by Zoe York
Merry Christmas.
She stared at the text message from Jake for a minute. Matt shot her a curious look, and she waved him off, drifting down the hallway for some privacy.
He didn’t send her many text messages. His last one before this one was the thank you for the ride. Before that, two brief messages from their overnight in London when they took turns sitting with Olivia in the hospital. She scrolled back further. It didn’t take long to get to the year previous, and then his first message to her, a generic, This is my new number—Jake. Nine text messages in total.
All the feeling she had for him, the overwhelming need for him, and they’d only ever exchanged nine text messages.
She was starting to think that the man wasn’t capable of opening up. Maybe this plan was futile and nothing would spark his interest beyond a latent she’s hot kind of thing.
Same to you, she responded.
Matt says you’re working with him this week.
She glanced down the hall at her temporary partner.
Yep.
Stay safe.
Thanks.
And that was that. He didn’t text again. Their patient got a bed, they turned their bus over to the next shift, and she went home to a surprisingly sweet Christmas breakfast with her parents and brothers. The single ones, because Rafe and Olivia decided to stay at their place until dinner. Then she hit the hay.
Sleep came swiftly, but with it came dreams of Jake and a different kind of text message. Dirty, secret texts.
All I want for Christmas is you.
I’m yours, however you want me.
Naked, bent over the hood of my truck.
She woke up with a start, a warm ache pulsing through her torso. She grabbed her phone and made sure that she hadn’t overslept. When she noted her alarm wasn’t set to go off for another hour, she slid back under covers, willing Dream Jake to come back and finish what he’d started.
Dream Jake proved much more agreeable than Real Jake.
— FOUR —
THE last thing Jake wanted to do was go drinking.
But Olivia had cornered him during what was supposed to be a work meeting and spun a tale of Rafe needing to get out. From where Jake sat, his best friend had a beautiful woman at home and a wedding in four days. What did he need to go out for? He’d survived being shot. Life was good.
She wouldn’t take no for an answer, though, so he found himself driving through a glittering winter wonderland to the other side of the narrow peninsula. The Green Hedgehog in Lion’s Head was the only pub in the area, and they did a good job of it—great beer, good music, nice atmosphere. If he was any other guy, it would be his regular haunt. God knew that his brothers certainly spent enough time there, but it wasn’t his scene. He didn’t really have a scene, other than being a part-time soldier and building a business.
Matt used to insist on dragging Jake out. When Rafe and Olivia foolishly divorced, Matt pinned his wingman sights on Rafe, but that hadn’t worked out very well considering the other man had never fallen out of love with his wife. And now they were back together.
Together. That’s really all Jake had ever wanted.
How the fuck had he managed to stuff up whatever he might have had with Dani?
That night five years earlier had been the first opportunity—the night he’d replayed a million times over, wondering if he should have kissed her. Instead he’d walked away. Then she’d come back from college with a boyfriend the following year, and instead of waiting for that to fall apart, Jake had thrown himself on the first plane to Afghanistan, leaving his business in the hands of his newly retired father. Coming back from that tour of duty with a few demons hadn’t helped, and neither did Olivia and Rafe splitting up. Dani dated other people. He dated other people, although not as often as she did.
He couldn’t, even when she gave him the cold shoulder over and over again.
Giving up hadn’t been easy. Or maybe it had been and he’d convinced himself it was hard.
He had regrets a mile long, but none were as sharp as the knowledge that Dani had stood in front of him three weeks ago and told him she still wanted him. Made him admit he still wanted her too. And again he had dropped the fucking ball.
Ryan’s feelings mattered. Of course they did. But nothing mattered more than Dani, and he’d lost sight of that somewhere over the years. She was right. He’d put her last for far too long. That had to change.
So spending the night out with her brother didn’t seem like a great use of his time. Not when he had a mountain to climb to get back into her good graces. He’d have one drink, then step outside and call her.
He parked beside Rafe’s truck, sighing as he recognized both of his brothers’ trucks in the parking lot as well. Small fucking world. Of course Matt and Sean would be here, too. And Tom Minelli’s SUV was tucked in the corner of the lot.
Something niggled at the back of his brain. Something he should have paid attention to, because it wasn’t until he stepped inside and unzipped his parka that he realized Dani was there too. He drank in the sight of her in a tight red t-shirt and jeans as she poured her scary-as-fuck oldest brother a drink from a pitcher on the table. Zander. The man made Rafe look like a kitten when it came to protecting their sister. The only Foster/Minelli missing from their generation was Dean, and he was working tonight. He wouldn’t show up unless one of them caused a bar fight. Which just might happen if Jake took the bull by the horns and threw himself at Dani’s feet.
Maybe tomorrow…
He cursed under his breath and made his way to the bar. It took exactly seven seconds for one of his brothers to barrel into him.
“Left your knitting for the evening?” Sean slung an arm across Jake’s shoulders. “Come on, we’re going to play pool in the back.”
Jake slid a look back at the two tables that had been pushed together for their group. Matt and Dani stood up, but Rafe and Olivia stayed in their seats. “I’ll sit with Rafe for a bit. Maybe join you soon.” If soon meant never. Dani bent over a pool table? He could see how that would unfold—Zander would spear him with the nearest pool cue.
