by J. Darling
Quickly turning away, she was faced with Nik's privates, depicted in high relief through his threadbare jeans, as he stood right next to her. Looking up his body, she noticed he was wearing the tightest t-shirt imaginable, and his grin turned salacious when he knew she’d seen the total package.
Snapping her head down, she focused on her napkin. Her chest burned as her heart raced. This is why she didn’t want to come. She attracted male attention like a magnet, and they made her nervous. Things got so awkward when she was around them, and Linnie was here with four of them, four virile ones. Oh, Lord, she could use that magazine again to fan her face.
The men started dishing up, plates and bowls going every which way. Jules noticed Nate was serving Linnie, and as she did, Jake held a spoon with food on it over her plate. She looked at him, and he waited for her. She wasn’t sure if she should take the spoon or not, so she just nodded her head and he put some of the food on her plate. This went on dish after dish, she’d nod, and he’d give her a scoop of food, then she’d scoot it around on her plate to where she wanted it. Finally, they began eating, and she found herself watching more than anything.
It was strange to be here, to be a part of this. The closest she’d come to anything like it was the lunchroom at the all-girls school, and even there they’d been expected to act like ladies. Short of the time she’d lived with Linnie, she’d eaten alone for years. Even while at work, she ate at her desk.
This was like a party, she supposed. She didn’t do parties. They were talking and laughing in between giant bites of food. Half the time she didn’t think they even chewed. It was a raucous affair, and she was stunned by the amount of food these men consumed. They’d virtually polished off everything that’d been on the table. Not to mention every time she had an empty spot on her plate, they’d try to give her more to eat. She couldn’t even finish what Jake had given her the first time around!
Simply put, she wasn’t used to all this attention. Short of going to a restaurant from time to time, she could barely remember being served by Nana. Poor Nana, her arthritis had been so severe that Jules had to learn early on how to do most everything. Then, as the years went on by and her condition progressed, Jules had needed to feed her.
Nik pushed his chair back and patted his stomach. “That was great Linnie, but there ain’t enough left for a midnight snack.”
“Yeah,” Kris added, “Probably would’ve been had Jules not eaten so much.” The two chuckled at the joke.
Turning to her, Nik asked, “What’s Jules short for? Or is that your given name?”
Oh Lord, he was talking to her. “Um, my name’s Juliet, but everyone calls me Jules,” she answered shyly. Did he have to talk to her? Couldn’t they just pretend she wasn’t there?
“Just Juliet? Or do you have a middle name?” Kris quizzed, staring intently.
Staring. He was staring, she thought. “Ahh, my full name is Juliet Rose Blomgren,” she answered tentatively, feeling like she was under the microscope. Leaning back in her chair, she felt her shoulders butt up against something. Jake. His arm was lying across the back of her chair, and she found it a little unnerving, but then again, kind of okay, too.
“Blomgren’s Swedish, is it not?” Linnie’s dad, Karl, asked as he chewed on a toothpick.
Now Nik was staring too. “Ahh, yes, my great grandparents were from Sweden.”
Nik’s face became all excited as he snapped to attention. “Say, do you know how to make them Swedish meatballs?”
She looked down as she nodded.
“I love meatballs!” Nik exclaimed. “Can you teach Linnie? Maybe make a batch just for me?”
He winked at her when she looked up. Darting her eyes to Linnie, she felt herself turning red. “Umm, yeah, I guess, we’ll see,” she answered weakly, optically pleading with Linnie to help her out.
Jumping in with a smile, Linnie said, “Maybe not this time, but possibly the next. We don’t want to keep her in the kitchen the whole time she’s here.”
Nik continued staring at her, then said all warm and syrupy, “How long ya stayin, Juliet Rose?”
Ohhhh God, no! “Ah, I need to be back Monday,” she answered in a rush with a quiver in her voice. She began twisting the napkin in her lap. When was this going to end? Couldn’t they talk about cows, or farm stuff, or something?
