Page 5 of Loving Jake

“Before you go blaming Carly, let me assure you, I reached out to her for it and not the other way around.”

“Why?”

“Kim,” he responded, realizing that he preferred the sound of her name in its shorter form as it rolled off his tongue. “Kim” sounded much more personal, he decided as an afterthought.

“I’ve visited over a dozen apartments in the last week. Each one I left more disappointed in than the one before it. I don’t want to feel as if I’m living at a boutique hotel. I want to feel likeI’m coming home at night. I want to be able to relax in the evenings.” He paused, his brow furrowed in a frown.

“And?” she asked cautiously.

“And, I want to rent a room in your house.” He exhaled a deep breath that was louder than he intended. He held up a hand when he thought she was about to protest. “Wait. Before you refuse, let me explain that I won’t be around much during the day. I plan on visiting my grandfather every day, at least for a few hours, and there are a lot of friends I would like to see while I am back in town. Los Altos Hills is only ten minutes from here, so that makes your place convenient to Gramps’ rehab center.” He paused to watch the multitude of expressions cross her face, unable to gauge her reaction.

“I wouldn’t expect you to cook, in fact, I’m rather a good cook myself, or at least I used to be, and I would be willing to make dinner every night,” he told her. “I’m relatively neat. You wouldn’t have to clean-up after me, and I’ll do my fair share of chores. Please, Kimberly, I’m desperate. I know you weren’t exactly thrilled when Carly originally suggested that I rent a room from you. I even teased you about it, but if you think about it, it really isn’t that bad of an idea. For one, you wouldn’t be taking in a stranger and two, the situation will only be temporary. I—" He stopped and set his drink down. “Kim, are you all right?”

She stopped choking long enough to reply, “Okay.”

“Okay?” He pushed his lower back away from the counter and straightened. “Do you mean okay, as you’re okay and can breathe? Or okay, as in I can move in, okay?”

“Okay, as in you can move in okay,” she responded between coughs. “As for breathing, I’m not sure about that yet. Lemonade went down the wrong way.”

“Are you serious?”

She looked straight at him, and her dark eyes were glisteningwith merriment. “Not about the breathing. But, yes, you can move in.” The corner of her lips twisted upward and, in a voice still rough from the bout of coughing, she replied, “you had me at willing to make dinner every night.”

If he hadn’t lectured himself throughout the day about keeping their relationship platonic, Jake would have reached out and kissed her. He had been prepared to provide her with an ample amount of begging, perhaps even throw in the offer of grocery shopping, which was something he definitely didn’t enjoy but was prepared to do, if it sealed the deal with her. The corners of Jake’s mouth tilted upward. “I did? You mean I could have skipped the part about chores?”

“Nice try. I plan to hold you to the cooking and the chores. You can count on it.”

He chuckled and assumed she would live up to her word. “Kim, I can’t thank you enough. I don’t have much stuff, a couple suitcases full of clothes and… is that a dog barking?”

Kimberly whipped around to look out of the large kitchen window at the back of the room. “Whoops! I left Daisy in the backyard. She probably heard us talking and thinks she’s missing out on something. I’ll be right back,” she called over her shoulder as she rushed out the back door of the kitchen.

He became conscious of his gaze eagerly following her departure out of the back door and reminded himself of thedo not trespasssign he planned to visualize each time he was tempted to look at her. He swallowed hard and instead tried to visualize her dog. “Daisy?” He repeated and chuckled. The image of a Shiatsu with red painted nails and a bow on top of its head formed in his mind, despite the deep barking sounds coming from the backyard.

Kimberly returned to the kitchen with her dog, and he unconsciously took a step backward. “That’s Daisy?” He tried to keep his mouth from gaping open and failed. He watched thelarge St. Bernard bask in its beautiful owner’s attention and realized he shouldn’t have been surprised by her choice of canines. Besides her initial nervousness this afternoon, everything he had witnessed so far today, including her choice in pets, proved Kimberly Urbane was not as timid or reserved as most people believed.

“Isn’t she adorable?” Kimberly laughed happily as the dog planted several sloppy kisses on her face. “I found her roaming the streets two years ago. Her fur was matted, and she appeared not to have eaten in a while. After numerous calls to the police department failed to turn up anything, I posted lost and found posters throughout the neighborhood. The vet checked for a chip, and she didn’t have one. I also posted to several lost dogs’ sites. When I didn’t receive feedback from anyone, I declared Daisy officially mine. The vet thinks she’s about three years old. I assumed that whoever owned her probably couldn’t keep her anymore because of her size.”

She tilted her head to look up at him. “You’re not allergic to dogs, are you?” she asked, and Jake wondered if she secretly hoped he was, so she could escape from what she would eventually realize was a very hasty decision on her part.

“Allergic? No. I just wasn’t expecting a St. Bernard, I guess.” Kim appeared so carefree and happy, even with the dog slopping all over her, that it nearly took his breath away. He silently cursed. He needed to put a halt to any wayward thoughts about her, or staying at her place would be out of the question. She might provide him with killer smiles, and wear shorts that left him in a near pant, but she did not give off vibes that implied a willingness to flutter in and out of a sexual relationship. Although she might be independent and much stronger than people believed, she still had a vulnerable innocence about her that flashed large red lights before his eyes. Nope, she would never accept a casual affair with him, anda casual affair was all he was willing to offer her, to offer any woman, ever. Kimberly Urbane was not for him, and he was going to make sure it stayed that way while living in her house. He might need to remind himself of it daily, he conceded, if his sweaty palms meant anything besides a reaction to the warm summer day.

“I’d like to move in this weekend, if that’s okay?” Jake asked and deliberately pushed his wandering thoughts aside.

“Sure,” she responded hesitantly.

Jake was not reassured by the tone of her voice nor the way she clung to Daisy as if her life depended on it. “Are you sure?”

“No, it’s fine.”

“You’re sure?”

She nodded. “I am,” she answered and smiled at him.

“All right then, I’ll need a key.”

“No problem. I have a spare, but I’ll have another one made at the hardware store this week.”

“Will it be all right for me to park in the driveway?”

---