by J. E. Taylor
Thoughts suffocated her mind and she stopped in the middle of the beach, walking to the water with her hands on her hips. Jessica fought the tears and watched the sun dance on the water and finally headed back to her house to clean up.
After she took a shower, she threw on a comfortable pair of jeans and headed out the door. She drove to his house and looked at the buzzer on the gate. Instead, she punched the code and watched as the gate opened. Her heart beat faster as she pulled up the drive. Music drifted out the cracked windows and she smiled at his choice in artists. Instead of ringing the doorbell, she tried the latch and it opened effortlessly. Uttering a quiet laugh she stepped inside.
Nickleback’s “Savin’Me” filled the house. The clanging of pots led her to the kitchen and she leaned against the doorjamb, watching him cook. The raw power of the voice belting out of his chest was as sexy as everything else about him, perfectly on key and perfectly seductive. She had never heard him sing before and she smiled. Was there nothing this man couldn’t do?
As if on cue, he flipped an omelet in the frying pan and caught it easily in the air. The music transitioned to “Here Without You” by Three Doors Down. He slid the omelet onto the plate next to the stove and turned off the burner.
Chris almost dropped his plate when he turned and she was standing in the entrance. The note he was singing faded as he stared at her. He picked up the remote and pointed it at the entertainment system in the living room, dialing the music down to a respectable level. He had a pair of sweatpants on and nothing else, his hair was a mess and he had morning stubble on his face as he smiled at her. “I’ve got to remember to lock the front door, now don’t I?”
Jessica nodded.
“You want some breakfast?” he asked, offering her his plate.
Jessica hesitated. She didn’t remember ever seeing him look as sexy as he did right now and wasn’t sure she really wanted to stay in light of the heat prickling across her skin.
“I can make more for myself,” he said and put the plate down on the other side of the table for her. “Really.” He smiled, completely disarming her.
“Okay,” she said and sat down.
“Would you like some orange juice?” He went to the refrigerato, pulled out the eggs, chopped vegetables, shredded cheese for his omelet, and brought them to the counter next to the stove.
“That sounds good.”
He poured her a glass and handed it across the table to her.
She took a bite of the omelet as he mixed the eggs for his. “So you actually can cook.”
“I hold my own.” He smiled over his shoulder. “It’s kind of necessary up here, but in the city, I ate out a lot because I don’t have a kitchen like this one. Besides it’s a bitch cooking for one.” He poured the eggs and a handful of the chopped vegetables in the pan and glanced at her. “Want to see something cool?”
Jessica shrugged and continued to devour the omelet.
Chris looked at the refrigerator and the door opened and then he willed the egg carton and the container with the cut vegetables back where he had taken them from. He closed the refrigerator door with another thought and then looked over at her with a smile. “Comes in real handy sometimes.” He went back to cooking his omelet, not waiting for a response.
Jessica had her next bite halfway to her mouth and froze in awe when the egg carton and vegetable container floated through the air and set down lightly in the refrigerator and then the door closed.
Chris chuckled and flipped his omelet, sprinkling cheese on it, folding it over so it would melt. He waited a few moments and then slid it onto his plate and turned the burner off again. Sitting down, he looked over at her then at the refrigerator and it opened. Two containers drifted to the table and he grinned. Grabbing the salsa out of the air, he opened it and poured some on his omelet before meeting her stark gaze.
She still hadn’t taken the bite that was halfway to her mouth.
“You want some?” He offered her the salsa.
Jessica blinked and looked at the container and back to him and shook her head. She finally took the bite that she had begun to take when he decided to give her a sample of how much he had learned to control and use the power she had given him.
Chris shrugged and put the salsa back on the table and began to eat his breakfast. He still had a smile on his face and the amusement danced in his eyes as he looked at her.
“Holy shit,” Jessica finally said after she swallowed.
“You’re telling me.” He laughed and took another bite. “I just came to the conclusion that I don’t need to struggle with the shampoo in the shower any more. It was actually comical when I figured that out. I had been moving things around and controlling the power for at least a week before that revelation came. I felt like such an idiot.”
Jessica laughed as well. “I’ll bet.” She went back to eating.
“So what are you doing here?”
“I’m not sure,” she said and he stood, taking their plates and placing them in the sink.
“Why aren’t you sure?” He turned, leaning on the counter with his left hand.
Jessica sat at the table and looked at him. She didn’t dare move for fear she would end up in his arms. She shrugged. “I had nowhere else to go and I wasn’t in the mood to hang out at the house all day wallowing in self pity.”
“That’s a step.” He didn’t dare get closer, sensing the conflict in her. “So what do we do now?”
Jessica looked around and then back at him. “Got any cards?”
Chris smiled. “A little strip poker?” He raised his eyebrow.
Jessica laughed and shook her head. Both of them flashed back to the same conversation five years ago.
Chris inhaled. “I’m sorry, Jessie.”
“For what?”
“For fucking up your life.”
Jessica sighed and stood up. She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He slowly wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes. “Ty, you didn’t completely fuck it up,” she whispered and laid her head against his bare chest.
