Twice in a Lifetime (Love Found) Page 28

  With renewed energy she moved to the closet. Ben’s clothing was removed long ago, but it was ridiculous how she’d managed to take over that space. She moved her wardrobe back where it was when she shared the closet in the past, restoring order and removing items she no longer wore. Her glance skimmed over Jake’s bags tucked against the wall. Sliding open one long zipper, she unpacked shirts and slacks, smoothing wrinkles from each item as it was hung. His jeans, showing the wear and tear of work, were removed and placed on hangers as well. She took the second bag to an antique dresser in the bedroom, its empty drawers gliding open smoothly as if happy to be of use again. Pulling out the wads of gym shorts, undershirts, boxer briefs and mismatched socks that were shoved unceremoniously into the bag, she neatly stacked them in their new homes. In the bottom of the bag were his shoes. She walked them back into the closet, placing them on the floor shelf, dress shoes and work boots lined up neatly beside running shoes and heels.

  There was one last thing. Removing his shaving kit, she returned to the vanity. His toothbrush went in the holder with hers, personal items into the medicine cabinet. She stood back and soaked it in. Starting tonight they would each be part of them, never again alone. She turned off the light as she left the room, smiling.

  The phone rang as she slid the pizzas in to cook. She closed the oven door and picked up the receiver. “Hi babe, how’s my truck?”

  “Down for the count, I’m afraid. I had to call for a tow.”

  Her heart sank. “Darn! I have a few things to take care of tomorrow.”

  “That’ll still work. When we’re done loading the mattress I’ll have Trey bring my car over for you.”

  What? “You mean you’ll let Trey drive your ‘Vette? Your shiny new Corvette that I've ridden in exactly once?"

  “Um. Yes?”

  She could only laugh in astonishment. He was a very brave man. "That will certainly make you his idol for life.” As if he wasn’t already.

  There was a smile in his voice when he spoke. “I’ve waited half a lifetime to finally say you’re mine, Allie. I’m feeling generous.”

  A quiet sigh slipped out. He took such good care of them. She let her voice go sultry. “Then hurry home so I can thank you properly.”

  There was an endless pause before he broke the silence, his words caressing her heart in a voice that was exceptionally deep and more than a little strained. “Babe. It’s you. It’s always been you.” He paused again to clear his throat. “You’re all the thanks I need.”

  Her heart fluttered. Oh, my.

  The air was spicy with the aroma of pepperoni as the front door slammed and Trey trailed Jake in, the mattress they wrestled between them more awkward and unwieldy than a full-grown crocodile. “Here. Set it down… now,” he said, and let go. Jesus, it was a good thing Trey was there to help. No way could he have managed the cumbersome bed alone. He stretched the stiffness out of his fingers and headed toward the master bedroom. “The old bed comes out first, remember? Let’s carry it into the garage.”

  Jake tugged the replacement mattress into place, Trey helping him push at it until it was installed on the black iron frame. Allie stood nearby, offering suggestions, she called it. He grinned. He called it acting like a wife.

  But as a reward, he got fresh hot pizza with his woman and her kid. What beat that? By the time Allie had the dishwasher loaded she was yawning. She disappeared while he flipped channels in the living room, but came back minutes later wearing pajamas, her breath minty fresh when she leaned into him.

  “I can’t keep my eyes open a moment longer. I really need to go to bed now.”

  He anchored his hand around her neck and let his lips skim along the softness of hers, parting them with gentle pressure. Trey was in the bathroom preparing to leave, meeting friends for a late movie and he was sprawled on the sofa with his eyelids drooping. The sexy soft scent of Allie’s skin buzzed his senses. He stood and clicked the TV off. Might as well tag along.

  Jake was relaxed from a warm, soothing shower. With a towel tied to his hips he entered the darkened bedroom. “Ow! Dammit!” A little light would be good here. He nursed the toe that had stumbled into the oversized nightstand and patted the tabletop blindly. Ah ha, the lamp. He flicked it on and checked the bed. She was still asleep, good. Now, where were his clothes?

