Straight Up Love (The Boys of Jackson Harbor #2)(72)

“Yeah, you will.” He winks at me.

The other girls give their orders, and Jake scribbles notes down on his pad before tucking it into his back pocket. “Anything else?”

“Privacy?” Ellie asks. “You haven’t walked away from this table since your woman got here.”

My cheeks heat, and Jake shrugs. “If you’d let me take her to the back for five minutes—”

“No!” the girls chorus.

Jake chuckles, then dips his head to bring his mouth to mine. The kiss is chaste by most standards—two pairs of lips touching, no tongue, no groping—but the way his mouth lingers against mine makes my blood heat. “You look fucking amazing tonight,” he whispers in my ear. “I’m feeling really sorry that I promised to take it slow, because I’d love to strip off everything but those heels and—”

“Oh my God! Leave already!” Shay screeches, and I look across the table to see her shudder. “I can’t hear what you’re saying, but I still feel like I need a shower.”

Jake winks at me, then heads to the kitchen to prepare our food.

“So, how’s that going?” Teagan asks.

My gaze darts to Shay, who’s the only person at this table of my friends I haven’t talked to about my Sunday afternoon with Jake six short days ago. She folds her arms and watches me. “I’m curious too. He’s certainly happier.”

“Of course he’s happier,” Nic says. “He finally got the girl.”

“And you’re happier,” Teagan says. “Lost her job but can’t stop grinning. Somebody’s getting laid.”

Ellie snorts, and Shay grimaces. “Remind me to find some friends who don’t fuck my brothers. There are some things a girl just doesn’t need to know about her family members.”

“So you’re doing it,” Nic says, squeezing her hands together and grinning. “This is happening.”

“They’re actually not doing it,” Ellie says. “She got me all excited about being an auntie, but at this rate we’re all going to see the dawn of the next century before those two actually copulate.” She props her elbows on the table and leans forward. “I think they missed the day in health class when they taught about how the penis has to go inside the vagina for babies to get made.”

Shay drags a hand over her face. “Maybe I’ll leave, and you can text me when you’re done talking about my brother’s penis?”

I dip my gaze and focus on my beer instead of all the curious eyes pointed in my direction. “We’re taking it slow.” I nibble on my bottom lip. “It’s been nice, actually. I was in such a rush to have a baby, and I still want that, but . . . there are a few other things that have taken priority.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t have sex,” Ellie says. “Because condoms?”

Nic smacks her arm. “Stop it. I think it’s sweet.”

It turns out Jake was serious when he said we’d take it slow. He hasn’t done anything more than kiss me since that afternoon in my kitchen. That and some heavy over-the-clothes petting against the bar after we closed last night. He kissed my neck and whispered dirty words, then rubbed me through my jeans until I came. I wanted to go to bed with him so badly afterward that I nearly screamed when he kissed me goodnight and sent me home.

“We’ve both been really busy,” I say. “Slow makes sense.” Even if it is making me crazy.

“You’re coming to the cabin with us next weekend, right?” Nic asks.

I bite my bottom lip and nod. I’ve been to the Jackson family cabin many times before. It was a home away from home for me when I was a teenager. But this is the first time I’ll be there as Jake’s girlfriend—and it will be the first time we’ve spent the night together since we confessed our feelings. “Is it stupid that I’m nervous?”

Shay laughs. “Yes. Totally stupid. You two have been a couple for two decades without even realizing it. Nothing’s changed.”

“Colton and I can’t make it,” Ellie says. “His team needs him in town to test out the new bike they’ve been working on. So if Jake wears out your hoo-ha and you need a timeout, I won’t be there to protect you.”

Teagan groans. “Please never refer to a vagina as a hoo-ha ever again.”

“Just because your vagina is sad doesn’t mean I can’t give mine a happy name.”





“You hanging in there?” Jake asks me on Friday night. We snuck outside after dinner, and we’re standing here with our backs against the house, our faces tilted up to the sky. The night is warm, and the blanket of stars over the cabin is the perfect reminder of why I love this part of Michigan so much.

I nod. “I feel like this is the first chance I’ve had to catch my breath all week.”

We’re at the cabin with his family, and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.

This week has been one unbelievable and emotionally exhausting turn of events after another. Tuesday, I did a Skype interview for the job in Florida. It turns out that Colton was right, and it isn’t just Dad’s influence that had them coming after me with such gusto. Seaside Community Schools is looking for a candidate who can start a summer theater program from the ground up—which is exactly what I did in Jackson Harbor, except in Seaside the children’s theater director position would be paid, whereas here my long hours are done on a volunteer basis.