“That’s the Cane River,” Jake told her. “It runs right through town.”
Lacy watched the river glitter in the fading sunlight. “This place can’t be real. It’s like a fairy tale.”
“Just wait until you taste the food.”
Front Street was breathtaking, lined with gorgeous old buildings. The original brick road made for a bumpy ride and highlighted the uniqueness of this town. The Landing Restaurant was right on a corner. It had white walls, and large black metal beams which supported the upstairs patio that overlooked the street. The patio made Lacy think of men hanging over that railing, tossing beads to women below during Mardi Gras. Jake nosed the jeep to the edge of the sidewalk, parking right out front of the restaurant. He went around to Lacy’s side and helped her out of the car. There was a simple, understated brown sign above the door held in place by a piece of metal pipe. The Landing Restaurant & Bar was written in yellow script and Jake held the door open for Lacy as she passed under it and into the building.
“You ever cook any of your own food?” One of the waiters ribbed Jake as he walked by with a tray full of crawfish.
Jake just laughed it off. “What? I eat here a lot,” he said to Lacy.
There was a decorative wrought iron fence surrounding the entire restaurant. Lacy followed it with her eyes, watching the early evening crowd as they enjoyed their meal. The dishes in the room were mostly unknown to Lacy, but they smelled divine.
“Patio tonight, Mr. Knight?” the maître d asked.
“Of course,” Jake said in response. “After you, Lacy.”
Lacy bounced on her heels and followed the maître d across the tiled floor. Jake fell in behind her. It was only proper to let a lady go first and it allowed him a bit of time to enjoy the sway of her hips.
Lacy was electrified. First the encounter back at her place, then the exhilarating ride through the swamp, and now this little slice of heaven Jake had brought her to. Why it was enough to make Lacy fall hard for this sexy, sweet guy. They arrived at a private table covered with a pure white tablecloth. Jake pulled out her chair and helped her to be seated. The evening just kept getting better and better. “I’m hungry. Are you?” she asked Jake as he took a seat across from her.
“I’ve been hungry since before we left your condo,” he said without looking at her.
Lacy gasped. Did he mean what she thought he meant? Her fingers trembled on the menu. She stared at it, hard, trying to make sense of the words. There was shrimp creole, crawfish, blackened catfish, gumbo and all sorts of things she’d never tried before.
“The meat pies look good,” she said, picking something she thought might be a bit bland. Lacy didn’t know how her palate would handle all of this spice. The chefs at Willow Cove tended to cook milder food to please a wider variety of customers. The Landing appeared to cater to the person seeking authentic Cajun and Creole cooking.
“You’ll have to let me bring you back here in September for the meat pie festival,” Jake said. Yea, he said he’d be gone. But he’d always have to visit relatives. Making plans seemed the right thing to do.
“There’s a meat pie festival here?”
“Yep, lots of food, fun and recreation.”
“Kinda far off for a second date, isn’t it?” Lacy joked.
“I’d ask you out again sooner, but I’m not entirely sure you’d say yes.”
Lacy let the comment pass. Clearly Jake had taken offence to her cutting short their heated make-out session earlier. She didn’t see how she could tell him it had been because Kay was hiding in the washroom, not because she’d wanted to stop.
“You have to try the Catfish Opelousas,” Jake said when it became evident that Lacy wasn’t going to respond to his comment.
“If you say it’s good, then I’ll trust you.” Why not? She’d trusted him enough to go out with him. She’d trusted him enough to almost let him inside of her. And she’d trusted him enough to drive along a washed-out dirt road at a hundred miles an hour. She might as well trust Jake’s taste in food.
Later, she had to admit the truth. “You were right,” Lacy said, shoveling dainty forkfuls of catfish into her mouth as fast as she could. “This is amazing.” It probably wasn’t the most ladylike way to act, but she’d had a tall glass of wine with their fried crawfish tails starter and was halfway through another glass as she ate her dinner.
“We’d better slow you down, Lacy,” Jake said jokingly, reaching for her glass.