He tilted her chin up. “Yes I did. Twice now.”
She put her head back against his chest and listened to his heartbeat.
Chris kissed the top of her head and then pushed her away for the first time since he met her. “I can’t have you this close to me.” He stepped around her and walked into the living room taking a deep breath. “I’ll be down in a few.” He headed up the stairs.
The shower went on upstairs and Jessica walked outside to the stone wall, looking out at the bay. She sat on the stones and waited for him to come out. Several sailboats came and went before he strolled out.
“Let’s take a ride.” He looked at his watch.
“Where to?”
“I want to see your grandfather’s place.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Why?”
Chris shrugged. “Something to do that will keep us out of trouble?” He offered her a crooked smile.
“Okay.”
“I’ll drive.”
“Can I drive the ‘vette?” she asked as they stepped into the garage.
He handed her the keys without a second thought and went to climb in the passenger seat. “Just a sec,” he said and ran in the house, trotting back a few seconds later with a CD and popped it into the player as he settled into the seat next to her.
Jessica grinned as she threw the Corvette into reverse, peeling out of the garage and spinning the car around, barely missing her parked car. Chris paled in the seat beside her and she laughed. “Ready for the ride of your life?” She didn’t wait for an answer, throwing the car into gear; she shifted into third by the time they flew through the gate.
“Jesus Christ!”
She laughed and looked over at him. “This car moves.”
“Next time I’ll drive,” he said and gripped the seat.
“Am I making you nervous?” She barreled onto the highway going about seventy, which seemed slow in comp
arison to her breakneck speed through the suburban roads leading to his house. She quickly sped up to ninety, weaving between the traffic and laughing aloud.
“Um, yes,” he said.
“Don’t worry, I promise I won’t kill you.” She sent a playful grin in his direction.
He laughed nervously, keeping his eye on the road. She handled the car expertly and whooped with joy as they topped one hundred, her hair whipping around her face in the wind. He thought he drove fast but he wasn’t even in the same league as Jessica.
“Do you have a death wish?” he asked as they flew off the highway ramp and she slowed to seventy.
She shook her head and turned up the music. “There are a lot of things you don’t know about me. First, I drive fast. I never owned a sports car but I can make an economy car perform like one.” She smiled as she glanced over at him. “I never thought there was much difference, but damn, this thing is awesome.”
“You are crazier than I am.”
“Neither Tom nor Danny would let me drive if they could help it. Mike had an aversion to being in the car with me as well.”
“Smart men,” he replied and she gave him a sideways look.
“Bite me.”
“With pleasure.” Chris took her hand, bringing her palm to his lips and kissing it, and then he gently bit her thumb. He smiled with her thumb still between his teeth.
The heat index in the car just went through the roof and she pulled her hand away taking a deep breath.
“Sorry.”
“Stop apologizing. It’s starting to irritate me.”
“Okay.” He grinned and looked out the window at the blur of scenery passing by.
She took his hand and bit his thumb, then put her lips around it and sucked as she slowly pulled it out of her mouth. “There, we’re even.”
She ignited him. “Not even close.” He reached over and slid his hand up her thigh.
She slapped his hand away with a laugh. “I’m driving.” She shot him a warning glance.
“Girl, you are killing me,” he said as he leaned back in the seat, running his hands through his hair. “Kill-ing me.”
“Oh and you don’t try to do the same to me?” She raised her eyebrows, glancing in his direction.
“I don’t have to try.”
She tilted her head and nodded. “Touché.” Just being this close to him did it to her. Her smile faded. “Do you think it will last?”
“Yes. I love you, Jess. That will last until I the day I die.” He looked out at the road. “As far as the chemistry between us, I don’t see that fading either. It’s gotten stronger over the last five years.” He paused and looked at her. “At least for me it has.”
Jessica nodded in agreement and slowed the car down searching for the sharp right that was coming up. “It has for me too,” she said and the car swerved, executing the near 180-degree turn onto Pleasant Valley Road in Wolfeboro. “I’m not sure anyone will be there yet. It’s still early in the season,” she said, changing the subject.
“That’s all right.” He looked at his watch.
She slowed to a crawl, swinging onto the dirt road leading to the lake. When she got to the fork in the road, she stopped.
“I believe you want to go this way.” He pointed toward the right side of the fork.
Jessica nodded and pulled the car down the right side of the fork. The current owner of the property, Mr. Franklin was sitting on the patio and stood as the car approached. Chris hopped out before Jessica cut the engine and walked up to him, extending his hand. As she got out of the car, the owner handed Chris a pair of keys.
Jessica looked at Chris and her jaw went slack. Mr. Franklin climbed in his car and drove away with a friendly wave.
Chris smiled at her and held out the keys. “After the paperwork goes through, this place is yours.”
She was dumbfounded. “Two days? You pulled this off in two days?”
He grinned. “Everyone has their price.”
“You were already planning on coming here today?”