“Really? That ain’t long. Heck, we’ll barely get a chance to show you around,” he said all dejected, laying it on thick. “Say, how about tomorrow I take you around to see some of the sights?” he offered, as he tried charming her with a nod and a smile.
Her nervous system was working double time now. She was in a full fight or flight mode and she needed to get out of here, quick. “Ahhh, gosh…well, umm, I should probably stay here and help Linnie,” she answered in a rush, while looking at Linnie in an all-out panic. Grasping for anything that would divert the conversation, she blurted out, “Isn’t there, like, football games on tomorrow? I thought you’d all be watching those.”
Just then, Jake’s thumb, the one on the arm lying across her chair, began to slowly massage the back of her shoulder. The action caused her to take a stuttering breath, then a deep one, followed by another. Turning her head a little, she searched for him on the periphery. What was he doing? Did he even know he was doing it? Should she ask him to stop? Or was he trying to comfort her?
It did seem a little comforting, but what she really wanted to do was crawl on his lap and hide her face in his neck. Whoa, did she seriously just think that? Had that honestly bubbled up from her subconscious, or was her brain’s neo-cortex shutting down and taking all rational thought with it? All things considered, her official diagnosis was that she was losing it. Taking another deep breath, she tried to relax and let herself lean into his touch a little.
Kris cleared his throat to get her attention. “You like football?”
“Kind of, some,” she answered hoarsely, her throat parched. This wasn’t dinner, it was an interrogation.
Kris smiled in delight. “Really? Well, I’ll save you a spot next to me on the couch then. If you have questions about the game and what’s going on, all you have to do is ask. I’ll explain everything.”
Please don’t, she wanted to say.
“How come when I ask questions, you tell me to be quiet?” Linnie asked with a smirk.
“Because your questions aren’t about football,” he answered perturbed.
“Oh really?” Linnie responded in feigned confusion. “Because the last one I asked, I wanted to know what a tight end was, and you said it was a cheerl—”
“Ask Nate, he’ll answer your questions,” Kris snapped, cutting her off loudly.
“They’re multipurpose,” Jules said, answering Linnie. “They can be blockers or receivers depending on what’s needed at the time, smaller than a blocker, but bigger than a wide receiver.”
All four of the guys snapped their heads around and stared at her with scrutiny, while Linnie and her dad chuckled. Jules quickly dropped her head. Oh look, her napkin was in shreds and she now had a handful of confetti. Surprise! She should’ve stayed quiet.
“Thanks, Jules,” Linnie said clearly amused.
Looking up, Jules nodded and said, “Sure, no problem, anytime.” If she had another napkin, she could make a batch of confetti for Linnie too.
“Who you rooting for tomorrow?” Nik tested.
“Cowboys, Chiefs, Dolphins,” she answered, still not thinking. She needed a dunce hat.
There was hootin and hollerin all around, making her jump with fright.
“Wooohooo! Gotta love a woman who speaks the language of love!” Kris exclaimed as he clapped his hands loudly, then pumped his fist in the air a couple of times, giving it a loud “Whuh, whuh, whuh!”
“I think I’m in love,” Nik cooed, as he gifted her with moon eyes. “Jules, you wanna get married?”
It was instantaneous. She blushed from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes. She knew it. She could feel it. She
was as red as a beet! Planting her feet on the linoleum, she braced herself from sliding right off the chair and onto the floor. Shaking her head slightly, Nik gasped and grabbed for his heart, like she’d broken it and he was left devastated. She couldn’t help but laugh a little at his theatrics.
“Hey, how come you guys don’t get all excited when I get into football?” Linnie asked dejected, while throwing a bun at Nik and hitting him in the chest. “She won’t marry you cause you’d never let her out of the kitchen.”
Nik laughed taking a bite of the bun, then added saucily, “Sure I would, every night.”
“I get excited when you talk football,” Nate answered, putting his arm around Linnie and giving her a kiss.
“Ohh, here we go,” Kris said, getting up from the table. “They’ll be going at it for the rest of the night. I’m leaving.”
