by Jill Sanders
“I remember.” She smiled. She did. She also remembered knowing for days before getting the job that it would happen just like that.
“So, how did you know how I like my coffee?” he whispered. “Has Chrissy rubbed off on you?”
“Don’t let her hear you call her that.” She smiled. When he just waited for her response, she leaned closer. “Do you want to know my secret?” she whispered. His eyes were glued to her lips, causing her to smile.
“Most definitely.” He was a breath away.
Just then, the person in line behind him cleared his throat, causing them to jump apart.
“Friday.” She smiled and handed him his cup.
He chuckled as he handed her his credit card. Their fingers touched and she could have sworn a spark flew between them. Their eyes met and she felt her breath catch in her chest.
Maybe he did think of her as something more than friends. Maybe she could take some time to enjoy life. Then the reality sunk in, like it always did. She was playing with fire. She knew she had to back away, but he was too damn sexy. She wanted something, just a little taste of happiness before her life was ripped away from her.
When sadness threatened to surface, she pasted on another smile and he moved to an empty booth and took a seat. For the next half hour, she tried to focus on her work. But her entire being was very aware that her dream man was less than ten feet away. The man she’d spent the better part of her life dreaming about, trying to steer clear of.
More than dreaming, actually. She’d had vivid fantasies about him since before her parents left. He’d been her neighbor back then on the side that her bedroom wasn’t on. She’d wished his room had faced hers instead of the Roberts brothers.
But then her folks had disappeared and her life had taken a different turn.
Jacob ate his muffin and finished off his coffee. He tried to focus on his rounds, but his mind refused to give up on the gray-eyed beauty he’d fantasized about for the better part of his adult life.
Why hadn’t he ever asked her out before? He’d been attracted to her for years, and it wasn’t as if he didn’t date. He’d had a date just a… Hmm, maybe it was longer ago than he thought. He strained his mind, thinking back to when he’d last gone out. It had been hot, so… last summer.
He shook his head in disgust. Okay, so maybe he’d been a little too busy. But then he couldn’t think of what he’d been busy with. His job was pretty low key.
Why hadn’t he asked her out sooner? It wasn’t as if the small town was crawling with good-looking single women who had a brain. No, Jessie was in that field all by herself. So why was she still single? He knew that Mike and she had gone out a few times. Hell, you didn’t live in a small town without knowing what everyone else was doing.
Why hadn’t it worked? Why didn’t she have a line of men waiting for her?
He thought about it as he drove out to the school for a call. Some students had spray-painted the statue, something he had done himself when he’d been a senior. It was a tradition.
But the new principal, Eric Lenderman, had called it in, so he had to make an appearance. Jacob had most likely picked on Eric back at school. They’d been in the same class. Now the man had three kids, a mortgage, two cars, and an ex-wife who had taken the kids and half of his retirement.
The man was more than half-bald and at least double Jacob’s weight. He actually wheezed when they walked from the front office to the statue.
Eric pointed to the statue of Ty Cobb, one of America’s Major League Baseball outfielders, and the namesake of the local high school for as long as Jacob and anyone could remember. “As you can see, they did a lot of damage.”
Jacob held in a chuckle. Whoever had painted the statue this time was a pure genius and a better artist than he had been.
The statue stood over ten feet tall and had the ball player holding a bat casually over his shoulder. There had been plenty of rumors about the man being a racist and about the possibility that he killed a drifter back in 1912, making his statue a perfect target for vandalism.
Jacob didn’t know why the school board hadn’t changed the name of the school and taken down the statue years ago.
It took him almost an hour to wrap things up at the school, and then he was busy with three more calls. On his last one, he ended up less than a mile from Xtina and Mike’s place. His brother. That thought, still gave him pause.
Chapter 3
All through Jess’s shift, her mind kept wandering back to that night she’d been left shivering on her front porch, alone.
It had been just past dark when Carla had stopped by.
“Oh, sweetie.” Carla rushed from her car and wrapped her arms around her.
“My parents are gone,” she said, holding in the emotions. She’d cried for them enough and had promised herself she would never shed a tear for them again.
“Yes, honey. I know.” Carla wrapped her arms tighter around her.
“Why? Where?”
“I don’t know, but they left you some things over at my place and made some arrangements for you.”
She stood up and looked around. “Did they leave a note?”
“No, honey, they didn’t.” Carla stood beside her. “They gave me guardianship over you.”
“Fine.” She walked to Carla’s car, leaving her backpack on the back porch of her old house, forgotten. Like the rest of her youth.
“Hey.” Tilly’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “You okay?”
Jess shook off the sour memories and smiled. “Yeah, I guess sleeping on a sofa all night didn’t afford me much sleep.”
She thought about the promise she’d made to Xtina and Mike earlier that morning. Her mother had left her a few things when they had packed up and left. One of them, she was sure, wasn’t intentional.
