“Thanks, Jenny. I really appreciate it. Though there’s one little thing we’ll have to talk about later.”
“Really?” Jenny smiled in Jake’s direction. “I can’t imagine what. Oh, Guy came over and jumped your battery. Good as new,” she said, gesturing to the hatchback.
“Thanks.”
Jenny smiled and got in the Chevy. The engine roared and they watched her make a three-point turn, then drive away, her taillights gradually disappearing.
A light pole rose in front of the next trailer over. It leaned like it’d been caught in a storm and the light was faint. There were a few others, all standing at odd angles and half of them dark. Except for a dog barking in the background, it seemed deserted. He didn’t like to think of Paige coming home alone, especially at night.
“So, Jenny doesn’t live here?”
“She does, but she’s out a lot. She inherited the trailer from an uncle—hers, not mine. It’s a little cramped right now, but I’m saving for a place of my own.”
“Thus the two jobs. And Casey. That’s a lot.”
She lifted her shoulders like it was no big deal when he knew damn well it was.
Her eyes met his then danced away. “Thanks again for the ride. And the drink.”
“You’re welcome.”
Another moment of silence passed and neither of them moved. Paige stared at a spot over his shoulder. “Nice night, but I guess all the nights are like this. That’s why people move to Southern California.”
A light breeze gently lifted her hair like even the wind wanted to touch her. “Is that why you moved here?”
“No. I moved here to start our life.”
“It hasn’t started yet?”
“Not really.” She shrugged again, something he’d noticed she did a lot, and stared at the toe of her tennis shoe digging into the gravel. “Not the one I want. Oh, I meant to ask you, why didn’t you tell me you owned Evolution? That you’d sold patents for prosthetics?”
“Simon has a big mouth.”
Looking up at him thoughtfully, she leaned her side against his truck so their bodies were facing. “You don’t want people to know?”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“Actually, it is. It’s a really big deal. Especially to Casey.”
Of course he was proud of what he’d done, but it meant something more coming from Paige. “It wasn’t just me, it was a team effort and…” Her eyes held his, and whatever else he might have said got stuck in his throat. How had they gotten so close? Had he moved? Had she?
She’d driven him crazy for weeks, but especially tonight with that voice and those eyes, her full lips and shy smile. He shoved his hands deeper into his pockets. There were so many reasons he should get in his truck right now and drive away, but mostly because he knew touching her once would never be enough.
“Paige, I—”
“Simon asked me—”
Their words tumbled on top of each other and dwindled off in the heat building between them.
He shifted even closer, drawn by her until there was barely a breath between them. What man was strong enough not to kiss Paige when she stood gazing up at him under the stars?
Taking her face in his hands, he slid his fingers into her hair. Her soft inhale was loud in the quiet night, and her eyes never left his. He gave her a chance to move away. Just the slightest turn of her head and he would back up, regain his sanity.
When she didn’t, he lowered his head and brushed his mouth over hers. Her lips were warm and soft, and instead of taking a step back, she stepped into him. He traced his tongue along the seam, teasing her until she opened to him. And then he was lost. Her arms wound around his neck and any reasons he had for not kissing her evaporated.
Her body was soft under his hands and the sweet sounds she made vibrated into his chest. He slanted his mouth over hers, deepened the kiss, and fell deeper himself. Their tongues tangled around each other. It was new but strangely familiar, even when he knew he’d never tasted anything so sweet.
Paige’s fingers dug into his scalp like she needed to keep him from pulling away when there was no chance of that. With an arm around her lower back, he brought her fully against him, setting off new waves of heat. After some time, he lifted his head and looked into the blue eyes of a woman who’d been well kissed.
And what the hell? His heart was pounding so hard he was sure if she looked she’d see it.
They disengaged by degrees. Her arms slid from around his neck, his hand on her back. Though he took his time brushing her side. Her lips were damp and glistening in the lamplight, and it only made him want to start all over again.
“I’m sorry,” she said, all flushed and breathless.
A soft laugh escaped him. No kiss, first or otherwise, had ever felt like that and he didn’t know what to do next. “Definitely not something to be sorry for. That was…”
“I know.”
He wondered what she knew, because he sure as hell didn’t know anything. He’d never felt a kiss all the way to his heart.
Chapter 5
With her heart still racing, Paige fought the crooked dead bolt, then leaned back, thunking her head against the trailer door. Her lips tingled, and there was a warm buzzing inside her head. She hadn’t been kissed by a man, or even touched, since before Casey was born. And she’d never, ever, been kissed like that.
Jake had consumed her, overwhelmed her senses, made her light-headed. And she’d responded to him like they were longtime lovers instead of someone she barely knew who’d offered her a ride home.
She covered her burning cheeks with her hands, touched a finger to her lips. She could still feel the blood pulsing after being pressed against his. Damn it. It scared her to feel her emotions scattering out of her control.
As her heart slowed, she stared at the stain on the beige carpet that ironically resembled the state of Texas.
