Lake Magic (26 page)

“You sure about that?”

“Yes.”

He was so close the opened edges of his leather jacket brushed against her chest, causing all kinds of warning bells to go off inside her head. But what she didn’t know was if all that clanging was warning her that what was about to happen was something very, very bad or something very, very good.

She swallowed hard, ran her tongue over her dry, parched lips. “Intimidation by harassment.”

He slanted his body, slid his hands down the post until they were even with her waist. “You need to be more specific. There are all kinds of harassment.”

His wide chest covered her, but the weight of him was anything but unpleasant. She ran the tip of her tongue over her lips again and his gaze followed the movement. “Just so we’re both clear here, what type are we talking about?” she said.

“I think you know.”

Just when she knew she couldn’t endure another moment of being this close to him, his hands dropped away from the railings, and he stepped back. Instantly she felt the loss of body heat.

Without his arms blocking her way, she had an open path to the stairs. Everything inside of her told her to run. But she forced herself to move at a normal pace. On the third step, she stopped and turned. “I meant what I said, Jared. It’s not going to work.”

“We’ll see about that, Cotton Tail. We’ll see.”

She couldn’t reach her bedroom fast enough.

Jared watched her go. It wasn’t until he heard her door close that he leaned against the stairs and let out the breath he’d been holding. Christ. He ran his hand across his face, through the side of his hair. This was going to be a hell of a lot harder than he thought.

The minute she closed her door, Jenny grabbed a UW hoodie off her bed and slipped it over her head. She tugged at the sleeves until they were past her wrists, then pulled at the hem, making sure it covered as much of her as possible. She didn’t care that it had been a hot day and continued to be a warm night. She didn’t care that she was overheated.
We’ll see about that, Cotton Tail. We’ll see.

Her heart thudded against her chest, and her breath came out in short little gasps. She felt like she was suffocating. Drowning in a pair of midnight blue eyes.

She went to her window and swung it all the way open. Like she’d done a thousand times before, she sat on the narrow ledge, one leg in, one out. Leaning back, she gulped in deep breaths of fresh lake air as she tried to control her erratic breathing. A week. That was all it was supposed to take. One week, and he should have been gone.

Once more she saw the way his eyes had taken in every inch of her. She wrapped her arms around herself, felt the bulky cotton sweatshirt beneath her hands. The extra layer of clothing should have made her feel safer.

She turned her face toward the dark lake, let the night air caress her skin, blow through her hair.

He wasn’t budging. Not without his money. It was the same realization she’d come to earlier today in her office. But somehow, in the shadowy darkness of her room, that reality became much clearer.

Her breasts began to tingle, almost as if he were still pressed against her. She hugged herself tighter, tried to force the sensation from her body.

The sound of the lake came to her. She closed her eyes, listened to the gentle lapping of the waves against the shore. Time became a blur. She grew numb from sitting on the hard wooden windowsill, but still she didn’t move.

For as long as she could remember, it had just been her and Steven. The two of them against the world. They’d met before they could talk. Became playmates before they could walk. Their love had been gradual, building slow and steady over time. Like the fortification of a strong foundation that would never give way.

Promise me,
she’d say to him each time before he left.
Promise me you’ll come home
.

Baby, I’ll be back. We’ll have a lifetime together, you’ll see
.

And he’d been right, he had come home. But he’d also been wrong.

He’d quit flying jets. Quit flying too fast, too high, too dangerously. And foolishly, she’d thought that after he’d stopped, she could stop worrying.

They were supposed to grow old together. Have babies and raise them here on the shores of Hidden Lake. Now he was gone, and every dream she’d ever had was buried along with him. She knew their type of love didn’t just disappear. That even though Steven wasn’t still with her, her heart would always be with him. Or so she’d thought. But after tonight . . . after the way she’d felt held between Jared’s arms . . .

But the only sound she heard was a night bird calling to its mate. This time, he wasn’t going to be her soft place to fall. This time, there was only her. And her heart that wasn’t as impenetrable as she’d thought.

 

 

 

 

Jenny woke to the smell of frying bacon.

She groaned. Not because of the tantalizing aroma wafting up from downstairs but because one look out her window told her she’d once again been woken up before the sun had even risen.

What was it with that man and his obsession with predawn hours?

She fluffed her pillows, burrowed under her comforter, and closed her eyes, determined to go back to sleep. But after ten minutes, she wiggled to a sit. Blast him. She knew Jared did it on purpose, made plenty of noise to wake her up. Any other time, he prowled around the house as silent as a panther. She thought back to the first time he ate her cooking and how worried she’d been that he’d choke on her eggs. Then, she’d charitably promised herself she’d save him. Now, letting him choke to death seemed like a much better solution.

Yawning, she stretched, wincing at the sting in her back. The hours of sitting on the windowsill had exacted a toll, but not nearly as big a one as the worries that had plagued her all night. She hadn’t been completely unaware of her reactions to Jared this past week. But up until last night, they’d been minor: a tiny flutter in her tummy, a little blip in her heartbeat. But last night, all that had changed. Her little blips and tiny flutters had gone to full-fledged longings.

It wasn’t him, she tried to tell herself. She would have reacted the same way to anyone she’d let get close. But even as the thought went through her mind, she knew it was a lie.

She flung her covers aside, got out of bed, and peered down the hallway. With the coast clear, she hurried to Cody’s bedroom. Last night hadn’t exactly gone as planned. She definitely wasn’t going to be up for an aunt of the year award. Reaching his bedroom, she quietly opened the door. Just because Jared was intent on jolting her out of bed so early didn’t mean Cody shouldn’t have the luxury of sleeping in.

