Naked Love(91)

“Something smells good.” I wring my hands together. Gah! I’m so nervous.

“It’s a curry dish. I think it’s actually the rice cooking that you smell. I love the smell of rice cooking.”

I smile and nod. Bobbing my head is all I can do since my voice wants to shake as much as the rest of my body. We stand nearly toe to toe. I think it’s out of habit. When you spend weeks with someone in such close quarters, the boundaries of personal space get skewed. It also happens when your favorite place to be with that person is as close as your bodies can get, touching at all points.

“Can I get you something to drink before you start ironing?”

I laugh. “Do you even own an iron?”

Jake smirks as his hands work a large knife, chopping red bell peppers. “No. There’s a dry cleaner across the street. If I need something pressed, I let Saul do it.”

“So you lured me here under false pretenses?” My resolve weakens with every second I spend near Jake.

Time is magical. It doesn’t erase things, but it gives a different perspective. There’s a shift in magnification. The negative blurs over time, and the good moments—the important ones—they linger and intensify. They become the drug. You want more of those moments, and the risk that held little worth gains value with each passing day.

Has Jake become worth the risk? Is that why I’m here?

He pauses, glancing up at me as I lean my hip against the adjacent edge to the counter, hands tucked into the back pockets of my denim capris. His gaze slides over me as a slight wrinkle forms along his brow. “Maybe.” The tension in his expression vanishes as he returns his focus to the chopping board. “But I thought you could look around the place and see if you have any questions. In case you decide to take me up on my offer to stay here for a while.”

I glance around at the large space with exposed beams, a bed in the far corner, an open door into the bathroom.

“Clearly you can find everything. But I’ll show you how the remotes work for the lighting, the shades to the windows, and I’ll make sure you understand the security, including the cameras around the building.” He pauses again, this time keeping his chin down. “I’m sure you’ve stayed or lived in places with fancy lighting and security.”

My ego jumps to its feet, fists up. Instead of letting it throw the first punch, I focus on his words and the tone in his voice. He made a simple assumption. The assumption was correct. No underlying tones of accusation or disgust.

“I have, but you should show me anyway. It’s probably a little different than what I’ve encountered.” I give myself a mental high-five. Look at me being a mature adult.

He slides the sliced peppers off the cutting board into a hot sauté pan where they sizzle and crackle.

“Are you taking your time driving back to Milwaukee? Camping along the way?”

Jake stirs vegetables, keeping his back to me. “I’ll camp two nights. I need to get back and start working on the fall menu. Also, I have … friends visiting next Friday. They’re staying with me for a week or so.”

“You have friends?”

He shoots me an evil look over his shoulder.

“Hey, I had to ask.”

He traps his lip between his teeth, eyes narrowed. Gah! I wish I could read his mind.

“Jace and Mo visit this time every year.” He clears his throat. It’s odd. Something feels off.

“Jace was a fighter too. That’s how we met. Mo is his … uh … sister, and she was his agent. Now they recruit MMA talent together. He trains, she does all the rest.”

“Mo? Bethanne said you took Mo on your summer road trip two years ago. Is this the same Mo?”

“Yep.”

“So … you and Mo were a thing?”

He shrugs, dumping coconut milk into the pan along with a ton of different measured out spices. “Jace had surgery on his shoulder that summer, and Mo had a fighter in L.A. she wanted to check out. It was last minute. We just decided to drive out here together.”

I return an easy nod and fake smile when he glances over at me. “That uh … didn’t exactly answer my question.”

“Were we a thing?” He shrugs again.

I officially hate shrugs.

“I guess you’d say friends with benefits when it served a mutual … need.”

I feel nauseous, probably from a bad case of delusion. In spite of one incident after another, I felt pretty damn special on our trip, like I was the first woman Jake had taken on his sacred summer trip. I thought Mo was a guy. Stupid, stupid me.

“Maureen?”

He nods. “She hates her name.”

“And Jace is okay with you using his sister for these mutual needs?”

“We’re adults. I’m not jerking her around, making lifetime promises. It’s sex. He’s not exactly a saint either.”

It’s sex. It is sex. Not was sex.

“So … when they come visit … do you uh …”

Jake turns the gas burner to simmer and covers the pan. “Do I what?” He wipes his hands and tosses the dishtowel over his shoulder.

I roll my eyes. Why does he have to be such a dick about this? He knows damn well what I’m implying. “Meet needs, Jake. Does she sleep in your bed and suck your dick?” Pressing the heels of my hands to my forehead, I sigh. “I shouldn’t be here.”