“Mine,” Lacy said with a giggle and snatched the glass from his grasp. This was the most fun she’d had in a long time. Spending time with Jake Knight was enough to make any woman want to shuck her clothes and go straight to bed with him, but Lacy knew she’d blown her chances with her actions earlier, so she didn’t have to worry about what would come next. More than likely, Jake was just being polite. He was probably counting down the seconds until he could take her home and be done with the date.
He was a smart guy, they worked together and if he’d just walked off after she’d turned him down, it would’ve made things awkward at work. In her head, Lacy thanked him for being so considerate, but hated him for looking so fuckin’ good. He made her tingle all over and the idea of what she missed...damn! Lacy tipped the wine glass to her lips again. She’d need to be drunk to get through this, now that she knew sex was off the table.
Lacy missed a few steps on the way to the jeep after dinner. She’d blamed it on the rough, uneven brick street, but Jake knew she’d had too much to drink. He’d sobered her up a little bit with a coffee and a shared Bananas Foster after dinner, but she hadn’t fully come around yet. So as far as he was concerned, a little fresh air was in order. He knew how judgmental some people could be, so he wasn’t about to take her back to the resort and risk her running into one of them. “Let’s not leave just yet. Come on, there’s something I want to show you,” Jake said, placing a light hand at the small of Lacy’s back.
The warmth of his strong hand guiding her shot a spark of desire up her spine. If he wasn’t interested in having sex with her, why was he torturing her by touching her? He led her past a set of twin wrought iron benches and down a short embankment to the water. The sun had set by now and the moon had taken its place in the sky, but the river still twinkled with beams of moonlight bouncing off the waves.
Lacy just watched the gentle roll of the water go by. “It’s so pretty here.”
“Anywhere you are has to be pretty, if you’re there,” Jake said under his breath.
He stood behind her, his palms itching to slide down the slope of her firm heart-shaped little ass. How was he going to handle seeing this woman every day at work, knowing he couldn’t have her? Jake took her hand. “Let’s go for a walk.”
The serene tranquility of the place hugged Lacy like a blanket and the coffee she’d drank with the Bananas Foster was helping her regain her senses. “I apologize for having a little too much to drink at dinner,” she offered shyly as they walked along. “I enjoyed my meal. It was wonderful, especially the dessert.”
“Not a problem, it’s cool,” Jake responded and led her up the hill to an ornate cross-over. “I always have a problem choosing a dessert.”
“Me too. I make a cake you wouldn’t believe. It’s so rich you can’t eat but just a sliver.”
“What kind? Let me guess. Chocolate?” He teased and took her hand.
“Chocolate Ganache Cake to be exact, it has cocoa, chocolate syrup and chocolate chips. I gain three pounds just from smelling it while it bakes.”
“Chocolate is good, but I prefer coconut. My favorite dessert in the whole world is coconut cream pie. Not one of those icebox kind, but the thick yellow ones with a mile high meringue.” As he talked, Jake’s mouth began to water and he didn’t know if it was because of all the talk of sweets or how beautiful Lacy looked in the emerging moonlight.
“I’ll make you a pie someday, if you’d like.”
“I’d like that a lot.” A few solitary cars drove by as t
hey stood at the centre of the bridge, looking down into the water. Jake leaned on the stone railing. “Sometimes I come here after dinner and just watch the water for a little while. When I’m confused, or trying to figure something out in my head, it helps me think.”
They stood for a while and everything that had happened seemed to rush over Lacy at one time. Stephen’s rejection, her longing for Jake, the self-doubt that tortured her—even that damned Fourth of July celebration haunted her. All of it together made her feel a little ill. “I guess we should start home.” Lacy sighed, feeling overwhelmed.
“Why’s that?” Jake leaned on his forearms, staring intently at Lacy’s beautiful face.
