Falling Sweetly (Starling Falls #2) (8 page)

I was a little curious but mainly concerned at his sudden change in behaviour from the Jake I had known months ago.

Be brave, be bold, take chances.

I chanted Aunt Trudy’s words to me silently, and realised it was time to push aside my own uncomfortable feelings, and be there for Jake as a friend.

Grabbing a plate I starting piling it high with his favourite foods (Yes, I was also a loser who knew what her crush’s preferred foods were), walked past the couples swaying to the slow music blaring over the large speakers, and went back into the house to search for Jake.

Not being able to find him downstairs, I remembered that Caleb had mentioned Debbie still kept their old bedrooms unchanged from when they’d lived there.

I paused at the foot of the stairs, wondering if I was crossing a line, before deciding to just be brave and climb the damn stairs.

Finding all the other rooms empty, I came to the door of the last room at the end of a long hallway that was ajar. Knocking on it lightly, I pushed the door open further.

Jake’s long body was sprawled across a bed, as he stared blankly at the ceiling. He had sighed when he heard the knock, but sat up quickly when he saw me at the door.

“Niki. Hey. What are you doing up here?”

“I… I…”

I have no words to say apparently. For goodness sake, just say something... anything.

“Food,” I said abruptly, showing him the filled plate in my hands.

Why are you such a failure at being a normal human being?

“You came up here to show me your plate of food?” he asked with a confused frown. I felt my cheeks flush.

“No, it’s for you. You disappeared without eating anything, so I thought I would just bring you something to eat,” I spoke the words so quickly I wasn’t sure if he’d actually understood anything of what I had said.

“Thanks, Niki,” he said quietly, “Though, you didn’t have to do this. I would have emerged from hiding sooner or later,” he said with a small hollow laugh that was so unlike him it made me frown.

I shrugged. “It was no big deal. You didn’t seem like you wanted to be around people, but you should still probably eat something.”

“I haven’t been feeling all that hungry lately,” he said flatly.

“Oh my God. Jacob Jameson, not hungry? I feel like I should be looking out of the window for flying pigs,” I blurted out surprised. Besides Liya, the man had the most voracious appetite of anyone I had ever met.

My wide eyes and genuinely shocked expression seemed to shake Jake out of his funk a little, as he snorted before smiling at me.

“Yeah, I know right? Be on the lookout for blue moons too.”

I smiled warmly at him. “Can I come in?”

“Of course. I feel about fifteen again, worried that Aunt Deb is going to bust in here and ground me for sneaking a pretty girl into my room.” He moved back on the bed to make space for me to sit.

Ignoring the stupid flutter in my stomach that made an appearance when he called me pretty, I asked him with a laugh, “Sneak in many girls, did you?”

“Well, I didn’t. But Josh sure did, or he tried to at least. As many of them found out the hard way, that trellis against the house is not easy to climb,” he said with grin. I sat on the bed and carefully placed the plate between us.

“I thought you guys shared a room? Didn’t that get awkward when he tried to bring girls here?” I asked curiously.

“Whenever he had erm… company, I would just go crash in Caleb and Alex’s room or up in the attic with Nate.”

“Fifteen, huh? He sure started early.” I smiled and watched as he pulled the plate towards him and started picking at the food.

“Thanks for the plate, Niki. This is a surprise though,” he said before he took a big bite of a hotdog, “It kinda seemed like you were going to avoid me forever.”

I felt my face get hot again. “I haven’t been avoiding you,” I protested weakly.

“Niki…c’mon,” he said with a raised eyebrow. “You drove into the gas station the other day, saw I was there and then drove straight back out again. You saw me when you were paying at the pet store, just threw your money at the cashier and ran out without your change. You-”

“Okay, okay,” I cut him off before he could mortify me any further. “I may have been avoiding you a little bit.”

I tried not to stare as he moved onto a chicken wing, and licked some of the sticky glaze off his thumb.

I’m sure it’s not normal to be aroused by the sight of someone eating wings.

