"Your poor dad," I say.
"It worked. He never smoked in the house again."
"I was thinking about my mom tonight when I saw Cat. My mom loved animals, and one day, Buttons showed up at our door. She was a stray, and just a kitten, so my mom took her in and fed her. My dad never wanted a pet, saying they were too much work, but my mom talked him into letting us keep Buttons." I smile. "My dad ended up loving that cat. He even cried when she died, and he almost never cries."
Jake and I continue to share memories of our moms until we reach my apartment building. It's cold and windy and drizzly outside, and I'm feeling like I don't want to spend the rest of the night alone in my apartment. Cuddling up with Jake sounds way more appealing.
As he parks his SUV, I say, "Is your invite still open?"
"What invite?"
"The one to stay with you tonight?"
He smiles. "Yeah. Why?"
"Because I want to stay with you. My apartment's cold and drafty and well...I don't want to say goodbye to you yet."
He leans over and reaches behind my head and brings me in for a kiss. "I don't want to say goodbye to you either. Let's go inside and get whatever you need and then we'll go back to my place."
I quickly pack an overnight bag, then we drive to Jake's apartment. As we walk up to the building entrance, a girl runs up to Jake. She's pretty, with bright blond hair, a gorgeous face, tall and thin, her body wrapped in a long black coat.
"Jake, I've been calling and texting you." The girl acts like I'm not even here, her attention only on Jake.
He sighs. "Yeah, and I texted you back that I'm not interested. You need to leave, Ash. And don't call me again. Or text me."
Jake opens the door to the building and she grabs his arm. "I need you tonight. We had a deal. You said if I ever—"
"I told you I'm not interested," he says, peeling her hand off his arm.
"I'm not accepting that. After all the times you stopped by my apartment for a quick—"
"Ash." He raises his voice, then lowers it back to normal. "Are you freaking blind? Can't you see that I'm with someone?"
She glances at me and huffs. "Fine. But I'm getting you tomorrow."
"No. You're not." He ushers me past him into the building, then whispers, "Wait inside. I'll be there in a minute."
He remains outside, talking to that girl. She starts throwing her hands in the air and yelling, but all I catch are a few curse words. Jake says one last thing and then she storms back to her car.
Jake comes into the building. "I'm really sorry about that. I can't believe she showed up here. I texted her that I have a girlfriend, but apparently she didn't care."
"Is she your, um..." How do I say it? Sure thing? Booty call? I don't even want to say it. Or think it.
"She was," he mumbles. "Not anymore."
We ride up the elevator to his apartment in silence, except for the sound of his phone going off. It's on vibrate but I could hear it buzzing all day, and I know it's girls calling him. He'll be getting a lot of attention after being voted most eligible bachelor.
As if I wasn't worried enough about other girls trying to date him. Now all the women of Chicago will be texting and calling him. This is exactly what I didn't want. I didn't want to have to compete with other girls just to be with him.
When we get inside his loft, he takes our coats and hangs them on the rack, then leads me to the couch to sit down.
"We need to talk about this whole eligible bachelor thing. Why didn't you say anything when I picked you up tonight? You obviously knew about it, and I know it bothered you, so why didn't you talk to me about it?"
"Because I didn't want to fight."
"There's nothing to fight about. I had no idea they were doing that contest. No freaking clue. And I only found out about it after some girl sent me a link to the article. I couldn't figure out why so many girls were calling and texting me."
"How many did you get? How many calls and texts?"
"I don't know. Hundreds? Maybe a thousand by now. They keep coming, from girls I don't even know. I don't know how they got my number."
"Maybe you should get a new number."
"I would, but this is my business number. I'd have to call every business contact I have and give them the new number and that would take forever." He rubs my arm. "This will calm down. I promise. A week from now, people will have forgotten all about it."
"I doubt that. A lot of girls want you, Jake. And now they'll want you even more."
"But I don't want them. So it doesn't matter."
I nod, like I'm agreeing with him but I'm really not. Because it DOES matter. It matters because girls will keep showing up at his door, and what if he has a weak moment and lets one of them in? Or what if we have a fight and he has sex with another girl out of anger? Or what if he just gets bored with me and wants someone new? All of these were reasons why guys cheated on me in the past so it's not like I'm making this up. They're all possibilities.
"You don't believe me," he says, sitting back on the couch. "Ivy, what do I need to do to prove to you that I won't cheat on you?"
"I just need more time. I haven't had the best luck with guys in the past. At least half the guys I've dated have cheated on me."
"I'm not them. So stop making me pay for what they did."
"Jake, you can't expect me to think you'll change overnight. I know you say you've never cheated on a girl, but you do have a history of being with a lot of women and I'm not sure that I trust that you can be with just one."
He pauses, then says, "Okay. That's fair. I don't agree with it, but I understand why you might think that."
"I want to trust you, Jake. I do. But like I said, I just need more time."
"We've got plenty of time." He smiles. "Now get over here."
I climb into his waiting arms and we snuggle on the couch and watch TV. After seeing that girl just now, I don't feel like making out with him, and he gets that. He doesn't even try to make a move. He knows that now is not the time, and he respects that, unlike the other guys I've been with who wouldn't care about how I was feeling and would be trying to rip my clothes off right now.