Not being able to share most of what she feared, Lacy went with the less embarrassing. “I need to do some serious thinking, because I have no idea how I’m going to handle Doc Barnes and his party. You were right, the event does need to be updated and I can make a name for myself around here if I update it, but I already know he won’t listen to my ideas.” Jake took a hand from the rail and rubbed her back as she talked. “You know, when I was looking through the file, I found notes my predecessor had scribbled in the margins. She’d written down her ideas for updating the party and then X’d them out afterward. I can only assume she’d gone to Doc Barnes with them and he’d shot her down. The xs were so sharp and hard, you could tell she was angry when she made them. I don’t want to be like that. I just want that crusty old codger to listen to me.”
Before he thought about it, Jake made an offer he never thought he’d make. “If it’ll help, I’ll talk to him. And if that doesn’t help, I’ll go to the board.”
Lacy turned and looked him right in the eye. “Why would you do that for me?”
If Jake hadn’t already been so sure she wasn’t interested in him, he’d have told her the truth that he liked her and wanted to help, but Lacy had no romantic interest in him, so he just laid his cards on the table. “Because I know the members want it changed. Hell, it’d make me just as much of a hero with them as it would make you if we convinced him to change his mind on some of the arrangements. But more than that...” He looked into the distance. “Barnes is one of the reasons I came back.” Jake shook his head as if trying to make sense of a lifetime of regret. “Now, years later, I can see the wisdom of building this lake, but my family suffered. Barnes was one of the ones who humiliated my grandfather, sending out a dozer to destroy his home. My mom and dad were just married, they’d bought a little house and they lost it too. All of them had to move. When the lake came in, they tried to start a business where I’m living now, a marina. It was hard. People didn’t support one another. Hard feelings were everywhere. My folks fought.” He looked down into the dark water. “They had a little boy and one day when they were busy trying to build a boat dock, he got away from them and drowned before they knew he was missing.”
“Jake, I’m so sorry!” She hugged him.
“I wasn’t even born at the time, but they never got over it. Mom and Dad divorced when I was pretty young. My granddad just withered away.” He shook his head as if trying to dispel the memories. “All of it taught me how fragile things are—our home, our life, even love.”
Lacy put an arm around him. She almost told him about Stephen, but he started talking again.
“I can remember running into Barnes on this very street one day. He was trying to threaten my family into selling the marina to him. My grandfather wouldn’t do it and he told Barnes that one day I’d prove to everyone that our family was just as good as anyone else.”
“Is that why you came back from Arizona?”
“Yea.” Jake nodded. “I know working at a golf course isn’t the most important job in the world, but it’s where they live, you know? The men who hurt my family the most, this is their stomping ground, their home, their game. I knew I’d never have enough money to compete with them, but my expertise at what I do and being the one to design and build a course that they’ll play and their children and grandchildren will use, and they’ll all know Jake Knight, grandson of Caleb Knight is the one who did it. I think my grandfather would be proud and Barnes has to live, even now, with the fact that his friends and cronies like me better than they do him.”
Again, she hugged him. “So, that’s why you want to do a good job, make your mark, and leave.”
“Yea, I plan on moving up, designing more courses. I want to make a name for myself. I’ve been doing lots of research on how to make the courses more innovative, work for strategy and not just length. If I can get offered the right job, I’ll have it made. My reputation will be set.”
“I can understand wanting to start over. That’s why I left Nebraska. I needed a change of scenery.”
“So you didn’t have ties to this area at all?”
“No, it’s beautiful, but a job is a job.”
This was pure agony. The moon was glinting off Lacy’s gorgeous eyes and Jake knew he couldn’t have her. He must have done something wrong at some point in his life and he was paying for it in this moment.
More than anything, Lacy wanted to be held and kissed by Jake. Tonight had been magical, except for the unfortunate beginning. Jealousy ate at her heart till it spilled out. “Do you bring all the girls here?” Lacy asked, wishing his answer would be no.
“All the girls?”
“Yeah. ‘All.’ You have a bit of a reputation, Mr. Knight.” She tried to make it sound teasing. The mood needed to be lightened, not only because of her stupid question but also because of the painful memories Jake had shared.
