“Yes, I sure do sweetie!”
The fire in her eyes doubled as she concentrated on hitting the ball between the two trees Colt was using as a net. She lifted the stick and with a quick swing, the ball did exactly as she planned.
Sydney clapped. “Way to go Rosemary!”
“Yay!”
Colt also cheered, running across the yard and swooped the girl into his arms, flying her in circles in the sky.
“Colt, don’t ruin her hair!” Peyton called, shaking her head. Peyton was chic, modern and her baby-bump pressed out against her fitted black sleeveless dress. “I’m going to skin him,” she said, but the look of love crossing her face contradicted her words.
“Wait until you have your own,” Abby said slowly as she reached for Peyton’s stomach and rubbed in a circular motion. Peyton wasn’t a fan of people touching her stomach, she put up with it, but didn’t like it. If you weren’t part of the family, look out cause more than likely she was going to swing at you.
Peyton swatted her hand away and frowned at Abby. She put up with family...sometimes. “Why do you always rub my belly like that?” she demanded, smoothing out her dress then hugging the bottom of her belly and sending Abby a deep frown.
Abby laughed, enjoying the rise she often got out of her pregnant, and sometimes cranky, sister. Her own floor-length black, studded dress stopped just above her heeled boots, as she straightened. “Like what?” Abby asked innocently.
Peyton’s glare didn’t waver. “Like it’s some big surprise that there are babies in there. We all know there are babies in my stomach. We can all see the weight I’ve gained.” Peyton circled her hand around her stomach.
“Two of them,” Abby added. She grinned at everyone else. “Sydney was not this big with Haylee at five months.” There was Abby’s little inappropriate teasing that usually got her into trouble.
Sydney grinned against her better judgement not wanting to encourage their youngest sibling and waited for Peyton’s retort. Peyton and Abby bantered more than any of them.
“Sydney had one baby.” Peyton held one finger up to make the point clear. “In her stomach, Abby. I have two.” Another finger bounced up. “That's double the space.”
“Oh yikes,” Abby said. “If you're stomach doubles Sydney’s at nine months you're not going to be moving.”
Peyton’s mouth dropped open.
“That's my cue to leave,” Marc said, kissing the side of Kate's grinning face before joining the hockey crowd.
“Stop it.” Kate swatted at Abby. “Leave her alone.”
“I think we should make Abby drive herself,” Peyton said.
“Hey! That’s not fair,” she pouted. “I’m the only sister who doesn’t have a rich man doting on her.”
“You have Riley,” Peyton said.
Abby rolled her eyes. “He’s not rich, and he’s not mine.”
“Technically, Sydney doesn’t have Jake either,” Peyton said and Sydney felt the same old conversation coming on. It didn’t matter how many times Peyton went down this road, nothing changed between her and Jake. She wasn’t sure why Peyton continued to pester. Turn your pestering back to Abby, she deserves it.
“I mean she has him wrapped around her little finger, but she doesn’t have have him. Like in her bed or his bed or wherever.”
His bed. What a nice thought. There was that pine smell again, tangled in the sheets where she woke up, snuggled around and sent her tingling through her body. She felt a smile coming on and her eyes wanting to steal another look at Jake.
Then Haylee’s word popped into her head: weird. Weird was not the accurate word for what was conspiring between her and Jake. Sydney would replace the word “weird” with “lust”. Plain old basic yearning...desire...lust. But, if Haylee mentioned her observation in front of her sisters, she would only be throwing timber onto the fire. She had to keep the Jake topic on the down low as she saw Haylee make her way over to the group.
“Why haven’t you two hooked up yet? I think I missed something while I was away,” Peyton said. “What happened?” she asked Sydney, suddenly serious. “What went wrong to deter the two of you from getting involved? Is he not good in the sack?” Peyton gasped. “Are you not good in the sack? Because let’s face it, look at him.” Sydney retrained herself while her sisters found Jake. “Whoa! Look at him!” Peyton said.