“Yeah, me too,” Nik said, getting up and flashing his business at Jules again. “I’ll be up late if you want to talk football, Jules, or anything else.” Looking at her, he wiggled his eyebrows, and then chuckled low when she quickly looked away.
CHAPTER 2
Jake was annoyed. Nik and Kris were fawning all over Jules, teasing and embarrassing her, while making asses of themselves, and damned if he wasn’t jealous because they’d had her attention and he hadn’t. She’d let him dish her up though, and he was fairly certain she’d leaned into his touch when he was rubbing her shoulder. He wished she would’ve looked at him some, and it would’ve been real nice if she had talked with him a little. Oh well, there was always tomorrow, he thought, feeling kind of bummed.
If nothing else, he’d enjoyed getting to know her. She had a beautiful name, and that she liked football was a huge turn on. He wondered what else she liked, what kinds of things she liked to do. As he made his bed up on the couch, he wondered if she was comfortable downstairs. Did she need anything? She hadn’t eaten much. Should he check on her? Probably not. With his luck, she’d get hurt when she fainted at the sight of him, and then Linnie’d kill him.
“Hitting the hay?” Nate asked, as he walked through the room.
“Yeah, I’m beat,” Jake answered.
“Thanks for taking Linnie into the cities, and for getting Jules today.”
He nodded. “Yeah, no problem.”
“She’s a cute one, you interested?” Nate asked, leaning against the wall.
Jake didn’t answer, just kept making up his bed. Then the two looked at each other for a spell, before Jake turned away and answered, “Maybe.”
“Maybe as in, hell yeah, or maybe as in, if something happens that’d be okay?” Nate delved deeper.
Sitting on the couch, Jake rested his elbows on his knees as he sat forward. “Okay, here’s the skinny. I like her, a lot. I met her several years ago when we were in Chicago checking on Linnie. I knew I was attracted to her back then, but I was young and not into relationships. Given the distance and so on, I never did anything about it, figured it would blow over.
“But today, when I saw her, it was worse than ever, and I’m not sure what to do about it. Distance is still a problem, and she’s so shy it’d be hard to get anything going in a matter of days. It’s not like I can go camp out in Chicago for a month or two trying to get her to look at me. If she knows I exist, she doesn’t show it.”
Nate nodded as he listened, then responded, “It’s a pickle for sure, she’s a shy one. Linnie talks about her some, says she’s super nervous with guys because she hasn’t been around them at all. She’s led a pretty sheltered life, you know. It’s like that in other parts of the world, women not being allowed to be around men who aren’t part of their family. I saw it first hand when I was overseas. Fear’s a factor for them. They aren’t just nervous, they’re scared.”
Jake nodded and Nate continued.
“Maybe the way to get noticed is to make her feel safe, cared for. She is all alone. It would make sense that this could be a huge issue for her. She can’t go around advertising she’s all alone in the world and looking for a relationship. That would put her in danger from every lunatic out there, so she needs to be extra careful.”
Jake thought about it. This is where the other imbecile had gone wrong, when he froze her to death. “Yeah, you may be on to something. So, skip the romance and look for ways to make her feel safe and cared for. Great. At least you and Linnie were on the same page when it came to attraction, it was just the details you needed to work out. This…this is something altogether different.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Nate pondered. “Let her know you’re aware of what’s going on around her by doing things for her. Open the door for her, pull out her chair, hold her jacket, do whatever needs to be done to make her feel safe and comfortable, and then feather the nest a little while you’re at it. It may be a lost art for a man to behave like that, but the concept isn’t foreign. These days, it’s generally the romance first, then protecting what you have. In your case, it’ll be the other way around, showing her you can and will protect her, followed by the thrill of the chase if she accepts you. It happens that way much of the time in nature, so it may very well work that way for you too.”