I felt a pang in my chest when a wounded expression shadowed his face.

“I could have gotten frostbite from the cold shoulder you were giving me. Were you pissed about me taking you to my room on New Year’s Eve? Because-”

“Jake, no. I’m sorry that you thought I was annoyed with you. That’s not it at all.
You
didn’t do anything wrong.”

His brows drew together as he swallowed another mouthful. “Then what was it about?”

“I was embarrassed!” I blurted out.

“What do you have to be embarrassed about?”

“That night! I don’t remember most of it but, oh my God, the way I behaved…” I buried my face my hands. “I’m sorry.”

He made a noise of disbelief. “For fuck’s sake, Niki. That’s the reason you’ve been ducking me? So you got a little wasted. It’s no big deal.”

“From what I can remember, I did more than just get a little wasted. It’s vague, but I remember the horrific dancing and then being carried up to your room and I think… did we talk? I remember some sort of talking happening. I say really stupid stuff when I get tipsy. And, I think… I think I might have tried to kiss you?” I said softly, cringing at the blurry memories.

An unreadable expression crossed Jake’s face but he just shrugged.

“You didn’t do anything. I put you in my bed and you asked me to stay with you and then fell asleep.”

Relief flooded through me at his response. “Really?”

He picked up the fork and started stabbing at the potato salad on his plate. “Yep. Nothing at all.”

CHAPTER 7

Jacob

Liar. You’re such a fucking liar.

Tell her what happened.

I decided to ignore the little voice in my head.

Niki was more relaxed around me than she had been in months, and I wasn’t about to screw that up by telling her the truth.

She peered curiously at me as if she suspected I wasn’t being honest. Avoiding her stare, I focused my attention on the plate in front of me as memories of the night came back to me.

New Year’s Eve.

The alcohol isn’t working. Why isn’t the alcohol working?

My plan to drink away my problems was failing miserably. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something just didn’t feel right at work. And if I was being honest, I hadn’t felt happy in a long while.

It didn’t make sense because I had achieved all I wanted to in my career, and life was generally good. I had no reason to complain. I was pushing myself hard at work, but that was nothing new. I’d always been a hard worker, but lately it had been increasingly hard to muster up any kind of enthusiasm at the restaurant.

I was turning into a miserable asshole, and I hated myself for it. I threw back another shot of whiskey and waited for the buzz to hit me.

Looking around the room, I saw that everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves at the impromptu New Year’s Eve party that had somehow ended up being held at our house.

As usual, Josh and Alex were the instigators of the party, and I wondered how the hell they had managed to persuade Nate to agree to it.

Loud, snorting laughter caught my attention, and I looked up to see Niki finish the drink she had in her hand. Addie made her sit in a chair, gave her another drink and said something to her before walking away with an empty tray.

No. Off limits for you, Jacob. She’s not interested.

Each morning, I had started going to the bakery to get my usual fix of coffee and incredible cinnamon roll, earlier than usual, just to spend twenty minutes alone with her before the usual morning rush began.

The ritual had become the best part of my day. The conversations between us were always pleasant, but all my attempts at flirting with her were never reciprocated.

I assumed, this meant she knew I was interested in dating her, and the abrupt responses to my flirtations were her way of showing that she definitely did not harbour any romantic feelings towards me.

I’d seen her briefly in passing around town after she’d moved here, but it had only been over a month since I’d officially met Niki, during Thanksgiving. It had also been a month of me developing an ever-growing infatuation, which only seemed to get more intense each time I saw her.

My last relationship had been over three years ago. I had been too busy at work to focus on anything else, and I hadn’t felt like I was missing out on anything until I met Niki.

I had spent a couple of evenings, and the rare day off, with my siblings at Niki and Liya’s house, just hanging out and usually watching movies.

The more I got to know Niki, I knew that it wasn’t just a physical attraction that I felt towards her. However, I seemed to have found myself placed very firmly in the platonic-friend-zone.