The yearbook had been shoved in the old truck her parents had left with Carla. She didn’t know why they had left it, only that it was now hers. Even if the thing didn’t run right. She’d also been left a suitcase of her clothes. Not a lot a thirteen-year-old girl could do with just clothes.
Carla had taken her in like she was one of her own. She had stayed in an apartment over the garage, which sat directly across from Carla’s apartment, giving her more freedom than any teenager should ever be afforded. Carla owned the entire building, a business with two matching apartments above it.
Xtina had spent many nights there with her when she had been able to sneak away from her parents. Still, she’d been left alone through puberty, one of the hardest times in a young girl’s life. Especially when you didn’t know what was going on.
Carla had tried to convince her that everything she was going through was normal, but there had been a lot that she hadn’t told the older woman, who had never had kids of her own.
She hadn’t told her about the vivid dreams she had, even when she was awake. Then there were the strange feelings she had of knowing things before they happened, which had begun shortly after she had started driving. Instances like that continued to happen even to this day.
But the strangest by far was being able to make things move without touching them and causing things to happen by just thinking about them. She hadn’t even told those things to Xtina.
Back when Xtina had first confided in her the things she could do, Jessie had still hidden her own abilities. She didn’t know why, and she couldn’t count the times she had wanted to tell her best friend, but something held her back. Something deep inside her told her to keep these things a secret.
Besides, she hadn’t really been sure of her powers until after Xtina had moved away. During her youth, things had been… wonky. To say she had no control would have been an understatement. But, after reaching twenty, she’d learned to be completely in control. Completely.
She had spent a lot of time learning as much as she could about herself, which, of course, meant that there was a serious lack of friends, dates, and boyfriends.
Since Xtina left Hidden Creek, Jes
sie had been on her own. Carla was still there, across the hallway from her, but as far as her private life went, she had sacrificed everything to not be seen as a freak.
When her shift was over, she was tired, but she walked the three blocks to her apartment and grabbed the only item left over from her parents’ lives. She jumped behind the wheel of her truck and cursed when nothing happened as she twisted the key in the ignition. After trying it several more times, she slammed her hand down on the steering wheel, got out, and, for good measure, slammed the door. Hard.
Running back up the stairs, she knocked on Carla’s door. She knew her shift at the cafe had ended earlier, as usual. She hated having to bum a ride, but she had promised to go out to Xtina’s and show her the yearbook. Besides, she didn’t really want to spend the night locked away by herself. Not anymore.
Carla dropped her off with the promise from Jess that she’d get a ride back into town from Xtina.
“I’ll have the brothers look at the truck,” Carla called out just before driving away.
Jess knew it would probably be several days before she had her truck back. But at least she didn’t have to have it towed somewhere.
She walked into Xtina’s place and gave Xtina’s new dog, Rose, a treat from the box she’d bought her. She had a soft spot for dogs, especially pregnant ones.
She looked up and her heart skipped when she met Jacob’s sexy brown eyes. All evening, she found it hard to concentrate on anything except how near he was to her.
When things got weird—weird being an understatement when your best friend held a make-shift séance and a ghost hovered over the kitchen table—Jess should have been totally freaked, but instead, she was only worried about her friend. Xtina seemed to take the entire situation hard. She’d gone into a trance-like state.
“Time is near,” Xtina said in an unnatural voice, causing shivers to run down Jess’s spine. “Time to make things right. Time for the payment you promised.”
At this point, Jess lost the ability to breathe.
“What payment?” Mike asked. But Jess knew. She was the only one in the room, in Georgia—no, on the planet—that knew what the ghost was talking about.
“Two more are needed,” Xtina whispered before she passed out.
Jess rushed to her side, even though her mind screamed at her to run as far away from this place, from these people, as she could.
For the next few minutes, she pushed everything that had happened to the back of her mind. Knowing what was coming didn’t give her leave to freak out about it in front of everyone else.
When Mike had settled Xtina upstairs, they moved back downstairs.
It was then that she noticed how freaked out Jacob was.
“Will someone please tell me what the hell just happened?” he said from the base of the stairs.
It took almost thirty minutes for Mike to fill them in on what had been happening. She tried—really, she did—to act surprised at some of the things Mike said. But, in truth, she’d known exactly what was going to happen years ago.
She showed Mike her mother’s yearbook, and listened as they tried to figure out some more details.
When Jacob left, she waited almost ten minutes before leaving herself. She had been so preoccupied with trying to avoid him outside that she’d forgotten she needed a ride home.
She shouldn’t have been surprised to see his car still outside. No doubt, he’d guessed that she hadn’t driven and needed a ride.
When she hit the bottom of the stairs, he jumped out of his car.
“Need a ride?” he asked, walking over to her.
“Yeah.” Riding with him was better than walking or bothering Xtina and Mike further.
She’d hoped to avoid the conversation she knew was coming, but sooner or later, she was going to have to tell Jacob that she had to cancel their dinner plans.
Jacob was still a little freaked out about what he’d just witnessed, but the fact that Jess was acting perfectly normal sitting next to him settled him down some.