We watch a movie, and at eleven, my eyes are drifting shut, but I don't want to fall asleep on the couch. It's too small, and this morning I woke up with a stiff neck from sleeping without a pillow.
"I need to go to sleep," I tell Jake. "But I don't want to sleep here. There's not enough room. Can we go to your bed?"
He hesitates, then says, "Yeah, of course. Let's go."
After we've changed clothes and brushed our teeth, we get into bed. He has a king size bed with really soft sheets and a big down comforter in a dark gray color. I lay on my side and he pulls me against him, his warm chest pressed into my back. He's shirtless, but wearing pajama pants. I'm in pajama shorts and a t-shirt.
"Jake," I say.
"Yeah?"
"You know we're not...going to do it tonight, right?"
"I assumed we weren't."
"And you're okay with that?"
"I just want to be with you, Ivy. It's up to you to decide when you want us to go there."
I never in a million years thought Jake Wheeler would wait for sex. Maybe he really does like me as much as Callie says.
The room is silent, and then he asks, "Why did you want to stay here tonight?"
"I told you, I didn't want to say goodbye."
"But why?"
Saying this means exposing my feelings to him, and I'm afraid to do that. But he's been honest with me, so I need to be honest with him.
"Because I want to spend time with you. I like you, Jake. I like that you say what you think. That you're honest. That you're good to your family. That they're important to you, like mine is important to me. I like that you understand me and listen when I tell you about my mom, because most people don't. And I like that you go out of your way to help other people, like fixing my dad's bathroom, and that you hide the fact that you're paying for the supp
lies, which I know you are."
"Not all of them," he says softly. "Now it's my turn."
I flip onto my back. "To what?"
"Say what I like about you."
"You don't have to."
"I want to." He looks at me through the shimmer of the street lights filtering through his blinds. "I like that you're incredibly talented yet you still want to get better. I like that you're strong, which you have to be to put up with all the assholes in construction. I like that you're as close to your family as I am to mine, because family's important to me. I like that you're kind and caring and..." He pauses. "I like that you were willing to give me a chance because this has been one of the best weeks of my life."
He exhales, as if it took everything in him to admit that to me. And I'm sure it did. But he still told me, because like I said, he's open and honest about his feelings, which makes me want to trust him.
"It's been one of the best weeks for me too," I tell him.
He turns me toward him and kisses me, and the feel of his lips and his body pressed against mine is all it takes to lead us back to where we were last night, pleasuring each other without having sex. I could've easily had sex with him tonight but I wanted to wait. Things are going really well between us, and maybe this isn't fair to him given how much he's proven he can change, but I still have this fear that he'll break up with me once we have sex. So for now, we'll just keep doing what we're doing.
We fall asleep and don't wake up until the alarm goes off at six thirty. I shower and get ready for work and we have breakfast together. Then he takes me back to my apartment to get my car and we go our separate ways. We agreed to take tonight off from each other because he has to catch up on work and I want to go see my dad and Liza.
"How's the mantel coming?" I hear Nick's voice and cringe. I've been in a good mood all morning, focused on my work but also thinking about Jake, and I don't want Nick coming in here, ruining my mood with his rude comments and condescending tone.
"It's coming along fine," I say, continuing to sand the edges of the mantel.
"I was gonna ask Nash if I could help you finish it. I'm almost done with the window trim."
God, I hope Nash doesn't agree to let Nick help. I don't want him anywhere near me.
"What about the stair trim?" I ask.
"He can hire some other guy to do that. That's a rookie job. Someone with less experience can do it. I specialize in detail work. I should be doing the mantel." I hear the bitterness in his tone. He wanted to do the mantel because he knows it'll get noticed by people when authors are in here doing a reading. And when Nash does the grand opening and gives tours of this place for the press, he'll point out the mantel and the intricate details carved into the wood, and he'll likely mention my name.
Nick wants it to be his name that's mentioned, not mine. That's the only reason he wants to do the mantel. He has no interest in doing something with this much detail. I've watched him work. He lacks focus and he's sloppy, always rushing through the job just to get it over with. Saying he specializes in detail work is a joke. He has no patience for that. That's why Nash assigned him the window trim. But Nick still screwed it up. Nash reviewed his work last week and made him redo two of the windows. I'm guessing Nash wouldn't have even hired Nick if it weren't for Tom. He was probably part of the deal. I bet Nick couldn't even get a job on his own.
"Hey." I hear Jake's voice and quickly turn around, a big smile on my face. It's completely stupid, but I actually missed him, even though I just saw him this morning. "What's going on?"
Nick answers. "I'm talking to Ivy about the mantel. What are you doing here?" The smug grin on Nick's face says he already knows the answer to that. He's so damn nosy. I don't know why he's so concerned with my personal life.
"I had to talk to Nash about something," Jake says. I'm glad he didn't say he was here to see me. I need to keep this thing between Jake and me quiet, at least at work, although Nick already knows, and I'm sure he's told the other guys.
"So why are you in here then?" Nick asks. "Nash is in the office."
