Dinner First, Me Later?

by Candy Halliday

  Ashamed of herself for teasing him under the circumstances, Alicia said, “I was only joking, Jake. Promise.”

  He paused before he mentioned what Alicia knew they were both still thinking about. “How did you think the interview went on Good Morning America?”

  “I couldn’t have been more pleased or impressed with your performance,” Alicia said, knowing Jake would also get the double meaning of her statement.

  Neither of them mentioned Jennifer DiCarlo outright.

  “I miss you,” he said, his tone turning even more serious. “This isn’t fair. Me, all alone here in my hotel room. You, all alone there. Do you have any idea how much I’d give if you were here with me?”

  But Dani’s comment—that Jake wasn’t the one to worry about—suddenly reached out, grabbed Alicia by the shoulders, and shook her. In an instant a mental picture flashed through Alicia’s mind: Jennifer DiCarlo, standing outside Jake’s hotel room door. A bottle of champagne in one hand, two champagne glasses in the other. And practically naked in her freaking beach volleyball uniform.

  Without a second thought, Alicia whispered, “But I am there with you, Jake. I’m sneaking into your hotel room right now. Can you see me?”

  Jake caught on real fast. “Yes, I can see you,” he whispered back. “You’re wearing your no-evil T-shirt.”

  Alicia said, “And you’re stretched out on your hotel bed wearing nothing but your bad-boy grin.”

  “Just the way you like me,” Jake teased.

  “Yes, Jake,” Alicia finally admitted. “Being a bad boy in the bedroom is exactly the way I like you.”

  “What’s beneath the T-shirt tonight?”

  “Want me to show you?”

  “Oh, yeah,” he said. “But take the T-shirt off slowly. I want a longer look than the one you gave me that night at the window.”

  “Slowly, like this?” Alicia asked. “Up just far enough so you can see I’m not wearing anything underneath the T-shirt tonight?”

  “And God, you are beautiful,” Jake said. “Do you have any idea how perfect you are? How much you turn me on just thinking about you naked now?”

  “Now, you’re making me blush,” Alicia said, and she did.

  “That’s not all I want to do to you,” Jake promised.

  “Like what?”

  “Take the T-shirt off and I’ll show you,” Jake said. “I want you naked and lying here on the bed beside me.”

  “Naked and lying close to you like this?”

  “Closer,” Jake said.

  “And when I lean over and kiss you like this?”

  “When you lean over and kiss me like that, I run my hand slowly down your side, enjoying the feel of you this close to me.” He said, “Let me show you how incredible you feel to me when I touch you. Close your eyes and touch your breasts. Will you do that for me?”

  “Yes,” Alicia whispered and closed her eyes.

  “Gently at first,” he instructed, “using only the tips of your fingers.”

  “Ummm,” Alicia moaned.

  “Feel the sensation? Feel how amazing your skin feels? See how amazing you feel to me when I touch you like that?”

  Alicia murmured, “You do so know how to touch a woman, Jake Sims.”

  “See how incredible you feel?”

  Alicia said, “Not near as incredible as you feel. And you are hard now, Jake, aren’t you? Can you feel me touching you?”

  “I love it when you touch me.”

  “And I fantasize about you touching me all the time,” Alicia said. “Long after you leave my bed, I can still always feel your touch.”

  “My hand’s moving downward,” he said. “Can you feel my fingers spread out as they slide across your stomach?”

  “I love the way your hands feel on me,” Alicia said.

  “Show me where you want me to touch you.”

  “Here,” Alicia said, leaning back against the lounge chair. “Touch me here.”

  “Tell me how you like it.”

  “Touch me slow and easy at first.”

  “Slow and easy like I’m touching you now?”

  “Yes,” Alicia told him. “Not much pressure at all. Just enough to feel it.”

  “Like this?”

  “Ummm, yes,” Alicia said.

  “You touch me now,” he said.

  “Tell me how.”

  “Touch me like you want me,” Jake said. “Touch me the way you touched me when you had my back against the door.”

  Alicia gasped.