Pushing away from the door, she crossed the short distance to the kitchenette. She emptied her back pockets, then sat to count out her tips from the night. In the beat-up red spiral notebook, she recorded her income neatly and added it to her current balance of twenty-seven dollars and fifty-four cents. She checked off two things Casey would need for school and added three more.
If she was careful, if she stretched every penny, Casey would start the year with everything she needed. She was good at stretching pennies, she thought with a smile. And Casey didn’t need everything, no child did, but she needed enough and she needed the security of knowing that she would have it.
Her daughter would never lie in a cold bed at night and worry about angry, unpaid landlords or being the one kid in the class who held back the others from a special prize because she didn’t bring in that poster board or pumpkin or flower. Which is why kissing an incredibly hot man was not on her to-do list.
The last of the warm fuzzies from Jake’s kiss slipped away and the real world slid in. She shook her head and did what she always did when uncertainty crept in. She worked. She did something to get where she wanted to go. That’s the only thing that settled her fears about their future. Tonight it was studying for her college history class.
She managed a full thirty minutes before visions of Jake snuck in. Jake McKinney. Just thinking his name sent a hot shiver through her. Would she see him when she took Casey back to Evolution? Maybe not, but she probably should have mentioned that. Before they kissed would have been good. Would he have kissed her if he’d known? Did it matter? She tried to picture him coming back into the diner now, sitting in her section, their eyes meeting while she refilled his drink.
She hadn’t been kissed by a man in exactly five years and nine months. She’d been a week away from her graduation gown and a summer away from her new life. Dressed in jeans and sneakers, she’d left her tiny bedroom.
Eddie, her mom’s current boyfriend, smiled at her from the couch. “Hey, sugar. Hot date?”
“Not really. Just going out.” Eddie was nice enough, in a car-sale
sman, comb-over kind of way. And he made her mom happy. For now.
Her mom flittered around him, the scent of her perfume filling the small space. She had to give her mom points for effort.
“I’m gonna go. Bye, Mama.” She kissed her cheek and headed out.
Paige walked through the dark to the front entrance of her trailer park where Gary would pick her up. A mature twenty to her eighteen, Gary was a smooth talker. They’d been out twice before. He said all the right things, did some of the right things.
She ran her fingers through her hair and peered up at the dark Texas sky. One day she’d leave this town, look up at the sky from a different city, maybe even a different continent. That day was getting closer and closer.
The low rumble of Gary’s refurbished Thunderbird announced his arrival, and she slid in beside him.
“Hey, baby.” He leaned over and kissed her, the scent of cigarettes clinging to him reminded her of home, but nobody was perfect.
Especially not her.
The music in the bar had been loud, the smoke heavy. There were a few people she knew, but it was mostly Gary’s friends. She’d liked that too, being with a different, older group. She didn’t especially like to feel out of control, but she had a couple of drinks over the next few hours, just loosening up. But after that the night got kind of blurry.
Feeling a little wild and a bit numb, she agreed to go to Gary’s car. They made out in the front seat awhile, kissing and a little groping. It was her idea to move it to the backseat. Now flat on her back, she didn’t feel so good.
“Gary, I’m gonna be sick.”
“No, you’re not.”
The weight of his body on top of hers and the smell of his breath weren’t helping. He stuck his tongue in her mouth, and she concentrated hard on not being sick. Had she really had that much to drink? She hated throwing up.
She barely felt his groping hand on her breast, but she heard his moans, heard him say she was so hot. She braced her hands behind her to get some relief from the backseat door handle digging into the top of her head.
The backspins were worse. She needed to sit up. “Gary, I’m gonna throw up.”
“Shh.” She felt the tug on her jeans, heard the distant sound of a zipper.
“Wait.” She couldn’t even tell if she said it out loud over the blood pounding in her ears, everything felt far away. The sharp pain between her legs jerked her back. He was inside her, grunting, his hot beer breath at her ear.
“Wait.” It hurt and she moved her hands to his shoulders, but then the metal jammed into the top of her head and she put them back behind her. Three hard thrusts, each time the door handle digging into her head. Then he stopped, made a loud guttural sound, and became so heavy on top of her she couldn’t breathe.
Someone pounded on the back window behind her and Gary laughed. “Shit. Come on, baby.” He straightened his jeans. “You still sick?”
“No. I’m okay,” she mumbled, sitting up. Her head was still spinning, but she felt nauseous for another reason. It burned like fire between her legs and her underwear was immediately soaked.
Gary opened the door and helped her out. “Want to go back inside?”
“Sure,” she mumbled. She needed a bathroom. She also didn’t want to go home and think too much about what just happened.
Two months later, that night with Gary had seemed like a dream, parts of it clear, other parts fuzzy. But the positive pee stick in her hand had been crystal clear. She’d never, ever regret Casey, but she did regret how it had happened.
When she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer, Paige stood from the kitchen table and shuffled through her bathroom routine. She crawled into bed next to Casey, closed her eyes, and hoped she dreamed of Jake.
Chapter 6
“Carson is ready to try out the new finger plate whenever you are,” Simon said, stepping out of the elevator ahead of JT.
