by Linda Opdyke
“You know,” Jack warned her, still fighting fits of laughter. “You don’t exactly present a great case for people to come to your aid.”
She opened her mouth and he saw the venom coming. He grinned ear-to-ear but put up his hand in a gesture of peace. “Okay,” he conceded. “We’ll try the dirt trick. But I absolutely am not washing you, Stinky. You’re on your own.”
Jack sat up and crossed his legs, facing the painting that rested against the tree trunk. He reached out his hand and ran his fingers in the dirt, gathered up a short amount and then screwed up his face as he held a careful finger to the painting’s frame. If at all possible, he had no intention of touching that frame. “I have a better idea,” he told Kelly Jo. “Close your eyes.”
Her expression said not only did she not like the suggestion, but that she didn’t trust him. “Why?”
“I’m going to try to drop the dirt onto the frame and see how much sticks. If enough sticks, then I’ll pick up the frame and hurl you to your bathtub.”
“Very funny,” she shot at him. “Just hurry. I can’t take much more of this.”
“Close them,” Jack ordered and when she had he gently began dropping dirt onto the picture frame, doing his best to avoid even small drops going into the actual painting. Despite his unending glee at her predicament, he felt a small pebble of sympathy growing. And did his best to beat it back.
Kelly Jo jumped and grabbed her face. “Jack…stop,” she cried.
Jack stopped immediately, guilt stabbing him at enjoying her helplessness. “Are you all right, Kelly Jo?”
Was she crying?
Jack grabbed the frame with both hands, aghast that he’d put dirt in her eyes.
Jack froze at Robert’s, “What are you doing?”
Without thinking, Jack shoved the painting up his shirt just as Robert circled around where Jack sat in the dirt.
“Why aren’t you in Covey’s Creek?” Robert asked.
Jack blinked several times, then asked, “Wha…what?”
Robert sighed. “You’re late so I came looking for you. What are you doing here at this house?” His face crinkled. “And what is that odor?”
Jack squirmed, but tried to keep his discomfort from his expression. He hadn’t wanted to touch the offensive frame, but it would have been a cakewalk compared to the naked, urine-soaked woman now laying against his bare stomach.
“I…uh…I got lost and came to ask directions. A dog chased me,” he finished lamely with a weak smile up at Robert.
Robert looked down at him like he was stupid. “Lost? Jack, all you have to do is follow Covey’s Creek, about two hundred yards that way,” he stated, pointing to the left. “You’re ten minutes from town.”
Jack’s jaw dropped open and from the way Kelly Jo went suddenly still he knew she’d heard what Robert said, and that she was now the one in big trouble. With Jack. Kelly Jo’s soft, soothing caress of Jack’s stomach wasn’t going to help her in the least. Especially since all she was doing was spreading the dog’s stench.
“I…I…” Jack stammered. Oh, boy, was she going to get it.
Robert’s nose crinkled. “Smells like the dog caught up with you. You stink,” he added flatly. “I advise you to get to that water without delay. Do what you have to do to wash out your clothes. And then get into town. I’ll see you there.”
Robert disappeared.
Jack inhaled a deep breath, then realized there was no fighting his growing anger. He pulled the painting out and held Kelly Jo up in front of him, his hazel gaze locked with innocently-blinking blue eyes.
“Okay, Pee Wee,” he said curtly. “Start talking.”
Chapter Ten
Kelly Jo’s look remained innocent while she casually rearranged her dripping, smelly ringlets. “Sure. What would you like to talk about?”
“Game time is over,” Jack stated flatly. “Ten minutes away? Yet you found it necessary to make a breaking-and-entering pit stop?”
“I did,” she agreed, then further infuriated Jack when she added nothing more.
“Kelly Jo,” he warned. “I’m not playing.”
Kelly Jo sighed, then stomped her foot, the first visible sign she wasn’t as in control as she wanted Jack to think. “I couldn’t just stroll into Covey’s Creek like this and you can hardly fault me for that, Jack,” she said curtly. She then extended her hands to the side and pitifully wailed, “Look at me!”
