Page 14 of Loving Jake

As she neared the kitchen, she heard the clinking sound of metal hitting ceramic. Jake was definitely awake and in the kitchen, most likely eating his daily bowl of cereal. She took a deep breath upon entering the room, trying desperately to calm her inner trembling. “Good morning.”

Jake glanced up from the newspaper he had spread out on the kitchen table. “Good morning.” He glanced up at her, and the heat of his gaze went straight to her heart. Just as quickly, he returned his attention to the newspaper, and her spirits plummeted.

“There’s still plenty of coffee left,” he commented without looking up again.

“Thanks,” she mumbled with a forced brightness. She walked over to the refrigerator while avoiding a glance in the direction of the sink area. She didn’t think she could ever look at the kitchen counter again without being reminded of last night. A flush burned its way up her neck and rested upon her cheekbones as she tried to erase the intimate scene she and Jake had created on that piece of white quartz.

She pressed her eyes closed as the events of the previous night flashed through her mind for the thousandth time. She tried to push away the feel of his fingers slowly, erotically, unbuttoning her blouse to let it fall carelessly at their feet, while he aroused her as no other man had ever come close to doing. She shook her head and opened her eyes. A shiver crawled over her skin as she opened the cabinet and reached inside for a coffee cup. Even hours later, she could feel the warmth of Jake’s breath on her neck, which caused her insides to go weak. She clenched the ceramic mug in her hand, desperate in her desire to force the erotic sensations from her mind.

She poured herself a cup of coffee with shaking hands. Relax, her conscience scolded. If Jake prefers to act as if nothing transpired between the two of you last night, that’s okay. He just needed time to come to terms with his feelings for her, that’s all, she mentally argued. Who cares if you laid awake until the sun first peeked over the horizon, your body aching with unfulfilled desire? Or that a mere glimpse of his mouth reminds you of his gentle, moist lips caressing you into an impassioned frenzy?

“Stop it.”

“What’s that?” Jake asked as he turned another page of the newspaper.

“What? Oh, nothing.” She brought the coffee cup to her mouth and sipped from it. The shrilling sound of her cellphoneechoed through the kitchen, and she practically flew across the kitchen to grab it from its charger.

“Hello?” She listened patiently to the caller for several seconds before she replied.

“Why no, Linda, I haven’t forgotten about George’s birthday party. I’ll definitely be there.” She walked across the kitchen to the refrigerator with the cellphone cradled between her ear and shoulder and looked out the window. “Yes, of course. I will make sure to bring my camera so that we’ll be able to capture George’s surprise on film.” She watched Daisy chase a rabbit across the yard, relieved when the small creature escaped under the fence into the yard next door.

“Jake?” she repeated and caught her cellphone right before it fell out of her hand. “Why, um, yes, he’s staying here.” Reluctantly, she glanced at him. Jake’s head shot up from the newspaper at the sound of his name and he arched a dark, questioning eyebrow in her direction.

“Well, I don’t know if he’s available, Linda. I guess you would have to ask him,” she suggested with a smirk in his direction. “Except he’s not in,” she amended, in response to the pleading gesture he shot her.

Jake let out a large sigh of relief when he heard her next words, and she wanted to tell him that he owed her, but she bit her tongue instead. “Sure, I’ll give him the message. Thanks for calling, Linda. I’ll see you on Saturday.”

“Thanks,” he replied once she disconnected the call, relief evident in his voice.

“Don’t be too grateful; you’re not completely off the hook. Linda called to invite us to George’s thirty-fifth birthday party at the Oaks Country Club this Saturday night. I told her that while I would be there, you would have to let her know.” She sat down at the kitchen table, her earlier uneasiness now replaced with thoughts of her sister and her big mouth.

“Apparently, Linda called Catherine, who was on the other line with Carly, who mentioned your present residence.I would have felt just terrible if Jake had been staying with you, and I failed to invite him to George’s party,” she mimicked in her best imitation of Linda’s sweet drawl. Even though she loved her sister-in-law, her thoughtfulness tended to get on her nerves, particularly when they extended to inviting Jake to George’s birthday party.

