by Fobes, Tracy
“Sorry about making you wait so long,” she murmured, though her sly little grin told him she wasn’t a bit sorry.
“No problem. Do you mind going outside?”
“Sure.”
Sophia led the way as they walked through the dining room and outside. Several chairs and a small gazebo sat on the perfectly cut grass outside the inn, and a few of the inn’s guests were enjoying a glass of wine in the gazebo. Above, a stunning combination of pink, orange, gray and purple clouds hung near the western horizon, courtesy of the setting sun.
She walked toward a bench situated beneath an arching lilac tree, and they both sat down. Then she crossed those long, lithe legs of hers and eyed him expectantly. “So?”
He sighed and looked down at his hands. “As I said...I know I didn’t do right by you.”
“Please,” she muttered. “Stop saying that. That night on the beach was all me, and I wasn’t expecting a marriage proposal afterward.”
He shook his head. “I betrayed Alex’s trust. I shouldn’t have let things go so far between us. You’re his little sister. I’m his best friend.”
“Do you regret it?”
“Actually, no,” he replied, remembering how she’d clasped her thighs around his hips and rode him lustily, there in the sand. The fact that she’d been off-limits had only seemed to entice him more. “Not one damned bit.”
She smiled. “Me neither. I still don’t understand why you never called, though. You never emailed or texted. You didn’t even send a postcard.”
“I know.” He fought the urge to grab her hand, and settled instead for looking deeply into her eyes. “The night before I’d left for boot camp, I hadn’t been sure if I’d ever be coming back home. Once I was gone, I felt certain I’d die overseas. I didn’t contact you because I wanted you to move on. It would have been selfish for me to ask you to wait.”
Her smile faded. “You made a lot of decisions for both of us. But who am I to complain? I was just another one of your one night stands.”
“You were more than that,” he insisted.
“Really? What was I, then?”
“I don’t know.” Frustrated, he shook his head. “I just don’t know! You were different back then, from all the other girls I’d known. You’re different now.”
“How?”
“You affect me in a way no one else ever has.”
“How?” she asked again. “Do I make your dick harder than anyone else?” Before he could reply, she nodded knowingly. “I see it in your eyes. It’s all about getting laid, isn’t it?”
“No—”
“Spare me,” she said bitterly. “I’m just forbidden fruit to you. That’s all it is.”
He opened his mouth to insist that she was special to him, but then he shut it again. What reason did she have to trust him? Instead, he sat back heavily against the bench. “I know you’re not going to believe anything I say. I haven’t given you a reason to. But I still care about you, Sophia. A lot. I want, I need to know that you’re doing well.” He paused and thought of her ‘new man,’ the one Alex had mentioned, and his gut twisted. “Your brother told me you’re with someone new. I want you to know you have my best wishes.”
Her eyebrows drew together. “With someone?”
“Yeah, someone who’s steady, smart, and good for you.”
All at once, her expression cleared. “Oh, right. You mean Steve.”
His mood sunk. For a moment, he’d thought she was going to deny that she had a boyfriend, but apparently he wasn’t going to get that lucky. “Alex didn’t mention his name.”
“Steve,” she said, and her lips curled in a little smile. He thought he noticed a teasing glint in her eyes, and it puzzled him.
“How did you meet Steve?”
She shrugged. “He’s my Twelve Step sponsor.”
“Your Twelve Step sponsor...” he repeated slowly.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
He put his hand on hers, then. “Alex told me you’ve had some hard times over the years. I’m sorry, Sophia.”
“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about.” She pulled her hand gently from his. “They were my choices. I’m in a different place now.”
He wanted to hold her hand again, but held himself back. “What happened?”
“It took me a little longer to finish high school than most,” she revealed slowly, her eyes dark.
“You were ill?” he guessed.
She frowned. “In a way.”
He considered asking for more detail, but something in her face suggested that she’d told him all she planned to. Rather, he simply waited for her to go on.
“Once I graduated, I went to Rowan,” she continued.
“I remember you saying you wanted to go there. Criminal justice, right?”
She nodded. “I worked as a law clerk too, to help pay the bills.”
“Sounds like a heavy schedule.”
“It was.” She looked away then, and her voice became more hesitant. “Eventually I became addicted, Jake, to prescription pain medication. I’m not sure how it even happened. At first I was able to manage everything, but eventually, it all caught up with me. I crashed and burned. Spent three months at a rehab facility.”
Jake kept his expression neutral, but inside he tightened up. He felt nearly sick with regret for her. “Oh, Sophia. I am so very sorry.”
She turned to look at him again, her lips tight, her face all planes and angles in the fading light. “I almost died, Jake. Somehow, though, I managed to get clean. Steve helped.”
He nodded in sudden understanding. So that’s who Steve was—her knight in shining armor, come to save her from the dark pit of addiction. All at once he felt jealous of Steve, and abruptly realized that even if he wanted to, he’d never win her back. The sense of loss was like a knife to his heart.
“I just want to put my life back together,” she continued. “For now, I’m waiting tables at the Mermaid. At some point, though, I want to go back to school.”
