Except she couldn’t fix all the damage, and I had a sneaking suspicion that this college brochure was one of the ways she planned on trying to fix me. There were things that couldn’t be fixed, plain and simple.
“It’s not about Luke anymore,” I said. “I’ll think about it, Mom. Thank you.”
Sensing the end of the conversation, Betty retreated into her normal pleasantries about the events going on in her retirement home. I drove her back to my house after she insisted on seeing the things I had fixed up on my own. In the middle of a pleasant conversation over slow-cooker recipes, she blurted out, “Is there a man on your porch?”
My heart raced when I leaned forward to see past my mother, who was also leaning forward to catch sight of who was on my front porch. The cross tattoo alerted me that it was Jake who was crouched in front of the porch railing in a pair of mesh gym shorts and a ripped tank top. He looked up when I pulled into the driveway.
“Who is that?” Betty asked suspiciously. She lifted her sunglasses to look at Jake as he stood with a hammer in hand. “Wow. He’s a bit strong. Who is he, Chloe?”
Sweat dripped down my back. My shirt clung uncomfortably to my back as I turned the engine off with a trembling hand. What is he doing at my house? Of all the times to come over unannounced, he does it when my mother is here.
“He’s my next-door neighbor,” I said, my voice hitching slightly. “He trained in the Navy SEALs, and he works for the police department as a cyber detective. I—”
“Is this the man who pays you to babysit his son?”
“Yes,” I said, and before I could say anything else, she opened the passenger door. “Mother, wait. Let me—”
She slipped away from my grasp before I could say a word. Her delicate heels clicked on the pathway up to the porch. Fumbling with my seat belt, I scrambled out of the car to follow behind her with my stomach knotting in dread. This would not end well.
“You must be Jake Mason,” she said coolly as she held out a delicate hand. “I’m Chloe’s mother, Betty Johnson.”
Jake took a hold of her hand briefly. “Nice to meet you.” His eyes swept over to where I stood nervously next to my mother. “I was just helping Chloe fix up the porch railing.”
I didn’t let my skepticism show. I’d never asked him to fix the porch railing. I wanted to fix the house on my own. He knew that despite insisting on trying to help me whenever he caught a glimpse of me outside. There was something else he wanted.
“Right,” I said. “He helps me with things like the roof. I nearly broke my neck last time I tried to do something like that.”
Jake’s lips curved up in a ghost of a smile. He pocketed the hammer in the elastic band of his shorts and tugged on the porch railing firmly.
“It’s not loose anymore,” he said. “I better go then. I’ll see you later, Chloe.”
I nodded mutely, but my mother had been watching us with a curious frown. She reached forward to place a hand on Jake’s arm. He surprisingly didn’t tense at the contact. Every time I touched him, intentional or not, his muscles seemed coiled.
“Thank you for helping my daughter,” Betty said. “There’s not very many handy men in the world like you. My husband had been one of them.” She motioned to the front door. “Come inside to get a drink. I’m sure Chloe has something she can make.”
“That’s all right,” Jake said, and he caught my eyes as he brushed by me. The smell of freshly cut grass clung to the air around him along with the summer heat. “I have to get some sleep before picking up my son. You can thank me later for the porch railing.”
My jaw fell open at that. Was that some sort of hint? I watched Jake stride across my front lawn without sparing another glance. He hopped over the fence a second later before disappearing into his house.
“He’s rather curt,” Betty said, tugging on the porch railing herself. “What does he mean by thanking him later?”
She frowned in confusion. I clicked my jaw shut. There was no way in hell I was going to explain what he meant. I didn’t need that sort of lecture.
Fumbling through my purse, I found my house keys. “No idea,” I said, and I opened the front door. “I’ll just tell him thank you when I see him later this evening.”
My mother swept into the hallway without hesitation. “Rather strange that he just shows up here, though.” She turned to give me a withering look. “Please tell me he doesn’t have a key to this house.”
I shut the front door with an exasperated sigh. “No, Mom. Why would I give him a key to my house? We don’t even know each other.” Unfortunately.
“I just know how you are, Chloe. You tend to fantasize about the bad boys. You did it in high school too. Why, I have no idea. Your father—”
“Mom,” I cut in, a headache starting to pound in my head, “let’s not talk about this anymore. Do you want to see the house or not?”
She smiled brightly then.
“Of course I do. Show me everything.”
I spent the next couple of hours playing hostess until my mother hailed a cab to drive her back to Lone Tree. I waited until her cab was out of sight before walking across the front lawn to Jake’s front door.
“Hi, Chloe,” Darren said, hugging my legs tightly. “I have something cool to show you from school. It’s a rock collection that Dad ordered for me.”
“Cool.” I grinned down at him. “I’m into rocks. You can tell me all about them.”
I closed the front door behind me while Darren bounced up the stairs to retrieve the rock collection. Jake poked his head out from the dining room when he heard my voice.
“I ordered you both some food from an Italian place that I know,” he said when I entered the dining room. “Spares you the task of cooking with Darren. It’s damn impossible too.”
The smell of garlic bread filled the room. My stomach grumbled happily at the thought of eating something besides TV lunches and dinners.