  “Remember how hot we were for each other that night? How we couldn’t touch each other fast enough?”

  “I couldn’t get enough of you,” Alicia said.

  Jake said, “I’ll never get enough of you.”

  “Look at me,” Alicia said. “Look at me the way you did that night in the tub.”

  Jake said, “Your face is all I ever see when I close my eyes.”

  “Kiss me,” Alicia said.

  “Soft like this?”

  “Kiss me like you want me.”

  “I want you on top,” Jake demanded.

  “With you inside me?”

  “With me deep inside you.”

  Alicia whispered, “God, how I do love the feel of your hands on my waist. Guiding me. Keeping the rhythm the way you like it. Pacing us both. Saving the best for last.”

  He whispered back, “Bend down and kiss me now. Let me feel your hair when it brushes across my face.”

  Alicia said, “I want you on the floor.”

  “Now?”

  “Right now!” Alicia said.

  She could hear Jake’s breath quicken.

  “I’m sliding my arms around your neck, Jake. I’m pulling your head down. I’m kissing you like I want you. The way I kissed you when we made love that night on the floor.”

  “Kiss me harder.”

  “Are you looking at me, Jake? Can you see how good you make me feel.”

  “I’m staring into your eyes right now.”

  “And I’m staring back at you.”

  “Tell me when you feel good.”

  “Almost.”

  “Don’t hold back. Let it happen.”

  “Now!” Alicia cried out in ecstasy.

  A second later, Jake’s low groan of pleasure followed.

  Alicia kept her eyes closed.

  And she smiled when another mental picture—this one of a take that! variety—slowly came into view: a frustrated Jennifer DiCarlo, frowning, turning around, and marching her scantily-clad beach volleyball butt away from Jake’s hotel room door!

  Chapter 29

  It didn’t seem possible to Jake, but it was already the first week in September. Half of the probation period the court had given him to prove he could provide a suitable home for Danielle was already behind him.

  For the first time in his life, Jake felt as if all of the planets were aligned in his favor. He and Danielle were becoming more like father and daughter every day. His relationship with Alicia was stronger than ever. He was even garnering new interest from a variety of companies now, all impressed with the new direction his career was taking with the antidrug campaign.

  One of those companies interested in his endorsement was Turbo/Bat, a supplier of pro baseball equipment, and one that Jake really coveted. According to his agent, Turbo/Bat would be sending him a contract to consider within the next few weeks.

  Whistling happily, and thinking about that contract, Jake drove the van into the garage and turned off the ignition. He had just finished taking his Wednesday morning turn dropping Danielle and the Potter kids off at school.

  He was also in a great mood for another reason.

  Now that Danielle was in school, he and Alicia were able to meet each other occasionally for lunch. He’d be meeting Alicia today at a deli not far from her office. And after lunch, she was going to help him pick out a present for Danielle.

  Call him crazy, but the idea for Danielle to celebrate her May birthday in September had been
his. He’d gotten the idea after Katie’s sleepover birthday party, when Danielle mentioned she’d never had a birthday party of her own. Jake didn’t have to ask why. Danielle had always spent her birthday with him.

  Danielle had been so excited when he’d suggested that she needed to have a birthday party with her new friends, Jake knew he’d made the right decision.

  Danielle and Alicia had been planning the party for weeks, and had already sent out the invitations. They were calling it a makeover-sleepover party, and Jake dreaded the thought of getting his credit card bill. She’d bought makeup bags and God only knew how much makeup, fingernail polish, and who knew whatever else, for herself and for each of the five girls invited to the party—with Alicia’s assistance, certainly not his.

  As for the party itself, Jake could rattle off the plans as fast as Danielle could, after having heard them a gazillion times, as she was fond of saying. They would order in pizza for a pizza party first, and after cake and ice cream, Danielle and her friends would do each other’s makeovers and then do whatever else thirteen-year-old girls did on a girl’s sleepover.

