Page 23 of Loving Jake

“George’s daughter, Maggie, is a talker. That’s for sure.” A smile quickly formed on her lips. “Sometimes I think Carly and Damien’s girls are still adjusting to being part of the family. Lindsay and Samantha have gone through a lot for being only five and six years old. Carly’s the only mother they’ve really known. Damien’s first wife took off right after Lindsay was born, and they lived with their grandmother because Damien was always on tour. When Carly and Damien married last year, the girls went to live with them. This past year is the first stability they’ve really ever known, even with Damien rarely at home.”

If Jake caught the edge of bitterness in her voice, he didn’t let it show, and she was grateful. She wasn’t in the mood to discuss her sister’s husband. Her focus was on Jake and the possible reasons for his mood change this afternoon.

“Maggie reminds me of you.”

“Well, if she’s anything like me, then she will probably grow up wishing for straight hair. I cringe when I think of my poor mother trying to put a brush through my hair every morning. I pray that if I have daughters, they have poker-straight hair.” Shepushed several curls from her face, and when she turned her head to look at him, she found him staring out the windshield again.

“All six of them.” He angled his head toward her, and a lopsided grin played on his lips.

“Six girls! Jake, you’re terrible. I wouldn’t wish six daughters on anyone.”

“Adverse to large families?”

“Not at all. Growing up, I used to tell my parents that I wanted twelve children, six boys, six girls.” She chuckled softly. “And that we planned to live with them, forever. My father would respond by saying that he and my mother were going to move while I was in college and not provide me with their forwarding address.” She laughed again. “I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’ll be lucky to have three children. Let’s face it, Jake, I’m thirty-one years old.”

“Yeah, well, I doubt you’ll have any problems. I’m sure you’ll make a great mother.”

“Thanks.”

She glanced at him, and he turned away, but not before she saw the small tick pulsing at the base of his jaw when they pulled into her driveway minutes later. His emotions had wavered back and forth between sullen and light-hearted for the entire ride home, and she had no idea why. Maybe he was tired? She doubted that was the reason, but desperately wanted to believe it.

They pulled into the garage, and she started to ask him what was wrong when he turned off the engine and practically bolted out of the car. Frustrated, she got out of the car and followed him into the house without a word or a glance exchanged between them.

NINE

Kimberly paced the living room, and debated with herself whether to finally confront him or not. He had been locked up in his room ever since they had come home from George’s birthday party, nearly two hours prior. “What could have happened?” she whispered to herself, over and over again. She played back every word they had spoken to each other from the time they left the house this afternoon until the end of the party, three hours later. Nothing. She could come up with nothing to explain Jake’s sudden withdrawal from her.

She squared her shoulders and decided to go to his room and confront him. She would use the pretense of being hungry and ask if he wanted to order out for dinner. She took a deep breath and climbed the stairs. She paused in front of his bedroom door. She chewed on her lower lip as she began to have second thoughts. Maybe he was just tired and wanted to catch up on some sleep. Doubtful. It was a lame excuse she wasn’t even willing to buy. Frustrated, she muttered a curse she rarely used. She didn’t want to come off as clinging and insecure, but his behavior this afternoon left her nerves on edge. She knew she wouldn’t relax until she talked to him. Shepushed a stray lock of hair to behind her ear and knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

She opened the bedroom door and stepped inside with small, hesitant steps. She stood only a few steps inside the doorway and swallowed several times while she waited for him to look up from the book in his hand. Seated in the room’s only chair, he looked relaxed and annoyingly preoccupied in his book.

“It’s almost eight o’clock, and I wanted to know if you are hungry, if you wanted to order take-out, maybe from that new Chinese restaurant we both want to try?” Her heart pounded wildly in her chest when Jake’s eyes roamed over the length of her and eventually settled on her face.

“I don’t think so. I’m not really hungry. Thanks, anyway.” He continued to watch her, his expression unreadable.

Was she being dismissed? How dare he treat her like this. Anger quickly replaced her earlier apprehension. “Jake, I don’t understand. What’s going on? What happened between the time we left here this morning and now?”

Jake never hated himself more than he did at this moment. “I don’t know what you mean, Kim.” He clenched his back teeth together. Although Kimberly’s rigid stance said she was ready for battle, her eyes gave her away. She glared at him, but he could still see the hurt reflected in her eyes and the confusion marring her features. He needed to talk to her, to explain. He owed her that much.

He closed his book and placed it on the night stand. He didn’t know why he thought he could lose himself in a book anyway. He had barely read two pages during the last hour. He raked his hand through his hair several times before he stood up and crossed the room to stand next to the window. He stared out the pane of glass with his arms crossed in front of his chest.Finally, after several minutes, he turned to face her. He noticed that she still hovered near the door.

“Kim,” he began. “Last night was a mistake. I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I took advantage of you when you obviously had had too much to drink, and I apologize. I take full responsibility for everything that happened between us.” He leaned against the windowsill and patiently waited for her response. He braced himself for her tears, hating himself for being the cause of them.

He was not at all prepared for her reaction. Rage, far worse than he ever thought Kimberly capable of, settled in her deep brown eyes.

She breached the distance between them with angry strides before she stopped to stand less than a foot away from him. She was angrier than he had ever seen her, and she deserved to be. Something wonderful had happened between them, something he had never experienced before in his life, and he knew it had been the same for her. Now he threw it back in her face, as if it meant nothing to him. It had taken everything in him to call last night a mistake, and while he wanted to take the words back, he knew he couldn’t.

“You’re sorry for last night?” She lashed out. “You take full responsibility?” she hissed mere inches from his face. Her entire body visibly shook with anger, and he wanted nothing than more to call back his lies, but he couldn’t. As a couple, they were not meant to be.

“How… how, dare you, Jake Taylor!” Kimberly raised her hand in the air before either of them knew what she planned to do. Her palm collided with the side of his face with a startling intensity.Smack!

Kimberly’s eyes widened to a point that he thought they might actually pop out of her face. She rubbed her palms together, and he assumed that she experienced something similar to his own pain. She looked him straight in the face,anger expressed in eyes glazed over with unshed tears. “That, Mr. Jake Taylor,” she informed him with an arrogant toss of her hair, “was for the apologies you forgot. Specifically, for taking advantage of me at one-thirty in the morning, again at three-thirty, then at five o’clock this morning. And let’s not forget yourgood morning kissat eleven-thirty, followed by a quickie in the shower.” She clenched her fists at her sides and turned to walk out of the room.

Jake’s hand swiftly left his side to grab her by the arm before she had a chance to take more than a few steps away from him. He grasped her forearm and whirled her around to face him. “Kim,” he bit out in a barely controlled whisper, although his own temper was at the bubbling point. “Kim, you don’t understand?—"

“You’re right, I don’t understand,” she interrupted and yanked her arm out of his grasp. Her brows were narrowed over her dark eyes and her lips curled in distaste. “I don’t understand how I could have spent the last twenty years thinking I loved you. I don’t understand how I could be such a fool for falling into bed with you because I thought you returned my feelings. I was just someone to warm your bed. For you, I was just one in a long list of easy lays?—"

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