“Thanks,” I said. “Were you wanting something earlier this morning?”
“Your porch railing was loose,” Jake stated, and he didn’t turn around to look at me as he fastened his bulletproof vest. “I just thought I’d fix it for you is all. You’ve done a lot for me.”
His movements were agitated as he grabbed the things he needed for the night. Upstairs, we heard Darren’s feet darting back and forth in his room in search of his rock collection. My skin tightened against my body when Jake’s eyes darkened slightly. He took a step in my direction, and calloused fingers brushed along my neck a few moments later when I didn’t protest.
A shiver of pleasure went up my spine at the contact. I had been hoping it had had something to do with this. Being around Jake was just too damn hard. I forgot the world whenever he was around. I forgot Luke. I forgot all of it.
And I craved this more than anything in the world.
“Are you sure that’s what it was about?” I whispered.
The late evening light spilled in through the kitchen windows. It cast a soft and warm glow on everything, including the hard lines of Jake’s face. Up this close, I could see the silver specs in his eyes and the faint bristle of a beard on his strong jaw.
“No,” he admitted, his voice husky again. “I wanted something.”
Butterflies fluttered madly in my stomach. Heat seared through me when I tasted mint toothpaste on the lining of my lips. I was going to kiss him again. Screw the consequences. My hands reached out to gingerly touch the bulky vest underneath his shirt.
“Like what?”
“I wanted something like this.”
His lips pressed against mine in a hot kiss that instantly had me squirming against him in pleasure. I kissed him back just as fiercely as our tongues fought for dominance. Strong arms wrapped around my waist to hold me securely against the hardness of his body. It felt too damn good to pull away.
“Hey, Dad, have you seen—”
We broke apart hastily when Darren stepped into the kitchen. He looked between us with wid
e eyes while I stumbled back from Jake as quickly as possible. Tears filled his eyes, and guilt instantly washed over me.
“What’s going on?” he asked, his bottom lip quivering. “Why are you kissing Chloe, Dad? You’re supposed to kiss Mom only.”
I caught sight of the conflicted look on Jake’s face. It hit me then why Jake had fought so hard against our attraction. Not only was he scarred from his ex-wife, but he had a child who didn’t understand what had happened.
I chewed on my bottom lip nervously. I had no idea what to say to help Darren calm down, but it was clear from the crestfallen look on his face that nothing we could say would help. He turned on the heel of his foot before darting up the stairs again. His bedroom door slammed shut a second later.
“Fuck,” Jake said, rubbing an aggravated hand through his hair. He turned to look at me with a sigh. “I never know what to tell him when it comes to his mother. He doesn’t understand what divorce means.”
“He shouldn’t have to,” I said, twisting my hands together. “I could try to talk to him, if you don’t mind, while you’re at work. Unless you want me to—”
“No,” he said sharply. “Stay here. I thought about everything you said the other day.”
“You did?”
“Yes, I did.” His eyes reminded me of a thunderstorm brewing in the distance right before it unleashed a downpour or rain and lightning. “I don’t have time to talk about it though.”
“Right,” I said. “We can talk later. I’ll talk to Darren.”
“Thank you.” To my surprise, Jake leaned forward to press his lips against mine in a quick kiss. “I’ll be back a little early, though, so we can talk. Is that a problem for you to be up early?”
I had no idea if it was a promise of things to continue, but there was no chance of me sleeping in. I’d stay awake all night after putting Darren to bed if I had to.
“I’ll be awake,” I said, and I kissed him. “I promise.”
Chapter Twelve
Jake
“It’s normal for a child to feel upset about this sort of thing. Divorce isn’t a concept in a child’s mind, and when it happens, it’s not a concept they like.”
I stared across the neatly organized desk of James Peterson. He was the psychologist assigned to help out the police department. I didn’t entirely mind him. He didn’t do the psychobabble I hated from the previous psychologist I had dealt with over the years. He had offered more advice on Darren than trying to understand me.
“I don’t know what to tell him,” I said.
Guilt tasted bitter in the back of my mouth. I still couldn’t erase that devastated look on his face when he had walked in on Chloe and me.
“Just be as honest with him as possible,” James said empathetically. “If this woman means a lot to you—”
“I don’t know her,” I responded sharply. “She’s just my neighbor is all.”
James smiled knowingly. He interlaced his fingers and leaned back in his chair to regard me with curious eyes.
“She sounds like a lot more than a neighbor if you were caught kissing her.”
“She’s attractive. What man wouldn’t want to kiss her?”
A surprising burn filled my chest at the thought of some other man trying to kiss Chloe.
“You know what I mean, Mason.” James chuckled heartily when he caught sight of my expression. “You don’t have to be stubborn about it with me. You can have an attraction to another woman after a divorce. No one will judge you.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not about that. I don’t give a shit what Sidney thinks about it. She’s moved on with her new boyfriend of the month anyway.”
“What’s the hold up with you then?” James asked.
“No hold up,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “I just don’t think someone like Chloe would do good with someone like me.”
“How so?”