He stared at her, at the way the evening light gave her skin a soft, golden glow; at the determination in her gaze and the upright way in which she held herself, and at that moment he knew she’d make it. “I’m impressed, Sophia,” he said gently. “I’m impressed with your strength in beating your addiction, and your courage in admitting to me what happened to you. I especially appreciate your willingness to share this with me. It makes me feel optimistic.”
The smile that she gave him trembled, and he saw the warmth in it. And yet, he still saw a shadow in her eyes, in the way she quickly looked away from him, and he knew she had more secrets she wasn’t telling him. “Let me walk you to your bike,” she said.
They stood, and faced each other awkwardly for a moment, and he felt himself drawn to her, like iron to a magnet. His focus dropped to her pink lips, to the silky curl of her hair that rested on the soft swell of her breast. He wanted take her in his arms then, and kiss her as a man, where once he’d kissed her as a boy. But he knew he couldn’t—she was forbidden. Off-limits now more than ever. So he settled for walking next to her, and breathing her sweet scent in.
They stopped by his bike. She looked at its clean, spare lines and ran one finger over the handlebars. “Forward seating position. Bump seat. Ace bars, swept-back pipes, rear-set foot rest. A small fairing. You’ve got a café racer.” She twitched her eyebrows with appreciation. “A nice one.”
He stared at her with almost comical surprise. “I had no idea you knew anything about bikes.”
“My brother runs the only bike shop in Rockport Grove,” she reminded him, her attention still on the motorcycle. “How could I not know about bikes?”
His appreciation for her growing even more, he smiled. “I converted a 1973 Honda CB450. It took me about a week of working nonstop. Alex supplied me with most of the parts.”
“The Honda was a good choice. There are plenty of old Honda parts out there.” She turned from the bike and faced him. “Well, thanks f
or the talk, Jake.”
“We should have done that years ago,” he replied, and fished into his shirt. “I have something for you.”
“What?” She watched him expectantly.
He pulled out his Saint Jude medal, unhooked the chain, removed his dog tags, and then handed it to her. “Father Al gave this to me right before I went off to war. I wore it for ten years straight. Never took it off. And here I am, in one piece. It’s lucky.”
Lips parted, she threaded the chain through her fingers and held it up, to look more closely at the medal. “Jake, I can’t take this.”
“I want you to have it,” he insisted. “It’s thought to give people courage to face difficult situations in life.”
She sighed, and tightened her fingers around the medal. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome,” he murmured, and then he was leaning closer to her, his attention focused on her deep gray-green gaze, and the secrets he saw within her eyes. The scent of her enveloped him and he sensed her trembling. Without quite realizing what he was doing, he put one arm around her waist and another around the back of her neck, and drew her against him. She struggled briefly, and he loosened his hold, willing to let her go.
But she didn’t go. She looked up at him, the message in her gaze clear now.
He lowered his head and his lips found hers. He kissed her for a long time, tenderly at first, gently pressing and probing, and caressing her soft, sweet-tasting lips with his own. Gradually that gentleness gave way to urgent demand as his body responded to the closeness of hers and his cock strained and throbbed with excitement against his jeans. He tightened his arms around her, and she moaned, her arms snaking around his waist, her hands reaching up to explore the muscles of his back, her fingers tangling in his hair and pulling him closer to her.
All of that wild yearning he’d experienced on the beach with her years ago sprang to life once again within him. He began to stroke her back, and her shoulders, his hands exploring her body as they once had, and within him he had a sense that balance had been restored, that Sophia was exactly where she was supposed to be: in his arms. That sense coupled with his deep longing for her drove away his will, his resolution not to hurt her or betray his best friend again. He ran his fingers along her neck, across her collar bone and down to her breast as he forced her lips farther apart and his tongue tangled with hers.
She was kissing him back eagerly and hard, like a woman starved, and his head seemed to spin. His cock hardened painfully and he felt a deep, unrelieved tightness in his gut, a need to take her right here, in the parking lot. He held her more tightly, overpowering her with his strength until she had molded her body to his, melting into him, then rubbing against him, grinding against his leg, nearly riding it so that she could rub that soft, tender place between her legs against his hard thigh muscles. Boldly she snapped his waistband open with one hand and slipped her fingers down into his jeans. Seconds later, he felt her warm palm wrap around his cock and begin to stroke him.
Nearly crazy with desire for her, he glanced around, looking for a shadowed arbor, a soft place in the grass between shielding bushes, somewhere, anywhere he could rip her clothes off and lay her down without being seen. He hadn’t realized how badly they’d needed each other. He’d forgotten how good it was between them. He pulled his lips from hers and began kissing the white column of her throat, then the curve of her shoulder, before slipping lower to her breasts. He wanted one of her pink nipples in his mouth. He wanted to suck it and see the pleasure she felt at his touch reflected in her face. Her silky dark curls teased his face as he nuzzled her, his cock growing larger and harder as her firm, warm palm curved around its head before tightening on the shaft and jerking him off.
“Ahem.”
The gravelly sound felt like a bucket of cold water being dumped on him.
He pulled away from Sophia, then spun around and found himself staring into the face of an elderly man. The man had an older woman by his side—presumably his wife.