I didn’t know many people her age that would uproot their lives to help a relative they barely knew, or who would spend time at a nursing home with elderly people who had no one else to visit them, and also took toys to the sick kids on the children’s ward at the hospital.

It would be fitting that I finally found someone who was sweet, caring, kind and beautiful, but she would want nothing more from me than friendship.

As ran my eyes over the lacy black dress that clung to her curves, I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Unfortunately, my feelings weren’t the only thing that grew whenever Niki was around.

For fuck’s sake, man. You’re not thirteen anymore. You should have better control of your dick than this.

I smiled at the sight of the usually shy Niki, swaying in her chair to the beat of the music. She jumped up suddenly when the song changed.

“Oh my God. Love. This. Song!”

Her eyes scanned the people in the room and stopped when they got to me. I felt my eyebrows rise when she started walking towards me, weaving slightly with a red solo cup still in one hand.

“With me, dance you must!” she said happily as she put out a hand and tugged me up forcefully, spilling some of whatever presumably potent drink was in her cup.

“I’m not much of a dancer,” I protested, pointlessly, as she ignored me and yanked my hand hard, leading me to where other people had cleared a space in our living room and were dancing.

“Niki-” I started to protest again, but stopped talking as her hand slid up my chest, and she pressed the front of her body into mine, rubbing her breasts against my chest.

Oh no.
Think sad thoughts. Think of extremely sad, depressing thoughts. Like when ET had to go home level of sadness.

“Love this song, don’t you?” Niki said before abruptly turning, her back was to me, and she started gyrating her ass against my crotch.

Holy Shit. Best. Party. Ever.

Oh, fuck. Sad thoughts not working. I repeat, the sad thoughts are not working.

I tried to put some distance between our bodies and attempted to subtly tilt my pelvis away from her, so she wouldn’t feel my growing erection poking her in the back.

When Niki saw Liya and Caleb enter the living room, she mercifully stopped dancing and started walking towards her sister who was wearing an expression of shock.

Yep. Believe me, I know how you feel.

“LIYA!” Niki yelled at her sister. “Find you, I wanted to. But sexy times, Josh said you were having.”

I frowned at how much her words were slurring.

What the hell has she been drinking? And why is she talking like that?

Caleb’s frown mirrored mine. “How much have you had to drink, Niki?” he asked as he took the cup from her.

“Three drinks, I drunk. But strong, they were,” Niki said as she leant back onto me for support. “Made them, Addie did.”

“That’s your first lesson for the New Year, Niki; never let Addie make your drinks,” Caleb said as he shook his head. “We should get her some water.”

Niki rested her head on my chest, and I inhaled the delicious scent of her coconut shampoo.

Dude, that’s really creepy, even for you.

“She’ll be fine. She’s just not much of a drinker. When she gets tipsy, she always starts to speak like Yoda,” Liya laughed.

“TIPSY! I am NOT!” Niki said, sounding adorably cross as Addie walked up to us with a tray of shot glasses.

“Princess!” I said angrily, “Seriously?!” I gestured towards Niki who had started playing with the buttons on my shirt.

Fuck.

I groaned internally as my jeans became uncomfortably tight again.

I swear my damn dick develops a mind of its own whenever she’s around.

Addie snorted before answering, infuriating me further. “Okay. That’s probably my bad. But I had no idea she was such a lightweight!”

“Lightweight? Who is this lightweight you speak off?” Niki asked and reached a hand out for another shot.

Liya intercepted her hand. “Nooo, Little Bug. No more for you.”

“But Liya, so yummy, it tastes.” Niki paused and looked up at me with warm, brown eyes. “You smell good,” she said quietly before her eyes closed, and she passed out against my body.

I held her against me quickly and picked her up before she could collapse on the floor. “Fuck! I’m going to take her up to my room.”

“Ahem.” A throat cleared, and I saw Liya looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

I frowned unhappily at the fact that Liya thought I would in any way take advantage of an unconscious girl.