Page 42 of Serial Love

Continuing to rub his thumbs over her soft cheeks, he said, “There’s one more thing, baby. I broke your trust when I pussied out. But no more. I promise that I’ll never just give up on us. Never. And beautiful?” he peered down at her. “I never fail at a mission.”

15

Jack and Bethany rose from the bed and looked down at the mass of still sopping clothes on the floor.

“Um, let me throw your things in the dryer and it won’t take them too long to dry.” She gave him a perplexed look, then turned and jogged into the bedroom across the hall. She returned with a pair of flannel pajama bottoms with a drawstring tie at the waist. Giving a shrug, she handed them to him, saying, “They’re clean. In fact, they’re new, never been worn.”

He lifted his eyebrow in question, wondering what man had been in her apartment. She saw his look and laughed. “It’s not what you think. Gram bought these in extra-large for dad last Christmas but by then she was unable to discern sizes or anything like that. They were on sale, and she was pleased. My dad is definitely not an extra-large man but didn’t want her to feel bad, so I just stuffed them in a chest and forgot about them.”

Mollified, he slipped the pants on, commando, as she pulled on dry underwear, yoga pants, and another t-shirt. She bent to gather the wet clothes from the floor when her arms were gently pushed away.

“Got ‘em, beautiful. Where do they go?”

He followed her downstairs and she loaded them into the dryer. Suddenly nervous, she fiddled with the knobs on the machine, afraid to turn around.What now? Talk? Eat? Does he want to hurry and get out of here?

“I can see the wheels turning from here, babe,” he chuckled as his arms wrapped around her from behind.

Smiling, she leaned back into his embrace. “Yeah?”

“Oh, yeah. You’re wondering what in the hell do we do now?”

She whirled around, his arms still holding her tightly and looked up into his eyes. Meeting his returned smile, she saw the crinkles at the corners of his eyes and laughed again. Nodding slightly, she said, “Okay, busted. That’s exactly what I was thinking.”

He glanced around at the lodge’s empty room. “Anyone can come in here?”

“Yeah. In the old days, there wasn’t a TV in every cabin and people would gather here for games and conversation. Eventually Gramps had the TVs put in and then video players and then CD players, and then Wi-fi. The list keeps going! This room is rarely used, but Gram just never changed it, so it’s still a room that guests could come to if they wanted.”

“Can you close it?”

She looked at him askance, saying, “Why?”

He pulled her back so he could see her expression. “I know we have a lot to talk about, and I know that when my clothes are dry, I’m going to have to leave for ameeting this afternoon. But I hate the idea of you here by yourself with the door open and anyone can walk in.”

She glanced at the bottom of the stairs to her apartment with its little sign warning people not to go upstairs and knew he was right. Her eyes shot back up to his in concern and he grabbed her hand and pulled her over to the sofa in front of the fireplace. He settled her on his lap, holding her face in his hands.

“What I told you upstairs was true. I want to see where this goes. I consider myself your man now and until this ends, I take that very seriously. I’ll never take over your life but I’m also in the security business and this place is a disaster for a single woman. Hell, it was a disaster for you and Gram when she was here.”

He glanced at the registration desk and then cut his eyes back to hers. “Placing a wall with a locking door over there would give you a large welcome area and make this room, the downstairs bathroom, and stairs secure. It would give you more of a two-story home feel and keep you safer from someone just wandering in.”

Licking her lips, she said, “Jack, I like what you’re saying, but I just took over. Up till now, I was just here to help out Gram. Dad has signed this place over to me and I’ve only been the new owner for about a week. I…I need to check on all the finances to see where we are and what I can do.”

His face grew hard, knowing he could have the wall put up in one day with one phone call, but he had to make that her play. “Okay, compromise,” he said. “Until that happens, you keep the front door locked unless you are letting someone in during the daytime hours.”

“Okay, I should be able to take care of keeping me safe and if keeping the door locked makes me safer, then I will.”

He leaned forward, touching his lips to hers, capturing them in a soft kiss. Not of passion, but one of promise.

“Jack?” she whispered, trepidation in her voice.

His eyes piercing hers, he said, “Baby, you do not ever have to fear me. You want to ask, you ask.”

Nodding, she said, “I just wondered what happened that made you change your mind about us so quickly?”

Sighing deeply, he said, “Most of what I do, I can’t talk about. If I can tell you, I will. But because I travel, work on cases that often involve the lowest criminals, I always thought that trying to build a relationship and deal with that, just wouldn’t work. But you came along and knocked me on my ass and all I wanted to do was be the man you needed me to be.”

“But…” she prodded.

“You know the Saints are working on the serial killer case. I was in on the autopsy of the last victim. The one that was just in the paper.” He saw her eyes grow wide and he squeezed her hips just a little. “Tired, little sleep, bad coffee and then standing in there watching what had been a beautiful blonde, blue-eyed woman, who’d been murdered, be examined. Suddenly, I felt impotent. Felt like I couldn’t separate that world from yours. And you deserve only the best. So, I just gave up. Not on you…never on you. I gave up on me being able to give you what you should have.”

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