  Alicia had been elected to chaperone the sleepover after the pizza party. Just in case, Jake had pointed out, that any of her new friends’ moms might have qualms about letting their teenage daughter spend the night with no mom there to supervise. Alicia had happily agreed. She would stay at his house with the girls. He and Kiwi would spend the night at Alicia’s.

  The fact that Alicia was becoming more and more involved in Danielle’s everyday life had also made it possible for them to start taking baby steps toward Danielle getting used to the three of them being together. On one night in particular, Danielle had made lasagna by herself from Jen’s recipe, and they’d invited Alicia over for dinner. They’d also gone to the movies one night, Danielle sitting contentedly between them, munching from her bag of popcorn.

  The next all-three-of-them event Jake planned to arrange—and one that even Alicia didn’t know about—was a trip to the farm for the weekend. The long Thanksgiving weekend coming up was what he had in mind.

  They could prepare their Thanksgiving dinner at the cabin, and enjoy eating their holiday meal in front of a roaring fire. Later, they could cut a Christmas tree for their house, and one for Alicia’s house, from the woods on the property, starting what Jake hoped would become their first family tradition together. He also hadn’t told Alicia, but by the time Thanksgiving rolled around next year, Jake planned for the three of them to be an official family.

  Still thinking that life was indeed good and happy in the kingdom of Woodberry Park, Jake got out of the van and walked toward the kitchen door, the morning paper tucked under his arm. Heading straight for the coffeepot for another cup of coffee to enjoy with his paper, the blinking light on the kitchen phone base caught his attention. Jake walked over and punched the button.

  “Jake, call me when you get a chance.”

  The voice belonged to his attorney.

  “Ranatta Harper’s attorney just called. She’s exercising her right to see Danielle this Saturday.”

  Jake’s aligned planets careened out of orbit.

  Not once since the social worker’s visit had Danielle heard a word from Ranatta. Not a phone call. Not a card. No e-mail. Since the day Jake had answered Danielle’s cell phone, Ranatta had made no effort whatsoever to contact Danielle.

  How could I ever have been so stupid to think Ranatta would leave us alone? Jake thought, pounding the counter with his fist. I never should have let my guard down, Jake kept reminding himself. Like the jackal that she was, Ranatta had retreated only long enough for him to relax. Now, she was back, going straight for his jugular.

  “Damn you, Ranatta!” Jake cursed, knowing how disappointed Danielle was going to be. Poor kid, she’d been talking about nothing else but her birthday party for weeks.

  Jake picked the phone up and punched in his attorney’s number, but he already knew there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop Ranatta from coming to Chicago. The court had granted her one weekend stay with Danielle during the six months Danielle would be in Chicago.

  As luck would have it, this was the weekend Ranatta had picked.

  Alicia reached the deli before Jake arrived, and decided to wait for him just inside the deli’s front door. One look at his face when he walked through that door, however, told Alicia something was wrong.

  Hand on her elbow, he guided her to a booth at the back of the deli. After Jake filled her in on Ranatta’s surprise visit, Alicia reached across the table and took Jake’s hand.

  “If it’s the party you’re worried about,” Alicia told him, “we’ll simply postpone the party until next weekend.”

  “I know,” Jake said. “But Danielle is still going to be so disappointed. She really worked hard designing her own invitations for the party on her computer. And she was so proud of herself when she mailed them out last week.”

  “But Dani sees her friends every day in school now,” Alicia reminded him. “She’ll just have to tell her friends the truth. That she just found out her grandmother was flying in from LA to pay her a surprise visit.”

  “It’s a surprise, all right,” Jake said disgustedly. “Seeing how Ranatta hasn’t even bothered to contact Danielle.”

  “Jake,” Alicia said. “If Dani sees you this upset, she’ll be even more upset herself.”

  “I can’t help it,” he said. “Thirteen years is a long time to put up with Ranatta Harper. I just can’t believe I was stupid enough to think she would leave us alone.”

  Alicia said, “If you’re waiting for me to feel sorry for you, Jake, get over it. This isn’t about the past. This is about Dani right now. And for Dani’s sake, you need to act like this is no big deal.”

