Page 11 of Loving Jake

Jake watched her close the door behind her before he returned his attention to his grandfather. “Gramps, I need you to understand that Kimberly came with me today to visit you, not because she plans to have your great-grandchildren with me. That is not only ridiculous, but it’s also impossible.”

A loud growl emitted from the old man’s lips. “Now, don’t go talkin’ no hogwash with me, boy. My old body may be confined in this bed here, but that doesn’t mean I lost control of my senses. How many times have I told you that those over-paid city doctors don’t know what they’re talking about? All that mumbo jumbo about you having the mumps and not being able to have kids. If we had been living in Texas, we would have seena specialist who knew what they were talking about. Biggest mistake I ever made was when I listened to that quack doctor in California. That, and trusting your mother to have an ounce of sense in her head,” he grumbled with a sigh of resignation.

“Gramps, we’ve been over this a million times. I had a severe case of mumps as a teenager. I can’t have children because of it, and I’ve learned to accept it... No, let me finish—" he softly demanded when his grandfather tried to interrupt. “I can’t have kids Gramps, and I spent three hellish years with Brenda proving it. I won’t go through that again, ever,” he vowed more harshly than he intended. Reigning in his sea of emotions, he finished in a softer tone, “Kimberly is a wonderful person, and I’m sure she wants to have a family of her own someday. I can’t give that to her, and she deserves nothing less. Please Gramps, don’t bring it up again.”

He ran his fingers through his hair. A tremble in his hand that wasn’t there minutes ago was now visible. “For whatever reason, Kimberly likes you, and I know she will want to visit again. She’s a sensitive person, Gramps, and I don’t want to see her get hurt by your senseless rattling.”

His grandfather let out a large, exaggerated breath. “Dag-blast it, Jake...all right, but that doesn’t mean I agree with you,” he muttered obstinately as a yawn escaped from his thin lips.

“Thanks, Gramps.”

“Those blasted pills the nurse forced down my throat have done tuckered me out, boy. Otherwise, I’d wear your ear out arguing.” The old man’s voice was groggy with sleep.

Jake reached out and took the older man’s weathered hand in his own and gently squeezed it. He watched his grandfather’s eyes flutter shut. He was worn out. He tired so easily these days, which Jake acknowledged with a heavy heart. When Kimberly returned, they would leave Gramps to rest. Jake reached out and brushed away a stray piece of hair from the old man’s forehead,watching the gentle rise and fall of his chest. Jake wondered how he could be expected to go on without his grandfather always being there for him. No matter where he was in the world, he knew he had his grandfather to go home to, and soon that would no longer be the case. Jake swallowed back the anguished lump welling up in his throat when the door opened.

“I hope he likes Hershey bars?” Kimberly held up a bar in each hand.

“Thanks.” Jake nodded his head toward his grandfather’s still form. “He’s asleep. He dozes off rather quickly now. You can leave the candy bars on the table for him.”

Kimberly placed the chocolate on the bedtable and then followed Jake out of the room. They walked down the empty hallway in silence.

“Thank you for bringing me,” she murmured once they settled in the car and she secured her seatbelt.

“He enjoyed seeing you, Kim.” Jake started the engine but hesitated before shifting the car into reverse. He stared out the front windshield for several seconds before turning to look at her.

“Look.” He paused and took a deep breath. “I hope you’ll ignore anything my grandfather said today. He, well, took my divorce rather hard. Maybe harder than I did,” he noted with a brief grunt. “Not that he cared much for Brenda, because he didn’t. He thought she was a high class, uppity bit...never mind. Anyway, he’s convinced that I’m unhappy being alone. And, ah, when I brought you here today, he got the wrong impression.”

She turned her head and provided him a smile that did not reach her eyes. “Jake, it was an easy thing to misconstrue. I understand perfectly.” She turned her gaze to the outside of the car.

“Good.” He straightened his shoulders and placed the car in reverse. “And you don’t have to worry about it happening again,because I set my grandfather straight. I told him there was nothing between us and that we’re strictly friends.”

“Great,” she responded softly. She rolled down the window, tilted her head toward the outside of the car, and allowed the cool breeze to whip across her face.

From the corner of his eye, Jake spied her eyes squeezed shut and her shoulders slumped. “Yeah...great,” he repeated without enthusiasm. Damn, Gramps, he thought, and a surge of pain rushed through him. It can’t work between Kimberly and me. It can’t.

FIVE

Kimberly slowly opened the front door, trying hard, but quickly failing, to avoid making noise while she entered the house. She immediately heard a squeaking sound and cursed under her breath for not oiling the door hinges as she had always meant to. It was one o’clock in the morning, and the loud creaking sound was bound to wake up Daisy, who in turn, would wake up Jake. She locked the door behind her and proceeded to tiptoe to the hall closet to hang up her jacket. “So far so good,” she whispered with mixed emotions. While it was a relief that Daisy hadn’t discovered her entrance yet, she did question the two-hundred-pound St. Bernard’s abilities as a watchdog.

She placed her purse down on a table in the hallway and decided to get a glass of water for herself before going to bed. She yawned leisurely as she crept along the hallway, feeling her way in the dark. If she turned on even one light, she was sure to wake up Daisy, who was probably snoring away upstairs, sprawled across Kimberly’s bed.

She entered the kitchen and walked directly to the sink without turning on the light. She opened the cabinet door and reached inside for a glass. She had one hand on the door handleand the other clasped around a glass when a wisp of warm air spread across the back of her neck.

“Where have you been?”

“Jake!” She dropped the glass from her hand before she could stop herself. She watched the glass clamber against the counter top and then roll into the sink, relieved when it didn’t break. “You scared me half to death!” She turned around to face him and found herself within inches of being in his embrace, a place she had dreamed about during the last several weeks.

Her eyes widened in surprise to see the deep concern emanating from his hazel eyes.

“Then we’re even.” He released a sigh, and it echoed through the kitchen.

Kimberly twisted her hands together at her waist. “I, ah?—"

“Do you realize,” he interrupted in barely a whisper, “that I have paced this damn house wondering where the hell you have been? I’ve been out of my mind for the last several hours with possibilities, and none of them good.” The worry in his voice came across to her loud and clear.

“Jake, I’m sorry,” she stammered. She inched herself backward, pressing the small of her back against the lower kitchen cabinets. Just because she didn’t understand why he was so upset didn’t mean she needed to provoke him any further, and she suspected the reek of wine wouldn’t help. One of the models had tripped tonight, and the contents of her glass went flying across the room to land on Kimberly’s blouse. Fortunately, the wine was white; unfortunately, she now smelled like a wine bar.

Despite all her efforts to place some distance between them, they remained less than a few inches apart. “I, ah, we finished the photo shoot earlier than expected, two days in fact. Everyone working on the catalog, you know, the other photographers and models, went out to celebrate. I couldn’t exactlyrefuse. I had worked just as hard as everyone else, and I deserved to celebrate also.” She stared back at him with a defiant lift of her chin.

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