Between the Lines

by Angela Benson

  “She could have called me. This is so unlike Carl.”

  “The man’s in love, Eleanor. He’s entitled to be a bit adventurous.”

  “Adventurous? More like irresponsible,” she muttered. “He’s taking on all of Megan’s negative traits.”

  Jake got up and stood in front of her. “And you’re blowing this way out of proportion. Maybe you’re frustrated about something else?”

  “And what, pray tell, would that something be?”

  Jake shrugged his shoulders slightly. “What makes a woman frustrated on Monday mornings?”

  Eleanor got up and strode to the window facing the newsroom. “Her top reporter unexpectedly leaving town for two weeks with her best friend.”

  “It could be that or it could be an unfulfilled desire of some kind.” His words floated out to her and kissed her cheeks, causing her to turn back to him.

  “Don’t start with me this morning, Jake. I’m not up for it. Carl is gone and we have a paper to get out. I suggest you get started. It’s going to be a hell of a long two weeks.”

  ***

  In a way, Eleanor was thankful for the chaos that Carl’s absence caused in the newsroom. It gave her an excuse to ignore any tension between herself and Jake. And she welcomed that.

  “Is Carl’s headline story ready?” she asked Jake, who was totally engrossed in the article he was editing. She had to admit he’d pitched right in there taking up the slack for Carl’s absence.

  Jake hit the Enter key on the computer. “It is now.”

  “Do you want the byline?”

  Jake laughed, but shook his head. “Carl would kill me. It’s his story. All I did was check some facts for him.”

  “If you’re sure?”

  “I’m sure. It’s Carl’s story. If tomorrow’s story ends up the headline story, then I’ll take the byline.”

  “Fair enough,” she said and went back to her terminal.

  Two hours later, the paper was sent to press.

  “We did it,” Eleanor said, brushing her hair back from her face.

  “Did you doubt we would?” Jake asked, wanting to run his hand through her wayward curls. He definitely preferred her new style with the curls falling to her shoulders to the old bun. All in all, he approved of the changes she’d made, from the tinge of lipstick on her soft lips to the short skirts and jackets she wore each day.

  A smile curved her lips. “Not really. I didn’t realize how much I depended on Carl.”

  “Maybe you should tell him that when he gets back,” Jake suggested.

  She stared at him for a long second as she considered his words. “Maybe I should.”

  “I’ve moved into Carl’s apartment,” Jake added casually.

  “When did this happen?”

  “Yesterday.”

  “You had a busy day yesterday.”

  He captured her gaze. “It’s not how I wanted to spend the day, but I got a lot accomplished.”

  “That’s good,” she said and flicked on her computer, dismissing him.

  “I think your father knows about us.”

  Eleanor turned around. “Knows what?”

  “I think he knows I spent the night at the cottage.”

  “How could he know? Did you tell him? Tell me you didn’t tell him.”

  “Calm down. Of course I didn’t tell him.”

  “Then how does he know?”

  “I wasn’t home all weekend.” Jake asked softly, “Does it bother you that he knows we slept together?”

  His words slammed against her chest. “No more than it bothers any woman to know that her father is keeping track of her sex life.”

  Jake chuckled. “I wouldn’t take it that far.”

  “That’s because he’s not your dad. How would you feel if your father knew?”

  “That’s why I moved out of your dad’s house. What’s between us is between us. I don’t want to hide it from your dad or mine, but neither do I want to include them in our relationship.”

  She lifted a brow. “Relationship? I thought we slept together.”

  “I don’t know about you, but one-night stands aren’t my style. Is that all it was for you?”

  ***

  After finishing her hundredth lap, Eleanor pulled up to the side of the pool and got out of the water. Unfortunately, her emotions were strung as tight now as they had been when she’d entered the water fifty minutes ago. She grabbed her towel and marched back to her cottage knowing she’d have to hurry to get back to the paper for her dreaded 2 PM. meeting with Jake.

  “Need some help with that key?”

  She jumped, then turned around at the sound of Jake’s voice. “What are you doing here and why are you dressed for swimming?”

  Jake gave a lazy grin. “Maxine told me you’d come home for a swim. I thought I’d join you, but I see I’m too late.”

  “Maxine talks too much,” Eleanor said, turning away from him and opening the door.

  He chuckled and the sound made her hands shake. “I don’t think so.”

  She stepped across the threshold and turned to close the door, but she bumped into Jake’s chest. “What—”

  Jake took advantage of her surprise and gathered her to him for a kiss. “I’ve done nothing but think about you. I don’t know how I made it this long without tasting you again.”

  She stopped her traitorous arms before they wrapped themselves around his waist. “Just what do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, pulling away from him.

  He stepped away from her and the glazed look of passion she expected to see in his eyes wasn’t there. “That’s my last invitation.”

  “Invitation to what?”

  That lazy grin appeared again and the passion that had been missing in his eyes made its appearance. “Party. Carl’s apartment.”

  “A welcome back party for Carl and Megan?” She didn’t know why she’d asked. She wasn’t going with him.

  He shook his head. “This is a two-person party. I call it a ‘More than a Summer Fling’ party.”