“Your loss, man. Matt and Dani are going to play Truth or Dare pool. Should be hilarious seeing steam come out of Zander’s ears when he hears how his little sister—”
Jake backhanded Sean in the chest. Hard. “Don’t talk about her like that.”
“It’s not me, man. Jeez. It’s Dani. She practically has a dick.”
The hell she did. Jake gritted his teeth together and ordered a pint of lager. Sean disappeared, muttering something about old men and no fun under his breath.
Rafe, Olivia and Tom were mid-Boxing Day shopping debate when he joined them at the table. “It’s like Black Friday in the States,” Tom muttered before draining his glass. “No way is it worth it to get trampled to save thirty percent on a flat screen.”
Olivia shook her head madly. “No one gets trampled here. And it’s fun.”
Rafe chuckled and pulled his bride close so he could kiss her forehead. “This is why the Internet was invented.”
“It’s true. I did some online shopping on our way to Mass on Christmas Eve.” And she looked damn proud of herself, too.
Jake made a noncommittal grunt and held out his glass. “Well, happy holidays to all, shoppers and boycotters alike.”
They all clinked to that, and Tom changed the subject to something they could all agree on—the weather, and how spring could come any time now. Too bad they had a solid three more months of blizzards ahead of them before that happened.
Jake did his best to ignore the raucous laughter spilling from the back room. Tom brought him another beer when he refilled his own glass, and it didn’t take Jake long to down his first and that one as well. He’d have to come back for his truck in the morning at this rate.
Matt sauntered back into the main room, heading straight for the bar, where he ordered what looked like enough shots for a celebrating football team. Jake ground his teeth toge
ther as he watched the bartender pour bright red something into a row of shot glasses, then start mixing another concoction as his younger brother chatted her up.
Olivia got up, and Rafe leaned across the now empty chair between them. “Work pretty slow now?”
Jake blinked back to the conversation at hand and shrugged. “Got a couple of interior reno jobs on the go. Starting a bathroom next week that I’m going to do myself.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit. Tiling is your therapy.”
Jake snorted. So what if this bathroom had a floor-to-ceiling penny tile walk-in shower? “Just missing being on the job site is all.”
“You doing okay? Talking to the Fenichs?”
“Yeah. They’re hanging in there.”
“Olivia says they’re still planning to rent their cottages out for the movie shoot.” In the fall, Olivia had been poached by film producers to be a local location scout assistant, and had turned the part-time job into a jill-of-all-trades full-time position, including organizing housing for the people who would soon descend on Pine Harbour for the filming of what sounded like a big-deal movie.
“Yep. They’ll head south in March.”
“Ryan’s okay with them being gone from the kids for a while?”
“Honestly? I think he’ll appreciate the space. Lynn’s life insurance looks like it’ll pay out, so he can take as much time off from work as he needs.”
“He’s holding up better than I would.” Rafe looked across the room, and Jake followed his line of sight. Olivia had stopped to talk to some locals at another table. Her eyes crinkled at the corner, her smile was genuine and stretched ear to ear. She was a beautiful woman, inside and out. Jake looked back at Rafe, who wasn’t trying to mask the stupid lovesick look on his face at all.
“If you had kids, you’d find a way to be strong for them.”
“Yeah. We’re workin’ on that.”
“Yeah?” Jake kept one eye on Matt and the bartender, who was now writing her number on a piece of paper. Jesus, his brother could flirt his way in—and out—of any girl’s bedroom.
Rafe nodded. “We’ve wasted so much time. And all the barriers we had before…they don’t matter as much as having lost each other. Now we know for sure that we’ll always put each other first.”
Jake shifted his attention away from his friend. No way could he look Rafe in the eye right now, not when those words made him think of Dani.
It would be one thing if he’d fallen for her now. No one would blink. But the truth was that he’d fallen for her when she was seventeen. And he’d been twenty-five. For that alone, he deserved to be dragged out back and kicked in the kidneys a few times. They could add a few black eyes for the fact that he’d loved her all this time and slept with other women.
Matt carried the shots back to the pool hall now, and Jake stood up, muttering something about Zander. He didn’t wait for Rafe to respond.
He thought about getting another beer. Then he heard a shriek of delight and strode across the pub to the back room just in time to see Dani slam an empty shot glass down on the table and plant a wet, smacking kiss on Matt’s cheek. His brother waggled his eyebrows at Dani—Jake’s Dani—and it was a miracle he didn’t knock the kid out.
What the ever-loving hell? She giggled, but then sighed as Matt caught sight of Jake and waved. She glanced toward him, picking up her pool cue. “You here to play, Jake?”
Her words were sharp and layered with meaning. And even barbed as they were, they were a bit of her attention just for him. No one else knew what was growing between them. “I’ll watch for now.”
She shrugged and moved around the table, nudging Matt out the way with a hip bump. “If you don’t get in the game…”
“Leave the old man alone,” Sean interjected. “If he wants to sit on the sidelines, that’s his prerogative.”
