Page 55 of Fight for Me
“What?” he asked, his brow furrowing as he glanced over his shoulder, but only Lexie could see the memory playing inside her head.
“N-nothing,” she stuttered, trying and failing to contain the blush she could feel traveling down her neck. She pressed her palms against her cheeks, surprised by how hot her skin had gotten.
“Lex?” Jake closed his hands around her wrists and tugged them away from her face. His voice was full of amusement, and his eyes danced in curiosity as they flicked from her expression to the wall behind him. “Why do you look like somebody just read your diary?”
Lexie felt her chest tighten in embarrassment, and she wished he weren’t so close to the truth.
“Nothing, it’s—it’s nothing. It’s... I just... I had a dream once,” she stammered, looking everywhere except at him.
“Okay?” Jake arched his brows, clearly waiting for her to go on.
“About... that door. And you. You and the d— You know what? It’s not important,” she babbled, her face still hot enough to cook eggs. She tried to tug her arms away, but Jake held on, looking over his shoulder again. Lexie could almost see him fitting the puzzle pieces together.
Finally, he turned back to her with one eyebrow cocked, his face full of interest. The corner of his mouth tugged up in a half smile, and he stepped to one side and turned them both until they had traded places. Lexie’s hip bumped his desk chair as he walked her backwards.
“This dream... it wouldn’t have gone something like this, would it?” he asked, his eyes still on hers.
Lexie’s mouth went dry when her shoulders touched the wood. Jake stepped even closer, pressing her flat against the door until there was barely enough space to breathe. She swallowed, willing herself to answer, but she couldn’t seem to form the words.
A loud cough nearby jolted them apart, and Jake backed into his chair, knocking it against his desk with a bang.
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t see that,” Andy said as he pushed open the door to his office just beyond Jake’s cubicle. He moved inside, and Lexie watched through the doorway as he set a steaming mug of coffee on his desk without looking up. She groaned and wiped her hands over her face, then threw a quick glance at Jake from between her fingers. He stood with one hand curled around the back of his neck and the other shoved deep into the pocket of his jeans. He looked as self-conscious as she felt, and he seemed to be breathing harder than usual.
“Are you guys a thing now? Please tell me you’re a thing now, because I can’t stand to watch him mope anymore,” Andy said, not bothering to come out of his office.
Lexie looked at Jake again, but he simply shrugged and gave her a sheepish smile.
“You have theworsttiming,” he said, raising his voice so Andy could hear.
“Actually, I think my timing is pretty good. Any longer and you might have forgotten Chancellor Carmike is coming for publicity shots in, oh, about five minutes,” Andy shot back, and Jake’seyes jumped to the assignments calendar tacked to the wall near his shoulder. He huffed out a breath and raked his hand back through his hair.
“Perfect,” he mumbled, closing his eyes. Lexie turned to go, but Jake stopped her with a light hand on her wrist. He tugged her closer before taking a step back into the far corner of his workspace. His eyes darted toward Andy’s office, as if making sure they were hidden from view. Jake pressed a hard kiss against her mouth, and she could sense his reluctance when he let her go.
“I’ll pick you up at five tomorrow,” he said.
“Okay,” she said as she finally caught her breath. She turned and slipped out of his cubicle without another word. When she reached the hall, she heard the sound of male voices drifting through the door to the stairwell. Chancellor Carmike was among them—on his way up for new pictures.
Andy really did have good timing.
“Try the blackone again.”
“The shirt or the tie?” Jake asked, angling his phone so his sister, Ashlyn, could give her opinion.
“The shirt,” she said.
“No, not the black shirt! He doesn’t need to look like Zorro,” Brooklyn argued. Jake could see her in the background, sitting on Ashlyn’s bed back in Copper Hill.
“Okay, guys, can you just make up your minds?” he said, huffing impatiently as he undid his tie for the third time. The gray striped pattern had been rejected by the girls, who were being as picky about his clothes as they usually were about their own.
“First of all, we’re not guys,” Ashlyn corrected, holding up one finger as she leaned closer to her camera. “That’s why you called us, right? Otherwise, you’d be downstairs modeling for Noah and Conner, and you’d end up wearing a Led Zeppelin T-shirt and Crocs. Secondly, do you want to look like you have some idea of how to dress yourself?”
“I dress myself for church every week, thank you very much,” Jake grumbled, furrowing his brow. Maybe he should have done this without them. He would have been finished half an hour ago.
“Are you wearing a sport coat?” Brooklyn asked.
Jake paused. He hadn’t thought that far ahead. He was still just trying to choose a shirt.
“You should wear a coat,” Ashlyn interjected, nodding quickly. “She might get cold, and you can give it to her.”
