Loving Jake (Almost Perfect #1)

Chapter 1

ONE

Jake drove past the large Tudor home before parking next to the curb and shutting off the car’s engine. Had it really been four years since he had attended one of George Urbane’s infamous Fourth of July parties? Four years since he had last seen friends whom he once considered his closest in the world? He didn’t question why he had lost contact with the people he had considered family because he knew the answer. He knew all too well why he had had to leave, had to escape.

A familiar churning deep in his gut threatened to surface as he stared out the car’s side window, lost in a past better off forgotten. The day four years ago had been warm and pleasant, as was typical for Northern California in July. Over a hundred people had gathered for the annual celebration where the hors d’oeuvres were plentiful and the alcohol flowed freely, probably too freely, as several of the guys had ended up in the swimming pool by mid-afternoon wearing grass skirts with nothing underneath them. Some things you can never un-see, he acknowledged with a grin teasing the corner of his lips.

His thoughts sobered; it had also been one of those rare occasions that he and Brenda had not argued for most of the afternoon, at least not until George and Linda had made their announcement. They were expecting their second child. The second in two years.

The last he had heard from a source he couldn’t recall, his ex and her husband had two children and had moved to Arizona. She had found someone to provide her with what he could never give her, could give no woman. “I hope you’re happy, Brenda,” he whispered.

Shocked to realize he held the steering wheel in a death grip, he released his hands, mentally shaking from his mind the disturbing images of the past. Although his heart beat faster than normal, he was ready to go to the party and reunite with his friends. He was determined to leave the past where it belonged, in the past, and enjoy himself this afternoon. He retrieved a bottle of Cabernet from the trunk with a brief glance at the label. The name of a French winery was prominently embossed at the top. A grin curled the corner of his lips. George and Linda, like many of his friends, liked to boast that California wines were equal to French ones, and Jake liked to provoke them whenever he had the chance.

He brushed a wayward strand of hair from his forehead and placed his sunglasses on top of his head. His eyes flickered over the many cars lining the street. He recognized none of them. The flashy sports cars, that were once he and his friends’ sole preference for transportation, were gone. Range Rovers and Mercedes Crossovers stood in their place. Laughter bubbled inside of him. “Family vehicles.” He chuckled with a glance over his shoulder at the Ferrari, gazing fondly upon the expensive sports car, and was grateful it had only two doors and would never be considered a cross between a station wagon and anything else.

He strode down the sidewalk, his long legs revealed in a pair of chino shorts. The normal cowboy swagger that women watched longingly as he reported from around the globe was less obvious in a pair of shorts and leather sandals than when he wore his usual worn jeans and snakeskin boots.

Jake drew in a long breath of air before ringing the doorbell of the familiar two-story home.

“My biological clock is not ticking! I’m only thirty-one years old; I have plenty of time to have kids,” Kimberly exclaimed in exasperation. She looked at her sister and then over to Catherine, the wife of one of their brother’s best friends, who only shrugged in response, and then back at her sister. Why couldn’t Carly understand that not everyone needed to get married and have children before they were thirty as she had done. Her sister had chastised her the previous evening for not planning to bring a date to their brother’s annual Fourth of July party, and even though Kimberly had enthusiastically explained that she did not need male companionship to enjoy a party, Carly wasn’t convinced. As far as Carly was concerned, her older sister couldn’t possibly be happy without any prospects for walking down the aisle in her near future.

It wasn’t as if she didn’t date, Kimberly mentally defended herself, a deep scowl crinkling her forehead, but then, she forced herself to admit, she really didn’t. It’s just that she preferred to think of it as more of an extended, self-imposed, sexual dry spell, rather than her inability to meet a guy she was even remotely interested in. A cold shiver slid over her skin as she recalled two of the men she had dated in the past five years, each for much longer than should be considered mentally sane. Besides, she rationalized, she didn’t want to worry about entertaining someone when her family members did their best to take advantage of her photography skills, insisting she take plenty of photos during the party.

“Of course, I wouldn’t turn down mind-blowing sex with—" she mumbled and then halted in mid-sentence because something had diverted her sister’s attention elsewhere and Carly was no longer listening to her. “Carly, hello? Earth to Carly.”