The way Lacy called him ‘Mr. Knight,’ made every cell in Jake’s body catch fire at once. “Actually, I’ve never brought anyone here but you.”
Lacy’s breath hitched in her throat. “I’m glad.”
“I have some ideas for the party and how to deal with old Barnes,” Jake fired back quickly, trying to regain control of the conversation. Yes, he’d been out with his fair share of ladies since arriving in Louisiana, but he was a bachelor who liked to date and there was no crime in that. But he’d never taken any of them to this place, this place was special to him and he didn’t want Lacy thinking that he had.
“We should discuss that sometime soon,” Lacy said.
“How about right now?”
“Ummmm. I guess, but can we go back inside, the sun’s gone down and it’s getting a bit windy and cool for just a dress.”
“We could go back to my place.” The words came out of Jake’s mouth before he knew he was saying them. Confidence had always been his vice, but at the moment, he wasn’t sure what Lacy was going to say and the thought of being rejected another time by her had his stomach churning.
“Yes, we could do that, if you’d like,” Lacy responded, surprised. What was going on here? She’d turned Jake down earlier. Oh, she’d had her reasons, but nothing she could tell him, so why was he being extra nice and inviting her back to his house, when he could just drop her off and be done with her?
“Are you sure?” Jake asked, needing to make sure she wanted what he did.
“I insist,” she said with a smile. The walk back to the Jeep sobered Lacy up even more and the nervous energy vibrating through her body on the car ride back cleared her head even further.
Was she really doing this?
Going back to Jake’s place?
She hardly knew him and as he drove slowly down a winding back road with nothing around but trees and gators, she wondered even further why she was doing this. His place was in the middle of nowhere. Even if she could remember all the turns they’d taken to get there, Lacy was sure she’d have never been able to find her way back out, especially now that the moon had fully taken over for the sun. But none of that mattered. She trusted him, and there was nowhere else she’d rather be. Her whole body strummed with anticipation.
Jake’s house wasn’t even that. It was more of a fishing cabin than a house, a place where people would come to spend the weekend fishing on the lake. The porch light was on when th
ey pulled up, Jake’s big white truck parked right out front.
“Don’t get out yet,” Jake instructed.
Lacy waited in the jeep while Jake got out, listening to the sounds of the swamp. Crickets made themselves known with the rubbing of their legs. An owl hooted somewhere overhead and Lord only knew what was causing all that splashing in the water.
Jake ran toward the house. “Stay there, I’ll be right back.”
Lacy did as she was told, waiting in the jeep until he returned.
Jake stepped out of his house and came to her. “Sorry,” he said, offering his hand to help her out. “Come on in. All’s clear.”
Lacy had no idea what he was talking about. Surely he didn’t think another woman would be in there waiting on him to return home, did he?
Jake held her arm as he helped her up the steps. What he’d really been doing was tidying up quickly before Lacy came in. The old saying rang true—no man cleans his place faster than a man who things he might be getting laid. Even though Jake knew sex was off the table, he still wanted to impress Lacy.
Lacy stepped warily into the cabin, not really sure what to expect. The inside of Jake’s place was rustic to say the least, but all male. He had all the necessities, a brown couch, a recliner, a coffee table, an end table with a lamp and a medium size TV. But there were no decorations on the walls or personal things sitting around to speak of.
“I’m not really one for things,” Jake said when he saw the look on Lacy’s face. “I’m pretty simple. I just need a roof over my bed and a job to do. I get my kicks outside.”
“How so?” Lacy inquired.
Jake went to the kitchen. “Drink?”
Lacy considered another glass of wine, but opted for a glass of water instead.
“Well,” Jake started, returning with water for both of them. “I’ve got the jeep. That’s a lot of fun. And I’ve got a four-wheeler out back, but that’s more of a pain than it’s worth.”
Red Hot and BOOM! A Sizzling Hot Collection of Stories from the Red Hot Authors Page 22