His Lost and Found Family

by Sarah M. Anderson

  Crap, they were leaving. “Are you sure you can’t stay?”

  “We really must be going,” Megan said. “But it’s been nice to meet you. I’ll drop off a few things for Skye.”

  “Jake,” Whit said with a nod of his head.

  “Thanks,” Jake said, resigned to the fact that this distraction had been temporary. Maybe when Megan brought by the clothes, she and Skye would start chatting. Yeah, that’d be good—some quality girl time to divert her attention from sex.

  He shut the door and then, just because he needed to have some sense knocked into him, he banged his head against the wood a few times.

  “Who was it?”

  At the sound of Skye’s voice, Jake whirled around. She’d made it halfway down the steps and was leaning heavily on the railing.

  She was wearing the T-shirt and pants she’d come home in, but she looked a million times better than she had yesterday. There was a brightness about her that made him want to stare. Aside from the haircut, she was the woman he’d loved so much.

  “Whit Daltry and his fiancée, Megan,” Jake explained, trying to find somewhere else to look and not doing an awesome job of it.

  “What did they want?” She took another cautious step downward.

  “To see how you were doing. Megan offered to pick you up some clothes.” He considered his options. The good news was that she was dressed and out of the bed.

  How much longer was he going to be able to keep this up?

  “Well, you’re almost down here. Might as well see how you take the rest of those steps and then I’ll get the coffee.”

  He climbed up the last few steps and took her arm—if he had a grip on her, she couldn’t grab him. Then they made it down the rest of the way.

  “Whew,” Skye said. “That’s hard work.” She tried to give him a jokey smile, but she couldn’t quite pull it off.

  “This is why we have to do the exercises first,” he explained as he led her to the couch. Once he had her sitting down—and the recliner reclining—he said, “It’s going to take a while before you’re back up to full strength. If you overexert yourself, it’s going to knock you down.”

  “Overexert! That’s the word I couldn’t remember.” She grinned up at him, but then her face darkened. “I’m sorry, Jake. I should have listened to you. I know I can’t do everything all at once.”

  That was all it took to make him feel like a jerk. “It’s okay, babe. I can see how you want to make up for lost time.”

  A smile lit up her face. “I just don’t want to miss another second with you.”

  His heart about stopped. He wanted to tell her the truth. He needed to—this wasn’t just a matter of self-preservation, but of honor. He felt wrong letting her go on under the delusion that they were still a happy couple.

  “Skye...”

  “Yes?” She looked up at him with her big blue eyes. She’d always been his blue-eyed Skye. Always.

  And the doctor had said not to tell her the truth. It would upset her and that would be a setback. And the more setbacks she had, the longer Jake would be trapped in this godforsaken town.

  “I’m—I’m really impressed you made it downstairs on your own.”

  “Thanks, hon.” But the trip had clearly taken a lot out of her. She leaned back in the recliner and closed her eyes. She looked younger right then, more like the woman he’d run away with and less the like woman he’d left behind. “I believe someone’s been trying to make me coffee since I woke up?”

  “Right,” he said, thankful for the concrete task. “Then we’ll do the exercises.”

  “Can’t wait,” he heard her groan as he headed to the kitchen to figure out the coffeemaker.

  He laughed.

  It was a good feeling.

  Five

  Jake brought her coffee and a bowl of cereal. “After we do your exercises, I’ll run out to the store and get some of the things you like,” he said when she scowled at the boring bowl of flakes. “We can’t survive on delivery pizza, after all.”

  “I would kill for a croissant,” she admitted.

  She ate her cereal. Suddenly, she was not looking forward to the exercises. Her mind still thought she was in shape—but Jake was right. The trip downstairs had taken a lot out of her. Stupid legs and their stupid muscles.

  Still, the coffee was good and the cereal was...filling.

  Jake took her dishes and then came back into the room. He helped her stand and then he was lowering her to the ground. “On your back,” he said.

  She did as he said, but she waggled her eyebrows at him. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  He grinned at her, but it seemed...forced somehow. “Okay,” he said, looking at a pile of papers on the coffee table. “Let’s start with leg lifts. Doesn’t that sound awesome?”

  She gave him a look. “Not unless you’re suddenly defining awesome in a new and unpleasant way.”

  Jake watched her lying there for a moment. “Aren’t you going to start?”

  “Start what? There are a bunch of different leg lifts. Straight leg? Bent leg?” Heck, even all this talking was wearing her down. “I can’t see the picture, you know.”

  “Oh. Sorry.” He held the paper in front of her face. Ah. Bent leg lifts. “It says to keep your feet flat on the floor and extend your leg until it’s straight for ten reps, then do the other side.”

  “Wonderful,” she grunted in an entirely unsexy way as she tried to get her legs to bend. “A little help here?”

  Jake paused again, and then helped her bend her legs. “Right first,” he said. “I’ll count.”

  Skye managed to do a whole three leg lifts before she ran out of steam. “Can I quit now?”

  He wrinkled his nose at her. “Seven more. Move that leg, Skye.”

  “You’re going to have to help me,” she informed him. Her leg was already shaking from the effort. “I can’t do this.”