Sydney couldn't help it, she followed her sisters’ eyes. Jake was so handsome. He was ruggedly handsome in all sense of the word, but with an edge of danger, even while wearing a designer suit and loafers. The way his tanned skin moved with his chiseled features, even today while he was missing his peppered stubble...he was the guy whose permanent five-o-clock shadow suited him to perfection...his sinister looks were too breathtaking for a woman not to notice...or want to touch...kiss...No, no touching. No kissing. No anything Jake Stow.
His bottomless mysterious eyes caused women to look at him and see a rough-around-the-edges broken man they wanted to fix. Jake Stow needed fixing too. Oh, how this mystifying man held secrets he didn’t dare to share. But, again, Sydney couldn’t hold that against him when she had secrets of her own tucked away.
“I miss the leather jacket,” Abby said.
Everyone laughed. Abby had it bad for tattooed, leather jacket-wearing men.
Sydney was beginning to wonder if deep down she had the same dark side for this one particular tattooed, leather jacket-wearing man. From the very first time she laid eyes on him back in high school when he walked his new city-boy screw-you attitude down the halls, standing tall behind that leather jacket, Sydney had been hook, line and sinker for the dramatic mysterious man. Jake had then cut the line and let the reserved girl sink, until he realized she floated and planned on bobbing in and out of his life forever. They’d bonded a strange friendship of an angry boy and shy girl that had lasted all these years. A friendship...until recently. Sydney let his good looks and soft spot for her create a mass of feelings that were so far from a friendship that it was like summer versus winter.
As they continued to admire Jake’s new attire Haylee joined them. Please, don’t say anything Haylee. Please!
“Look how handsome your Uncle Jake is,” Peyton said to Haylee.
Sydney held her breath.
No more Jake talk. Finished, done, the end and move along to a different topic. Any other topic. Go back to Peyton’s belly!
Haylee rolled her eyes. “Are you going to get all weird with him too?”
Sydney could have crawled into a hole.
“Weird?” Peyton questioned, sending Sydney a knowing look. You can take that look back Peyton, because I’m not giving you an inch.
“It's nothing,” Sydney said, hoping to put an end to this conversation. She didn’t want Haylee to start naming dates because Peyton and Colt had attended the family day dance where Sydney’s drunken night began and had ended naked in Jake’s bed. Jake’s bed. She hadn’t told her sisters and didn’t plan on it either.
Haylee continued anyway and Sydney wondered how she was not catching the no more looks she was sending her. But Peyton caught them and was all smiles. She was getting a kick out of the whole thing.
“Uncle Jake and Mom have been acting all weird around each other. Haven’t any of you noticed?”
It was clear by the surprised looks her sisters passed around that they hadn’t noticed. Bravo, Sydney, keep up the good work. She was actually rather proud of herself, because Jake’s naked torso was in her head every day.
“We haven't been acting weird,” Sydney said, trying her best to be casual and dismiss her daughter’s observations even if she knew better.
Haylee’s smarts were Sydney’s disadvantage because her sisters all respected Haylee and were not so quick to brush off the weird comments.
Haylee turned to her. “You have.”
Sydney turned to her sisters. “We haven't.”
Haylee turned to her aunts. “They have,” she said, before slipping away, again with the last wor
d. What was that all about?
The sister circle enclosed tighter around Sydney with curious eyes and folded arms. Sydney couldn’t do this with them right now, not when she was trying her hardest to pretend nothing happened.
“Well, well, well,” Peyton said first, with her wicked little smile returning.
Sydney’s insides cringed.
It was no surprise Peyton spoke up first. She loved to voice her opinion about Jake and Sydney’s relationship, whether wanted or not...usually not wanted.
“What any other reason would you have for acting weird with Jake besides realizing you love him?”
Making out on his couch then making love in his big king-size bed.
Wait a minute, back up the limo...love him? What was her sister talking about? They had only had sex and she lacked the pleasure of remembering the details.
