“No, but I’d have to assume she would; she’s his wife.”
“Right.” And that just launched him on a whole other path of questions. Well, he would have a lot more to talk about with Lauren tonight than he thought. “Do you know, at all, what his immediate plans are? When he plans to throw his hat in the ring?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t. I think he was really nervous about Lauren coming, about getting that settled, first. But it has to be soon if he’s going to have any chance at next year’s election.”
Jake had stronger feelings now about why Arlen was so concerned about his new family’s reunion, and most of them weren’t charitable. “Would you do me a huge favor, and when you know, let me know?”
“Of course.” She frowned. “Is there something else going on?”
“You know things are a little rocky with them, and they’re working on it, but…well, this just adds to it.”
“Jake, you can’t say anything. You can’t. If anything is said, like in the heat of the moment, he’ll know it originally came from me. My career would be immediately over. It would jeopardize everything for me.”
“I know. I understand. I won’t do anything to compromise you.” Which was a promise he had every intention of keeping, although possibly not the way Ruby Jean assumed he would. There were all kinds of thoughts and questions swirling around in his mind now. And they not only possibly affected Lauren, but her mother, and now his sister. No way was he just going to sit back and see how things worked themselves out. He just didn’t know the exact path he was going to take just yet.
“Jake,” Ruby Jean said, a note of warning clear in the single word.
He kissed his sister on the cheek. “I’ve never let you down, have I?”
“I shouldn’t have told you.”
“Yes, you should. In fact, it might have been the smartest thing you’ve ever done. And given how smart you are, that’s saying something.”
She sighed. “You are a really bad suck-up, you know that?”
“Yes, but you’re my only sister, so you have to love me anyway.”
“I do.” She hugged him again. “I really do.” She looked up at him. “So much going on. With both of us. It’s scary and exciting all at the same time.”
He grinned. “Just focus on the exciting part. Okay?”
“I’ll try.”
“Thanks for tonight, for helping out, for…everything.”
“Anytime. Let me know when to come back and help you ferry these guys back to the school.”
“The hotel will shuttle them up, no worries.”
“Good. Okay.” She opened the door of her SUV and slid in, then shot him a knowing smile. “Have a good time with Lauren tonight.”
“You’re my sister. To you, I’m a monk.”
“Right. You’re so lame. Go have fun.”
“I will. And don’t ever expect me to say the same thing to you when you have a guy waiting.”
She rolled her eyes. “I won’t. But I love you for watching over me, even if you make me crazy.” She closed the door and lowered her window. “And who’s to say I don’t have some guy waiting for me tonight? Maybe two guys!” He could hear her laughing as she zipped the window up and pulled out of her space.
“Not funny!” Jake called after her.
But she was gone with only the echo of her laughter in the night air.
He shook his head, but he was smiling. Things never changed, and everything was changing, all at the same time. What a day. What a night. And he still had to talk to Lauren. He’d been excited, all but climbing out of his skin, all day, wanting to get back to her. Which, given how amazing a day he’d had, was really saying something. But the whole time all he could think was how much better it would have been if he’d been sharing the whole exciting day with her. That was such a first for him.
He climbed in his Jeep and gunned the engine. He couldn’t wait to get to her. He wished they didn’t have so much to talk about. He wanted to scoop her up, tell her about the deal, his plans for
Betty Sue
, then take her to bed and make love to her until they were blind with exhaustion.
But now there was the possible campaign. He needed to know what she’d told Charlene today. And if Charlene had revealed anything about her spouse and any possible plans for their future. Maybe that explained Arlen’s allure. First Lady of Colorado had a pretty nice ring to it. Not that he saw Charlene as a gold digger, whatever the gold, but he didn’t really know her. Even Lauren said she was learning all kinds of new things about her, and she was her daughter. The Matthews background was pretty heavy on political achievements, so it wouldn’t be out of the realm of supposition anyway.
One thing he did know was that family could make you think about things differently…and he wondered what Lauren was thinking now, about her future, maybe even about him.
He had to figure out how to make sure she had the knowledge she needed to make things right with her family…and also protect his sister. He knew he could trust Lauren to keep his sister’s best interests at heart. But if she was put into the position of having to decide between her family and his…well, that was also a first for him. He’d never had someone who meant as much to him as his family, so he’d never been put in that position. But he was there now, he realized. And it was hard. Not to mention a little scary. He wasn’t sure what Lauren would do, because he wasn’t sure what he’d do. Dammit. He hated complications.
