“Wow. I didn’t think anybody would make it in.”
Karen actually scoffed. “Let a little snow keep you from doing your business up here and it won’t be long before you don’t have any business to keep.”
“Good advice,” Jake said. “I know my four-wheel-drive’s been getting a workout.”
Darcy rolled her eyes. She didn’t even want to think about how long it was going to take to shovel her car out. Not that she was going anywhere. After pulling out a chair, she took Karen’s application from Jake to refresh her memory.
“Waited tables until I had my kids,” Karen said. “Waited on them until they went to school, then went back to waiting tables until the restaurant closed down. You can’t compensate for slow business by charging nine dollars for a cheeseburger. You have a menu yet?”
“It’s still tentative.” Jake pulled his copy out of one of the folders in front of him and handed it to her.
Karen’s laugh echoed through the dining room, and she tapped a finger on the page. “Not a man I know who’ll pass up a big-ass steak.”
Darcy had done everything but beg Jake not to put that on the menu. The cut and the ounces were enough. But he was determined to prove her wrong, and so far, everybody seemed to love it. “I’m a little concerned customers won’t want to say it out loud, which makes it hard to order.”
“Honey,” Karen said, “if you can’t say big-ass steak, order the grilled chicken and some cottage cheese, because it’s too much beef for you, anyway.”
Jake tried to cover his amusement with a fake cough, but failed miserably and she kicked his ankle under the table.
“Little high on the children’s menu.” Karen marked the spot with her finger. “You want a couple of two-ninety-nine things, like a hot dog or PBJ with fries, and a couple of four-ninety-nine things, like chicken tenders or fish, but you want most to be about three ninety-nine. Grilled cheese sandwiches, mac and cheese, cheeseburgers. Basically you need to cut everything by at least a buck.”
She must have caught the look that passed between Darcy and Jake, because she shrugged. “I was born and raised in this area and I’ve been taking food orders around here since I was fifteen. You can do what you want, of course.”
They talked about almost every item on the menu. Then she gave them a list of names to beware of in the stack of applications. So-and-so had a drug problem and would steal from them. Another so-and-so was a sweetheart, but clumsy as an ox with a special knack for spilling coffee. They couldn’t tell her if those people had applied or not, but Jake took careful note of them on his legal pad.
It was almost an hour before Karen left, and Darcy’s head was spinning from the conversation. She not only knew everybody, but knew what they did and didn’t want to eat.
“She’s definitely got the knowledge,” Jake said after Darcy grabbed them each a bottle of water from the kitchen. “Competent and definitely comfortable with the job.”
She wasn’t so sure. “Sometimes people like her don’t take managing well. And when somebody’s that firmly entrenched in the community, being too friendly can be a problem, to say nothing of the backlash if there was a problem.”
“She’s at the top of my short list.”
“Mine, too. I just think we need to give her a lot of thought before we jump at making her an offer. But at least we know weather won’t keep her from coming in.”
He looked at his watch and winced. “We have to finalize that menu tonight, so you hold on to the copy with her comments on it and we can talk about it over dinner. I have to go call Kevin before his head explodes. I blew him off yesterday, so next time my phone picks up reception, I’ll probably have a dozen messages from him.”
“When’s he coming up? Next Tuesday, right?”
“Yeah. He’s going to come up Tuesday and look around. Have an on-site meeting. Then Wednesday we’re going to hit the trails and he’ll drive home Wednesday night. You want to go out with us?”
“Snowmobiling?” She laughed. “Absolutely not.”
Shaking his head, he gathered his files and papers. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”
“I’ll live.” She watched him walk away, loving the way his legs looked in worn denim, and he caught her looking when he spun around.
He winked. “By the way, your turn to make dinner.”
* * *
JAKE WASN’T SURE HOW he managed to get through every day with Darcy. She would talk and he would try to listen. And on some level he retained the information because he always remembered the conversations later, but every time he was near her, all he could think about was sex.
If they were in the apartment, he’d imagine taking her on the kitchen table. Or bending her over the arm of the couch. The shower. The colorful braid rug she’d bought to cheer the place up. Sometimes he even imagined taking her to bed.
Downstairs, the possibilities were endless, though at least some of them were probably code violations.
“Hey, it’s your turn. Unless you’re ready to forfeit.”
“Never.” He took his iPad from her and looked it over. They were playing Trivial Pursuit and she’d just blown an Arts & Literature question. Which was good because she had one more piece of the pie than he did and he didn’t intend to lose.
When he landed on the correct space to get the orange Sports & Leisure wedge he needed and knew the answer right away, Darcy made an annoyed sound and leaned back against the couch.
“I think you’re cheating.”
He laughed. “How would I be cheating?”
“I bet you hide under your covers and play this all night so you can memorize all the answers.”
That’s not at all what he played with under the covers, but he’d be keeping his nocturnal activities to himself. “You know, you’re not a very good sport.”
A few minutes later, when she’d added a pink wedge to her collection, he rolled his eyes. “It’s the Entertainment category. You’re just getting the easy ones first so your pie looks better than mine.”