Suddenly a thought flashed in her mind...had they been in his closet? Had there been something special she didn’t know about...something in there that they had...used?
Sydney felt light-headed.
Had his little comment about his closet been referring to something that happened between them that night and she didn’t catch it because she couldn’t remember what happened? Did Jake remember? Of course he did, he could actually hold his alcohol. Sydney on the other now so much.
Peyton gasped. “You had sex with him.” She elbowed Kate and whispered to her. “She had sex with him.”
Sydney grabbed Peyton’s other arm. “Shush.” She glanced over Peyton’s head, watching her family begin to load into the limousine and Jake helping them inside. Perfect gentleman.
They were all oblivious to the conversation at hand. Thank the stars!
“Where do come up with this stuff? I’m not like you Peyton; I don’t randomly have sex with men in the shower!”
Peyton’s eyes flared at her sister’s reaction. “Listen to the defense wall build up.” She almost sounded proud.
“It’s not a defense wall.” It was totally a defense wall. It was the Great Wall of China. “It’s the plain truth.” Jake wasn’t some random guy, so that part was definitely the truth.
“That random man turned out to be the best thing I didn’t know I was looking for.” Peyton’s loving eyes fell to Colt and Sydney felt a sting of jealousy. She had a wonderful relationship with Jake...when it wasn’t weird...and yet, if she let the truth surface, she longed for more between them. She always had.
“That wasn’t how you announced your shower rendezvous over dinner,” Abby reminded Peyton.
The sisters shared a round of amused smiles remembering Peyton and Colt’s first fight, Sydney was glad her baby sister had shifted the topic away from her and Jake. Peyton and Colt’s announcement had been a family affair, done right around the dinner table. They simply had let the cat out of the bag that they’d had sex in the shower and neither was happy about it...but they had been only fooling themselves.
Abby continued, “After the two of you had a forever make-out session that Elaine walked in on while you were naked in his childhood bed...”
Peyton held her hand up. “We...I was not naked Abby and we have gone over this and I wasn’t in his bed...” A mischievous look took over Peyton’s face. “...but the make-out session was hot. That man can lift me up against a wall in one swift motion and his other hands know exactly where to go and what to do and...”
“Whoa!” The sisters all held their hands up. “Way too much detail!”
Peyton laughed, enjoying them squirm.
Sydney would never be able to talk about her personal life so openly like Peyton or any of her sisters. She was having a difficult time just dealing with it inside her head.
“Like I was saying, we are supposed to be having a conversation about Sydney and Jake,” Peyton said.
“We really aren’t,” Sydney said. “There is nothing to talk about.”
They grinned at her like they knew something she didn’t. Defending herself would be a waste of a breath since they had their minds already made up. Either that she’d had sex with Jake or she loved Jake and she didn’t care for any of them to clarify.
“Quit it you three. You're going to make it weird,” Sydney said, although she was doing a bang-up job all on her own.
“Because we know?” Peyton asked.
“No. Because you’re jumping to conclusions.” There was no way she was telling them that Peyton was smack on.
“We are waiting on you four!” Jake called out.
“He's waiting on you,” Peyton said, pinching Sydney’s arm on her way past. If Peyton wasn’t pregnant Sydney might have very well slapped her arm.
“I've been around you and Jake forever. Way longer than these two,” Abby said, stopping on her way past. “And if you guys are shacking up...” she shrugged, “Well, it’s not surprising and nothing you should be ashamed about Sydney or feel the need to hide from us.” She smiled...sincerely. “It is about time you guys hooked up. You both have always had eyes for each other for as long as I can remember. It’s sweet you two finally realized it.” Abby hugged Sydney before leaving her stunned at her youngest wild sister’s serious and gentle, comforting words.
“That was weird.” Kate looped her arm around Sydney’s on their way to the vehicle.
Sydney agreed. “Where did that even come from?”
Kate shrugged. “I don't know.”
They laughed.
