,” she said hurriedly, “let’s think about all of this tomorrow. It’s a beautiful day. Let me take you to lunch.”

  “I’m not hungry,” he said, a little pouty as the door slid closed.

  “No?”

  “Well, maybe a little.”

  “All right. Poison pizza it is.” She triumphantly stabbed the second floor button for the cafeteria.

  He gave a ghost of a crooked grin. “You know what would really cheer me up? Your old man laugh.” He gave her ribs a little poke.

  “Ahh!” she giggled, “Don’t do that!” Batting him with her hands, she tried to fend him off as they arrived on their floor.

  They exited the elevator and an elderly woman stopped them. “Oh my goodness. You two are such a cute couple!”

  Miranda’s eyebrows raised and a blush crept up her neck. Wow, I’m that obvious.

  “Thank you,” Jason answered.

  “You remind me of me and my Howard. We were together fifty-two years. How long have you two been married?”

  “We’re not married.” Miranda blurted. “Just friends. He’s like my brother.”

  “Oh.” The lady’s smile fell. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” Miranda said, shriveling inside with embarrassment at her over-the-top reaction. Wow, you idiot. So freaking smooth. Good way to send Jason running for the hills.

  The lady nodded again, a bemused look on her face, before shuffling off to the cafeteria.

  Miranda didn’t know where to look after that.

  Jason quietly chuckled. “Let’s get out of here,” he said, leading her to the outside door. “I actually have other plans for today.”

  “Oh yeah, what plans?”

  “I’m thinking it’s a good day to go to the zoo.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah, you said you hadn’t been in years. Me either. Let’s go.”

  “Heck, yes!” Miranda held the door open for him, filled with renewed energy.

  At the truck, Jason gave her one of his thoughtful glances.

  He put the key in the ignition but didn’t turn it. “Hey, I need you to do me a favor.”

  “What?”

  “You know, that thing you do when you feel awkward when people say we’re a great couple.”

  Miranda bit her lip. Oh crap, here it comes.

  “You told that lady I’m like a brother to you. You’ve done that before. I hate that.” He rubbed along his jaw with his hand and then gave a small laugh. His green eyes flashed at her. “I mean, I get it. It’s weird when they say that. But it’s okay to just leave it that we are friends. Don’t tack that brother thing on.”

  “Okay. No more brother.” Miranda raised her hands. “I’m trying to respect you, by the way. You’re the one with the whole ‘friends forever’ and all that jazz.”

  His eyes grew thoughtful. “Yeah, well my friend is as sexy as hell, and that would be a weird thing for a brother to think. Right?”

  Miranda bit her lip. “You have a point.” Warmth filled her stomach. Now what’s going on in his head?

  He grinned for a moment, then slid back into his serious look. “See, I think you are just as afraid as I am.”

  Miranda felt a zing of defensiveness and she crossed her arms over her chest. What? Afraid? That’s rich coming from Mr. Fort Knox over there. “Is that what you think, huh?” Then tension in the air grew thicker.

  Jason studied her, his eyebrow raised in question. “You mad?”

  Miranda rolled her eyes before looking away. “You’re confusing, Jason.”

  “I’m not that confusing.” Slowly, his look faded into a hungry expression as he stared at her, his eyes flaring green. Clearing his throat, he broke the tension. “Anyway, whatever.” He turned the key, and spun the volume on the radio. “Let’s go check out the monkeys.”

  The zoo was packed with troops of kids from different schools, all wearing matching t-shirts and being herded through the animal exhibits by harried counselors. “Reminds me of the last time I was here,” Miranda said, just before her foot got mashed by one of the boys.

  “This might be why the term rugrat is thrown out so fondly.” Jason scanned the crowd. He noticed her grimace of pain. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Kid just smashed my foot and brought back memories of my junior high dance.”

  “Nothing a little cotton candy can’t fix?”

  She lit up. “Absolutely need cotton candy right now!”

  “Oh my word!” A loud squeal rang across the monkey compound. Claudia hurried over with her two little daughters in matching dresses in tow. “Look at you two! So adorable!” she winked at Jason. “I knew you’d end up together.”

  “Claudia! What are you doing here?” Then, with the merest glance at Jason, “Naw, he and I are just friends.”

  “Friends? I know friends when I see them, and I ain’t seeing it here.”

  Miranda ignored her coworker and leaned down to the girls. “How do you like the zoo? I’m Miranda, by the way.”

  Claudia’s oldest daughter was about six. She smiled shyly, showing her missing two top teeth. “I liked the butterfly house,” she lisped.

  “Oh, I guess I’m going to have to go visit that one next.” Miranda nodded.

  “Well, we have to get moving if we’re ever going to get through this place. Right, girls? I still haven’t seen the elephants yet.” Grabbing her daughters’ hands, Claudia threw a “Have a glorious day!” over her shoulder, and teetered away on her high heels.

  “How does she do that without busting an ankle?” Jason watched them leave, shaking his head. Then he smiled. “You did better.”

  “Yeah I did. You owe me cotton candy, stat.”

