Forcing a laugh, she added, “It wasn’t a very good joke.” Her face brightened. “Do you need help with anything?”
Jake gazed at Lacey as she stood less than a foot away, an overwhelming desire to kiss her crashing over him. “No, I’ve got it all under control.” Except for wanting to kiss her, but he was trying to control that.
“Okay.”
Jake’s eyes drifted toward Lacey’s mouth, but with effort he forced his eyes to hers.
Lacey didn’t miss Jake’s eyes wandering to her lips. Was she imagining things, or was there a sudden change in the air? Not ready to face anything romantic, she dismissed the idea as her imagination playing tricks on her.
Or maybe there was something on her face. She ran a finger along the sides of her mouth.
The movement of Lacey’s finger along her lips grabbed Jake’s attention and it took all of his self-control to not lean towards her and press his mouth to hers.
Was she trying to torment him? He didn’t think so, but it sure seemed that way. Time to finish making dinner.
“I didn’t tell you what my specialty is tonight,” he said in a desperate attempt to drag his mind away from his desire to kiss her.
Much to Jake’s relief, she dropped her hands to her sides. “What is it?”
“Grilled tri-tip. Pre-seasoned from Costco.”
She laughed. “Nice. But what makes it your specialty?”
Grinning, he said, “I grill it to perfection. That is, if you like your meat medium.”
“That sounds perfect to me.”
“Good. I just need to preheat the grill, then I can throw the meat on.”
“Okay.”
Lacey knew what that meant. Between preheating the grill, cooking the meat, then eating dinner, she was locked in to at least an hour. But to her surprise, she was okay with that. In fact, the more time she spent with Jake, the more comfortable she became with the whole dating thing. As long as the date was with him.
Eighteen
While they waited for the meat to cook, they sat on bar stools at the high kitchen counter as Lacey listened to Jake tell stories of his paramedic adventures.
“After we raced there in the ambulance,” he said, “sirens blaring and lights flashing, it turned out the guy just needed a ride to the ER for a sprained ankle. Not exactly life-threatening.”
“That’s crazy.”
“It happens more often than you think.”
He launched into another story, and as he spoke, Lacey observed the way he moved, the way he spoke, the excitement in his eyes, and she found herself starting to fall for him.
She told herself to slow down—this was only their second date.
Despite that, she could feel herself being drawn to him in a way she had hoped to avoid.
“I think the meat’s ready,” he announced a short time later, then he opened the door to the back deck. The mouth-watering smell of meat grilled to perfection wafted into the room, making Lacey’s stomach rumble.
Glad for the distraction, when they sat down to eat and Lacey saw that Jake had outdone himself once again, she was reminded of how incredibly awesome he was. And how she wasn’t sure she could measure up.
You know, she thought. With all your flaws and inadequacies.
Pleased with the way the evening was going so far, Jake relaxed as he cut into his tri-tip. “I hope it’s done the way you like it.” Because he thought it had turned out perfect.
“Yeah,” she said, but her voice seemed subdued.
Uh-oh. Something was wrong. “Is everything okay?”
She visibly brightened, as if she knew he’d noticed her flagging enthusiasm and she needed to correct it. “Yes. Everything’s perfect.”
Lacey picked up her knife and fork, but when her hand closed around the knife in preparation to slice off a piece of meat, the pressure on her palm made her wince.
She didn’t think she could do this.
Up until that point, Caty had brought her foods that she could eat with a minimum of work, so this was the first time she’d tried to use a knife. With a quick glance at Jake, who hadn’t yet noticed her distress, Lacey felt hot tears pushing against the backs of her eyes.
Get it together, she thought. You can do this. Try again.
With the fork in her left hand, the tines piercing the meat, she held the knife in her right hand and pressed the knife against the meat. Again, the knife handle pressed into a tender spot on her palm. Steeling herself against the pain, she drew in a deep breath and forced herself to saw off a small piece. When a small bit of meat came away from the larger piece, triumph pounded through her.
“Oh, Lacey,” Jake said. “I’m so sorry.”
She looked up to see him watching her, his eyes wide, his face stricken.
“I didn’t think about the fact that it might be hard for you to cut the meat.”
“That’s okay,” she said, though she dreaded using the knife again. “I managed.”
Jake was quiet a moment, and Lacey could tell he felt bad.
He grimaced. “Do you want me to…to cut your meat?”
“No,” she said in a near-shout. “I mean, I’ve got it.” How humiliating would that be? Cutting her own meat was one area where she wouldn’t be inadequate.
“Okay.”
To prove that she could do it on her own, she sliced off another piece and only winced a little. “See? I can totally do this.”
Then she forked a slice and took a bite.
Impressed with her fortitude, Jake’s attraction to her only became more powerful. She wasn’t going to let something like injured hands stop her from doing what she had set her mind to.
“What do you think?” he asked after she’d finished her first bite.
“I’ve never had the tri-tip from Costco before, but it’s really tasty.” She laughed. “Once I managed to cut off a piece to actually eat it, that is.”