He nodded. “But I didn’t expect to get here so fast. We’re a little early. The realtor isn’t bringing the papers for me to sign for another twenty minutes. Mr. Franklin already signed them earlier this morning.” He laughed at her expression. “I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.” Chris said with the Godfather accent and winked at her. “Show me,” he said and waved at the property.
“I can’t accept this.”
“This was one of the things you said you wanted most. I gave you both.” His lips spread into a knowing smile.
“Oh, Ty. Emily was enough; you didn’t have to do this.”
“Do me a favor, please start calling me Chris. He was always the best part of me anyway.”
Jessica crossed the lawn standing at the edge of the wooden dock. Sun glinted off the water as she scanned the expanse of the lake and Mount Ossipee in the distance. She stepped onto the faded boards and the wood creaked with each step as she crossed to the edge and looked down into the crystal clear water. She glanced back at him. “I learned to swim off this dock. My dad made us swim from the dock to the beach before we could swim out to the rocks.” She pointed to the center of the cove. “You can’t drive a boat through; you have to go around the buoys because this area has a chain of rocks just under the surface.”
Chris looked down in the water at the end of the dock. “How deep is this?”
Jessica tilted her head and gave Chris the once over, going from memory she said, “probably over your head.”
He raised his eyebrows. “It’s so clear.”
“It’s clear out at the buoy too.”
Chris looked at the crescent shaped beach and the rocky point with the gazebo in the center and smiled. “I can understand why you love this place,” he said and she led him to the small house and used the key to open it.
“Oh my God!” Jessica said and glanced around the little pine living room. “They didn’t change a thing.” She opened the bedroom doors and looked in. Both still had pairs of double beds. She closed her eyes and inhaled, the sweet smell of pine drifted all around her. She led him through the tiny galley kitchen and out the back door where the double plank boardwalk started, leading to the beach and the gazebo beyond. She slipped off her flip-flops and stepped onto the sand, the tiny grains filtering through her toes as she walked to the shoreline. The water was cold on her toes, not as bad as the ocean in Maine, but cold just the same. She laughed aloud as she spread her arms out, twirling with her face tilted toward the clear blue sky.
* * * *
Chris’s smile faded. Letting her go seemed an impossible feat; the beauty of the surroundings was nothing compared to the image of her twirling on the beach. He closed his eyes and looked away, pushing his feelings back into the well of his soul. She would never choose him, even with this. Chris inhaled and shoved his hands into his pockets, returning his gaze back to her.
“Sunset point,” she said as they walked up to the gazebo. Jessica climbed over the railing and stood in the small tidal pool surrounded by a cluster of rocks, including those that the gazebo was built on. She looked up grinning just like a child and she crouched, picking up a rock and grabbing a small crawfish. Holding her prize up for him to see, she laughed. “We used to spend hours in here terrorizing these things when we were little.” She put the crawfish back in the water and climbed onto the far rocks.
Chris climbed down and took a seat next to her.
“I can’t accept this.”
“It’s already done, Jess,” he said. “The deed is in your name.”
“I never asked you to do this for me.” She stood, climbing her way back and headed up the path without him.
Chris caught up with her. “I know you didn’t. I wanted to do this.”
She stopped on the front lawn. “Just so we get this straight, you can’t buy me.”
“I never presumed I could. Besides, you wanted me long before I had money.” He leaned in planting a gent
le kiss on her lips. “You wanted me even with the things I did.” He kissed her again, deeper and more insistent. Suddenly, he pulled away, stepping back before he did something he couldn’t recover from. He turned and walked to the dock, sitting down on the steps to get his composure back.
Jessica followed and sat next to him. She took his hand in hers and kissed it. “Yes, I wanted you long before the money, so you don’t need to throw it around to impress me.”
The realtor pulled up, interrupting the conversation and Chris stood. “Wait here.”
Jessica turned, watching him scribble his name on the papers where the realtor pointed and soon he trotted back and took the seat next to her again.
“You chose Tom over me on Monday,” he said and took a deep breath. “Is that what you really want?”
“Is that what this is all about?”
“No. I did this because I wanted to. Now answer my question.”
Jessica looked out over the lake and back at him. “Right now I don’t know what I want.”
“Then why did you come by this morning?”
“I needed a friend. And you’re it,” she said without looking at him.
He held her hand quietly. “I can’t just be your friend, Jess,” he said. “I’m not sure I can let you go if he comes back. I don’t know if I can walk away again.”
Jessica nodded and inhaled deeply, unclasping her hand from his. “I love you both,” she said. “He made me feel safe when I didn’t think I would ever feel that way again.”
Chris studied his hands.
“Then there’s you,” she sighed. “You’re like an electrical current, a living, breathing danger zone that I can’t stay away from, no matter how hard I try. I always figured we’d run into each other again someday and the dreams, well, they just kept reinforcing it.”
“The last five years was just as hard for me as it was for you.” She let that settle between them before she continued. “I’ve never been able to let go and Tom knew it.” She took a deep breath. “He’s not coming back, Chris.”
“You don’t know that.”
“You didn’t see his face.”