  The upper drawer held a mother lode of lace and satin; he remembered that drawer. He tried the next drawer down. Running shorts and stretchy tops. “Where the hell’d she hide my clothes?” He finally found them in the other dresser, all neatly folded. He glanced at Allie again, sleeping soundly on his side of the bed. “Thanks, babe.” He stepped into underwear and joined her under the covers, tucking her up against his still-damp skin.

  Jake was gone when she awoke the next morning. He left a note on the bathroom counter, along with keys.

  Allie—Will get truck repaired today. Have fun with Reese. Courthouse at 4? Love you, Jake

  Short and sweet. She missed him already. She tucked the note into her vanity drawer and stepped under the steaming hot shower.

  Allie stood in the center of the living room, arms crossed. She’d already had a busy morning selecting flowers with Reese, but there was still so much to do. First off, what to do with the Christmas tree? She checked the clock. If she retrieved the storage boxes from the garage it would take an hour or so to have everything packed away. Forty minutes later she had a stack of bulging containers, her treasured memories safe and snug in their tissue wrappers, ready for the next year.

  When Trey returned from work she’d enlist him to haul away the dry tree for recycling. She inspected the surrounding carpet. It wouldn’t do any good to vacuum up pine needles until the tree was gone. She plopped on the sofa, turned the television on to a cable music channel and picked up her novel from the side table.

  Jake counted the persistent rings of the telephone until Allie answered. She had so much on her plate this week he’d bet anything she lost track of time.

  “Hello?”

  Oh, sweet Christ! He jerked the steering wheel. Caught in heavy traffic with the phone pressed to his ear, he nearly swerved into a minivan. Apparently she’d been asleep. That deep, throaty voice was pure sex and cut straight to his gut. “Babe. Are you ready?”

  He waited through the pause. “Sure. Just walking out the door.”

  The little liar. She’d definitely been sleeping. He let a smile creep into his voice. “Okay, then. I’ll meet you inside the courthouse.”

  Walking through the smudged glass door, Jake scanned the room and sought Allie out while shrugging out of his flannel-lined jacket. There she was, perched on a chair in the waiting area with her coat neatly buttoned, a magazine propped open on her lap. When she looked up, found him, her smile was sweet and welcoming.

  He had to pause, soak in the emotions flooding through every fiber of his being. Anticipation stood front and center, combined with the desperate desire she ignited with no more than a glance. And if he read it right, the jitters he’d had all morning indicated a little nervousness. But he was okay with that—husband was a new role for him.

  There were so many other feelings poking around his brain and his heart—peace, contentment. Relief. But above all else he was blissfully happy.

  If he were a poet he’d tell her that her smile was as radiant as rays of sunshine reflecting off the sparkling lake in July. That the vastness of his love for her would overflow the depths of the Grand Canyon. But those words would sound corny if he spoke them, so instead he sat beside her and dropped a tender kiss on her curved, sweet lips.

  “I love you.” He let the emotion in his eyes convey all he meant.

  Her sweet smile changed, became impudent. “I should hope so. Because we went through quite a bit to get here, you know.” She stretched toward him and grazed his cheek with her knuckles, stroked his temples. “So, are we going to do this?”

  He rose and took her hand, then rushed her to the clerk’s counter. He’d do whatever it took t
o make her his wife.

  Jake’s week rushed by with the swiftness of a cheetah on speed. The lull of activity and the lack of office staff during the holiday season normally had him on edge. But it was Thursday and today his nerves screamed and his insides were twisted like the roots beneath Allie’s favorite rose bush.

  The shrill ring of the office phone went unanswered for what must be the fourteenth time. “Dammit!” He had to get out of there. The piles on his desk weren’t going anywhere. He stomped through the entrance door and locked it behind him, his mood both as edgy and as capricious as the skies above.

  Tomorrow. By this time tomorrow he would be a married man. Lawfully wedded. Something he definitely looked forward to, so why was he nervous? He climbed into his truck and started it up, then turned the knob for the wipers, removing the moisture that remained from an earlier thundershower.