  He took her hand inside his own big one and they headed towards the snack-shack. Miranda suddenly had a prickly feeling that someone was watching her. She casually turned her head to look around, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Just crowds of kids screaming and tired mothers pushing strollers. She realized Jason was talking to her. “What?” she asked.

  “Pink or blue,” He pointed to the flavors of cotton candy.

  “Oh, pink of course.” She smiled with anticipation, the creepy feeling forgotten.

  25

  Present Day

  Jason had taken the week for his yearly fishing vacation. But instead of fishing, yesterday he and Miranda had spent the previous day getting Cassie settled into the rehabilitation center. Leif had been there also, and although Jason avoided him, Miranda watched him carefully. He seemed very attentive of Cassie, and her face lit up whenever he spoke to her. Still out for judgment, she thought to herself, but he’s looking better.

  And today when Miranda came downstairs, Jason was trying to get the waffle maker to work.

  “Not fishing?” Miranda questioned.

  “Naw, I’ll go tomorrow.” He opened the waffle maker lid, and started to swear. The waffle had peeled apart, firmly sticking to both the top and bottom of the griddle.

  “Now you see, this is why I do frozen ones.” Miranda patted his arm. “Just pop them in the toaster.” She walked to the freez
er and pulled out a package. Tossing it to him, she said, “You can learn much from me, grasshoppah.”

  He caught it with a raised eyebrow. “Do you even know what’s in this? Have you ever looked?”

  She pulled out the box and squinted at the ingredients. “Too much reading for this early in the morning,” she said, shoving it back in the freezer. “But I’ll tell you it’s a heck of a lot better than protein powder.”

  He shook his head, but opened the bottom cupboard and hauled out the toaster.

  After breakfast, they both walked down to the lake. The water was calm, rippling with a thousand sparkles from the sun. Miranda threw a stick out into the water for Archer. The dog swam for it, just his dark head bobbing on the surface.

  Miranda clapped her hands as he brought the stick back. “What a good boy!”

  Archer shook himself dry.

  “Ahh!” Jason yelled at the unexpected shower. “Crazy dog.” He yanked his t-shirt up, showing off his muscular stomach, and wiped his face.

  The corner of Miranda’s lip turned up. “Come here, Archer. Let me throw that stick again.”

  Jason looked at her with raised eyebrows. He grabbed her hand. “Come on, I have somewhere I’ve been wanting to take you.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, let’s go.”

  The shore was littered with driftwood. Jason held her hand more firmly as they climbed over an old log. Miranda smiled at the feeling.

  The bank next to them began to rise into a steep cliff the farther they walked. Soon, the beach was constricted to a thin strip between the base of the cliff and the water.

  “I’m taking my shoes off.” Jason slipped off his sneakers and knotted the laces together. He slung them around his neck.

  Miranda carried hers in her hand.

  Water gently lapped at their feet as they walked along the base of the cliff.

  When they came around the bend there was a pinnacle of land that stood alone where it had detached from the main cliff, like a candle on the beach. The sides leading to its plateau were gentler, but still fairly steep.

  It took Miranda all of two seconds to figure out what Jason wanted her to see. She stopped in her tracks before turning to stare open-mouthed at him. “You’re not making me go up there.”

  He grinned hard but tried to hide it by rubbing his jaw. “Come on,” he coaxed.

  “Shut. Up. Jason. No freaking way.”

  “I promise, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  “You know I’m terrified of heights. Are you serious?”

  “Yeah I am. This is going to be great.” Then he looked her in the eye. “Trust me, will you? Just this once?”

  Miranda groaned. He was pulling out the trust card. It was so completely unfair.

  “Come on. Follow me. I promise it will be easy.”

  “Yeah?” Miranda pointed to the overhang at the top. “That doesn’t look easy to me.” She arched her eyebrow at him.

  Jason laughed. “Seriously, it will be fine. I promise. Just put your feet where mine are.”

  Her stomach did a flip-flop as she looked up its sides, her inner voice saying, Can’t do this, no way, no how.

  “Come on,” Jason said, his eyes daring her. “Show me how brave you really are.”

  Her eyes narrowed at the challenge.

  The first few feet weren’t too bad. There was a rock at just the right distance for a handhold. Miranda followed him, placing her hand exactly where she’d seen him place his. Every now and then he’d glance back, and tell her where to put her foot.

  It was about half way up, when a river of sand rolled past her, that things started to feel a little sketchy.

  “Err, Jason?”

  He glanced up to judge the distance, the cords in his neck standing out. “We’re almost there. I’ll make you a steak dinner for your reward.”

  “I can cook my own steak,” she huffed, grabbing a grass tuft to pull herself higher, her thigh muscles trembling from the strain. “I made it last week, remember?”

  “That was a steak? I thought you were attempting to turn carbon into diamonds.”

  “Ha, ha, ha.” Miranda said dryly. “The mistake was the seasoning.” She slid her hand into the crevasse where he’d just had his foot. She couldn’t be too mad at him. He was trying to distract her and doing a pretty darn good job. Besides, even Archer had turned his nose up at the meat.