  Still frowning, Jake refused to comment.

  Alicia said, “We’ll just make new plans.”

  “You make it sound so simple,” he said.

  “It will be simple,” Alicia assured him.

  Jake looked at her and said, “If you think Danielle is going to be happy about this, you must have her confused with my other daughter. Don’t kid yourself, Alicia. Danielle is not going to take this well.”

  “And just what other daughter are you talking about, Jake Sims?” Alicia teased, trying to lighten his mood.

  He finally smiled—halfway.

  “Now,” Alicia said, glad to see he was beginning to calm down. “Forget Ranatta. Tell me what you have in mind for Dani’s birthday present. This might be the only chance we have to shop since we aren’t even sure when we’ll be able to reschedule the party.”

  “Jewelry of some kind,” Jake said. “I want to give her something personal from me that she can always keep.”

  Alicia looked at him and said, “Do you know how much I love you?”

  That got a real smile out of him.

  “But not a ring,” Jake said. “I’m thinking a bracelet, maybe.”

  “Charm bracelets never go out of style,” Alicia said. She thought about it and said, “In fact, I think a charm bracelet would be a perfect gift for Dani from you. And every birthday after this one, you can buy her a new charm.” Alicia squeezed his hand. “I know Dani would treasure the bracelet, Jake, and keep it always.”

  Jake looked at her for a second, thinking it over. “Do you think there’s any chance we might find a ladybug charm?” He smiled slightly and said, “That’s the nickname I used to call Danielle when she was little.”

  Alicia got up from her side of the booth and slid onto Jake’s seat beside him. She grabbed Jake by the front of the shirt, pulled him to her, and gave him one big I-love-you kiss.

  “And what was that for?” Jake asked.

  “For being the type of man who would think of the ladybug charm,” Alicia said, and leaned forward and kissed Jake again.

  “I said no!” Dani yelled.

  She got out of the van the second Jake pulled into the garage and stomped into the kitchen. Her book bag made a loud thud when she th
rew it on the kitchen floor, then she headed down the hallway. Jake caught up with her before she could reach the foyer. He stepped in front of the staircase, refusing to let her pass.

  Hands on her hips, Dani said, “This would be the perfect time for you to become a missing person.”

  Jake ignored her and said, “I don’t blame you for being disappointed, Danielle. But we really don’t have a choice here. The court granted Ranatta one weekend visit during the six months you’re living with me.”

  Dani was so angry, she couldn’t even cry. “Read my lips, Jake,” she told him. “I. Am. Not. Missing. My. First. Birthday. Party!”

  “Exactly,” he said, still refusing to let her pass. “You’ll only be postponing your party until later!”

  “Keep talking,” Dani said. “Eventually you might say something intelligent.”

  Jake laughed.

  “God!” Dani said. “I hate it when you do that.”

  Jake pulled her to him. Dani didn’t pull away.

  “I’m sorry Ranatta didn’t call you first in case you had plans this weekend,” Jake told her. “But in all fairness you know there was no reason for Ranatta to suspect you were having a birthday party in September.”

  Dani refused to answer him.

  “And,” he said, “if you’d admit it, if it weren’t for the party, you’d be happy that your grandmother was coming to see you.”

  “No, I wouldn’t,” Dani said, pushing away from him. He kept giving her that I-know-better look. “Okay,” Dani said, “maybe I’d like to see her. But this just isn’t fair. This was going to be my first birthday party with friends ever.”

  Jake said, “You can still have the party, Danielle. Just not this weekend.”

  Dani stamped her foot. “Why are you taking Ranatta’s side! The woman hates your freaking guts.”

  “But she doesn’t hate your guts,” Jake pointed out. “And she’s flying all the way from LA to see you. It licks. But we’re just going to have to change our plans around.”

  “Excuse me?” Dani said. “Did you honestly just say ‘it licks’?”

  “Yeah,” Jake said and grinned. “Sucks would be a huge step up.”

  Dani rolled her eyes. “You are such a goof.”