  Understanding dawned and she leaned her head to the side slightly. “I don’t think so.”

  Jake lifted her chin and kissed her again. She didn’t try to pull away. “It’s your decision.” He stepped away from her. “I’ll see you in the office at two,” he said, then turned on his heels and left her standing in her doorway.

  Eleanor touched her hand to her lips, which still throbbed from his kiss. What was Jake up to? she wondered.

  ***

  Jake entered the conference room at exactly two o’clock, determined not to push Eleanor to make a decision about their relationship. He dropped down in the chair next to hers and placed a bulky manila envelope on the table. “Why do we meet in this room when we could talk in our office?”

  “When the paper went from a weekly to a daily, Maxine decided we needed a conference room. Then she started bugging everybody to schedule meetings.” She shrugged her shoulders. “It got to be a habit.”

  “This paper is really like a family, isn’t it?” he said, more to himself.

  She picked up her pencil and twirled it in her fingers. “Most small-town papers are. So what do you want to talk about?”

  He wanted to say Us. Instead, he opened the bulky manila folder. “I’ve gotten some preliminary figures back from the guys in New York and I’d like to get your opinion on some things.” He pushed a sheet of paper in her direction. “What do you think?” Eleanor read the projections and cost estimates for Our Family.

  She looked up at Jake. “I guess my figures were slightly underestimated.”

  He raised a brow. “Slightly? I’d say grossly is a better word.”

  She focused on the spreadsheet again. “You’re not cutting any corners. I had scaled back on some of my ideas to make the project more cost-effective.”

  “Are you complaining?”

  She looked up at him again. “No way. As my fathe
r says, why look a gift horse in the mouth?”

  Jake searched her face for guile and, seeing none, gave her a big grin. “Now Mason Publishing is a horse. Is that a step up from a gravy train?”

  Eleanor laughed at his reference to an earlier conversation they’d had, and the tension in the room lessened. “I guess it is.”

  “Let’s go over this line by line,” Jake suggested.

  Eleanor enjoyed every minute of their discussion. Jake shared her excitement about Our Family, and if he was able to get the support from Mason Publishing that he wanted, the magazine would be even better than she’d imagined.

  “Oh, Jake,” she began. “This is going to be great. I thought it would take us four years to get to where you want us to be in eighteen months. Do you really think we can pull it off?”

  The joy in her eyes mesmerized him. “What do you think?”

  She grinned from ear to ear. “With my brains and your money, we can’t lose.”

  ***

  Eleanor drove around Carl’s apartment building for the fifth time. She wanted to go in, but she didn’t want to face the self- satisfied grin she was sure Jake would wear in greeting.

  Yes, Jake had worn her down. Between his warm eyes, and his interest and support for her plans for the paper and Our Family, he’d gotten to her more quickly than if he’d sent flowers and sang ballads to her every day.

  On her sixth spin past the building, she pulled into the parking lot. She was a modern woman—if she wanted to visit a man she could, she told herself. Other women did it all the time.

  By the time Eleanor reached Carl’s door, she realized she was not “other women.” She was also not a coward. She rapped on the door and held her breath.

  It seemed hours before Jake opened the door.

  “Hi,” he said, with no trace of a self-satisfied grin.

  “Hi,” she repeated, feeling awkward he hadn’t yet invited her in.

  Jake stared at her, wondering if she was really there or if she was an apparition brought forth by his wildest fantasies. He reached out and caressed her cheek to assure himself she was real.

  Eleanor held his hand to her face and smiled at him with comforting eyes. “Is something wrong?”

  He grinned at her. “Not now.” He dropped his hand and stepped back so she could enter the apartment. “Make yourself at home.”

  She walked in, allowing her gaze to take in the whole room. A nondescript brown plaid sofa, love seat, and chair took up most of the room. They were accompanied by a solid oak coffee table and two end tables, all dotted with magazines.

  “You’ve never been here before?”

  She moved her eyes from the first edition print hanging on the wall behind the sofa to Jake and shook her head. “I was never invited.”

  “Carl is not a wise man.”

  She smiled, accepting his compliment. “I don’t know about that. He’s always wanted Megan and now he has her. That sounds like wisdom to me.”

  “Or good luck.”

  She sat on the couch and crossed her legs. Jake didn’t miss the expanse of thigh exposed when she did. “Do you really think it was luck?”

  He couldn’t think about much more than her warm brown thighs. “Maybe it was more than that.”

  Eleanor nodded. “He loves her. I like to think that it was destiny.”

  He sat on the coffee table in front of her. “I think a man makes his own destiny.”

  She uncrossed her legs and scooted back on the couch. “And what is your destiny, Jake?”

  “You.”

  “Oh.”

  He leaned toward her and caressed her face with his eyes, before using his hands. “Yes, oh.”

  “Ah, but how long does your destiny last?”

  He dropped his hand from her face. “As long as we want it to.”

  “Until you leave Lamar?”

  He stood up, shoved his hands in the pockets of his khaki shorts, and turned away from her. “If that’s all you want.”

  She sighed, then got up and stood behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head on his back. “Why is it so hard to care about somebody, Jake? It’s not supposed to be this hard.”

  He breathed deeply. “I don’t know.”

