By Candlelight

by Janelle Taylor

  In the moonlight his face looked serious and unfamiliar and hauntingly sexy. “Was that your first kiss?” he asked.

  Within his arms, she trembled like the proverbial leaf. Did she have to be so obvious? “No,” she lied. “Maybe. Well, yes,” she finally admitted.

  He laughed silently, his shoulders shaking. Nervous giggles erupted from her mouth, and she buried her head in his chest, dying of embarrassment. “Don’t tell anyone!” she cried, which sent them both into gales of laughter.

  “It’s our secret,” he agreed.

  “There just hasn’t been anybody at Lakehaven—that’s even close,” she struggled to explain, not wanting him to think she was some kind of fanatical prude.

  “I know the feeling,” he admitted, beneath his breath.

  “I’m glad you were the first,” she burst out, then suffered another bout of embarrassment until Jake drawled, “So, am I…”

  After that they kissed some more, until Katie began to worry that one of her parents might hear them and decide to throw open the door unexpectedly. Reluctantly, she pulled away a bit, and Jake let her go.

  “Next Saturday,” he reminded her. “I’ll call you.”

  “Next Saturday,” she repeated happily.

  She spent the next week in a sort of anxious euphoria. Jake saw her in the halls and said, “Hi,” whenever they passed. It wasn’t much, but then, he was busy and what did she truly expect? She refused to tell her friends about their date because she didn’t want them spoiling it somehow, so she wrote her feelings feverishly in her diary, circling the date of that first kiss with a red felt pen—September 5.

  The only person she actually confided in was a girl a few years older than she was named Lisa, who was a waitress at the Shoreline. When Katie first approached her with working an extra night—not as a waitress, but as a bus girl—Lisa laughed out loud.

  “Are you kidding? Ask Karen. I’m not bustin’ my butt to clear tables. It’s bad enough waiting on them.” Seeing how crestfallen Katie was, Lisa, who was more bark than bite, threw an arm across her shoulders and said, “Oh, for pete’s sake, I’ll do it if you can’t get someone else. What’s so all fired important, anyway?”

  The words tripped all over Katie’s tongue. “I’ve got a date. A real date. With a boy from my class.”

  “No kidding. Who’s the lucky guy?” she asked without any real interest apart from the fact that she had appointed herself Katie’s “older sister” when it came to these things.

  “Jake Talbot.”

  “Jake Talbot?”

  “Yes,” she said, surprised at Lisa’s galvanic response. Urgently, she declared, “Don’t do it! Don’t go out with him! I guarantee you, you’ll be sorry if you do!”

  Chapter Five

  “What do you mean?” Katie asked, surprised.

  They were in the middle of working, and Lisa glanced over her shoulder to see if the evening manager was anywhere in sight. However, for the moment the coast was clear.

  “Do you know Jake?” Katie demanded as Lisa’s brows drew together in a frown, as if she wasn’t quite sure how to continue.

  “I know his brother,” was her surprising answer.

  “You do?”

  “Phillip and I—” Lisa hesitated, searching for the right words. Finally, she lifted one shoulder in a faint shrug. “We dated.”

  Read that to mean they had slept together. Katie wasn’t completely naive. And from the way Lisa acted, it hadn’t been all that wonderful of an experience. “You don’t see him anymore?”

  “Phillip doesn’t hang around that long. He comes back to Lakehaven every once in a while, but I don’t think things are that great between him and his parents.”

  “Jake isn’t like Phillip,” Katie argued defensively.

  Lisa gave her a knowing look. “They’re all the same without their clothes on, honey.”

  This was more information than Katie really needed, and it left her feeling slightly unsettled. Still, nothing could dissuade her from seeing Jake on Saturday, and when Karen agreed to work her shift, Katie was free and eager and nearly paralyzed with anticipation.

  Saturday night she couldn’t decide what to wear. She knew next to nothing about their plans. Jake had called her once with vague information about getting something to eat and figuring the rest out as they went. He, apparently, wasn’t exactly spreading the news around school, either, for by the time Saturday arrived, their date was still a very well kept secret.