He cut a glance at Sophia and saw that she was quickly re-arranging her clothes. Her face had turned a shade of bright red. He quickly zipped up his jeans and faced the elderly couple again. They were alternately gazing at him, then Sophia. The man was smiling, but his wife appeared disgusted.
“Get a room,” the wife said baldly to Jake.
Jake grimaced. “Sorry, ma’am.”
Her husband laughed. “Remember when we were like that, Doris?”
His wife poked his side. “Yes I do, old man.”
Arm in arm, the pair walked to the car Jake had parked his bike next to.
Jake moved to get between Sophia and the couple, so they couldn’t stare at her any more. He let out a quick, exasperated breath. “I’m sorry, Sophia. I know you have a boyfriend. I don’t know why I di—”
She pressed a finger against his lips, silencing him. “Don’t apologize. You couldn’t help it any more than I could. We can’t control what’s between us, Jake.”
He frowned. “I promised Alex I’d stay away from you.”
“Then stay away.” As if to emphasize her words, she began to back away from him.
“What about that guy Alex said is steady, smart, and good for you?” Jake probed, afire with jealousy over this other man in her life. “Steve, right?”
She looked confused for a moment, but then raised an eyebrow. “So you’re wondering why I’m kissing you, and not my boyfriend? Because when you’re close, I can’t help myself. And neither can you.” After about five steps, she turned and headed back toward the restaurant. “Goodnight,” she called out, seconds before she disappeared into its brightly lit interior.
“Goodnight,” he replied; and with her disappearance, loneliness closed in on him. His stomach was in knots over how the night had unfolded. He mounted his bike, started it, and then drove toward Jersey Avenue. He needed a real ride tonight, one on the county routes, and he had no intention of taking Alex or Lucas with him. He didn’t want to talk. He didn’t even want to think.
He just needed to ride.
Chapter Six
“What’s wrong?” Jake asked.
He’d just finished a punishing ride across the county, and during the ride he’d managed to contain the worst of his loneliness and uneasiness. As soon as he’d come home, however, he found his mom sitting at the kitchen table crying. All of his disquiet immediately came back at him full bore.
He quickly pulled a chair out at the table and sat down, too. “Look at me,” he demanded.
Laurie’s shoulders shook with sobs. She had her hands wrapped around a beer. Slowly, she tilted her head upward to face him. He saw it then: puffiness around her right eye.
“Goddamn, you have a shiner!” His heart suddenly pounding, he jumped out of his chair and moved her side. He grasped her shoulders. “What happened?”
“I slipped and fell o—”
“Don’t give me that bullshit,” he said, cutting her off. “I want to know who did this to you. Was it someone from Beach Waves? A customer?”
Her tears slowed down. She regarded him with narrowed eyes. “I’m not that bad of a stylist.”
“Then what happened?” He pulled a chair around the table and sat down directly next to her.
She stared at him, but said nothing.
“I’m not going to let this go,” he warned her.
Her lips parted, as if she planned to say something, and then she just crumbled. “I can’t tell you, Jake. I just can’t.” Her elbows on the table, she put her face in her hands.
His heart still pounding in his chest, he forced himself to speak calmly. “Why not?”
“Because you’ll be disappointed in me.”
“What did you do—kill someone?”
“No, of course not!”
“Then tell me. Because if you don’t, my imagination will make up something much worse than the truth. Who punched you in the eye?”
“It was an accident.”
“All right, who ac
cidentally punched you in the eye?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know,” he repeated, then shook his head. He was obviously going to have to pull it out of her, inch by inch. “Was it a he or a she?”
“A he,” she admitted. “Two guys.”
“Two guys.” He nodded slowly, as if he understood. “Why did two guys punch you?”
“Well, just one guy punched me, but two guys stopped by.”
“Two guys, here in this house?” He sat up straighter. “Were they trying to steal something?”
“No, Jake.” She let her hands drop to the table and stared at him with a tortured expression. “If you really want to know, I’ll tell you. But there’s nothing you can do. Nothing anyone can do. You’re just going to get frustrated.”
“I’d like to know who my enemy is,” he replied softly. “Because your enemy is mine, too.”
She gazed a moment more, then slowly brought her tears under control.
“Go ahead,” he urged.
“Okay.” She paused and visibly swallowed before focusing on him again. “You know that Hurricane Sandy blew this town to shreds.”
“Yes, I know.”
“A lot people lost everything—their homes, their businesses, everything.”
He nodded.
“Well...both this house and the salon were heavily damaged.”
“I remember you telling me,” he said. At that time, he’d been deep in Afghani territory, scouting by day and sleeping in a bivouac by night.
“I did have insurance,” she told him. “And I received a government payout, too. But they weren’t enough.”
Not enough.
“So where did the rest of the money come from to finish the repairs on the salon and the house?” he asked.
She pressed her lips together and her eyes darkened. Jake realized they were finally getting to the heart of the matter.
“A guy named William Hansen moved into town a few years back. He’s been very generous with his money, and he apparently has a lot of it. He’s supported a number of town projects, like the Veteran’s Wall that was erected in the Community Garden. Your name is on the wall, by the way.”