Resilient and self-deprecating. Nice combo. “Just make sure to save room for my chocolate mousse.” He wanted her to be there a while.
“I’ll try, but this is so delicious that I can’t promise anything.” It took her some time, but she managed to cut each bite herself, and when she was done, she said, “I’m so full I’m not sure I have room for dessert.”
That wasn’t what Jake wanted to hear, and he hoped that didn’t mean she was going to bolt early again. Determined to extend the evening, he said, “Maybe your appetite will come back while we work on a puzzle.”
One of her eyebrows arched. “A puzzle?”
Stupid idea. Even so, he went with it. “Yeah. Either that or a round of Mario Kart on my gaming system.”
Lacey hadn’t worked on a puzzle in years, but suddenly she loved the idea. “Yeah. Okay. Let’s do a puzzle.” Another thing he was probably great at. “How many pieces?”
“Just a thousand.”
Her eyes widened. “A thousand?”
He laughed. “Yeah. Is that a problem.”
“So the pieces are tiny?”
“I’ve seen smaller.”
This was so ridiculous that it might be fun. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
“Great.” He stood.
“Should we clean up first? You know, so the food doesn’t stick to the dishes?”
“Will it bother you if we leave the dirty dishes in the sink?”
“Not really, and it’s your house, so…”
He gazed at her a moment. “It’s just that I don’t want to waste time cleaning up when I could be spending time with you doing something more fun.”
The way he looked at her did something funny to her insides. Something she liked. “Oh. Right.”
“Okay, then,” he said with a grin. “Let’s get started.”
She followed him into the living room where he took a puzzle out of a built-in cupboard before dumping the pieces onto the coffee table, then he propped the box up on the corner of the coffee table where they could see it. The puzzle was an image of a lake at sunset with a canoe a
nd campfire in the foreground, and in the background a cabin with lights burning in the windows.
It looked so warm and welcoming. She’d like to visit a place like that.
“This is my favorite,” Jake said, “because I’d love to own a cabin like that someday. In a mountain location that looks just like that.”
Delighted to realize how much the image spoke to both of them, Lacey could imagine him living in a place like that. And maybe she could go there with him.
Startled that something like that would pop into her head, she turned her focus to the hundreds—a thousand!—tiny pieces scattered across the coffee table. Immediately overwhelmed, she heard Eric saying: Don’t even bother. You’ll never be able to put it together.
She wanted to scream at him to shut up, but since she couldn’t, she plopped down on the couch and began hunting for the corner pieces.
She seemed to like this. Nice.
“Here’s a corner,” she said, a note of triumph in her voice.
“Awesome.” Smiling at her enthusiasm, Jake sat beside her on the couch, leaving half a foot between them, and leaned over the coffee table like he was so intent on the puzzle that he didn’t notice the floral scent of her hair or feel the warmth of her body.
He told himself to cool it or she would cut the date short for sure.
Glancing in her direction, he saw that she was hyper-focused on the puzzle, so he turned his attention to it as well and before long they had the four corners in place, several edge pieces lining the sides, and even some pieces in the middle put together.
“You’re good at this,” he said with another look in her direction.
To his surprise, her face seemed to light up, but then her shoulders drooped slightly. “I’m really not that good.”
Jake’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean? I’ve found, like, two pieces.”
A wide smile curved her mouth and a soft blush colored her cheeks as she straightened. “Thanks.”
Not sure why she seemed so thrilled by his comment, her response made him feel good nonetheless.
The expression bust your buttons came into Lacey’s mind, and that’s just how she felt. But it was just a stupid puzzle. She had to calm down.
Even so, Jake’s praise meant the world to her, and she searched harder for the piece she would need to match the one she’d just connected to a group of others.
A few moments later she felt the couch cushions shift as Jake moved closer to her. Although she was certain he was trying to be discreet, she definitely noticed. How could she not when the scent of his cologne drifted into her nostrils and his body heat seemed to wrap around her like a favorite blanket.
Settle down, she thought. He’s just working on the puzzle. See how he’s leaning over the coffee table searching for just the right piece? He probably didn’t even mean to move closer.
But she hoped he did mean to. She hoped it very much.
Nineteen
She didn’t scoot away from him, so that was a good sign.
Inwardly smiling, Jake connected a piece from the canoe to an existing group, nearly completing the canoe, and turned to Lacey with a grin. “I’ll see your canoe piece and raise you a campfire.”
She laughed. “You’re on.”
They both began digging through the pieces, on the hunt for the bright yellow glow of a fire. Moments later Lacey let out a squeal of triumph and reached for a piece, but Jake had seen it as well and he reached for it at the same time. His hand landed right on top of hers, and when his hand covered her smaller one and he felt the softness of the back of her hand, a spark of electricity arced between them.
“Oh,” Lacey gasped as the warmth of his hand covering hers drew all of her attention. She drank in the feel of his skin against hers and realized she was thirsty for it. It had been over two months since she and Eric had broken up, and therefore over two months since she’d had significant physical touch.