  It was still unseasonably hot. Katie’s wardrobe was not extensive, so to compromise and still be ready for anything, she wore a pair of khaki slacks and a sleeveless white knit shirt. A black cotton long-sleeved shirt, cuffs rolled back, completed the outfit. She threw it over her arm to use as a lightweight jacket just in case.

  There was still forty minutes to spare before Jake was due to pick her up. Nervous, Katie prowled around the house, stopping in the small kitchen and looking in the refrigerator. Apart from a storehouse of beer and some cheap wine, there wasn’t a lot to eat. Her parents’ tastes weren’t extravagant, but they were certainly consistent.

  When I graduate, I’m never coming back.

  “Where are you going?” her father asked from somewhere behind her.

  Katie’s heart leapt. “I—don’t know. To dinner somewhere.”

  “With that Talbot kid?”

  “Jacob Talbot,” she answered carefully, rebellion flashing in her eyes. If he said anything else disparaging about Jake’s family, she would blow her top.

  Her father merely grunted, swung open the refrigerator, grabbed a beer, twisted off the top and swallowed a huge gulp. He left a moment later for his beloved television, but upon his departure, Katie’s mother took up the cry.

  “When will you be back?” she asked, standing at the edge of the kitchen where the room bled into a dining room which the Tindels used as a storage room. The only table was a drop-leaf shoved beneath the kitchen window, and there were boxes everywhere. There was no such thing as family meals.

  “I don’t know what we’re doing exactly.”

  “I want you home by eleven.”

  “Eleven!” Katie’s lips parted. She never arrived earlier than midnight from her job. “How about twelve?”

  “Eleven.” Her mother was firm.

  Katie was nonplused. Her parents had scarcely shown her as much interest as a mother cat since the time she was in junior high school. Before that, their parenting skills were perfunctory at best. Now, suddenly, they cared about propriety.

  I will never treat my children like this! she vowed to herself as her mother trundled back to the living room to settle in beside her father.

  Once again, she couldn’t bear for Jake to meet her at the door. In a move that was to become the template for her dates with him, she headed outside early, eager to meet him without her parents eyeing her like a hawk. “Goodbye,” she sang out, closing the door behind her at her father’s, “You be good,” and her mother’s, “Be home at eleven, now.”

  She supposed she should be glad they didn’t regulate every minute of her date, demanding to know where she was and whom she was with. Yet she had been on her own so long, cadging rides with other workers at the restaurant and working late hours, that this sudden change bugged her.

  But as soon as she was out in the warm night air, the sense of freedom was like an elixir. She breathed deeply, sensuously, spreading her arms to the heavens as if she were a prisoner, newly released from some terrible, dank dungeon.

  Jake pulled up moments later. The throb of the Corvette’s engine and the sound of loud music heralded his arrival. This time she didn’t wait for him to get out and hold the door. Grabbing the handle as soon as he came to a halt, she jumped inside.

  “Let’s go,” she whispered, eager to put her unhappy life behind her.

  “Sure. Is there a problem?”

  “No.” She wrinkled her nose at the lie. “Just my parents.”

  “Really? What’s the matter?”r />
  He pulled away and turned the nose of the vehicle east, toward Portland. With the top down, the scents and feel of the night rushed across her. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, hoping against hope they were heading all the way into the city, because Lakehaven felt stifling and small, and she wanted to break free.

  She shouldn’t talk to him about her home life. It was so vastly different from his, she knew instinctively it might put the kibosh on their fledgling relationship. Still…“I can’t wait to leave home. My parents—are ready for me to go.”

  He glanced her way. “What do you mean?”

  “Are we going to Portland?” she asked, in an effort to change the subject.

  “Do you want to?”

  “Yes,” she admitted. “I just want to get away.”

  “We can go anywhere you want.”

  She smiled at him, and he smiled back. Katie couldn’t take her eyes off his mouth, and with an effort she dragged her thoughts away from the dangerous curve they had taken.

  But Jake was unwilling to completely give up the topic they had begun exploring, and he asked, “Don’t you get along with your parents?”