Well, he had wanted to act like King Kong when he saw her at the airport, and he wouldn’t be surprised if he howled at the next full moon. Hmmm, that had him thinking. Maybe he’d spend this visit making her feel safe and protected, and then he’d try and get her to come back so he could work on the romance piece. That might work. He also needed to get rid of Kris and Nik, or he could just let them continue making asses of themselves and the problem would take care of itself. He smiled.
“Got a plan?” Nate asked amused.
“I need to figure out a way to get her back here, soon.”
“Make her feel safe this visit, and then get her to come back for the romance? Maybe…or you might have to go to her,” Nate said, standing and moving in the direction of his room. “One thing I know for sure though, is if you wait for her to give you encouragement, it ain’t ever going to happen. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help, Romeo. See you in the morning.”
Jake sat back thinking…she was tall for a female, five seven or five eight, and slender. It was her hair and eyes though that garnered attention. Her hair was thick, long, and the rich color of clean fresh straw, and she always kept it pulled atop her head in a messy hold. He was willing to bet she was a natural blond, through and through, as her lashes and eyebrows were of the same hue, and her eyes were a stunning azure blue.
Romeo and Juliet. Juliet was a pretty name. A pretty name for a pretty girl. Juliet, Jules… A precious jewel, something beautiful and all together unique. Hmmm, now that gave him something to think about.
*****
Crawling into Jake’s bed, Jules sighed in relief. She was exhausted. It’d been a busy day, and her nerves were shot. Behind the relative safety of the bedroom door, her nervous system was finally able to switch to standby for the night. Of course, the adrenalin flowing through her blood was like high octane fuel, and despite being exhausted, it caused her to toss and turn. She wasn’t alone though, her brain’s hippocampus and frontal cortex was wide awake going over every detail of the day, again and again, storing as much of it as possible in her long term memory for future reference. Yippee! As if living through it once wasn’t enough.
The stress of dinner took the cake though, because she’d had to deal with all of them at once, and she felt like Nik was overly interested. He was nice enough, but too forward for her. She wasn’t completely certain, but she had a feeling he liked to be the center of attention, and she wasn’t into that, at all. Meeting Linnie’s oldest brother, Kris, for the first time was nice because she could put a face with the name, but she’d felt like he was staring too much, his gaze forward and direct as he went over her from top to bottom, making her realize the merits of wearing a burka.
Jake, on the other hand, was there, but hanging somewhere on the periphery. She felt his presence, but couldn’t really see or hear him
because he sat back and didn’t talk much. They’d touched though, when his arm was on the back of her chair, and when he’d rubbed her shoulder. It’d made her nervous at first, but then he was so aloof and relaxed, it made it seem less awkward. Then there’d been that strange desire to leap into his arms and hide in the crook of his neck. She wasn’t going to think about that though. It was quite simply a momentary lapse of reason from all the stress. Right?
Nate was really nice, and completely devoted to Linnie. After everything Linnie’d been through, Jules was glad to see her so happy.
Rolling onto her side, she adjusted the pillow, and as she did, she caught a scent. It was Jake’s. Turning her face into his pillow, she took a deep breath. Then did it again. He smelled…divine. Is this how he’d smell if she were to put her nose to his neck? She felt her insides tighten at the thought of what she was doing, what she was thinking. She felt herself flush at the illicitness of it all. Rolling onto her stomach, she mashed her face into his pillow, breathing deep and tingling within. If she had to spend the whole night in his bed, she was darn well going to enjoy it! Then she laughed at how scandalous that sounded. Snuggling up with his pillow, she relaxed and closed her eyes.
Rising early the next morning, she and Linnie had a grand time preparing breakfast and wrestling with a huge tom turkey as they stuffed it. It was twenty-six pounds, and if she hadn’t witnessed the amount of food these men consumed, she’d never have believed they’d need one so large, but now she knew they did.
She liked this, the preparing and cooking of food, she always had, but it was too much work for one person, so she rarely ever cooked. It didn’t stop her from pouring through cookbooks though, and watching cooking shows, or taking classes to learn how to cook. She loved books on cooking, the older the better, and she had quite a collection of them.