“Not buying it,” he informed her, battling to do the gentlemanly thing and avert his gaze from where her long hair now barely covered. “You weren’t dirty and smelly before we stopped here. You told me that Covey’s Creek is a small town many miles north. Robert called it a fairly large town about ten minutes from here.”
Kelly Jo sniffed. “Well, obviously one of us exaggerated. And it wasn’t me.”
Jack glared at her. “No. One of you lied. And it wasn’t Robert.”
Kelly Jo exhaled an annoyed breath. “Split hairs if you want to, but…”
Exasperated and unwilling to listen to anymore of her attempts to double-talk him, he stood and interrupted with, “Which way to the creek? I want to get out of these clothes.”
Desperation crept into Kelly Jo’s tone. “I don’t even have clothes…thanks to you. Since you know now that there’s a dog there, can’t you do the right thing and try to get in the house again?”
Jack bit back on his instant reply, then curtly said, “I should have done the right thing back at the oak tree and handed your sorry butt over to Robert.”
He looked at the road they’d just come down and started retracing his steps.
“Where are you going?” she asked. “That’s the way we came.”
“Yep,” he said flatly. “If you won’t tell me which way to the creek I’ll just find it myself.” He gave her a quick too bad for you glance. “This stench has put me in a bit of a hurry so your ride may get a little bumpy.”
Kelly Jo shot him a dark, frustrated look, but instead of arguing her point of Jack making a second attempt to enter the house she wisely stayed quiet, her arms folded across a chest heaving in contained anger.
Jack walked and got nowhere, ignoring Kelly Jo’s occasional “hey!” from being jostled and her vocally vibrating “slow down!”.
Finally she yelled, “Stop, Jack, just STOP and I’ll tell you how to get to the creek.”
Jack said nothing, but he stopped, his face impassive as his gaze met hers. “Why should I trust you?”
Kelly Jo shrugged. “I wouldn’t if I were you…” she was cut off by Jack again walking down the road.
“Wait!” she cried.
He didn’t.
“I’m sorrrrry,” she conceded.
“I doubt that,” he said, noting that his long stride still jarred her where she sat.
“There’s a narrow path a few yards from here, to the right,” she told him. “Turn in there and stay on the path through the woods. It’ll take you straight to the creek.”
Jack stopped and gave her a cool, evaluating look. “This isn’t a backtrack to that house, is it? Because if it is and you think you’re sorry now…” he warned.
“It isn’t,” she said quickly. “I promise.”
“Spare me the innocent act, Kelly Jo,” he said flatly. “I’ve pretty much got your number…1-800-lying-self-centered-con-artist.”
“Hey,” she protested. “That’s a little harsh.”
Jack spotted and then stepped onto the path to the creek. He welcomed the sheltered coolness of the trees, but his brows raised as he looked at Kelly Jo. “I notice you didn’t say it was untrue. Just harsh.”
“Oh,” she burst out. “I don’t care what you think. Just get me to that creek.”
Jack remained silent for the rest of the walk. The sun was now dipping in the west, but the moon was rising in the east. One of those dusks when you could enjoy the sight of more than one heavenly body. With that thought his glance went to Kelly Jo. Even with the short view he’d inadvertently been
given, he definitely considered hers a heavenly body…in every conceivable way.
Jack heard the creek long before he laid eyes on it. When he came around the last large boulder he gave a start. The water in front of him was a lot wider than what he called a creek. Not as vast as even a small river, but a lot larger than a normal creek or stream.
“At last,” Kelly Jo said in relief. “I thought you would bounce my brains out,” she complained.
“Not possible,” he informed her, still watching the peacefully moving water.
“Very funny,” she said with a grimace. “The middle is pretty deep if you want to swim, but about ten yards out it’s still only waist length.”
Trees overhung the sandy bank and rocks lined the shore, with several bigger ones interrupting the serene motion of the water.