  “Yes, you can.” Then, after another moment’s hesitation, he put his hands on her calf. “Slow and steady wins the race.”

  Despite the sweat that was beginning to bead on her forehead, she grinned. This was not one of their sexier touches, but even just his hand on her leg was enough to make her more...energetic.

  They managed to make it through the rest of the set until Jake finally guided her foot back to the floor. By this time she was panting. “I’m gonna need a reward after this,” she told him.

  He froze. “I can get you some ice cream. You probably shouldn’t have wine just yet.”

  “That’s not the reward I was thinking of,” she grumbled as he helped her do the next set of lifts.

  “I’m just trying to get you better,” he quickly defended.

  “Hmph,” she replied, but then the lifts got harder and harder and it took all of her concentration to make it through the last few. “Are we done now?”

  “You’re cute,” he said in an offhand way as he flipped to another page. “Here—this one is in the same position.”

  “Oh, joy.”

  “Pelvic tilts.” He held the picture in front of her. “Set of ten reps. It says...” She saw him swallow. “Lift your bottom off the ground and squeeze your muscles. Hold for five seconds. This one’s for your abs and glutes.”

  “And then we’re done?”

  “Nope. Then we get to do stomach exercises.” He had the nerve to sound happy about this.

  “Better be a damn good reward.” She tried lifting her bottom up, but she couldn’t hold it for a count of five.

  Jake sighed wearily and then slid his hand underneath to help hold her up. “Focus on squeezing your muscles.”

  “I hate you right now. You know that, right?”

  He didn’t reply.

  After the pelvic tilts, he helpe
d her roll over and then helped her lift her leg straight toward the ceiling. If she’d thought the stupid leg lifts were hard before, these lifts left her so drained that she couldn’t even complain about them.

  Then, halfway through the second set, a muscle cramp hit her with the force of a sledgehammer to the butt. “Ow. Ow ow ow ow! Cramp!”

  “Where?” he demanded, sounding as panicked as she felt.

  “Here. Here! OW!” She managed to get her hand up to point to the cheek in question.

  Then he put his hands on her bottom and began to rub. “Does this help? Because if it doesn’t, I’ll stop.”

  “More!” she shouted.

  So he kept going. He kneaded her muscle until the cramp had passed. “Better?” he asked.

  Well, she was. But she wasn’t in the mood to tell him that just yet. “Just a little longer,” she said. Now that the sharpness of the cramp had faded, she had to admit the massage was nice. More than nice. “I don’t know how much more I can do.” That was the truth, too. She didn’t want to cramp up anymore.

  Then Jake’s hands left her body. The loss of his touch and heat made her want to whimper. “Let’s see... We’re supposed to do two more on the floor, but they’re stretches. Damn.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” he hurried to say. “I just have to stretch your legs. Roll back over.”

  Skye managed to do that. Then Jake picked up her leg. “Keep the other one straight,” he said, studying the picture. “And keep this foot flexed.”

  Skye did as he told her to as he lifted her leg so it was perpendicular to her body. The tension was tight in the back of her legs. “Feeling that?” he asked

  “Oh, yeah.” He was standing between her legs, his hands on her body. What she wouldn’t give to not be wearing these ugly clothes. And she hated that she was too weak to do much of anything but let him stretch her muscles.

  They did the one leg, then the other. Another cramp hit her, this time in the calf. “Ow!”

  “Here?” he said, going right for the sore muscle.

  “Ah, that’s it.” She sighed in relief as he worked the tension out of her body.

  “I’ll call Lark later, ask what we can do to avoid the cramps,” he said, not looking at Skye as he massaged her body.

  She managed to get her hands up and get hold of his shirt. “Thank you, babe,” she murmured, trying to pull him down into her. She might not be able to do anything that was terribly energetic right now, but she could still properly kiss him.

  “What are you doing?” he asked, looking alarmed.

  “Kissing you,” she replied. “I want something to make all that worthwhile.”

  For a moment, she wasn’t sure he was going to let her kiss him—but she didn’t understand why. Why was he pushing back against sex so hard?

  “Just a kiss,” he murmured, looking at her lips. “One kiss. As your reward.” Then he put his arms on either side of her head and leaned down into her.

  Oh, how she had dreamed of this—feeling his weight surround her.

  “I...I missed you, Skye.” He said it as if he couldn’t believe it. “I missed this.”

  “Me, too, babe.”

  He lowered his lips to hers. At first, it seemed as if he was just going to give her a chaste little peck. Oh, no, she thought as she ran her fingers into his hair. Now that she finally had him, she wasn’t about to settle for a half kiss. It was all or nothing.

  “Skye,” he groaned into her as she ran her tongue over his lips. “Oh, babe.”

  And then? Then he kissed her. He kissed her hard, taking everything she offered. If he’d kissed her like this before the exercises, she would have had more to give him. As it was, she was barely able to loop her legs over his, damn it.

  Not that he needed any help. He thrust against her, with only the ugly pants standing between them. “Oh,” she moaned into his mouth. “Oh, Jake.”

  She shouldn’t have done that because he stopped thrusting against her and kissing her. “Sorry,” he mumbled as he pushed himself off of her. “Didn’t mean to let it go that long.”

