Page 66 of Once a Hero

“Don’t worry about it. I was only kidding. You were saying?”

“Your family sounds like it’s intact. You don’t have drama or disasters. Yet you’re trying to say that you have problems too.”

Jake nodded. “No matter what your family is, there are always problems because we live in a world where there’s sin all around us. Sin causes trouble for everyone.”

“Sin nature, you mean.”

“Yeah, that being the root.”

“It’s a good reminder for us that the battle is bigger than flesh and blood. There are forces of good and bad just duking it out.”

“And we’re in the middle of the warfare.” Jake brightened up. “But if we can send Molyneux to jail, maybe the world will be a safer place.”

“Someone else will simply fill her place.”

“Not if we can help it.”

“We?” Beatrice raised her eyebrows.

“We’re together, remember?”

Beatrice shrugged. “I had to say something to prevent the man you called John Doe from killing you back at the cabin.”

“For that, I thank you. However you meant it, don’t you agree that we are indeed in business together?”

“Technically speaking.”

Jake got up slowly, carrying an empty coffee mug. He shuffled on his good leg. That knife wound in his thigh must still be raw, in spite of the stitches and painkillers.

“Going for a refill?” Beatrice asked.

Jake nodded.

“Sit down. Let me get it for you.” Beatrice was on her feet. She took the cup from him.

And she felt something warm on her free hand. His fingers wove into hers. His other hand reached up to touch her chin, then her neckline.

He dipped his forehead toward hers.

He smelled like fresh soap.

They stayed that way for a while, forehead to forehead. Beatrice wondered if he was asking for permission.

She lifted her lips and touched his briefly. He tasted like coffee with cream.

He took that as a “yes, you may,” and bathed her with warmth that spread from his full lips to hers. The warmth lingered across her face, through her chest, and down to her toes.

Beatrice had never felt this way before with any other man. Well, it had been a while since she had a date, let alone a boyfriend.

And here was Jake, tugging at her heart.

Most unexpected.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

San Francisco had been where Beatrice and Jake first met, albeit under less than ideal circumstances. Secrets hidden from each other made it hard for Jake to take Beatrice at her word.

He looked out the window of the rental car, wondering how to respond to what she had just told him to do. Maybe he was tired from the lack of sleep in the sleeper coach. Maybe his growing feelings for her interfered with his train of thought.

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