Feels Like Summertime(40)
“Are you jumping in with me because you’re afraid I’ll drown, Jake?” Her voice shakes.
I look into her eyes. “Nope. Just because I want to be with you.”
34
Jake
I have learned three very important things in the past six weeks: 1. Little boys pee on the toilet seat. Little girls do too. Katie says it’s all about drippage when it comes to girls, but I still don’t understand it. Perhaps I never will.
2. Pop is going to make a hell of a grandpa some day. What he lacks in patience, he makes up for in *ry, which can be endearing at times.
3. Katie isn’t nearly as into me as I’m into her.
Pop smacks me on the back of my head. “She has a six-week-old infant, dumbass,” he says. “She never sleeps. I’m sure of that, because I hear that thing crying all night long. A woman who’s not getting any sleep isn’t going to have any interest in romance.”
Katie and her family came to stay with me and Pop after she and the baby were discharged from the hospital. I didn’t want them to have to go back into hiding, and to tell the truth, I wanted to keep her and her family safe. It’s not a matter of if Cole is going to come back. It’s a matter of when.
We discussed it with Adam and Dan and with the local police, and we all decided that it was safer for Katie to stay with me and Pop at the big house than for them to move again. Adam and Dan took Cabin 114 for the summer, and they’ve been around when Katie needs them. We have an increased police presence in the complex, and the place is now open for the season, which means it’s crawling with people.
Our house is also brimming with people, which seems more than strange since I haven’t spent a summer here in years. Usually when I visit, it’s the off-season and it has always been just me and Pop. We have three guest rooms, which are perfect for the Stone family. Katie and the baby took one, Trixie and Alex took the bunk beds in another, and Gabby took the third. That left me in a cold, lonely bed. But I am okay with that, since I know Katie is snug as a bug in a rug right down the hall from me. She is safe and warm and within my reach. Now I just need to reach out and grab her.
The cabins on the lake are all rented out, and people started arriving about five weeks ago. There has been a never-ending chorus of “I need this” and “I want that” and “Can you fix this” from the people who occupy the cabins. Honestly, I don’t know how Pop kept up with it all for as long as he did, particularly since he has been alone since I got out of the police academy.
It takes me and him both to keep the place operating. I have no idea what he will do when I go home.
Katie and I haven’t shared so much as a kiss since that night at the hospital. Pop says I’m a chickenshit. Maybe I am. She has a brand new baby, three kids, and a threat hanging over her head. Maybe she’s not ready for anything new with me.
But maybe she is. I won’t know until I ask, will I?
“You wouldn’t happen to want to babysit tonight, would you?” I ask Pop, wincing as I say it because I just know he’s going to throw something at my head.
He heaves a sigh. “I’ll let the ones who can wipe their own asses make my dinner.” He gets a gleam in his eye. “That big one is a decent cook.”
“Her name is Gabby, Pop,” I remind him.
He waves a hand through the air as though my words don’t matter. “Oh, who cares what her name is. She makes a mean grilled cheese. Plus, she owes me a rematch so I can win my money back.”
Pop has been losing to Gabby at cards all summer. The kid is going to go to college on the money she’s made off Pop.
“So you’ll babysit?”
“Don’t they have grandparents right down the road?” Pop grouses.
“Pop,” I say. “C’mon…”
Pop gets up and goes to the bathroom without answering me.
Dan and Adam spend a lot of time with the kids during the day, but at night, Katie likes to have them close to us. She says it’s too hard to keep up with them in the dark. She’s right, and every minute they’re gone, I worry about them.
The central security alarm I installed goes off with a quiet little beep when the front door opens. Katie walks in carrying a car seat. She goes to the fridge and gets a bottle of water. Then she walks over to me and grins up at me, setting the car seat down at my feet.
“Hi,” she sings out. She sets the water bottle on the end of the counter.
A grin tugs at my lips as she grabs the lapels of my shirt and pulls me so my body meets hers as she falls against my chest.
“Whoa,” I say. “I could get used to this.” I let my hands rest at her waist. “How was your doctor’s appointment?”
She nods. “It was good. I passed with flying colors.”
“There was a test?”
“Yes,” she says. She drops her voice down to a whisper. “The is-her-vagina-all-recovered-from-pushing-out-a-baby test.”
“Oh.” I pull my head back and look down my nose at her. “Am I supposed to ask you about your vagina?” I feel like I’m walking through a field filled with explosives. One wrong step and BLAM! I’ll blow my own dick off.
“I totally think you should,” she whispers.