Jake walks over and stands in front of me, blocking me from Nick. "I wanted to see how the mantel is coming. It's a signature piece of the project. It's going to get a lot of attention."
Damn. I wish he hadn't said that. It'll just piss off Nick even more, which I think is what Jake was going for, but pissing off Nick will just make things worse for me.
"Which is why I should be doing it," Nick says. "I'm older than her. I have more experience."
I see Jake's jaw tighten. "You may be older than her but you're not—"
"Jake," I interrupt. "The mantel's not very far along so maybe you could come back later."
He glances back at me and reads my expression, which is pleading with him to let this go.
He turns back to Nick. "Why don't you get back to work?"
"You're not my boss," he says.
"I own the company that hired you," Jake says. From his tense stance it's clear he's angry, but his tone remains cool and collected.
"Your DAD owns the company." Nick smirks. "You just ride around in his SUV all day."
"I manage projects," Jake says. "And make a lot of hiring decisions. And by your attitude just now, it's clear you're not interested in working for us again."
Nick's eyes dart down, then to the side, and I see his neck move as he swallows. "I never said that."
"You didn't have to." Jake points to the door. "Now get back to work."
Nick grits his teeth, and clenches his hands as he turns and walks out the door.
Jake handled that perfectly. I thought he'd blow up at Nick but instead he kept his cool, keeping the upper hand, making sure Nick knew who was in control. Jake was the same way when he managed the Victorian. He'd get mad when a worker was being an asshole, but he never lost his cool, and people respected that. It's why he's such a good manager.
"Is he always coming in here bothering you like that?" Jake asks.
"No." I lower my voice in case Nick's listening outside the door. "Just leave this alone, Jake. I can handle it."
He shuts the door. "So he HAS been bothering you."
"I told you, I can handle it. If you or Nash get involved, it'll only get worse."
"What has he done? Tell me."
I sigh. "He's just jealous that I get better projects than him. He thinks it's because I'm dating you. His friend, Lance, saw us together at Rodeo Freddy's, and then Nick saw me leaving to have lunch with Jen and Callie."
"That has nothing to do with what projects you get assigned."
"Nick doesn't see it that way."
"Don't talk to him anymore. Stay away from him."
"That's hard to do when we work together. Jake, don't worry about this. I've handled assholes in the past. I can handle Nick."
"I wish we could get rid of him, but he came as a package deal when we hired his dad."
"I kind of figured that." I smile. "So did you come all the way here to see me?"
"Actually, I have to meet with Nash about some stuff. Seeing you was an added bonus." He glances back at the door, which has a glass panel in it. "I really want to kiss you right now but I can't risk someone seeing us."
"We'll just have to save it for later." But I don't want to wait. I want to kiss him right now. It's so tempting when he's right in front of me, looking really hot in black dress pants and a button-up shirt, the scent of his cologne lingering in front of me. He had to dress up today because he has some big meeting this afternoon about a possible new project.
"Well, I should get going." He reaches for my hand, holding it for just a moment before letting it go. "I'll call you later, okay?"
"Yeah. See ya."
He leaves and I get back to work, my mind still on Jake. I wish I knew where this was going. I don't want to keep falling for him if this is just going to end. But it has to end eventually, right? It's not like we're ever going to get serious. I know Jake doesn't want that, and neither do I. So why am I
doing this? Am I a glutton for punishment? Am I going to end up at the same place I was at last spring? Alone and hurt by yet another guy?
Jake isn't Ryker, but that doesn't mean this relationship won't end the same way.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Jake
Three weeks have past and I'm still dating Ivy. I've now dated her for an entire month, which may seem like nothing to some people, but to me, it's a huge deal. And with any other girl, it would've seemed like the longest month of my life. But with Ivy, it's flown by.
We haven't spent every night together, but she spends at least three nights a week at my place, sometimes more. We still haven't had sex and I have no idea when we will, but the wait is nearly killing me. This is the longest I've gone without sex in years, and now I'm with this girl I'm completely crazy about, insanely attracted to, sleeping next to, and I can't have sex with her.
She says she needs more time. I think that's only because I keep getting accosted by other women everywhere I go, thanks to that most eligible bachelor shit. Ivy's often with me when this happens, and afterward, she gets quiet and withdrawn and doesn't want to do anything more than what we've already done. She sees those women approaching me and thinks I'm going to cheat on her. I keep telling her that's not going to happen but I don't think she believes me.
"That was my dad," Ivy says, crawling on top of me and straddling my lap. I'm sitting on the couch, watching basketball. Ivy just got here, but her phone rang as soon as she walked in the door. "He wanted to thank you again."
Last weekend, my brothers and I remodeled the bathroom for Ivy's dad. It took two full days of nonstop work and it's still not quite finished. But I can finish the rest myself. There are just a few minor things left to do.
"He's already thanked me a million times." I grab her ass and pull her closer.
"I know, but he wants to make sure you know much he appreciates all your work. He still wants to pay you something. Your brothers too."
"He's not paying us. Your dad needed the work done and we were happy to do it. End of story."
"But—"
"Stop talking and kiss me. I haven't seen you all day."
Give Us a Chance (Wheeler Brothers #2) Page 20