He pulled out of the resort lot and headed into town and Lauren’s motel. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any better answers when he got there. Maybe they’d just have to figure it out together.
The idea that he had someone to help him figure things out was another in a series of the day’s little revelations. It was a little disconcerting…but it was a whole lot more comforting.
As long as he didn’t screw it up.
L
auren tossed her purse on the bed and pulled open the nightstand drawer, then frowned. “I could have sworn…” She turned around and scanned the room, then crossed over to the desk. No laptop bag, which wasn’t surprising because she was positive she’d put it in the nightstand. She crossed back over, pulled the drawer out again—like it was magically going to reappear, which of course it didn’t—then started to close it when she caught sight of the black zippered bag tucked between the nightstand and the bed. She slid the drawer shut and pulled the bag out, frowning, as she laid it on the bed and sat on the edge of the mattress.
Had she put it there? She always tucked it out of sight when she left her room; it was an old habit from spending a lot of time in hotel rooms while on the campaign trail. Her room had been cleaned while she was out, so it could have been moved, but why would the maid take her computer bag out of the drawer and put it by the bed?
Lauren was unzipping the bag with the intent of sliding the computer out to turn it on to make sure nothing else odd was going on, but paused when there was a knock on the door.
Her face split into a wide grin and her heart skipped a few beats. She immediately decided the computer mystery could wait until tomorrow and slid the computer, bag and all, back into the nightstand drawer where it belonged, and all but bounced off the bed. She didn’t even pause at the bathroom mirror. It was ridiculous how much she’d missed him today, probably foolish, but that didn’t keep her from racing to the door. She peeked out of the peephole, and her pulse jumped another notch as she slid the chain and opened the door. “Hi,” she said, knowing she must look like a giddy schoolgirl, all but bouncing on the soles of her shoes.
“Hi,” he said, a slow grin spreading across his face. Then he did the perfect thing. He slid both palms onto her cheeks and leaned in for a kiss, backing her into the room as he did and kicking the door shut behind him. “I missed you.”
Her heart, already in a free-fall after last night, picked up speed. “I missed you, too.” God, she sounded like a giddy schoolgirl, too.
Damn, it felt good.
“So?” she asked a bit breathlessly as he backed her up against the mirrored closet door, peppering her mouth, her chin, her temple, the side of her neck, with kisses. She could hardly think. “It went well?”
“Best.” He stole another fast, hard kiss. “Ever.” He lifted his head, his eyes were all twinkly and sparkly and she didn’t think she’d ever been so attracted to anyone in her whole life. “The meeting was good, too.”
She spluttered a laugh, then grabbed the collar of his shirt and yanked him back for another kiss.
“Wow,” he said against her lips. “Remind me to compliment you more often.”
He pushed his hands into her hair, sliding her ponytail free, and cradled her face again as he angled her mouth so they could take the kiss even deeper. Finally he lifted his head so they could catch their breath. He was studying her eyes and she was lost in his.
“What?” she finally said when he continued to just look at her.
“It went well?” he asked in return.
She smiled, feeling a tug on her heart. She’d been thinking about him all day, about how the meeting was going, if it was going his way and how exciting it all must be, and so it felt beyond good to know that even with all that going on, he’d been wondering how her day went as well. Funny, it wasn’t such a big thing, really, and yet it felt wonderfully huge to her. When had someone other than a coworker cared about her day? “Yes. Yes, it was really, really good.”
He stroked her cheeks with his thumbs. It did things to her insides, the way he touched her so naturally, but so…intently. So perfectly. “I can’t seem to keep my hands off of you.”
She covered his hands with her own. “I like it when you touch me. I like it a lot.”
His smile spread. “Good. Because it’s a condition I don’t see recovering from for a very long time.”
She moved her hands to his shoulders and slid them around his neck so she could toy with where his hair brushed the nape of his neck.
“You have hours to cut that out,” he said, groaning a little. “Possibly days.”
She grinned. “Hmm, learning your hot spots might be fun. I’ll start keeping notes.”
He made her squeal in surprise by spinning her suddenly around and carrying them both back onto the bed. He braced himself on his forearms as he hit the mattress so his weight wouldn’t crush her…but covered her just exactly right.