  A few more feet, and Jason was climbing onto the ledge below the overhang. He reached down to give her his hand and pulled her up. “This isn’t going to be bad,” he said. “But I know it feels scary. I’ll boost you to the top. You’ll pull yourself over and away from the edge, and I’ll be right behind you.”

  “Pull myself…” She craned her head to see the top of the ledge. “Can’t you go first?”

  “Not this time.” He bent over and laced his fingers together. “Come on, you can do it.”

  Miranda’s pulse thundered in her ears. She put her foot in his hand and balanced with her other hand on the top of his head.

  “Ready.”

  “As I’ll ever be,” she said resignedly.

  He stood with ease, lifting her to the edge. She scrambled forward until she could grab some roots to pull herself the rest of the way, while he pushed from underneath.

  Once up, she wiggled to the center of the plateau and hugged her knees. Jason grunted as he hauled himself up next to her. He stood on the plateau and chuckled. “Wow, would you look at that?”

  “It’s beautiful,” Miranda said, her blue eyes squeezed tight.

  “It’s okay.” He scooted closer to her. “I’m here, I’ve got you.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him. “We’re going to stand together. Count of three.”

  “On three, or after three,” she laughed weakly.

  “You’re such a goof.” At three, he stood up, lifting her with him.

  She buried her face into his chest. Her legs felt loose and weak. “Don’t let go,” she breathed into his shirt.

  “Hey, I’m not going to let you go. I’ve got you, remember?” He squeezed her close to him for a moment, and she felt his heart beat. Slowly, he rubbed his hand down her back. “Okay, I want you to turn around. I swear I’m not letting go.”

  Miranda grabbed his arm tighter.

  “Just trust me, okay? Count of three, let’s do this.”

  She spun around, hanging on to his arms that encircled her waist. She tried to slow her breathing, which came in panicked gasps.

  “Open your eyes,” he instructed.

  She opened them.

  The lake spread out before them like they’d reached the end of the earth. All that she could see was blue, the steely blue-grey lake split from the sky by a dark blue line. Seagulls hovered in the air, before one dove to pluck something out of the water.

  “It’s gorgeous,” Miranda breathed.

  Overhead, a seagull split off to circle above them. Miranda laughed for a moment, until the bird plunged down the side of the hill. As her eyes followed it, vertigo kicked in.

  “Whoa, baby.” She closed her eyes until the dizziness went away, then opened them again.

  To the right of them, a tree-covered hill seemed to rise straight out of the water, reflecting a smudge of orange from its turning autumn leaves.

  “Hey,” she pointed. “Is that the town? I think the dental office is some place over there.”

  Jason rested his chin on the top of Miranda’s head. “I think you’re right. And over that way is where we live.” His lips found the crook of her neck. “Thank you for climbing up here with me.”

  Warmth ran through her body. She closed her eyes again, this time from happiness.

  Then popped them back open. “You aren’t rocking me.”

  “I figured you’d think I was trying to throw you off the side,” he growled in her ear.

  She glanced at the edge and gave a little shudder. “Is it time to go back down now?”

  “Yep. This will be
a piece of cake.” Jason helped her sit. “Okay, we’re going to climb down just like we got up. I’ll go first. Then I want you to roll over, and scoot off the edge. Relax. I’ll be there to catch you.”

  “Jason.” Miranda’s forehead wrinkled.

  “Hey, don’t worry. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” He winked at her and flashed his crooked smile. Then he jumped to the overhang below.

  “‘Piece of cake,’ he says, then leaps off the cliff. I don’t know what kind of cake he’s eating,” Miranda grumbled.

  “All right! Come on down!”

  Miranda rolled on her belly and slid her legs over the edge. As they dangled in mid-air a squeamish feeling rippled through her. Oh God! Don’t leave me now! she prayed.

  She felt a firm hand on her ankle.

  “Keep coming. I’ve got you.”

  She slid down more, the dirt and grass scraping against her stomach. Suddenly, the grass gave way under her hand. She gave a half squeal. Jason firmly grabbed her around her legs, and she slithered into his arms like a clumsy avalanche.

  “I told you I’d catch you.” His tanned face lit up with a grin.

  She giggled with relief and sagged against him. “Jason, I swear, I climbed this cliff just to show you that I trusted you. But, that was freaking incredible! Thank you so much. I couldn’t have done it without you.” She looked up at him.

  The smile dropped from her lips.

  His dark hair fell over his forehead as he stared deeply into her eyes. Raising his hand to her face, he brushed the hair back behind her ear. He licked his bottom lip, as his gaze dropped from her eyes down to her mouth. He slowly exhaled and lowered his head. Came closer.

  Closer.

  And closer...until his forehead touched hers. The air in the short space that separated them crackled with electricity. She tipped her head up, almost without control. Softly, his lips pressed against hers, ending with him slowly running his tongue against her bottom lip. Barely breathing, she leaned in to him, and he pulled her closer, his mouth coming down harder. His tongue nudged her lips open and swept inside. His hand ran up the back of her neck, and heat spread throughout her body as his fingers threaded through her hair. He kissed along her jaw line, her neck, then returned to her lips. “You’re so beautiful, Miranda. I can’t fight it any more.”