“Okay,” Jack said. “I’m going to put you over there behind a tree and I’m going to strip and then wash myself and my clothes. When I’m done…”
Kelly Jo was aghast. “When you’re done?” She shook her head and her voice was firm. “I’m sorry, Jack, but you’re going to have to wait your turn. I have to get this…this dog stink…off of my skin, out of my hair…”
“Pick a tree,” he interrupted flatly. “And you’d better hope that there’s no stray dogs in the area. Or badgers. Or…”
“Don’t you do it,” she warned. “I’m going first and that’s all there is to it.”
Jack raised the painting and held her gaze in amused challenge. “Think so?”
“Yes,” she insisted. “What would your mother think if she knew how you’ve been acting?”
“She’d be surprised that I haven’t already dug a hole, thrown in you and the painting and covered the hole again.”
“Hardy har har,” Kelly Jo mocked. “Why don’t you just throw me out into the creek then and be done with it? What better way to wash your hands of me, so to speak?”
Jack grinned, but his eyes said he was about at the end of his patience. “What a great idea,” he agreed. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
He pulled his hand back in a pitching motion, like he was about to hurl the painting.
Kelly Jo gasped. “Don’t you dare!”
But Jack was enjoying her discomfiture, her unsureness of whether he would or not and he wasn’t about to relinquish the upper hand. “Oh, yes, I do dare!” he stated and pitched his arm forward.
To his horror, and to the sound of Kelly Jo’s blood-curdling scream, the painting went flying through the air. It landed with a loud KERPLUNK in the middle of the peacefully moving creek.
Jack was frozen in shock as the painting popped to the surface with Kelly Jo sputtering and coughing. Then the painting listed and began to sink.
Chapter Eleven
Jack waded into the water, splashing from left to right, fighting panic that he’d have to dive down and search for the painting before Kelly Jo drowned.
Without warning, the water churned, roiled and nearly erupted in the exact spot where the painting sank.
Was this Kelly Jo’s way of letting him know precisely where he needed to get to in order to rescue her?
Jack sucked in a deep, choppy breath for courage and struggled his way into the deeper water, his gaze riveted on where the water suddenly stilled.
A head shot through the surface and Kelly Jo gasped for air.
Shocked, Jack stumbled backward, lost his footing and went down. Seated on the creek bottom, the water was to his chest, but he couldn’t take his gaze from the beautiful woman thrashing in the water yards out.
Right where he’d thrown the painting.
“You’re…you’re…free…” he stammered.
“Jack, help me!” she cried frantically. “I can’t…” she went under and then popped back up… “swim!”
Neither could he.
Panic drenched Jack, but he fought his way to his feet and ripped off his shirt. “Stay calm,” he ordered in a voice that shook. “When I throw my shirt out there, grab it and I’ll pull you to shore.”
Kelly Jo fought to keep her head above water, but went under again and Jack wondered if she’d heard what he’d said.
“I’m coming, Kelly Jo,” he reassured her as he moved further into the water, aware that the terror in her eyes had nothing on the terror in his own heart.
He resisted giving in to fear and forced it at bay, focused only on reaching Kelly Jo.
“Your…pants,” she gasped, spitting water from her mouth.
“What?”
“They’re longer. Hurry, Jack…” she went under again.
Jack realized she was right and surprised himself with the speed in which he was able to toss his shirt to the side and struggle out of his sneakers, then his jeans.
Kelly Jo came up again, sputtering and choking. When her gaze met his he saw in summer-sky blue eyes that she knew she’d lost this battle.
Red hot fury pulsed through Jack. At himself for causing this, at her for giving up. He lunged forward into neck-deep water, compressing his own apprehension.
“Grab hold,” he demanded and threw one end of his pants unerringly to within her reach.
Her fingers clutched onto the bottom of the jeans, but Jack had to dig his heels into the sandy, rocky creek bottom to stop her from pulling him forward when she again went under.
He jerked forward on the jeans, praying that he didn’t pull the jeans out of her grip. He was overcome with joy when he saw her head break the surface as she was pulled toward him.
“Relax,” he soothed as he slowly pulled her through the water to where he stood. “You’ll be back on shore in a minute.”
She nodded and Jack saw her gagging from the water she’d taken in during her battle to stay afloat.