  Allie trusted him, trusted he would never betray her, never hurt her. She had no doubts. And he didn’t have a single doubt about her, either. On the contrary, she was the answer to his whispered prayers. He was eager, giddier than the grand prize winner on a daytime game show. Suddenly his irritability evaporated. His eyes danced as he steered his vehicle toward the dry cleaners. Him, a nervous bridegroom? He never would have guessed.

  Trey spent his days shadowing both he and Nick around the office and out at job sites. He made notes of headway on all their projects, and helped out where needed. He commuted to and from work with Jake, and that was just fine. He loved the kid as if he was his own son. It was convenient to use the time spent stuck in freeway traffic to review the plans and progress of current jobs. Sometimes they merely discussed sports or the hot topic of the day.

  Jake set the alarm code and locked the office door. His final errand of the day had been to pick up Allie’s wedding gift. He patted the inside pocket of his jacket as he sauntered toward the parking lot. Still there. The knots he spent the afternoon slowly untangling tried to regain their hold. He took a deep breath. He’d rather not go through that again.

  He neared his truck. Trey was talking on his cell in the cab, gesturing with tense, agitated movements. He ended his call and tossed the phone onto the dash as Jake swung open the door, illuminating the interior with a bright glow. Trey’s face was clearly miserable.

  “Nick says you’re doing a great job helping him out.” Bouncing and splashing through puddles, he swung the truck onto the main road and flicked his eyes toward Trey. His attention was caught somewhere in the lights on the horizon. Several quiet minutes later he turned onto the freeway. “You have a natural talent for this work, and you seem to enjoy it.”

  “Hmm. Yeah.”

  Jake frowned. What was it going to take to get a reaction? “Nick and I were talking about putting you in charge of the company this summer.”

  “Sure. Okay.” Well, that wasn’t it.

  “Your mom and I are moving to Tahiti next week.”

  “That’s fine.” The kid was a million miles away.

  “We plan to live in a tree house.” Now that was funny. He had no defense against his stupid grin.

  Trey’s head snapped around. “What? What? Moving where?”

  Finally. He gave Trey a long look. “What’s up, Trey?”

  Trey frowned. “Um. Nothing. Just… nothing.”

  “Nothing seems to have you a little preoccupied tonight.” He adjusted the rearview and darted his eyes to the speedometer when a cop pulled in behind him. Yeah, he was safe. His eyes landed on Trey again. “Sure you don’t want to talk about it?”

  Trey sunk further into the contoured leather seat and sighed like the weight of the entire world rested solely on his shoulders, Atlas-style. A sigh dredged all the way up from the soles of his muddy work boots. “Yeah, maybe I need to talk about it.” Trey turned toward him, his eyes pleading. “But you can’t tell my mom. She won’t understand.”

  He may be a rookie, but he knew better than to promise that. “Maybe. Maybe not. I need to know what you’re up against first.”

  Trey took in a deep breath, then let it out on a long sigh. “There’s a girl.”

  Jake smirked, then let his tone go dry. “Trey, when a guy’s this jacked up, there’s usually a girl.”

  “This girl’s different. She’s special.”

  “No need to get defensive.”

  Trey’s face whipped his way. “Sorry.”

  “We’re good. Go on.”

  “She’s in one of my study groups. We started hanging out last month.”

  “That sounds normal, nothing your mom wouldn’t understand. I still don’t get the problem.”

  Trey’s sigh carried relief as well as worry. “It’s sex.”

  Oh, crap. Now he was ready to slink down in his seat. “So the problem is she won’t let you in her pants?” And was there, please God, any way to sound a little less lame?

  Uh oh. He could read those squinty eyes. He’d missed the point again.

  “The problem is I don’t love her. She’s cool and all, we have fun. Fool around a little sometimes. But that’s as far as I want to go right now. We’ve only had four dates—I don’t even know her—and I’m not all over her shit so she thinks I’m hooking up with someone else.” Trey punched the dashboard. What the hell? Now the kid was pissed. “She’s blowing up my phone, acting all crazy jealous.”