The room was dark, but enough light filtered in from the hallway for Jenny to see his empty and unmade bed. Where was he? She rushed out of the room and was partway down the stairs when two distinct male voices could be heard from below. Pausing, she listened.

The voices were coming from the kitchen: one low and deep (Jared’s) and the other one high-pitched with the occasional squeak (Cody’s).

She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She knew she’d overreacted, but seeing his empty bed had brought her own childhood back. She couldn’t remember how many times she’d fled to Nana’s house after arguing with her parents. And while she and Cody hadn’t actually argued, they sure hadn’t gotten along, either. She stood at the railing for several more minutes, trying to make out what the two of them were saying. But while their voices were too muffled, she could tell that Cody was doing the vast majority of the talking. Again. She smiled.

Knowing her nephew was fine, she headed back upstairs to the bathroom. With Jared banging around in the kitchen doing heaven only knew what, and Cody keeping him company, Jenny planned on splurging on a long, hot shower.

The minute she opened the bathroom door, she knew something was wrong. At first glance, everything looked exactly as it should. Her favorite dark purple towels were still draped across the towel bar; her industrial-sized bottle of raspberry bubble bath still sat on the aged marble floor, right next to the claw-foot tub, along with the basket that held her loofah brush and coconut milk extract shampoo and conditioner. And then she saw the telltale items that proved someone else had put their mark on her space.

Alongside her elegant bottle of shampoo was a cheap ol’ bottle of Suave. A plain white toothbrush next to her purple and green one, and a tube of Colgate by her minty fresh Crest. Spurred on by a growing sense of doom, she opened the mirrored cabinet above the sink. Someone had shoved all of her products (even her box of tampons) to the bottom two shelves, leaving the top shelf open. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who had done it.

Everything was in precise order. Lined up like little traitorous soldiers on the white shelf. A can of shaving cream and a razor, a box of Band-Aids (the plain, boring ones; she liked the ones with pictures), a tube of Neosporin, Speed Stick, dental floss, and a small black comb.

All in all, it wasn’t much. But it was the idea of him taking over even one more bit of space in her home. It was as if he was saying, “I’m here for as long as it takes.”

Filled with righteous anger, Jenny scooped up all Jared’s things and marched down to his room. His
temporary
room. His door was ajar. She gave it a little bump with her hip, and it swung wide.

She hadn’t been in this room since the first morning after Jared had moved in. Like then, the room looked unused; the only difference—the same one as before—a bed made with military precision. Undoubtedly he was one of those neat freaks who had all of his clothes neatly folded and put away.

Her mother would be so proud.

Jenny dumped everything onto the tight-as-a-pin duvet. She was about to do an about-face and leave, when her curiosity got the better of her. After listening to make sure no one was coming up the stairs, she walked over to the dresser and opened the top drawer. Empty. The second drawer, empty. All the dresser drawers were empty, as well as the closet.

She stood in the middle of the room, stumped. He had no trouble putting his stuff in her bathroom, but he couldn’t put away a single item of clothing?

Then she saw his duffel bag. Just like the first time she’d entered his room, it was propped up in the corner, still packed. She shook her head in total confusion. But then, everything about Jared rattled her.

As she took her shower, thoughts about last night kept coming back to her. She refused to think about the feelings he had stirred awake in her and, instead, focused on the more important topic at hand. The old pipes pinged as she squirted tropical passion body wash onto her loofah scrub brush. Even after a night of turning over all the different possibilities in her head, she kept coming back to the same one: she had to turn Blue Sky’s profits around. The extra advertising and vacation packages she’d implemented before Jared arrived were good. As was updating the website, but she needed more.

She knew she didn’t have much business experience when it came to Blue Sky. That had been all Steven. He’d handled most aspects of the business while Jenny had been only too happy to play a supporting role. The division of responsibilities had seemed to please Steven, and that had been all that mattered to her. Over the years, she’d had a few ideas but had never pursued them. What had been the point? Steven was the brains, the one with all the ideas. Hers had been too farfetched to even share.

The water began to turn cold, and she quickly finished. Wrapping her hair in a towel turban-style and slipping on her robe, she went back to her room and sat on the bed.

Plan
.
Brief
.
Execute
.

Jared’s infuriating words came back to her. She wanted to throw them back in his face, tell him he was wrong.

But as much as she hated to admit it, they held a truth. She did need a plan. And a way to carry it out. But like hell she’d brief him on anything she was going to do.

She looked out her window and saw the sun rising over the uneven peaks of the distant mountains. Today was going to be another glorious day. And not only because of the weather; Jenny was determined to figure out a new plan on how to get rid of Jared. Feeling almost transformed, she quickly dressed in white capris and a turquoise top. As she slipped on a pair of blue flip-flops, she couldn’t help but remember yesterday when Jared had helped her put on a different pair of flip-flops. Then her gaze lifted to the end of her bed where she’d tossed the hooded sweatshirt, and she was remembering more. Remembering last night. The two of them near the staircase.

Ever since Steven’s death, Jenny had shut herself away. She’d stopped hanging out with her friends . . . going to all of her and Steven’s familiar spots. It had been the only way she’d known how to protect herself from the pain. But the irony was, her seclusion hadn’t worked. She learned that heartache found you no matter where you were. Just like memories. And she didn’t want to outrun them anymore. Steven had been the love of her life. He would always have a special place in her heart. But maybe her mother was right. Maybe it was time for Jenny to reenter her old life.