“Don’t know.” Jake’s arms tightened around her. “The mind’s a funny thing. Sometimes it doesn’t see what’s right there. Sometimes it sees what we can’t.”
Betsy plopped down next to Jake’s hip, and said, “That’s quite a philosophy.”
“It’s brand-new. I’m trying it out.” He barely looked at her, and certainly not with the undivided attention he gave Lilly.
“You should have seen him charge in after you, Lill. My God, Jake, that was so brave. All those flames, all that thick, black smoke.” She took Lilly’s hand in hers. “I don’t know how he found you in there. It was awful. But when he carried you out—”
Betsy became very emotional then and paused to wipe away tears and soot, and to compose herself. Lilly was grateful her best friend was alive and well, but really, she could do without the distraction. Where the heck was a cute paramedic when you needed one?
“Your fur coat was burning, but he put it out.”
“Oh my God.”
His hands. Lilly pulled hers free and turned Jake’s over to check the damage.
“They’re clean,” he said. “Not that it’d make any difference to your coat now.”
“I don’t care if they’re clean. You’re hurt.”
“Nah.”
“They’re red.”
“Huh. Just from the snow I was using to put out your hair, and the coat, I guess. Damn, look at your limo.”
She glanced over his shoulder. Not only was her formerly immaculate black Mercedes totaled, the insurance photos were going to get a lot of attention due to the rainbow of panties and bras littering the top, and its new, vibrating hood ornament.
“My driver—is he okay?”
“Fine,” Betsy said. “The repairman’s helping him nurse a broken arm, but otherwise he’s okay.”
A news van pulled into the lot then, and Lilly just knew what they were going to highlight. Might as well take out an ad that told everyone in the city where she’d been today.
Sirens wailed in the distance. If things unfolded the same as before, she and Jake would be hustled off to the ER and different treatment rooms. Then it wouldn’t have been a dream, but some kind of sick precognition, and she wasn’t interested. She didn’t want to be separated from him, not even temporarily.
“Wait, whoa,” he said, holding on to her hand. “What’re you doing?”
“I want to get up.”
“No no no, wait for the paramedics.”
“I’m okay. I just want to go home.” Was that deja vu she was feeling? Were those the very words she’d spoken before? She couldn’t go through this again. She couldn’t lose him again. For her own peace of mind, she had to break what might be a cycle.
“Sounds like they’re almost here. Please, go to the hospital and get checked out.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t sue for getting blown up.”
“I’m sure the owner’ll take great comfort in that,” he said dryly.
It took a couple tries to get to her feet. Jake didn’t stop her again, but rose with her, steadying her until her head quit spinning.
“You must be freezing,” she said.
“I’m all right.” He picked up his jacket, the leather scarred with burns. Shit, this was too spooky.
“You sure that’s out?”
He held it against his body while he patted it down, and of all the stupid things, she envied that jacket.
“How about giving me a ride home in your taxi?” That’d be different. Change was good.
Jake put himself in her space, dipping his head to be more on her level. “You sure you’re okay?”
“You have no idea.”
“That’s why I’m asking.”
She grinned. “I’m fine.”
He patted his jeans pockets. “Okay then, let me get the keys. No sense in you freezing. You can start it up and get warm while I handle whatever I have to do here. The store belongs to a buddy of mine, and I need to make sure he’s on his way.”
Yes. Her path was changing already. Of course she didn’t want to change it completely.
After searching his jeans, Jake checked the jacket and finally found the keys. He stroked the rabbit’s foot dangling from the ring.
“Good luck charm?” she asked hopefully.
“It’s weird. I found this on the floor earlier, and all of a sudden, I had an urge to put it on here.”
“So, you’re not normally into good luck charms.”
“I am now.”
Maybe that’s all that counts.
He detached the foot and slipped it into his jeans pocket. When he withdrew his hand, several dollar bills came with it. They unfolded, separated, and fluttered to the snow.
Lilly simply stared at them.
Jake bent down and snagged a couple as a breeze came up. Betsy picked one up, then scowled at Lilly. “Well? You could help, you know.”
Gingerly, Lilly put just the toe of her boot on the nearest one.
Betsy curled her fingers and lightly knocked on Lilly’s head. “Hello? Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?”
Lilly laughed and pushed her away, and Betsy retaliated by scooping up a snowball.
A quick succession of emergency vehicles—fire, police, EMS—pulled into the lot, adding their own brand of noise and confusion to the scene.
“I meant it, Betsy. You get the cute one. I get to go home.”
“What cute—? Oh, I see what you mean. Sure you’re all right?” Betsy dropped her snowball and walked away without waiting for an answer.
Jake tugged the bill from beneath Lilly’s boot. “Thanks. Go sit in the taxi. I’ll send one of them over to check you out.”
“I want to go—”
“I know, I know, but it wouldn’t hurt to get a second opinion.”
“I’m not going to the hospital.” She plucked the keys from his hand and marched to the taxi, prepared to warm up and figure out how to stick around Jake without scaring him off.