“For starters, I’m older than her by at least ten years. I have a kid who’s already confused enough with what happened. She’s just starting out in life, unlike me. You pick.”
“And none of it honestly has to do with this past of hers you told me about?”
I looked down at the carpeted ground. It was so late, almost 11:00 p.m. I had called James into the percent to talk about Darren after leaving the house with his tear-rimmed eyes watching me from his bedroom window. Chloe assured me when I called in around 9:00 p.m. that he was calm and in bed. “He’s just confused,” she’d said. “I told him you would talk to him about everything. I didn’t think I’d be the best person to talk about it.”
Did her past bother me? I had no idea who the guy was. Chloe never mentioned his name, and I resisted asking because I’d look for information. I had access to everything on my computer. All I needed was a first and last name to look up the report.
“No,” I said shortly. “Thanks for the advice, James. I have to get back to work.”
I rose from the chair. James stood up as well and loosened the tie around his neck a bit. He clapped me on the shoulder as I held the door to the small, quiet room open for him.
“Next time,” he said, shaking his head, “call me in the morning if it isn’t an emergency. It’s too much trying to figure you out this late at night.”
“Right,” I said. “No phone calls unless it’s an emergency. I swear.”
I kept to my word for the rest of the night. It wasn’t until 4:20 a.m. that I remembered I had asked Chloe to stay awake for one good reason. I swallowed thickly when lust raged right through me just from thinking of the few kisses we had exchanged. Chloe’s lips were soft, so soft that I had to tell myself not to press too hard.
Don’t do it, Jake. Don’t do it. You can’t afford to get caught up in another female’s charm.
I glanced down at the partial bulge in my pants. I sighed in aggravation while I clocked out for the morning. Something needed to be done, and even if it was wrong, Chloe had a point. Maybe just that one time would be enough to get it out of our system. She was great with Darren despite what had happened earlier. I didn’t want to compromise that, but my entire body would go blue in the process of having her around.
I needed it. I needed her.
The drive home along the interstate was long and dark. All the lights, except the one in the living room, were off. My heart rate increased when a dainty hand pushed the curtains back. Chloe peered out the window as I cut the engine off.
“I started coffee,” Chloe said when I closed the front door behind me as quietly as possible. “I wasn’t sure when you were going to be back.”
“Great,” I said. “I need some.”
I stepped into the kitchen while Chloe turned the living room light off before joining me. She shut the kitchen door to keep the light from coming out it wouldn’t wake Darren. I poured us both a cup of coffee.
“He wasn’t upset all night, right?” I asked, leaning up against the kitchen counter.
Chloe shook her head. “No,” she said, lifting up her cup to take a slow drink. “He’s just confused, Jake. He told me he has no idea what happened besides that you packed up one day and the both of you came out here.”
Guilt gnawed on my heart. The child truly got the worst of it during a divorce. I’d never thought through all the anger to explain to Darren that sometimes things truly didn’t work out between parents. It was still a fresh wound to think about those first few weeks of fighting Sidney on our finances and custody of Darren.
“I know. I didn’t want to explain it to him,” I said. “I was pissed during the whole thing. I just never thought it’d be easy to explain to a five-year old what had happened.”
“What did happen?”
I took a long drink of hot coffee. “She had an affair.” Images of Sidney’s legs wrapped around some man’s waist flashed through my head. I could still hear that over exaggerated moaning. “She was upset with me over not putting her as the beneficiary on a life insurance policy. So, she found some clueless bastard to have sex w
ith in my bed.”
“That’s horrible,” Chloe exclaimed, horrified. “I don’t understand how people rationalize that sort of thing to themselves.”
“I can’t either, but it happened.”
I shoved those images away from my mind to focus on Chloe standing in front of me, dressed only in a large sleeping shirt, barefoot, and her long hair pulled up in a messy bun. The faint smell of vanilla filled the air along with the fresh coffee.
“What about you?” I asked a bit cautiously. I didn’t care about people’s pasts, but I’d never once heard Chloe mention a name to me.
Chloe immediately lowered her gaze. “What about me?”
“I know something happened to you,” I said. “I told you about my ex-wife. What happened to you?”
“I wasn’t aware we were sharing stories this morning,” she replied tightly. “Maybe there’s a better time to—”
“There’s never a better time to tell besides now.”
“Why do you want to know?” she asked, looking up at me. Shadows danced across her slender face. “You’ve already figured out what happened. You’re an investigator. You’ve put the pieces together.” She looked away before I could reply. “I can see it in your eyes when you look at me, because you’ve seen these cases too often.”
“More than I’d like to admit,” I said, and a wave of anger crashed over me. “You went to the police about him, right?”
“That’s how I ended up here. They told me that the most dangerous time after escaping an abusive relationship is within the weeks and months after a breakup.” Chloe scuffed a bare foot across the tiled floor, not willing to look up at me, but I could hear that tremor in her voice. “I was in the hospital with a concussion and two broken ribs. The hospital staff brought in the police, and it just spiraled from there. They took me to a shelter in the city for a few days before I was cleared to travel on a plane. I left everything behind me at their recommendation— my friends, social life, all of it. They didn’t want him to—”
Seal Next Door Page 6