“Now who’s a poor sport?”
Inevitably, it became a race for the last wedge each needed, and the game got really intense. And when he blew his Geography question, the words he muttered were pretty intense, too.
Darcy grabbed for the iPad. “My turn.”
He held it out of her reach. “Don’t be grabby.”
“It’s my turn.”
“It’s my iPad.”
She made a mock pouty face at him. “Oh, are you going to take your toys and go home now?”
When she made another grab for it, he held it up over his head because he was tall and she was short, and she hated when he did that.
What he didn’t anticipate was Darcy losing her balance and ending up straddling his lap or her hands bracing themselves on his chest. Or the way, to keep her from falling backward and knocking herself out on the monster coffee table, his hand slid under her ass.
His body reacted immediately to the weight of her on his lap and he looked into her wide eyes. He wanted to say something flip, like “now who’s cheating?” but he was pretty sure nothing would come out but a hoarse whisper.
When her weight shifted, which he was afraid might cause things to explode, he thought she was moving back to her own side of the couch. Instead, she settled herself more comfortably on his lap, her knees on either side of his hips.
“This is a bad idea,” she said.
“Very bad,” he agreed.
“I don’t care anymore. Every single day I’m practically out of my mind, wanting you to touch me. I need you and screw the consequences.”
Jake dropped the iPad. Maybe on the arm of the couch or maybe on the floor. Didn’t care. All he cared about was sliding his hands up under Darcy’s shirt and feeling the heat of her soft skin.
<
br /> All that mattered was touching her.
CHAPTER FIVE
DARCY DIDN’T CARE if it was a bad idea. She didn’t care if everything blew up in her face tomorrow. All she cared about was getting Jake naked. Now.
The shirt was easy and she practically purred running her hands over his bare chest. Then she leaned forward and ran her tongue up his breastbone to his Adam’s apple. He moaned, one hand clenching in her hair while the other pushed down on her hip, grinding her against him.
“I’ve missed you,” she said before yanking off her shirt.
“I’ve been right here.”
“I’ve missed this. Us.” She undid the button on his jeans, loving the way his stomach muscles tensed when she brushed them with her knuckles.
Very slowly, she worked his zipper down and then she rose onto her knees to give him room to shove his jeans and boxer briefs down past his hips.
When she took him in hand, stroking him with the same slow deliberation he’d teased her with, he groaned and dropped his head back against the couch cushion.
“Don’t do that too long if you have plans that include you,” he warned.
“I’ve waited too long to let you have all the fun.”
She had to stand to step out of her clothes while Jake fished a condom out from under the couch cushion.
“Do you have those hidden around the apartment?”
He grinned and tore open the foil. “Yes, I do. Strategically placed for almost any opportunity.”
She laughed and straddled him again, this time relishing the heat of naked flesh. With her hands on his shoulders and their gazes locked, she lowered herself onto him. As she rocked her hips, slowly taking him all in, he fisted his hand in her hair and pulled her mouth to his.
His kiss was savage, devouring her as he cupped her breast, pinching her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. She squirmed, her hips circling, and he groaned.
“No more games,” he said in a low, rough voice. “From now on, I’ll touch you when I damn well feel like touching you.”
She threw back her head as he gripped her hips and forced her to ride him faster and harder. Her fingertips dug into his biceps as his hips jerked to meet her thrusts.
“Come for me, Darcy.”
The orgasm hit her hard, and when it was over, she collapsed against Jake. His chest heaved with every ragged breath and he tightened his arms around her.
“I needed that,” she whispered when she could talk again.
“Give me a couple of minutes. I’m not done with you yet.”
“I think the hideous fabric on this couch wore half the skin off my knees.”
His chuckle reverberated through her body. “How do you think my ass feels?”
“It was worth it.”
“Yes.” His hand stroked up and down her back, making her shiver. “But bed next.”
“My bed’s closer.”
It was another five minutes before they’d recovered enough to make it there and quite a bit longer before either of them slept.
* * *
KEVIN DIDN’T ARRIVE until almost noon. Usually Jake would be annoyed at having half the day blown waiting for him, but since he and Darcy didn’t roll out of bed and into the shower until ten o’clock, it was probably for the best. And they didn’t get out of the shower until the water started running cold.
That wasn’t the way Jake wanted Kevin to find out he’d done the one thing he’d specifically told him not to do.
“Everything looks great,” Kevin said after Jake and Darcy had given him the grand tour. “I knew you two would be good together.”
Jack managed to keep a straight face, but through the corner of his eye he saw Darcy take a deep and sudden interest in her shoelaces. “Everything’s right on track.”
“How about the Valentine’s Day thing?”
“I’ve got a rough draft of the ad upstairs,” Jake said. “We can look it over later.”
“There’s an ad?” Darcy jabbed him with her elbow. “You haven’t even told me what the thing is yet.”
“You’ll find out.”
