Page 18 of The Bride
Then I thought about them doingitin my dad’s room and got freaked out by it. I wasn’t planning on saying anything. I figured it was something I would have to live with. He and Janet were a couple. They would have sex. My dad’s room was where Jake lived now.
Of course he’d want his girlfriend to stay over.
Although now that I thought about it, she’d never stayed over all night when he was living in the bunk house.
That house was a two-level structure about a hundred yards out behind the barn. The first level was where my dad used to keep tractors and other equipment he didn’t want in the barn. The second floor was a bunch of rooms with one bathroom and a kitchen.
It’s where Jake had lived for the last six years, and for two of those years he’d been dating Janet. I got up sick early to be able to get my chores done and still get to school on time, and I never once saw her car parked in front of the bunk house when I knew she’d come over the night before.
I was about let him off the hook. It was kind of stupid. I was probably being immature, which I hated. It was so stereotypical teenager… immaturity. I needed to get beyond it. Because in sixteen months, when Jake and I did get divorced, it was going to be all on me to run this place and make a life for myself.
“Forget it,” I said. “It was stupid.”
“No. It’s not. And it’s a rule. Your rule. I won’t let Janet stay over. I never have out of respect to your dad. Now it’s a matter of respecting you. This is your home, Ellie.”
“It’s yours too. I don’t want you to feel like it’s not. I guess… I mean it’s not like you would let me have sex with my boyfriend and he could stay the night.”
He didn’t like that. I could tell, because that muscle in the back of his jaw started working hard. I got it. Older brother complex and all that.
“Right. Sorry. I have to remain a virgin until death, but you get to have all the sex you want. No double standard there.”
“Ellie…” He clearly wanted to say something, but stopped.
“What?”
“I can’t have this conversation with you right now.” Then he did the immature thing and left.
That’s right. I scared Jake Talley out of the room with sex talk.
I smiled what I hoped was one of those little evil smiles, because seriously that was fun. Then I got back to work on my project, because Chrissy and I always used that study period before Science to gossip.
* * *
Jake
“That was fun!” Janet had her hand on my leg, on my thigh. Pretty high up on my thigh actually.
We were driving on the highway after dinner and some country line dancing. This being our first date since the wedding, I wanted to step my game up. Jefferson had this new country western bar for people who liked to drink hard and dance hard.
Tonight Janet was one of those people. She’d decided for our first real date since Sam had died that tequila was a good idea. I had fun watching her dance moves slowly digress until she found herself stepping right when everyone else was sliding left.
It was just after eleven, but it had definitely been time to call it a night. Right now she was fun drunk Janet. I knew from experience that one more shot and she would transition to difficult drunk Janet.
However, this is where the situation got tricky. If I took her back to the bunk house for some drunk sex—and drunk sex with Janet was fun because she tended to loosen up a little more in bed—there was no way she was going to be able to drive home.
The new rule was she wasn’t allowed to stay over in the house.
I understood. Ellie knew Janet, but to have her in the house in the morning when Ellie was doing her morning thing would be weird.
But if I took Janet home back to her parents’ place, then no drunk sex.
“I want you so bad, Jake Talley,” she said, leaning over the truck’s console. She actually bit my ear.
Yep. Fun drunk Janet and sex.
Decision made, I took the exit for Long Valley. The problem was as soon as I pulled up to the house and was about to explain that we needed to use the bunk house, Janet was already out of the truck and heading up the front porch. She opened the front door, which wasn’t locked, and walked right in.
A few things went through my mind.