“So…about your hot spots,” he murmured, nuzzling her neck. “I’d like to start mapping some myself. In fact…” He nipped along her jaw, making her squirm in the best of ways. “I think I’ve already determined a few of the coordinates.”
“Oh,” she said, her breathing already a bit ragged, grew even more so. “I—I think you’re doing a really fine job already.”
He chuckled, and just that reverberation against the tender skin of her neck made her skin tingle. Made lots of things tingle.
“So,” he said, shifting to drop kisses along the curve of her shoulder, which continued to do wonderful things to those tingly spots. “Did you get the chance to tell your mom everything you wanted to?”
She framed his face until he looked at her. “Yes, but first…did you get enough financing to get
Betty Sue
race-ready in time?”
He grinned. “I did.”
“And did you get the concessions you wanted, about their marketing ideas?” They’d talked about his meeting with the Vegas guys on their way down into town that morning. She really wanted to hear more about it, about the plane, what would happen next, the race. All of it fascinated her. Jake McKenna fascinated her. Period.
“I did, but you don’t want to hear all the de—”
“Actually,” she said, pulling him in for a hard, fast, kiss. “I really do. I think it’s exciting. And you’ve worked hard for this. I’m excited, too.”
“Okay,” he said, chuckling. “I’m kinda liking it when you get a little demanding.”
She just wiggled her eyebrows. “I’m serious, though. It’s interesting to me. When, exactly, is the big race? I know it’s next month, but when?”
“We’ve got six and a half weeks. It’s going to be killer crunch time trying to get her ready to roll.”
“And is your help going to be able to come? Your grandfather’s buddies?”
He nodded. “They’ll help me get her ready to race, then I have a team of guys that will also be there to crew for me during the race itself.”
“They must all be so excited.”
“I haven’t called them all yet.” He blew out a short breath. “I guess I’ll be doing that tomorrow in between lessons and a run back to Vegas.”
She smiled. “Is that offer still open?”
The twinkle deepened as his eyes grew darker. “Which offer is that?”
“To be your totally inadequate, completely useless copilot.”
“Ah, that offer.” He rolled to his back and took her with him, sprawling her across his body. His hands slid down her back and cupped her more closely to him. “I wouldn’t call you inadequate or useless.”
“I meant in an airplane cockpit.”
He squeezed her cheeks. “There, either.”
She laughed. “One-track mind.”
“Guilty as charged. Since the moment I left you this morning.” He dipped his head down and kissed her. “Are you saying you haven’t?”
“Who me?” She batted her eyelashes and laughed with him.
He sunk his fingers into her hair again, and watched it slip through his fingers. “Is it just me or is this incredibly fantastic?”
She bumped her hips a little. “This?”
“No,” he said, pulling her mouth her down to his for a long, slow, devastatingly tender kiss. “This.”
“Oh,” she said, her voice little more than a rasp. “That.”
“Yeah,” he said, that slow, devastating smile curving his mouth again. “What about that?”
“It’s…yeah, incredibly fantastic is a pretty good description.”
“That’s what I was thinking. And I’d love it if you would come to Vegas with me.”
“What time?”
“First thing in the morning.”
“Okay.”
He smiled. “Okay.”
She should have felt more…shy, or something, or at least awkward or uncertain. But it was already like the most natural thing in the world. Falling for Jake was so easy, too easy. She should be worried about that other shoe, the one that had to be dropping at some point. Things just didn’t go this smoothly. It should be complicated. Or more complicated than it was. And, so far, it was amazingly and almost completely uncomplicated.
He tapped her temples. “What’s going on in there?”
“Shouldn’t this be more complicated?”
He barked a laugh. “You’re looking for problems?”
She smirked at his laughing face. “I’m wary of the fact that there don’t seem to be any.”
A look…something, flashed across his face, so swiftly if she hadn’t been looking at him so intently, she’d have missed it. “What?”
“No, it’s…” But he didn’t finish.
“Nothing? I don’t think so.”
He wavered, but only for a split second, then he sighed. “Yeah…maybe not.”
Her heart stuttered, literally, inside her chest. “Go ahead.”
“It’s nothing that matters right this second, okay? Besides, I was kind of liking where we just were.”