Jake winced before standing up and pushing his chair away from the table. “Oh. I, ah, better get going. Gramps is expecting me, and I’ve yet to go out for a run this morning.” He placed the cereal box back in the cabinet and then rinsed his dishes off in the sink. “Any plans for today?” he asked. He opened the dishwasher and placed his bowl and spoon inside.

“None other than a day spent at the park with Daisy,” she answered and took a sip of her coffee, her head buried in the front page of the newspaper. She intentionally mimicked his earlier behavior, aware that it was childish on her part, but she didn’t care. She was hurt, and he deserved to know it.

“Then I guess I’ll see you later.”

“Okay,” she responded distractedly, determined to keep her voice as uninterested as possible. She waited anxiously for the sound of the front door to close before she dropped her head to the table and onto her folded arms.

“How could he act as if nothing happened last night?” she cried out with a pound of her fist onto the tabletop. He was as cool as a cucumber this morning, while she was forced to hide her visibly shaking hands underneath the kitchen table. “Men.” She clenched her teeth together. If she said anything to him about last night, he might accuse her of being suffocating, and if she didn’t, he might think last night didn’t matter to her. What to do next was the million-dollar question of the day.

She stood up and placed her empty coffee mug in thesink. She needed a distraction and decided that a day in the park, with her camera and Daisy in tow, was actually the ideal solution.

Jake enteredthe park and within minutes, he spotted Kimberly’s red and black checkered blanket sprawled out on the grass near the pond’s edge. As he approached the spot she had chosen for her day’s outing, he noticed it was littered with the remnants of a half-eaten lunch. A camera bag, an empty Butternut Bread package, and dog biscuits also laid scattered across the blanket. “She has to be around here somewhere,” he murmured. He raised his hand to shade his eyes, hoping as he did to find her amongst the park’s many visitors.

When his initial search failed to find her, and unable to believe Kimberly would leave her belongings unattended for any length of time, he scanned the park area for a second time. His eyes darted across the short width of the pond to the opposite side from where he sat on top of her blanket.

He found her.

A familiar pain settled in the pit of his stomach as he watched her. Although they had been living together for over a month, he was still amazed by his reaction each time he saw her. The once shy, black-haired kitten, as he thought of her as a child, had transformed into a mysteriously exotic feline. A tightening formed in the region of his chest, near his heart, as he watched her brush her long braid back over her shoulder. She squatted near the water’s edge with her camera in hand. She should be the one being photographed, not a flock of ducks.

He recalled the one glimpse of her this morning that he had dared to take, when she was on the phone with her back turned to him. He felt his blood pressure rise in response to the mentalimage that formed in his mind. As if a pair of black cotton yoga shorts that molded themselves to her narrow hips and tightly rounded buttocks wasn’t enough to drive him over the edge of insanity, a UCLA T-shirt that ended at her midriff and exposed nearly all the creamy skin on her stomach had forced him to make a hasty retreat from the kitchen. He had lied this morning, for lack of a better excuse, to leave the house. He had been up and out for a run in the predawn hours because thoughts of her caused sleep to elude him. The torture he had inflicted upon himself with an additional five miles this morning was well deserved, although neither run had cleared the prior evening’s events, or the desire that had come with them, from his mind.

He watched Kimberly toss several pieces of bread to the squawking ducks with one hand, as she snapped pictures with the other. He could tell, despite the distance, that she had little success in getting the ducks to come within less than a few yards of her. He chuckled as he tried to figure out why she would think the ducks would come anywhere near her with Daisy seated beside her.

He imagined her trying to explain to the ducks, in a soothing voice no less, that the salivating beast at her side was harmless and that she and Daisy were simply there to take their picture. He laughed again and decided that he could watch her forever. Damn, there was that word again. “Forever. Why does it keep coming up when I am trying so hard to push it away?” he asked himself in a tormented breath. The continual torture he put himself through, day after day, had to stop, and he had proved it last night with her. He had lost all control the moment his lips had brushed against her skin, and if Daisy hadn’t interrupted when she did, well, he didn’t want to think about the remorse he would be feeling today. He needed to place some distance between them, and yet, he found himself unable to do it. Even with the best of efforts, he couldn’t convince himselfthat it was simply a coincidence that they were at the park at the same time this afternoon.

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