  “In a word: no. They think I’m fine, I guess. But I’m more of a burden. They don’t really have any—interest in having me around. I mean, it’s not terrible or anything. They just have no interest in my grades, or my job, or my aspirations. You know?” she asked, cringing at how whiney she sounded.

  “Actually, I’ve got the opposite problem. My parents want to run every part of my life. They’ve got me scheduled for Harvard.”

  Katie stared at him. “Do you have the grades?”

  Jake seemed slightly embarrassed. He fiddled with the radio a moment before answering simply, “Yes.”

  She didn’t have to ask if he had the money; the Talbots were blessed that way. And he probably had a few connections as well. It made the gap in their life-styles so wide that Katie was speechless until they reached downtown Portland.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t have the grades; she had studied hard and worked like a trooper to pull herself ahead. But she would be lucky if she could afford a local community college. Her plan, vague as it was, was to work nights, probably at a Portland restaurant, and go to school during the day. There was no question of living at home; it was understood on both sides that she would move out. No, the best she could hope for was to find a roommate to share expenses.

  “Where would you like to eat?”

  Katie was too wound up to feel hunger. “Anywhere. Maybe somewhere more casual. I’m not all that dressed up.”

  “There’s this little cafe by the Willamette…?”

  “Perfect.”

  The “little cafe” turned out to have a pricey menu. Gulping back her inhibitions, Katie ordered a large garden salad, the least expensive item she could find. When Jake looked at her askance, she hurriedly answered, “I’m not all that hungry.” Since this was the absolute truth, he seemed to believe her. They talked about nothing. Later, Katie couldn’t really remember what was said. But she fell desperately in love with him in a few short hours, and just knowing how tiny a chance there was for them to have any kind of relationship added another dimension to the evening, a bittersweet edge that left her aching for all the things she couldn’t have in life.

  Her melancholy mood wasn’t lost on Jake as they drove back to Lakehaven, the night air playing havoc with her hair. Katie held it back with one hand, eyes closed, pretending to be absorbed in the soft rock music issuing from the radio.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Nothing. What do you mean?”

  “You’ve barely spoken two words since we left the restaurant. Something’s bothering you.”

  She grimaced and opened her eyes. He glanced her way, his jaw strong and hard, his expression guarded. Did he think she wasn’t having a good time? she fretted. Good grief! She never wanted the night to end!

  “I just wish—everything was—different,” she struggled.

  “Different how?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. You and me. When I think about your family and mine…” Katie sighed. “It’s just hard, that’s all,” she finished lamely.

  Silence followed them for several miles. Then Jake burst out, “I don’t want to go to Harvard. I don’t want any of it.”

  Now it was Katie’s turn to ask, “What do you mean?”

  “It’s their dream for me. It’s not mine. I don’t even know what mine is. When I’m playing football, or working in class, or whatever, I don’t care. I’m just doing it, you know? But when they start talking about my future and taking over the family business, I get—uneasy.”

  “They want you to take over Talbot Industries?”

  “They wanted my brother to,” he corrected. “But Phillip will never stand working with my dad. I don’t think I can either.”

  “So, what are you going to do?” Katie asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe I should flunk out this year. That’ll kill my chances!”

  He sounded half-serious. “Oh, don’t do that! You don’t want to ruin your chances anywhere.”

  After a long hesitation, he sighed. “I know.”

  They pulled into the outskirts of Lakehaven, and Katie was filled with a sense of dread. It was such a letdown to return to her normal life. Cinderella after the ball. But they didn’t seem to have any set plans, so when Jake drove aimlessly through town, Katie took the bull by the horns.

  “Do you want to go somewhere? I’m really not interested in going home yet.”

  “What time do you have to be home?”

  She couldn’t answer. “Eleven” just stuck in her throat. “No set time,” she prevaricated. Lie, upon lie. She was getting worse by the minute!

  “Well, I have an idea what we could do.”

  He didn’t say more than that. Instead he drove through town and toward the north shore of the lake. Instantly Katie became alarmed. Were they going to his house?