“Great.” They’d been waiting on the placement of sensors in the man’s chest that would translate sensory feedback to his brain. If it worked, he’d not only be able to move his prosthetic hand with his mind, but he’d be able to feel the heat and texture of what he was touching. The new finger joint he was working on for the patent should greatly increase reflex speed. “I’ll let the team know, and you can get him scheduled for next week. Anything else?”
“No. I sent over the rest of the data I had this morning.”
“I got it. Haven’t had a chance to look at it yet. I’ll get to it by the end of the day.”
“No problem.” They passed the rock-wall area on their way to the PT side. He wanted to see their latest robotic arm in action.
“How’s the sexy mom from the diner?”
“Haven’t you given me enough shit about that yet?”
“Not possible. Jake. She’s hot.”
JT’s jaw clenched. “Stop saying that.”
Simon busted out a laugh. “God, you’re so easy. Have you seen her again?”
“No.” Not since last week when he’d kissed her and had his entire world rocked. And he wanted to again.
“Well, you’re about to.”
He glared at Simon, about to ask what the hell that meant as they rounded the corner.
“I asked her to come back, let Casey play around some. Make sure the fit was still good. Did I forget to mention that?”
JT saw Casey first. She was with a young therapy assistant, Marcy, working in a small open area off to the side. There were mats, weighted pieces of foam, and a treadmill he knew was able to detect and measure the slightest gait inconsistencies. But as interesting as that was, his eyes searched for Paige.
The second Casey saw him, she called out, “Jake! Watch me!”
He stepped closer, watching as Casey bent forward on her hands, kicking up her one foot, no prosthesis. She went five steps on her hands before coming down. “That’s good stuff.”
“Yeah. I’m showing Marcy. You should try it,” Casey said and tried again herself.
His gaze landed on the woman who was keeping him up at night. Paige knelt on the floor in jeans and a white sleeveless top. Her eyes collided with his, then slid slowly to his mouth. She swallowed, cleared her throat. Yeah, she was thinking about that kiss too.
“Hey, Marcy.” He took another step until he was standing just inches in front of her. “Hi, Paige.”
“Hey.”
She wet her lips and pressed them together, and just that was enough to make him sweat.
“Hi, Paige,” Simon said. “Good to see you again.”
“You too. Thank you so much for having us back.”
“You’re welcome. I’m sure Jake can set up another visit if you want.”
Casey moved to a set of parallel bars used for walking support. “Look what I can do!” She hung by her hands, then her knees.
Marcy and Simon watched for a moment then excused themselves. But not before Simon sent him a knowing grin. Because he did feel like a schoolboy with a crush. Not knowing what else to do, he crossed the room for a rubber ball about the size of a basketball and lowered himself to the mat. It was this or stand there, undressing Paige with his eyes. He leaned back on his hands and gave the ball a toss toward his feet.
Curious, Casey moved to the mat. He kept it bouncing off the tops of his feet, alternating right and left, before giving it a final flick and catching it in his hand. “You want to try?”
Casey eyed the ball. “I’d have to put my leg on.”
“Yep, you would,” he said evenly, letting it be her decision.
She thought about it, but in the end he got some participation, wearing her prosthesis.
After a few minutes, Casey moved to sit close and stretched her leg out beside his. “Do all your friends have a leg like you?”
He took a second to think about how best to answer. “Well, there’s Simon.”
“What about your other friends?”
He tried to think of other friends and came up short. “I have five brothers, bu
t—”
“Five? That’s how many years I almost am. That’s a lot.”
“I also have one sister.”
Casey’s face scrunched into a frown. “Well, that’s sad. You need more girls.”
That brought a sudden burst of laughter from him. Paige laughed too, which made it even better. “My sister, Lizzie, would be extremely happy to hear you say that.”
“Do all your brothers and your sister have one leg?”
“No. Just me.”
“Oh.”
“But that’s okay. There’s really nothing they can do with two legs that I can’t do with one.”
“Me too,” she agreed. “But…”
“But what?” Paige coaxed.
She stared at her prosthesis. “I don’t know anyone who has one of these.”
JT watched her blue eyes, hoping he was helping. He understood how, in her mind, it was the device that made her different. He’d known people in rehab like that. Those that felt fully capable but despised the very thing that could give them more mobility. In Casey’s case, maybe it was more about wearing something that no one else wore, like walking into school with clown shoes on.
“You know me,” he said. “What if we were friends? Then you’d know someone and I’d know someone.”
“You’ll know two people and I’ll know one.”
“Hmm…true. But you know Simon, right?”
“Oh yeah.” Her face brightened. “So we’re the same.”
“Yes. We’re the same.” Looking into her sky-blue eyes and saying that caused some odd shifting around in his chest. She moved back to hang on the bars and he glanced at Paige, who was looking after her. When her head turned and she gave him a grateful smile, her eyes a bit watery, something else shifted.
Her eyes held his intently. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He stood and held out a hand to Paige and got that inexplicable feeling of rightness again just from the simple sensation of his fingers closing around hers. He thought she felt it too, if her sudden nervousness was anything to go by.
She let go of his hand and gathered her things.“Come on, Case. We have to go.”
Worth It All Page 6