Chapter Four
THREE TABLES WERE pushed together to accommodate the McAdams family at the Cliff House for supper. Jake naturally found his seat beside Sydney and Abby naturally found hers across from them, smack dab in the center of the table so she could dip into everyone’s conversation.
Abby was sending Jake weird looks that he’d noticed all the sisters seemed to have acquired this afternoon. Looks he wasn’t understanding.
During the photo shoot at the beach he’d caught them all staring at him at least half a dozen times, watching him, then smiling when busted. In the limo, he’d seen them exchange looks before landing on him. It was all a little odd. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he was starting to wonder if Sydney had told them about the Family Day after party at his house.
The new favorite topic around the table was about the Old Town & Soap Co. He liked hearing about the success of the shop. He hadn’t heard all that much with Sydney ignoring him since they opened. However at the current moment, he was relieved that it was distracting the McAdams sisters from not staring at him. He was beginning to get a complex.
After everyone ordered, which was entertaining all in itself, Haylee brought up the annual boat trip to Hastings Port.
“It’s only for the weekend,” Haylee said. “Because of the soap shop, but we will still get all the festivities, so that will be fun.”
“Sydney, you can take more time off,” Kate said before sipping her glass of water. “The three of us can work around the days you’re gone.”
Sydney shook her head. “Four days are plenty.” She sent Haylee her motherly, no more, complaining look.
“I said it was still going to be fun,” Haylee argued.
Joan waved her hand in the air. “Oh, three nights, four days will be perfect. There are lots we can do, Kate. As a business owner, I understand the importance of supporting your business, especially when you’ve just launched. Now is your prime important time.”
Jake couldn’t help remember the memory of a time when Joan had been the younger live-in nanny watching over him and his sister, Adalyn. That was before she became his father’s mistress and drove his mother away, putting a wedge between all his family members.
Let it go, Jake. That was a long time ago.
Kate smiled at Joan. “Thank you. It has been an amazing experience opening the shop.” They went right back into shop-talk, until Abby became bored with that topic.
“I am taking a week off for a summer vacation,” Abby announced. “I don’t know what I am doing or where I am going, but damn it is going to be the la
ziest week I’ve had in months!”
There was a round of chuckles then Peyton sent him another smirk and he was convinced Sydney spilled their evening adventure.
He leaned over to her and whispered, “Your sisters have seen looking at me strange all afternoon.”
She turned slightly so she could see his eyes. “They think you're very handsome in your new suit. I think it’s because you shaved.” Sydney’s fingers touched his chin claiming warmth around them. The softness of her touch in that very spot made him decide he was going to shave his chin for the rest of his life.
“Except Abby, but don’t take offense, she is missing the flashy tattoos and leather jacket.”
He was missing his leather jacket which was hanging up in his office.
“No, I saw those looks at your dad’s house. These looks are different.” Come on, Sydney spill the beans woman...did you tell your sisters about that night?
Sydney laughed under her breath.
What was so funny? She had! “What did I miss?”
She shook her head.
“Syd?”
“Okay.” She sent him a look to lower his tone. “Haylee may have mentioned that you and I...” Oh Lord, she told Haylee! “...act a little weird around one another lately.”
They needed to correct that statement, all of them. He knew how to maintain a straight face and proper composure. Sydney on the other hand, wouldn’t be able to hide her true feelings if her life depended on it and therefore she was the one acting weird.
Remembering the reason behind her weirdness he almost smiled, quite possibly even did smile, envisioning her naked little self running around his room searching and scooping up her clothes with his sheet wrapped around her like a cape. It was like he’d had his own personal superhero that morning.
“That look right there,” Sydney said. “That's the one that's getting us into trouble.”
Oh crap. So he wasn’t as good at hiding his thoughts as he assumed he was. Well done Stow. He didn’t even dare look around the table to see who caught that look.
“That’s the one they’re looking for,” she teased.
Lakeshore Love: The McAdams Sisters (By The Lake Book 3) Page 3