  Jake slid eyes right to the abused dash. Kid better not have cracked it. “You’ve talked to her about this, I imagine.”

  “She doesn’t get it. All she sees is she’s not getting any.”

  He choked out a cough. Good thing it was dark out. He’d never be able to have this conversation in the light of day. “Talk to Jax?”

  Trey snorted. “She’s a straight-up bitch to him. Guess what he says.” He stared through the windshield, at the wipers steadily slapping the raindrops away. “I’m trying to decide if I should cave or ditch her.” Jesus. Back to miserable. Good times.

  He exited the freeway, nearly home. Time to wrap this up. “Got to remind you, Trey. There are a whole lot of hot girls out there. And you don’t want to hear it, but you’re young yet. Remember to let your intellect keep instinct firmly in check.”

  Trey turned from staring through the windshield. Looked at him in confusion. “Huh?”

  Allie was definitely cooler than her son realized. He grinned. “Make sure the big head’s doing the thinking for the little head.”

  Trey smirked. “Yeah.” The word escaped his mouth slowly, like resin seeping through new pine. “But she really knows which buttons to push.”

  It probably wasn’t Trey’s buttons they should be concerned about. More like his zipper. “If she doesn’t respect the way you feel, if she doesn’t respect you… I’d say she’s really not that special.”

  Again a long, slow breath. “Yeah.”

  Jake’s finger tapped the wheel as he steered through traffic. It was time to raise the stakes. “Trey, can I ask you something? It’s kind of personal.”

  Trey’s lips curved. “What have we been talking about that wasn’t personal?”

  He blew out a huffing laugh. “You got me there. But seriously, is this the first girl? I mean… have you ever… um… been with a girl?” Oh my God, how ever did fathers do this?

  The little shit had the nerve to laugh at him. “Are you asking if I’m still a virgin?”

  He tightened his hands on the steering wheel. He was all in now. “Yeah I am.”

  “Not really.”

  Well, what the hell did that mean?

  Then again, did he really want to know? He needed out of this conversation before he died of mortification. He pointed his eyes forward as he turned onto their street. “Well, remember… in this day and age… if you’re going to play the game you’ve got to suit up. There’s more at stake than just an unwanted pregnancy.”

  “I’ve got it covered.”

  His eyes flew to Trey. “Yeah?”

  Trey smirked. “Yeah.”

  Oh thank God. “All right then.�
� He pulled into the driveway and killed the engine. Pushed the button to open the garage. “And you’re wrong about your mom. She’s a pretty amazing lady.”

  Trey stilled with his hand on the door pull. “You’re right. She is.” He looked like he might say something else as he met Jake at the front of the truck, but then halted. “Thanks for talking to me tonight, Jake. Sometimes I really miss my dad.”

  Jake dropped an arm around his shoulder and headed toward the house. “Yeah kid, so do I.”

  “So… looks like the Cardinals are gonna make the playoffs, huh?”

  Jake padded into the kitchen in his socks and leaned against the counter. Allie lowered the knife she was using to chop tomatoes for salad. “Everything okay?”

  Yeah, it really was. Her arms wrapped around him as he pulled her against him, burying his face in her sweet-smelling hair. “I think I grew up tonight.”

  She nestled against him. The motion of her smile tickled his chest. “Care to tell me about it?”

  He smiled into the soft silk floating around him. “Not this time, babe. But I can tell you, Trey is one great kid. You did a helluva job raising him.”

  She lifted her face and beamed. “Thank you, sweetheart. I didn’t do it alone, you know.”

  He pulled back and looked into her eyes. “No, everything else aside, Ben was a damn good dad.”

  “He was, but I was talking about you. I couldn’t have made it through those first years alone without you. You’ve always been there for Trey. He looks up to you.”

  She’d told him that many times over the years, but tonight it really hit home. “I never realized what a responsibility that was. It’s rather awe-inspiring.” And more than a little scary.