“Yes,” she responded, working really, really hard not to let the vise that was presently squeezing her heart reflect in her expression. “Fantasy land. Who wouldn’t like it? So…spring the real-life part on me.”
“Wow, you sound so abruptly fatalistic.”
“I work in Washington, D.C. It goes with the territory.”
“
Worked
in D.C.”
“It hasn’t rubbed off yet.”
“Or Colorado hasn’t had enough chance to rub on.”
She just held his gaze until he finally dipped his chin and sighed a little again. Not the best sign. He was supposed to be reassuring her that whatever it was he was struggling with or stumbling over wasn’t really a big deal. Not that it was just something they could put off till later. “Putting things off till later is rarely the better plan, Jake. Just tell me.”
She struggled mightily to build some really fast walls and barricades around her heart, but quickly realized it was already far too late for that. Stupid, stupid her.
When he lifted his gaze to hers again, his looked far more somber than she’d ever seen. And any sliver of hope she’d been clinging to slipped slowly from her grasp. “Jake.”
“That’s just it. I can’t.”
She immediately slid off of him, the movement so abrupt he didn’t have time to grab hold of her. She rolled over and sprang off the bed. Pacing was good, better, anyway. Movement, anything, something to help her steady her swirling thoughts. She turned around at the far end of the room, arms folded. “Why? I mean, seriously, Jake, you can’t just say there’s some problem, some complication, then not tell me what it is. I doubt waiting until some later time is really going to make it better.”
He was already sitting on the side of the bed. “Come here, sit down.” He looked at her. “Please.”
“You’re supposed to be telling me it’s no big deal and I’m overreacting. Reassure me that I’m blowing this out of proportion.”
He stared her for several seconds, then simply said, “Would you just come over here and sit down for a moment?”
“Just tell me, are you dying? Is it something horribly tragic?”
He looked momentarily surprised, then laughed. “We’re all dying.”
“Not funny.”
“No, I can see that. No, I’m in no immediate danger.”
“So, what is it then…married, engaged, otherwise involved?”
His eyes popped wide. “What? No, of course not. Why in the hell would you think that?” He shook his head a little as if trying to make sense of her. “I mean, I know this is fast but I sure as hell thought you had a better opinion of me than that.”
“I did. Do. I don’t know. Yes, the man I was falling for wouldn’t—didn’t—seem like that kind of guy.”
“Because he’s not,” Jake said, and she could hear the edge of temper, or maybe it was hurt, in his tone. “We even talked about that, about how we feel about relationships. I’d never…” He trailed off, shook his head, more wearily this time.
She was torn, between feeling really badly for insulting him, for jumping to such a suspicious, insecure conclusion, for not giving him the benefit of the doubt, whatever it was. “I’m sorry.”
He looked at her. “Thank you.”
“And I mean it. I’m not usually that cynical. Truly. But when you said what you said…it’s just…I didn’t—couldn’t think—what else would be a complication to our relationship moving forward other than you dying or being already otherwise involved.”
“Family,” he said.
She frowned, thrown by that. “Family? Whose? Yours or mine?”
“Both.”
Now she crossed the room and sank down on the bed opposite his, so their knees almost brushed. “Why can’t you just tell me?”
“Because I promised.” He eyed her. “And I’m the kind of guy who keeps his word.”
“Jake, really, I don’t know what else to say. It was a knee-jerk reaction.” She couldn’t manage a smile, but her tone was at least rueful when she added, “Emphasis on the
jerk
part. But this all came out of nowhere. And if it has anything to do with my family, then don’t I deserve—need—to know what it is?”
“That would be the complicated part.”
“Okay. But if we’re going to move forward with each other, then I’d like for us to do it together, face things together, because that’s what we’ll need to do. I mean, trust me, I’m no more used to having to confide in or consult with anyone when it comes to making decisions on how I want to handle things, but with you…I’m actually enjoying that. I even look forward to it. I already find myself thinking, well, what would Jake say about that? or I’ll have to ask him about this. I wanted to tell you about today, share it with you, get your feedback. That’s all very new to me, but it feels really good. It’s like…I don’t know, knowing someone has my back, now. At least that’s what I want us to have.
“But if we’re not telling each other stuff, or being selective in what we share, then that foundation will always be shaky. Not to mention the fact that you said it was my family, too. How can you promise someone else that you won’t tell me something that involves me so directly?”