Jake schooled his features into a calm mask, but from the quick look Dani shot him before she leaned forward to take her shot, she knew that landed. “Jake’s not old,” she said softly as she lined up her shot.
“Sure he is. Old and lonely. Next thing you know he’ll be yelling at kids to get off his porch.”
Matt joined in on Sean’s ribbing. “Why do you think he built his house out in the country?”
Dani took her shot, an easy sink in the corner pocket, but missed her next attempt.
Matt hooted and lifted another toxic red drink in the air. “Truth or Dare, baby girl. Truth. Or. Dare.”
Dani licked her lips and slid a sideways glance in Jake’s direction. “Truth.”
Before either of his idiot brothers could ask her a question he didn’t want anyone to hear the answer to, Zander stood up. “I’m going to head back to the table.”
Jake didn’t move.
Sean lined up his shot, then paused there. He glanced up at Dani with a wicked grin. “Smallest dick you’ve ever seen.”
“Yours,” she shot back readily, and thankfully everyone in the room knew she was kidding. Didn’t help Jake’s jaw unclench at all, though.
“That’s a lie, Minelli. Take a penalty shot and fess up.”
She tipped back her drink. A red drop clung to her lip as she righted her head, and Jake wanted to lick it away.
“I can’t answer that honestly, Matt. You know we’ve got patient confidentiality laws.” She brought her hand to her mouth, catching the errant drop then licking it off her fingertips.
“Spoilsport. That’s not what we meant and you know it.”
“It’s all you’re getting from me this round. Your turn.” But for all the restraint she showed in her words, over the next few rounds she kept touching his brother. A hug here, a hand on the forearm there. Confused, frustrated, and getting absolutely nowhere, Jake stood up and beat a path of retreat before he blurted out that he needed to talk to Dani in private.
She shot him a matching confused look of her own as he ducked out. What did she expect? That he’d join in their weird game and Truth-announce that he’d always wanted to bang her?
No. They needed to talk. Share a lot of shit. But it was going to be in private.
The next half hour sped by in a blur. Zander bought him a beer and tried to talk to him about security services in the area. Olivia graciously moved the conversation in another direction, but Jake still felt like a shit for not caring more about Zander’s questions.
A flash of red caught his eye as Dani appeared, Matt and Sean right behind her. Matt snagged her elbow, pointing to the table, but she shook her head and nodded to the bar instead. And when they got there, she perched herself on Matt’s knee. His brother—who was surely going to die before the end of the night—laughed and ordered them a new pitcher.
Well, Jake wasn’t going to be drinking anymore tonight. He shifted his chair so he could keep an eye on the bar and leaned back, legs spread wide.
Olivia came back to the table just as Rafe noticed where Jake was staring. “What the hell are those two doing?”
She made a soothing noise as she rubbed the back of Rafe’s neck. “Ignore them. They’re just blowing off steam from a hard couple of days of work.”
“She’s sitting in his lap,” her fiancé growled. He narrowed his eyes in Jake’s direction. “No offence, man, but your brother is a walking sex machine. I don’t want him anywhere near my sister.”
Neither did Jake.
“They work together,” Olivia said dryly.
“That’s different.” This time it was Jake who was unable to hold his tongue. “At work she’s wearing a uniform.” Not a thin little t-shirt that he could see her nipples through. But he couldn’t say that out loud. Fuck, he shouldn’t have said anything.
Olivia shoved a bowl of pretzels at him, and he wondered how much she knew. Girls talked, right? Would she keep that from her husband?
Dani twisted around and whispered something to Matt, who tapped her on the ass as she wiggled away. Jake barely kept a snarl off his face as h
e watched her head to the back of the bar.
“Gotta hit the little boys’ room,” he muttered after a minute, shoving away from the table. He could have sworn that Olivia snorted before pressing against Rafe and suggesting that they dance.
The back of The Green Hedgehog was a warren of hallways and the washrooms were at the very back, in a quiet hallway that led to an exit and an unused staircase to nowhere. There’d be decent warning if someone came through the swinging doors from the pub. It wasn’t the place for him to lay his heart on the table, but he could take another stab at an apology—and this time, he’d be the one bravely talking about feelings.
Or something.
He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. It didn’t take long for Dani to come out, and she pulled up sharply when she saw him.
“Having fun tonight?” That wasn’t exactly I’m sorry or we should talk. He needed to work on his apologizing skills.
She gave him a bland stare. “Sure.”
Bland, his ass. “Gonna go home with Matt?”
“Would that be a problem for you?”
He pushed off the wall and stepped into her personal space. “You know it would be.”
She glared at him, giving up the too-cool-for-school attitude. “I know that now is not a good time and you just want to be friends.”
“That was three weeks ago.”
“It’s not like we’ve talked since then,” she said, her tone softening but still wary.
“You want to talk now?”
“I don’t want you to be playing Truth or Dare with my brothers, that’s for damn sure.”
She shook her head. “You shouldn’t have left so quickly, Jake.”
“You definitely wouldn’t have liked it if I stayed.”