Absorbing the feel of his skin against hers, she held very still, desperate for him to keep his hand on hers. But it was not to be.
“Sorry,” he said with a chuckle as he lifted his hand. “I guess you got there first.”
“It’s okay.” Her voice was a little breathless, but she recovered swiftly, picking up the puzzle piece and laying it on the coffee table in the general area of the campfire.
“Let’s see if we can find all of the fire pieces,” he said.
“Okay.” Keeping her hands in her lap as her gaze probed the array of puzzle pieces, she tried to concentrate on her task but found it difficult when all she wanted was to feel her hand encompassed by Jake’s. But that wasn’t going to happen if her hands were in her lap.
Terrified that if she let herself relax and his hand touched hers again she might just press her whole body against his, she held herself nearly rigid.
He figured she didn’t want him touching her. Too bad. He had liked it. A lot.
Glancing at Lacey’s hands held firmly in her lap, Jake found two campfire puzzle pieces and placed them with the first.
“Do you see anymore?” he asked, trying to encourage her to get back into things.
Her gaze was laser-focused on the scattered puzzle pieces, but she shook her head. “No. Not yet.”
Helpless to get things back to how they were, all he could do was say, “Okay.”
“There’s one,” Lacey blurted, her eyes focused on the piece, but her hands still held in her lap. Did he see it too?
“Where?” Jake asked as his gaze followed hers.
Allowing herself to settle back into the rhythm of assembling the puzzle, Lacey lifted one hand towards the piece, pausing to make sure Jake wasn’t also reaching for it. “Right here,” she said as her fingers touched the piece and picked it up.
“I think that one will connect to one of the others. Good eye.”
Invigorated by Jake’s praise, Lacey set the piece by the other three and found that two of them fit with the new piece.
“This is starting to come together,” Jake said as he watched her arrange the pieces. “I don’t know if we’ll finish it tonight, but if we don’t, we’ll have to work on it another time.”
Turning her head slightly so that she could see him out of the corner of her eye, when she thought of the implication—another date in addition to coming over the next day to watch him grout the tile—a sense of hope slid through her. Then again, he hadn’t spent enough time with her to know if he really liked her.
Tamping down her doubts, she reminded herself that that’s what dating was all about. A chance to get to know one another. She had to give it time instead of predicting failure before she’d had a chance to succeed.
She turned to him with a smile. “Yeah, we’ll have to do that. I want to see if you really have all one thousand pieces.”
He mock-gasped and placed his hand on his chest. “I’d better. After all this work, if there’s just one piece missing, that would be tragic.”
She laughed. “Right?” His gaze was steady on hers, and she found she couldn’t look away.
“I haven’t enjoyed doing a puzzle this much in a long time, Lacey.”
The sound of her name coming from his lips sent her pulse fluttering, and his clear green eyes drew her in, making it impossible to break eye contact. “Me too.” She wasn’t ready for this.
Kiss her already, he thought. Just do it.
“I think I’m getting hungry for dessert,” she said, then she pointed her eyes at the puzzle.
Too late. He had missed his chance. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Jake stood and looked down at Lacey. “Chocolate mousse. Mmmm.”
She smiled up at him, and he regretted hesitating and vowed that the next time it felt right to kiss her, he would do it right away.
“That sounds delicious,” she said.
“Perfect. You want whip cream?”
“Sure.”
He smiled. “Great. Coming right up.”
“Okay.”
Jake went into the kitche
n and put together their desserts, then carried them back into the living room. As he walked into the room and observed Lacey as she leaned over the coffee table—her wounded hands still showing signs of healing, an aura of vulnerability surrounding her—a powerful sense of protectiveness rolled through him, taking him by surprise. But his attraction involved more than wanting to protect her. Being with her made him feel good—like he was special.
“Here you go,” he said, and noticed his voice had a small hitch to it, almost as if he was going to get choked up. He had to get a grip.
She lifted her head and looked his way, and when she smiled at him he was a little alarmed at how much it made him want to do whatever he could to make her smile again—to make her happy.
He reminded himself that he wasn’t looking for a relationship. He was just looking to have fun with a pretty lady. Which she most definitely was. But that was all. He couldn’t forget.
He walked over to her and set their dishes, along with two spoons, on the coffee table as he sat beside her. “You finished the campfire.” Impressed by the speed with which she’d found and assembled the pieces, he added, “If we’re ever in a puzzle putting-together contest, I want you on my team.”
Tears filled her eyes and she turned away.
What the…?
Twenty
Lacey couldn’t remember the last time a man had made her feel so good about herself. The praise was for something so small, but it built her up in a way that shocked her. And she knew exactly why. Because she was starved for praise. Anytime Eric had said something nice, he’d always followed it up with a criticism or a demand. So what did she expect?
Pretending to pluck a piece of invisible fluff off of her jeans, Lacey got her emotions under control, then picked up a spoon and scooped out a bit of mousse.
Rescue My Heart: Park City Firefighter Romance Page 9