  She stared at him in confusion as he stood. “You didn’t?” She managed to prop herself up into a sitting position—she wasn’t going to let him get away from her, not this time—but when she tried to stand, her legs went all gelatin on her. “Oops!”

  So she couldn’t chase him down. But failing to stand on her own worked as a way to lure him back, too. He was by her side in an instant, lifting her up and setting her back onto the couch. “Easy, babe,” he said. His voice was gentle, but his face? It was dark and pissed-looking. “You’re overdoing it again. You need to recover before you try anything else. I’ll get you something to drink.”

  “I’m not done with you yet,” she called after him. She wanted another kiss—and a whole lot more. She wanted to be sweaty and naked beneath him, their bodies joined together in every way she could physically manage and a few she probably couldn’t.

  He paused in the doorway to the kitchen and turned back to look at her. “Are you sure?”

  “Of course I’m sure. You can’t kiss me like that and expect me not to want to seduce you.”

  He gave her a tight little smile that didn’t look happy. “I won’t,” he promised her. “I won’t.”

  * * *

  I. Can. Not. Sleep. With. Skye.

  And he was going to keep repeating that particular statement until he got it through his thick skull.

  But dammit...when she’d been mouthing off to him during PT and then so desperate for a kiss—well, maybe he wasn’t as strong a man as he liked to think.

  Because right now, she was acting exactly like the woman he’d loved his whole life. Sassy and sultry and ready to challenge him at the drop of a hat.

  He knew darned well and good that, if she could, she’d chase him down and refuse to settle for just a kiss.

  What was he going to do? He hadn’t even been alone in the house with her for twenty-four hours yet and her recovery was going to take weeks—months, even. Months of fending off her advances—of trying to find a way to do so without upsetting her. How long before she remembered that she’d wanted a divorce? How long would he have to play the part of the doting husband? How damn long would he have to lie in bed with her and not make love to her?

  Plus, there were also the logistics of the situation. Yeah, he could afford to pass on the next job—but how long could he do that before his company’s reputation took a hit? That was no small thing. Yes, he was a millionaire—but he worked for his fortune. He couldn’t retire, not yet.

  And then there was the fact that he was, at this very moment, living in Royal, Texas. He’d vowed never to come back here and yet, here he was.

  He’d run into Keaton within fifteen minutes of crossing city limits. How much longer could he possibly avoid his parents—or worse, Skye’s parents? He did not want to deal with Gloria and David Holt, even if Keaton and Lark said they were nicer humans now. And Jake especially did not want to deal with Vera and Tyrone Taylor.

  But...he was stuck. Hell, at this point, he didn’t even feel all that good about leaving Skye alone so he could run to the store and grab some real food. What if she got it in her head to try the stairs on her own and, after this round of exercises, failed to make it?

  Horrible images of her lying broken on the stairs, her head bleeding from where she’d hit it on the railing or wall, crowded into his mind.

  Damn it all. He needed help and he couldn’t ask Lark and Keaton to ride to his rescue again. They had his daughter. That was more than he should even have to ask of them. But he needed someone.

  His stomach lurching, he picked up his phone and dialed the old number from memory. Funny how easily it came back to him after all this time.

  “Hello?”

&nb
sp; Mom. For a second, he almost hung up. The last time they’d spoken, on that horrible night when everything had come to a head, she’d been more concerned with backing up his father than understanding how much Skye meant to him. He’d vowed never to speak to his parents again. But Lark and Keaton had said they’d changed.

  “Hi, Mom. It’s me—” He didn’t get anything else out.

  His mother made a little strangled noise and said, “Jake? Jake, honey, is that you?”

  “Yeah.” He swallowed. He was doing this for Skye and for Grace. Not for himself. “It’s me.”

  “Keaton said you were here, but I was afraid to get my hopes up—oh, honey.” She made a noise that sounded like a sniff.

  Oh, God—don’t cry. He couldn’t deal with that right now. “Yeah. I’m back in town. Looks like I’m going to be staying for a little while.”

  There was a weird click on the other end of the line. “Jake.” He started at the gruff sound of David Holt’s voice. Lord, Jake was barely prepared to talk to his mother, but his father, too? This was rapidly going from bad to worse. “Where are you at?”

  Still, he’d made this call. He had to plow through, no matter how much he wanted to hang up. “Skye’s with me. I got us a place in Pine Valley.”

  “Have you seen Grace?” his mother asked.

  “Yeah. Yesterday. I don’t know if Skye is strong enough to go see her today, but I’m hoping to take her tomorrow.”

  “Did you two get married?” his father demanded.

  Jake gritted his teeth. “Yes. Three days after we left.” He waited for—well, he didn’t know what. The parents he knew would start reading him the riot act about throwing his lot in with a lying, cheating Taylor.

  “Good,” his father said. “You should have.”

  “Well, I did.” He tried not to snarl it, but he wasn’t sure he succeeded.

  His mother made a tired noise. “How’s Skye today? Is she all right?”

  “Fine. We just did her exercises and she’s resting.”

  “We’ve prayed so hard for her—for both of you,” his mother said.