"Wait a minute. Sarah and I need to talk about some things first. Why don't you go outside and wait for us?"
The screen door thwacked behind Nicholas, and Sarah laughed just as Jake spoke. "Maybe Nicholas and I should—"
"I know what you're going to say, but I've been thinking." Sarah leaned forward. "I'd like for you and Nicholas to stay for a while. If you want to."
His glance was wary.
Sarah hated her awkwardness, but she wasn't used to hiding her motives. Did he think she was making some kind
of pass or something? She was attracted to him, but that wasn't why she wanted them to stay. "I mean, Nicholas is having such a good time and I like having him around." She tried to hide her embarrassment. "There's a wonderful festival coming up next week, Chalo Nitka. It's Seminole for 'big bass.' There's a midway, hay-diving, kids' games."
As Jake continued to stare at her, she grew more uncomfortable.
"I've been going since I was a kid. You know the Semi-noles wrestle alligators." She realized she was babbling and didn't know how to stop.
"I don't think—" A false note twanged in his hesitation.
"If you're short of money or anything, well, you could help me out for a few days to pay for room and board," she interrupted. She'd have offered to let him stay for free, but she wasn't sure how he'd react. She didn't want him going off in a huff because she'd wounded his male pride.
Jake was caught between a rock and a hard place. Sarah's face glowed with excitement. He was in a no-win situation. He didn't want to leave Nicholas, but he didn't see how he could take him. He didn't know if he wanted to rip free of the delicate web Sarah was weaving around him, and he didn't even know if he could.
Sarah continued. "Stay for a week? You don't have to take Nicholas home yet, do you?"
The situation was almost funny. "No."
"Stay, then."
He wanted to.
"Pretty please with cream and sugar?" She tipped her head as she laughed self-consciously. "That's what we always said as kids. It usually worked."
Jake knew he shouldn't leave without knowing, really knowing, what kind of woman she was. He still had questions about her. It wasn't that he wanted to stay, not really. He ignored the little voice that told him he was lying. "Okay. We'll stay. I'm not short of money, but I'm not used
to being waited on. You don't run a resort, so we'll help out. But just until Cholley Nitka—"
"Chalo Nitka."
"Whatever. Until then. Thanks." Jake picked up the plates. "Put me to work." Her smile was so warm and open he almost grabbed her and kissed her. He sighed. Staying was never going to work.
"Oh, c'mon," she teased. "It's not going to be that much work."
"The work's the least of it," he mumbled, thinking they were talking at cross-purposes.
Sunlight caught in the shining brown strands of her hair. "No?" For an instant he glimpsed awareness in her eyes, and then she withdrew. "Tell you what. I'll let you do the easy work—the dishes—while I get the boat ready. After all—you cooked, you need the rest."
Her face was smooth and soft and he wanted to touch her. "Did anyone ever tell you that you have a sassy mouth?" Jake scraped the garbage into a sack.
"Never!"
"Real sassy," he grumbled. "Going to get you in trouble one of these days," he added. He couldn't help looking at her sassy mouth.
"Promises, promises," she taunted and then blushed a brighter pink.
Jake was remembering, too. Remembering the ache he'd felt near her, remembering how he'd wanted her, remembering how he'd promised that it would be nice. That was a promise he couldn't afford to keep.
"So go on out before the kid makes himself dizzy enough to throw up. He runs in circles more than any living thing I ever saw." Jake opened the dishwasher. "Any tricks to this gizmo?"
"Nope." She looked back at him over her shoulder. The long line of her throat disappearing into her blouse led his
eyes to her breasts. He saw her swallow before she looked away.
"Now you're starting to sound like me." If he couldn't control his thoughts any better than his eyes, he was in deep trouble.
"Yep." She laughed as she let the back door slam behind her. "Hey, Nicholas. Let's go down to the dock."
Jake watched her long legs eat up the distance between her and Nicholas. For a small woman, she had the longest legs. He couldn't turn away when he saw her arm go around Nicholas, who leaned against her.
Angrily Jake scraped and rinsed the rest of the dishes. Where was the little squirt's loyalty? Was he so hungry for a mother's love that he'd go to any female? Jake slammed the dishwasher door shut and locked it.
Hell. He'd forgotten the soap. He yanked the door open and dumped in the powder. What had made him agree to stay? Stupidity, that's what. He felt like pounding on something, preferably his own thick skull. In a silent stream of oaths garnered from dives and hellholes around the world, he cursed himself for being every kind of ass before he followed Sarah out the back door.