Hm, he’d saved her life. A dinner, at least, would be a nice way to say thank you. A couple bottles of wine. Some good music. A nice fire—the regular kind—for the two of them to cuddle in front of.
She didn’t even get the key in the ignition. As she slid behind the wheel, her gaze strayed around the interior, and she felt—What? Instantly disappointed?
The dash wasn’t laminated with photos.
No touch football, music recitals, synchronized swimming, or a small boy crying in a pink snowsuit.
No tassels hanging from the rearview mirror.
No half-eaten pan of fudge.
Her heart sank. Maybe it was lame, but she needed something. After all, knowing Jake’s name wasn’t proof of anything. There’d been other customers in the store; maybe one of them had called him by name. Instead of starting the car, she searched it, throwing all four doors open, covering every square inch of carpet and seat, desperate for a sign, any sign that she’d been there before, that she and Jake belonged together forever.
“Everything okay?”
She whirled around to say—What? She had no idea. If she told Jake what she’d experienced and why she was searching the taxi, he’d have that husky paramedic standing next to him strapping her onto a stretcher so fast, her head would spin.
“Yeah, fine.” She said it too brightly, but they didn’t know her, not really; they wouldn’t notice. “Just, uh, airing it out.”
“The taxi’s fine; it’s your coat that stinks. This is Martin. He wants to check you out.”
Resolved to get this over with as quickly as possible, she smiled nicely at the young paramedic and followed almost all his directions while she kept an eye and ear tuned to Jake.
He rushed through everything so fast with the officers, they’d probably end up labeling the explosion as suspicious and put his name at the top of a short list of suspected arsonists. She liked to think he was in a hurry to get back to her.
Would he accept her dinner invitation? Would it be from
a sense of obligation? How would she know?
“You done with me?” he asked the police.
“Yeah, yeah, we got your number, right? And the owner’s on his way?”
“Five minutes, no more.”
“Okay, you’re done.”
While he stopped to fill a shopping bag with stray merchandise littering the parking lot, Lilly ditched her coat so she could climb around better and continued her search. There just had to be something familiar in here. Proof that this Jake was her Jake.
“I think this is yours.”
“Uh…” She turned her head, but kept one hand on the floor, as if marking the spot, and found Jake holding her purse. “Thanks.” She tossed it onto the front seat.
“We can go when you’re done there, doing, uh, whatever you’re doing.”
“Okay.”
“What are you doing?”
She covered embarrassment with a laugh as she straightened up. “I lost an earring. I was hoping it fell off in here when I got in, you know, a few minutes ago, but I guess not.”
They both stared at the parking lot. The storm was over, leaving a good eight inches of snow over everything.
“Maybe when it melts,” she said.
“Doubt it. You ready to go?”
He closed the back door on his side and slid behind the wheel with his shopping bag. Lilly walked around to the passenger side and took another look on the floor in back, searching, searching, searching. The car rocked as Jake twisted in his seat. She could feel his gaze heavy on her, but she wasn’t ready to give up yet.
“Hey,” he said, “your phone’s ringing.”
“Ignore it.”
“Could be important.”
“Ignore it.”
“Can’t. I hate a ringing phone. Hello? Yeah, this is Lilly’s phone.” He listened briefly, then leaned over the seat back. “He says he’s your broker.”
“It’s a test, just hang up.”
“He says it’s a once-in-a-lifetime deal. Now or never, you’re in or you’re out. Sounds big.” Jake waggled the phone her direction.
“Seriously, just hang up.” She gave up on the backseat and closed it up.
“Sure?”
“Oh yeah. I’ve already had my once-in-a-lifetime deal.”
“Okay, it’s your money.”
As he flipped the phone shut, she got in beside him and buckled up. Just to be safe, she turned the phone off and tossed it into the back. “I suppose you’re thinking I’m acting strange.”
“Actually, I was just wondering…”
“What?”
“Shoot, I hope this doesn’t come off sounding sleazy, sitting in front of a sex shop and asking you out, but would you like to join me for a drink? We could toast being alive.”
Lilly smiled slowly. So, she wouldn’t have to ask him first. “I’d love to.”
“You would?” Besides his sexy rumble, he cocked his head and gave her a grin to die for.
“Yeah.” She nodded and went one better. “And then how about dinner at my place?”
“Deal.” His voice rumbled, his eyes twinkled, and she was going to have a hell of a time remembering she was no longer on deadline. It was hours between now and dinner, time she could put to good use letting him get to know her.
He pulled a roll of bills out of his pocket, said, “Excuse me,” and indicated he wanted to put it in the glove box without bashing her knee.
She leaned her legs toward the door, and he stowed the money. If she’d blinked, she might have missed the sparkle. “What’s that?”
“What?”
“Something shiny fell out.”
She nearly cracked her head on the dash in her haste to snatch the small golden charm off the floor mat before it got lost. She turned the oval over.
“Huh. What’s that?”
Serenity. “Oh. My. God.”
“What? It’s just a cheap charm that fell off somebody’s bracelet.”
“But no, it was in the glove box.”
“Mm, nope, I clean it out every night. Look, see, there’s another one by your foot.”