Jack started walking backward, still pulling Kelly Jo, afraid to let the jeans go slack and have her again go under. He spoke soft, encouraging words the entire time, his gaze staying locked with her still frightened blue one as he made his way toward shore.
The water was between his waist and his knees when he stumbled. When he fell backward, his grip still tight on the jeans, the tumbling motion of him falling combined with his strength on the jeans inadvertently jerked Kelly Jo directly toward him.
When she landed on him in the water, she wrapped her arms around his neck, her naked body flat against his nearly naked one. Jack’s boxers and his socks were the only things between him and Kelly Jo.
Thoughts and feelings Jack didn’t expect were normal to feel for an angel coursed through his now on-high-alert body.
Kelly Jo’s arms stayed around his neck and she laid her forehead on his. Her breathing was ragged, ragged, Jack hoped, from her experience and not from the intimate proximity they shared. Heaven would not be pleased, he was sure.
Kelly Jo’s blue eyes smiled into Jack’s and her warm breath was soft against his lips. “Thank you, Jack,” she said quietly.
Jack knew he was on dangerous ground, even if he was in the water. Heaven was tightly in his arms, tempting him, whether it was an intentional temptation or an accidental one.
To his chagrin, all he could think of after clearing his throat was, “I guess you won’t be needing those Barbie clothes after all.”
Chapter Twelve
Kelly Jo’s head snapped up and her eyes widened. “Oh, NO!” she cried and pulled away from Jack’s grasp to squat in the water, in the pose he now found all too familiar. Arms crossed over her chest to hide her charms from hazel eyes that found the battle to not appreciate them unwinnable.
Jack’s body had seared into his brain just how definitely it appreciated cozying up with those charms.
Jack shook his head to clear it, realizing the heat in his face probably alerted Kelly Jo that she’d concealed what he’d already enjoyed, even if enjoyed only through his currently very happy sense of touch.
Good thing the water was cold.
Or not, Jack thought when Kelly Jo shivered.
Through teeth that chattered, she stated, �
�I need your shirt.”
“Sure,” Jack said instantly. “Just let me get my…” he looked around the water…“pants”.
“Hurry,” she pleaded. “I’m freezing.”
Jack glanced at her. Funny, she hadn’t felt at all cold when she’d been pressed up against him. Of course, there was no reason to mention that.
Jack was only in his boxers so he didn’t want to stand to search for his jeans.
Now what?
“Do you see them?” Jack asked.
Kelly Jo stared at him. “See…who?” Her eyes widened and she moved toward Jack, furtively looking around. “Are there people here now? Oh, no,” she breathed, closing, then opening her eyes. “Hide me…”
“Stop,” he commanded, moving toward shore and away from her, his heart racing that this naked angel was about to sit on his lap. “I meant see them…not see who. ‘Them’…as in…my pants.”
Kelly Jo expelled an annoyed sigh. “Did you have to scare me like that? And, no, I haven’t seen your pants. Why didn’t you keep track of them?”
“Keep track of them?” he exploded in disbelief. “Are you for real? I took them off to drag you back to shore…at your request, by the way. And then when you launched yourself at me I guess I lost track of where they were floating.”
Kelly Jo’s teeth chattered and her lip quivered from cold. “Well, I’m guessing they’re not floating now. Heavy denim sinks.”
“Oh, really?” Jack asked sarcastically. “And you know this…how? Because I’m not the first one you’ve put through this routine? How many others ended up with no pants because of your shenanigans?”
Kelly Jo giggled through her shivers.
Jack offered a sheepish grin, but his voice was stern. “You know what I meant.”
“Jack, the air is warm but this water is ice cold.”
His sarcastic, “Noooo. Really?” was greeted by her frown.
“You have to fix this,” she informed him.
“Why, sure,” he said. He waved a hand over the water and said, “Voila! Icy water is now bath temperature.” He ignored the dirty look she shot him, waited with an expression of anticipation, then shook his head in disappointment. “Aw, sweetie, I’m really sorry. I tried to warm it up, but,” he added with a shrug, “I guess your personality cooled it off a little too much.”