“Why do I get the feeling you’re not too affected by all this?” he asked as he drove into town.
He chanced a glance over at her and could see her biting her bottom lip.
“Oh, I am,” she said, and still, something in her voice betrayed her.
“Really?” He glanced again at her. “Because, while your eyes were glued to Xtina, I was watching you.”
She turned towards him this time. “Why?”
He chuckled. “I would have thought that my dinner offer would have made that very clear.”
She was silent for a while. “My folks left me; there’s little in life that can shock me.” She shrugged.
“Jess, how long have we known each other?” he asked as he pulled into town.
“I think we were in the same play group when I was still in diapers,” she joked.
“Right, so, after all this time, don’t you think I can tell when you’re hiding something?” He turned onto her street and pulled behind her truck. Putting the cruiser in park, he shut off the engine and turned towards her. “So, are you going to spill it? Or are you going to leave me in the dark so I can be shocked again, like tonight?”
She rolled her head back, resting it on the headrest on the seat. “I saw it. Beforehand,” she added.
“What do you mean?” When she stayed silent, he went on. “Like Xtina can see things?”
She shook her head. “No, like, I saw what happened tonight before it did. Xtina can see into people’s pasts.”
“So.” He waited a beat. “You can see the future?” She reached for the door handle, but his hand on her arm stopped her. “Why won’t you talk to me?”
“Because I don’t trust anyone.” She turned on him. “I can’t afford to. Xtina trusted me, back in grade school, with her abilities. The first thing I did was run to my folks and tell them. They went to her parents and they started….” She leaned her head back again. “Trying to fix her. Everything she went through as a child was my fault.”
A tear slid down her cheek, and he reached for her, but she jerked away.
“Then I trusted my parents and look at where that got me.” She motioned to the apartment above the garage. It wasn’t a bad looking place, just… old and a little run down.
“Jess, I’m not going anywhere. Neither is Xtina.”
“How do you know?” She glared at him. “She hasn’t even committed to sticking around town yet.”
He reached over and took her hand. “Invite me in.” When she balked, he smiled. “For a friendly chat.” He held up a scout’s promise.
“You were never a Boy Scout.” Her eyes narrowed at him.
“Still… invite me up. This conversation would be better inside.” He glanced around the dark parking lot.
She was quiet for another minute, then nodded and got out of the car. He followed her up the back stairs and stood back as she let them into her apartment. It had its own private entrance, which he counted as a bonus and a security threat.
“You should change out this light above your door with one that comes on automatically when someone approaches.” He looked up at it as she walked into her kitchen and flipped on bright lights.
“I’ll get right on it,” she said, rolling her eyes. She pulled two beers out of the fridge as he shut the door behind him. “Want?”
He nodded and glanced around the small space. “You’ve lived here since your parents left?” He was impressed. The place was a lot nicer than he’d imagined.
“Yeah, Carla is directly across the hall.” She handed him a beer. He followed her into a small living room that contained an old sofa, a very old TV, and a small coffee table. He was surprised to see that the kitchen was bigger than the living room.
She walked over and sat down on the sofa and sipped her beer. “So?” She glanced up at him. “Have you talked to your folks yet?”
He started to answer but stopped. “Which ones?” He sat next to her as a sarcastic chuckle sounded deep in h
is chest.
“Your…” She sighed. “St. Clairs.”
“Why? They know I was adopted.” He leaned back and took another drink.
“Are you choosing to be this difficult or does it just come naturally?” She set her beer down and turned towards him.
He smiled. “Maybe I like it better when you’re not all pouty inside.” He set his drink down next to hers and moved closer. Her eyes narrowed and heated as he slid closer.
“So,” he said softly, “are you going to tell me what you’ve been hiding?”
“Hiding?” She frowned and tried to lean away, but he put his arm around her and pulled her closer. He could see that her eyes were slowly becoming unfocused as they watched him, and he knew that he wasn’t the only one feeling the heat between them.
“Jacob,” she started. She shook her head. “This isn’t a good idea.” Suddenly, her lips were on his, her body pressed tight against his as her hands pushed through his hair.
He’d been prepared to wait. To walk out of her place without so much as a caress. But when she attacked him—and he was definitely attacked—how could he not lose complete control?
Chapter 4
Okay, so fighting fate was hard, especially when the man she was currently kissing looked at her with those sexy brown eyes. Not to mention how hot he looked in his uniform with his arms bulging out of the short-sleeved shirt. Man, she was a sucker for a uniform.
She could hardly tear her eyes from him all night. She couldn’t have known what just touching her mouth to his would do to her. Heat spread… well, everywhere. Her body responded like never before. The earth didn’t shake, it jumped once and then settled in place. She felt power surge through her, more powerful than anything she’d ever felt, but instead of being afraid, she relished it.
Before she knew what she was doing, she had climbed up into his lap. Into his lap! His hands were everywhere on her, exploring and tugging her closer. She moved slightly and felt something sharp hit her thigh.