"Do you lock up around here?" he bellowed.
"I suppose you might as well since we'll be gone a while," Sarah called back. She and Nicholas were already in the bass boat. Engulfed in a fluorescent orange life vest, Nicholas was holding the tie-up rope in his hands while Sarah held on tightly to him.
Jake muttered under his breath and strode back to the house. A pit bull was just what he felt like. He'd like to chomp down on something and chew it to ribbons. What made him the angriest was that he couldn't figure out what was sticking in his craw so bad. Kids. Women. Who wanted them? Who needed them?
Sarah sat back near the motor and Jake put Nicholas on the middle seat and faced them. Mid-morning sun sparkled
% JAKE'S CHILD
off the water as they headed away from land. Nicholas pointed his nose into the wind and Jake stretched his legs on either side of Nicholas, keeping him close.
'Taster, Sarah!" Nicholas's shriek whipped away from Jake.
"Okay, hang on!" Sarah sped up, but Jake noticed that she minimized bumps by keeping the boat angled to the chop.
The sun warmed the chill of the air and Jake leaned back, watching Nicholas enjoy the splashes of water and the boat ride. Sarah and Nicholas sported identical grins. The kid loved it. He'd love living here. Jake gritted his teeth.
They roared out and then circled over to a barely visible hammock. Egrets rose in a cloud around them.
She killed the motor and the boat silently settled into the water. Nicholas's eyes were huge and Sarah's face shone with joy.
Jake leaned back and shut his eyes against the sight of them together. Orange blossoms carried over the darker smell of the lake. Since they were sheltered from the wind by the hammock, the sun was hot. The peaceful rocking of the boat as the waves slapped it, and the woman and boy opposite him, filled up the world for Jake at that moment. He could almost put a name to the feelings tumbling inside him.
"C'mon, lazy bones." Sarah nudged his leg with her sneakered foot. "Wake up. I'm the one who should be falling asleep."
"Hush, woman, I'm busy doing man-type work."
"What's that," Sarah jeered, "sleeping?"
Her foot nudged him again, but he refused to open his eyes. The moment was too peaceful.
"Of course not. Man was made to decide the fate of the world. That kind of serious thinking requires elimination of all outside distractions." Jake folded his arms under his head. "And that's what I'm doing. Serious thinking."
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"Okay, party pooper, I'd still call it sleeping, but Nicholas and I came to do some dedicated fishing. You stay here and solve the world's problems while we go wading."
The boat wobbled, and he heard a splash as they jumped into the water.
"You're not quite big enough to fish like this, Nicholas, but I think we can work out something. The vest will support you, and I can lift you when you cast. Your feet won't touch bottom, but you'll be okay. If it doesn't work, we'll go back to the boat and let you cast out of it."
"I'm not scared or anything, Sarah, but I just wondered if there might be alligators or something like that around here?"
Nicholas's voice had an edge of panic. Jake knew people fished out of the boats, and there were alligators in the lake. And water moccasins. His eyes snapped open and he sat up.
They were a few yards away from the anchored boat. Water sloshed up to Sarah's waist, and Nicholas bobbed on the rippled surface like an orange cork.
Jake's light-dazzled eyes saw a rounded, reptilian snout sliding off the hammock in their direction. He couldn't trust Sarah to save Nicholas. Lunging in their direction, he pitched himself into the water.
Chapter Six
Water splashed into Jake's face. With long, powerful reaches of his arms, he stroked quickly towards Sarah and Nicholas. Swimming was faster than slogging through the weed-clogged bottom. He didn't stop to think about Sarah's astonished yelp as he hauled Nicholas up with one arm and her with the other. He slung Nicholas into the safety of the boat and grabbed Sarah's blouse, throwing her bottom side up over into the boat.
The boat pitched wildly. Jake grabbed its sides. His face was beside Sarah's sopping green shorts and sleek legs as she turned to him. Wet, tanned skin glistened in front of his mouth as he hung onto the boat.
"What in heaven's name do you think you're doing?" She wiggled into the boat, tennis shoes spraying water into his eyes.
"This is fun, Jake! Let's do it again!" Nicholas scrambled to the side, ready to leap into the coffee-colored water.
"Sit down, Nicholas," Sarah said. She glanced at Jake. "I don't think Jake's playing games."
"Damn right I'm not!" Jake thumped into the boat. His heart was pumping full-tilt. He was as furious as he'd ever been in his life.