As Lilly picked up the shiny asymmetrical star, the sun popped out and made the off-center rhinestone glitter. Hot on the trail now, she threw open the door so she could maneuver easier and ducked down to the floor. She turned up several stars that hadn’t been there before, some with rhinestones, some plain.
“You like jewelry a lot, huh?”
Elizabeth’s bracelet. Lilly ran her hands over the mat, along the carpet, across the seat, with a passion borne of determination. She hoped Jake didn’t think she’d lost her mind, but she had to see—”I wonder if they’re all here.”
“You think there’s more?”
“Should be Courage and Wisdom.”
“Let’s be brave and smart and get to the bar, okay? It’s cold out here.”
“Ha-ha.”
“Hey, it’s the best I can do when my teeth are starting to chatter.”
Awed by her find, Lilly slowly took her seat, the charms clutched to her chest. “It was real. I can’t believe it, it was real.”
“Look at you, you’re shaking.” Jake flipped the fan speed higher.
“Oh my God, Elizabeth, thank you so much.” She spouted tears and had to brush them away.
“Uh, Betsy’s not here. And she thinks you only call her that when you’re mad at her.”
Jake leaned across Lilly and pulled the door shut, and when his arm brushed against her breasts, she figured, Forget the charms. She had her sign. Now she had the rest of the day. With luck, she could parlay it into the rest of their lives.
Jake was studying her, waiting for something. She didn’t say anything for a moment as she waged an internal debate. To tell him or not? To risk scaring him off now, or see where she stood right from the get-go?
“Elizabeth’s an angel. I talk to her sometimes.”
“I see.”
“Do you think you’d have a problem with that?”
He looked at Cloud Nine, the fire under control, the building a disaster, then turned his attention back to her. “Yesterday maybe. Today”—he shook his head—”nope. As long as you’re talking to her, tell her I said thanks, too.”
“Or you could.”
“Ah.” His smile lit a fire in her belly. “This is a test, right? I talk to your angel, and we get to spend the afternoon together?”
She couldn’t help grinning. “Maybe longer.”
He looked heavenward and shouted, “Thank you, Elizabeth!”
Well, that certainly was clear.
“Good enough?” he asked.
“Oh yeah.”
“Then let’s go celebrate. My Sister’s Place sound okay? It’s a family bar. We take turns running it.”
“Four girls and you?”
He looked at her curiously. “You’ve been there?”
She shrugged it off. “Lucky guess. Sounds great.”
She took his hand in hers, noting that while she didn’t have the heightened senses she’d had before, he still felt pretty darned good. His hand swallowed hers, their fingers intertwining. Was it too soon to scoot across the seat and lay one on him?
“How’d you like to give some money away?”
She cleared her throat so she wouldn’t squeak. “Excuse me?”
“Ten percent of everything we net at the bar goes to charity. In light of what happened here, I’m making an executive decision to increase it today.”
Slowly, confidently, she smiled. “Make it twenty, and I’ll match you dime for dime.”
“Twenty it is.” He put the car in gear and headed out of the lot, the deep snow sparkling in the sunlight. “Jodie and Jillian are on today. They’ll probably give you the third degree. You know, are you married? Engaged? Do you have kids? Do you like kids? That kind of thing.”
“Bet they won’t be as transparent.”
“Oh heck no, women’re better at that sort of thing.”
“Well, as long as you admit i
t, no, no, no, and yes, a lot. You?”
“Ditto.”
“Boy, if we keep covering ground this fast, we’ll be engaged by midnight.” The thought gave her goose bumps, and he didn’t jump out of the car, so apparently he didn’t scare easily.
He squeezed her hand, as if he’d felt it, too.
“What’s in the bag?” she asked.
He glanced at the sack beneath their joined hands. “Oh, stuff I picked up off the lot, mostly from the holiday rack. The owner said to pick up what I could and get rid of it. Maybe my sisters’ll want something. Or you. Go ahead, poke around and see if anything’s interesting. You like red?”
“I do now.”
Reluctant to release Jake’s hand, selfishly wanting all the contact she could have, Lilly reached over with her free hand and maneuvered the bag to where she could peek into it. She wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable sifting through crotchless panties as she’d been—what?—an hour ago? Latching on to a sheer red leg, she pulled a stocking free.
He sat up straighter. A dead woman couldn’t miss the spark in his eyes.
“Ah, so you’re the scarlet stocking type, huh?” he said, his tone laced with all the hope she could wish for.
“I am now.”
“Is it your size?”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m not planning on wearing it.”
“No?” He sounded disappointed. “What then?”
“I’ll show you when I know you better.”
He glanced at his watch. “Is after dinner too soon? I mean, after all, if we’re going to be engaged by midnight…”
Lilly smiled comfortably, knowing she didn’t have a clue how to apply a stocking rope, but if there was ever a man she wanted to try, Jake was right there beside her. “How do you feel about being tied to the bedposts?”
Jake’s answer was clear and simple. He stepped on the gas and said, “Screw dinner.”
A Date on Cloud Nine Page 29