  “I care,” she said softly, “I didn’t want to, but I do.”

  He felt her words attempt to penetrate the contours of his heart. “I care, too,” he whispered.

  She dropped her hands and moved to stand in front of him. “Say it again.”

  He cupped her face in his hands. “I care.” He dipped his head to kiss her, and she opened her mouth to him. When he would have deepened this kiss, she pulled away.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked.

  “Nothing.” She kissed him lightly on the lips then took his hand and led him back to the couch. “I want to talk for a while.”

  He nuzzled her neck. “We can talk later.”

  “Do you really mean that?”

  He pulled back and looked into her skeptical eyes. “Well, maybe not.” He sat back, pulling her into his arms. “What do you want to talk about?”

  “Us.”

  “I thought we’d already done that.”

  She locked her fingers with his. “We started to talk.”

  He raised their interlocked hands and kissed her fingers. “Okay, let’s talk.”

  “While I was driving over here, I told myself I was only coming to get my itch scratched . . .” She peeked up at him from beneath half-lowered lashes. “If you know what I mean.”

  “Thank God, I’m a good scratcher.” He nuzzled her neck again.

  She moved away from him. “I’m trying to be serious, Jake.”

  “So am I.”

  She shot him an accusing glare. “You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

  He directed his attention to her neck again. “Doing what?”

  “Seducing me to stop me from talking.”

  “You can talk.”

  “But you aren’t listening,” she accused.

  He pulled away from her and she saw the sincerity in his eyes. “I told you I care. And I do. God help me, I care more than I’d planned to. I came here to do a job for my father. I had no intention of falling for you, but I did.”

  She touched her hands to his face, her heart so full of love for him that she thought it might burst with it. “Thank you for telling me that. Now, don’t you want to know why I’m here?”

  He grinned, then pulled her into his arms. “I know why you’re here.”

  “You do, do you?”

  “Sure.” He pulled her into his arms and sank back into the couch. “You’re here because somewhere in the back of your mind, I’m still that knight in shining armor you fell in love with when you were a little girl.”

  She laughed. “I always thought you were too modest for your own good.”

  “I believe in honesty over modesty.” He kissed her again, this time pressing even closer to her. “Can we stop talking?”

  Twenty

  Eleanor heard Megan’s giggles and raised her head from Jake’s nipple. “Oh, shoot.” She moved to get off him and out of the bathtub, but he pulled her back.

  “Stop it, Megan,” came Carl’s voice from beyond the master bedroom door.

  “They’re going to find us, Jake,” Eleanor said, frantically pulling away from him. “Let me up.”

  “Eleanor,” Megan called. “Where are you?”

  Eleanor felt the rumble of laughter in Jake’s chest before she heard it.

  “I can’t believe you think this is funny.” She pulled at his arms again. “Let me go.”

  “What are you going to do, honey? Walk out there in your birthday suit?”

  Eleanor covered her mouth with her hands. “My clothes are in your bedroom.”

  Jake grinned. “That’s right.”

  “You can’t hide, Eleanor,” Megan sang. “I know you’re here.
I saw your car outside.”

  “Leave them alone, Megan,” she heard Carl say. “I knew as soon as we saw Eleanor’s car we should have gone back to your place, but no, you wanted to come in.”

  Eleanor shot Jake a pleading look. “Any chance they’ll leave?”

  Jake shook his head. “Kiss me and I’ll tell you my plan.”

  “How can you think about kissing at a time like this? Tell me the plan now.”

  Jake tightened his sudsy arms around her and shook his head. “Kiss me first.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Eleanor fumed.

  “Maybe they’re in the Jacuzzi,” came Megan’s voice.

  Eleanor turned widened eyes to the bathroom door. She closed her eyes when she heard Megan enter the master bedroom.

  “Eleanor,” Megan sang. “I’m going to find you.”

  Eleanor slapped Jake on the shoulder. “Do something. The bathroom door isn’t lock. What if she comes in here?”

  “Kiss me first.”

  “Oh, you,” Eleanor said, then kissed him. She’d planned on a short kiss, enough to pacify him, but he had other plans. He began a slow melody with her mouth that almost made her forget her friend on the other side of the door.

  “I know you’re in there, Eleanor,” Megan said.

  “Leave them alone,” Carl pleaded. “Sometimes you can be a pain in the butt, Megan.”

  Jake released Eleanor from the kiss. “That’s right, Megan,” he yelled. “Leave us alone. We’re busy.”

  “I’m dragging her out of here, Jake, don’t worry,” Carl said in an irritated voice. “Sorry about this, Eleanor.”

  “Sometimes you can be a stick-in-the-mud, sweetie,” Megan said. “I was only teasing them.”

  Eleanor hit Jake again. “That was your plan. What kind of plan was that?”

  “Well, they aren’t in here, are they?”

  Eleanor rolled her eyes and pushed at his arms again. “Let me go.”

  Jake released her, but his body was so slippery she almost fell backward in the tub. She shot an angry glance at him. “Are you trying to kill me or what?”

  Jake laughed. “You said to let you go, so I let you go. I’ll hold you again, if that’s what you want.” He reached for her again.