The explosion of his voice surprised him as much as it did Sarah. "What's the matter with you, getting out of the boat like that? What kind of guide dumps herself and a five-year-old kid in the middle of a snake-swarming, gator-infested lake? One big bull was swimming just over to the right of where you were! My God, what were you thinking of?" He shook water out of his hair and smashed it with shaking hands.
Nicholas's eyes were wide and he was chewing his fingernails. Jake didn't want to scare the kid but, damn, Sarah should have had enough sense to stay in the boat. He should have said something himself. Fear still churned his blood.
Sarah's voice was very quiet. "Look around you, Jake. Tell me what you see."
Jake rubbed Nicholas's shoulder and looked back at the water. Ripples puckered the surface. A blue heron stalked at the edge of the hammock. Not far from the hammock, a brown-gray log swayed with the movement of water and breeze. A fish plopped fatly back under the light water slapping against the side of the gently moving boat. The log swayed again.
Jake looked at Sarah. "It looked like a gator."
"An easy mistake to make, but how could you think I'd put Nicholas in danger? What kind of person do you think I am?" Anger sharpened her voice.
She'd asked the unanswerable question. How could he tell her what kind of person he knew she was?
"I grew up on the lake!" she continued. "I've seen it low and dry, I've seen it when alligators were so scarce they were an endangered species. I know where they are. I know where it's safe to fish and where it's not! This is my living."
*'Gators are all over the place! I saw them in the canals. Didn't you just have an open-season hunt down here?" Damned if he'd give an inch.
Very politely, Sarah answered. "There was a lottery for a certain number of licenses. Yes, there are more gators around than there used to be. People who live around here know to be prudent. I live around here. I'm a prudent person." Sarcasm dripped from her voice.
He'd made a fool of himself.
Sarah knew it, too. Her raised eyebrows expressed her wrath.
He'd been a jerk.
He fidgeted. Waited for heaven to rescue him. Stretched and yawned. Fidgeted.
Sarah's lips twitched. Then a quiver moved across her face like sun on water. He heard her giggle. What was so funny? He hated giggling women.
An undignified snort escaped Sarah. "If you could have seen yourself!"
"Yeah?" He shifted uncomfortably, energy still coursing through him.
"You came barreling out of the boat like a cannonball! I couldn't imagine what in the world was happening. And the look on your face! You moved so fast and the next thing I knew I was hanging face down in the boat. Not that I don't appreciate the gesture, but th
e boat bottom stinks like fish bait."
"Yeah, well, sorry." He started thinking about how he must have looked thrashing towards her. "A moose in the water, huh?"
She pulled her mouth together, but her eyes gave her away. They sparkled. And then she lost it. "A whale!" Whoops of laughter shook her. "I couldn't believe it! And it was just a log!"
The joke had been on him, but she didn't have to be enjoying it so much. After all, he'd been worried about them.
Worried, hell. He'd been terrified. "You okay, sport?" Nicholas nodded.
But they were safe. That was the important thing, and a giggling Sarah was more appealing than was good for either one of them. Jake's adrenaline and fear found their own outlet. He needed to release his tension. He knew he shouldn't touch her, meant only to startle her a little.
He reached for one slim leg. "A whale? I think I've been insulted. Didn't you ever learn what happens when you don't pick on people your own size?" He pulled her inexorably toward him.
"Definitely a whale!" Sarah whooped again, helpless with laughter. "Oh, help!"
Jake snagged her other ankle. "A cannon, a whale. I get no respect, at all," he mourned, grasping her elbows. Her legs were tangled with his own densely muscled ones, and the slide of her skin against his thighs changed the game for him.
Her mouth opened slightly as she sensed his arousal. For one charged moment, she looked at him with such mischief and sweetness that his fingers clamped around her arms as desire stirred. He'd meant to keep the mood light. She pivoted, and her knee slipped inside his legs. The brush of her soft skin against his burned.
"Turn me loose," she laughed, "or you'll be sorry. I was wrestling champ in fourth grade!"
"This isn't fourth grade, sweetheart. And I've been out of school a long time."
Her laughing face was shiny pink.
Nicholas leaped into the fray and the boat wobbled. "I'll help you, Sarah!" He swatted Jake.
"Cry uncle?" Jake murmured.
"I'm not afraid of you," Sarah scoffed.
"Maybe you should be." He wanted her afraid of him so he could remember how treacherous she was, not warm and funny like this, bewitching him.
"You're all bark, no bite. Or should I go for a whale of a comparison?" She laughed again, but then he slid his palm under her calf and pulled her closer. Her eyes darkened.
Jake's child Page 9