  As if reading her thoughts, he said casually, “I thought we’d go canoeing on the lake. It’s dark, but…” He left the thought unfinished.

  “I would love to!” she breathed.

  The Talbot’s house was set back from the road. There was a short drive to one side which led to a guest house. Jake pulled his car to a halt in the turnaround to the left of the guest house, backing in so the Corvette faced toward the street. He and Katie climbed out of the car, and he took her hand as he led her down a flagstone path that circled the guest house and meandered down to the waterfront.

  A canoe was beached next to a vacant boat slip. Jake quietly slipped it into the water, then motioned for Katie to climb inside.

  It was all she could do not to upset the balance of the craft. She held on to the sides while Jake situated himself in the stern, dipping the oars in the water and gently, almost silently, sending them away from his parents’ property.

  “They might object to me taking off without lights,” he explained. “We’ll keep close to the shore, just in case there’s another boat.”

  “This is fabulous,” Katie said, watching the draping limbs of a willow tree pass by, a dark sentinel to their passage. The dank scents of water and wet vegetation were their own perfume, and Katie drank deeply, her senses overwhelmed.

  I love you, she thought.

  “I love it,” he said, and she started, thinking for a moment that he had said those three little words! “I want to have property on water someday,” he added, reminding Katie what he had really meant.

  She had to be careful that her fantasies didn’t run away with her.

  “Do you want to live here?” She dipped a hand in the water. It was surprisingly warm, but then the temperature had been hanging in the upper eighties and nineties for a while. Soon enough, however, fall would hit like a hammer. Indian summer only lasted so long.

  “No. I want to get away from Lakehaven. Maybe Portland. A place on the Willamette.”

  “A houseboat?”

  “T
hat’d be fun for a while,” Jake conceded, cocking his head as he thought it over. “Where do you want to live?”

  “Portland, I guess,” she agreed. Before she realized it she was telling him her plans to find a roommate and go to a community college. “I’ll have to work, of course,” she said quickly, not wanting to dwell on their economic differences more than she had to. “But I kind of like working at the Shoreline. It’s great experience, and the customers are nice.”

  “I wish we’d known each other before. Here we’ve gone four years to high school together, and this is our first real date. Why is that?” he asked rhetorically.

  Katie linked her fingers together over one knee, carefully keeping her balance. “Maybe because you never looked at me before,” she said lightly.

  “Maybe.” Her words didn’t put him off. He rested the paddle, and they drifted lazily, bobbing near shore.

  There was a lot unspoken. She could feel him assessing her through the darkness, and it sent a frisson of awareness down her spine. Slowly, he picked up the oars, and she realized he was turning them around, heading them back toward his parents’ property.

  She wanted to protest. She didn’t want the night to end. But her heart gave a little jump when he said, “It’s almost midnight. I’ve got to be home.”

  “Oh!” Katie sucked air between her teeth as Jake docked the canoe. He jumped lithely to shore, pulling the craft into the boat slip.

  “You all right?” he asked, helping her from the canoe.

  “Yeah, fine. Probably time for me to get home, too.”

  “How’s the ankle?”

  “Oh, great.” She had forgotten about it this past week. Now she turned her right foot inward and rotated the joint, showing him how much better it was. It was still kind of stiff and there was a twinge of pain, but it was definitely on the mend.

  To her surprise, he bent down and captured her sandaled foot. It was a reprise of the week before, and Katie held her breath, wondering what would happen next. Once again, his strong fingers probed her flesh, and once again she felt goose bumps. Then he rose to his full height, standing in front of her in the waning moonlight. His hands cupped her chin and he kissed her. Katie’s lashes fluttered closed. She had dreamed of this. Had gone over last week’s kiss so many times that if it had been written on paper, it would have shredded from overuse. His lips slanted down on hers, and her hands clutched the fabric of his cotton shirt as she met that hard mouth. Her senses swirled. She had never felt anything like this before. It was so consuming, so wonderful, so all out soul-drowning that she felt like an addict, wanting more, more, more!