“She’ll be back at the bar by then,” Kevin said. “Once the doors open, the front end will be the wait staff’s responsibility and Darcy can come home where she belongs. God knows, we need her. Courtney, the temp girl we hired to cover for you, is driving Paulie nuts. She flirts to drive up the tips, but guys start vying for attention and it goes downhill from there.”
Jake laughed with the other two, but he wasn’t feeling the humor. He didn’t want to think about Darcy leaving. He couldn’t imagine wandering around their ugly brown apartment alone. Not seeing her every day. He didn’t want to imagine it. “Unless she decides to move up here and manage the pub. She’s got a lot invested in it.”
“Yeah, right.” The two words were like a blade through his heart. “I couldn’t wait to move to the city after school, and this is even smaller than the town I grew up in.”
Jake wasn’t stupid. He’d known the time both of them were doing the same thing and working toward the same goal was limited. Eventually they’d have some decisions to make about how their relationship would go forward after Jasper’s Pub opened for business.
He hadn’t realized how closed she was to the possibility of staying where they were, and that was a problem. He really liked it. He liked the quiet and the snow and the people and he really liked the restaurant they’d built. A three-hour drive each way didn’t preclude them seeing each other, but it was enough to put a crimp in a relationship.
Kevin and Darcy were chatting about the wait staff applications and how she felt about Karen Sikes, who was probably going to be their senior server and manage the other wait staff.
Jake didn’t care. And he didn’t care about the menu and he tuned out the dinner conversation about why Darcy had chosen one coffee supplier over another. And he was aware Kevin kept shooting him questioning glances, but he didn’t care about that, either.
He cared about whether or not he and the woman he was pretty sure he was in love with had a future together.
The next morning Jake was up early, disentangling himself from Darcy’s arms and leaving her bedroom as quietly as he could. He dressed in layers and downed a cup of coffee before driving up the road to the motel to meet Kevin. Since the motel had a small café that served breakfast, they ate there before donning their snowmobile gear.
Kevin was pretty quiet, Jake thought as he pulled on the bibs and coat that belonged to Kevin’s brother, Joe. He’d be riding Joe’s snowmobile, too, since Jake’s was still in Connecticut. Maybe the motel mattress had sucked and he’d had a rough night. Maybe the stress was getting to him. Or maybe he was just missing his wife and daughter.
They’d put on almost fifty miles before Kevin parked on the side of the trail and took his helmet off. Jake did the same, then rummaged through the tank bag for one of the candy bars he’d stashed there.
“I asked you not to get involved with whoever I sent up here,” Kevin said without introduction. “That was the only thing I asked of you.”
There was no sense in denying it. One, he wouldn’t lie about it and, two, if Kevin picked up on it, they weren’t doing a very good job of hiding it. “Remember the pretty, fun and wicked-smart woman I spent the night with before I came up here?”
“Yeah.”
“That was Darcy.”
“No.” Kevin threw up his hands. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me that?”
“We didn’t know. Her number got wet and I couldn’t read it to call her. I tried everything I could think of to get her number and couldn’t. Drove around and couldn’t find her place. And you always call me J.P., so...I don’t know. And we’d talked about you sending somebody up to help, but you weren’t sure who and you must never have told me
her name because all of a sudden, there she was.”
“How serious is it? She’s supposed to come home soon.”
“And it sounds like she’s not only going to, but she’s looking forward to it, so don’t worry about it.” Jake heard the edge in his voice, but it was too late to temper it.
“You don’t want her to leave.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Then make her want to stay.”
Jake laughed, his breath hanging in the cold air. “That easy, huh?”
“No, it’s not easy. It took me a year to convince Beth I was the guy for her. A damn year. It’s not easy at all.”
“Maybe we can do the long-distance thing until the pub’s in the black enough to hire a manager.”
Kevin shook his head. “I hate to say it, but that might be a while.”
“I know. And I want to run it myself. And I want to wake up with Darcy every day. I want it all.”
“If it’s meant to be, you’ll find a way.” When Jake looked sideways at him, Kevin winced. “Yeah, that might have been stitched on my grandmother’s pillow.”
“Or in a fortune cookie.”
“Just don’t screw things up with her before the pub opens or I’ll have to kill you.”
“You’re a good friend, Kevin. Really.”
“You know it, J.P. Let’s rack up some miles.”
* * *
THREE DAYS LATER, Darcy was curled up on the couch, going over the final menu proofs, when the phone rang. Because they didn’t have internet, she’d had to drive forty minutes to the “local” printer they’d chosen and back in the snow to get the PDF files, and she was tempted to let the answering machine pick up. She’d just started to relax.
But odds were it was Jake, Kevin or a contractor calling, so she threw back the lap blanket and went to answer it.
“Hey, Darcy.”
It was Jake, and as always, her heart did a little happy dance at the sound of his voice. She purposely kept her voice all-business, though. “What’s up?”
“I’m at the supply house and I need the number for the guys who installed the walk-in freezer. The business card is...somewhere in the apartment. Can you find it and call me right back? It’s urgent.”
Alone With You Page 5