“Wow. Don’t look now Kimberly, but I think the man to provide you with mind-blowing sex just walked in,” Carly exclaimed excitedly.

Half afraid of what she would find, Kimberly twisted her head to look over her shoulder at what, or rather to whom, her sister referred. And as quickly as she had turned, she spun back around again. Only now her heart threatened to pound out of her chest, and her mouth gaped open, and, for the life of her, she couldn’t seem to shut it.

Jake Taylor was here.

At her brother’s house.

At his annual Fourth of July party.

After four years.

Here.

Jake Taylor.

Jake.

Here, and the one man who had the ability to stir the passion within her with something as simple as a smile or a glance from his warm hazel eyes. The one man she had loved for almost twenty years.

“What is going on? What’s gotten into the two of you?” Catherine, the third in their trio, piped up.

“Jake Taylor just walked in. He’s one of George’s best friends, and he’s also a friend of your husband’s. He was out of the country last year and missed your wedding. Kimberly’s been in love with him since the eighth grade.” Carly moved to the edge of her seat, sat up straight, and peered over Catherine’s shoulder at the party’s newest arrival.

“I have not. How could you say such a thing?” Kimberly quickly sputtered, but not fast enough to prevent a heated blush from creeping up her neck and cheeks.

“Kimberly, give me and everyone else a break. You followed the guy around like a lovesick puppy as a kid. It wasn’t much better when we got older, only then you hung on his every word as if it was gospel. Everyone knew how you felt about Jake.”

“They did?” Kimberly searched her sister’s face for signs of her earlier teasing and found none. “Even Jake?”

“Of course, he did. He would have had to have been blind not to.” Carly waved her hand in a sweeping gesture.

She couldn’t have been that obvious, could she? Oh, who was she kidding? she inwardly cringed. The smug expression on Carly’s face confirmed it. Jake had known how she felt about him all this time, and it hadn’t mattered because he had never been interested in her. She was George’s little sister to him and nothing else. Always and forever the little sister. If Catherine hadn’t grabbed Kimberly’s arm, she would have made a run for it. And from Carly’s knowing expression, she knew it too.

“Okay you two, what gives? You know I’m the new kid on the block and don’t have a single ounce of dirt on anyone. So, spill it. I want details. Especially if you think this guy is a potential candidate to offer up mind-blowing sex. I will want details on that also, after the fact. Never hurts to learn a new thing or two,” Catherine added pointedly, with a smirk in Kimberly’s direction.

Kimberly blew away a long curl of hair that had fallen into her eyes with an air of defeat. Two of the most persistent people she knew stared back at her, and she didn’t have a chance of avoiding the subject of Jake Taylor. She took a deep breath and decided, as Catherine eloquently put it, to spill it .

“Fine, you want details, here they are.” Kimberly glared at her sister and her amused expression, before she turned her back on her to face Catherine.

“Jake lived down the street from us. He’s George’s age. I’ve sort of had a crush on him for a while.” She avoided a glance at her sister because she was likely doing something as juvenile as rolling her eyes. “Anyway, I was, and always will be, George’s little sister to him, four years his junior. Jake dated, married, and divorced, without a second glance in my direction. Period. End of story.” Hearing herself say it out loud, she realized that she had held on to a bunch of foolish hopes and dreams all these years and it was time to let go of them.

“How can you say that?” Carly shrieked, her disbelief clear in her ear-piercing wail. “You never even let him know how you felt, at least not directly. The few times he tried to talk to you, you ran in the opposite direction as fast as you could.”

Kimberly gripped the edge of the table and dug her fingernails into the soft wood. “What does it matter, anyway? You said yourself that he has always known how I felt about him. He wasn’t interested in me then, and he won’t be now.”

Carly shook her head. “Wow, for a social influencer, with over twenty-thousand followers on Instagram, you sure are down on yourself.”

Kimberly’s eyes bulged wide. “I post photos of things I find interesting,” she shot back in a whispered hiss. “That doesn’t mean I have this unrealistic view of life. My life, specifically. I’m not going to humiliate myself by making a play for Jake, and you aren’t going to try anything either. Promise me, Carly.”

Carly’s snort shot through Kimberly like a bunch of tiny pins sticking into her skin. “Kimberly, you were a teenager, and when you finally grew up and graduated college, he had already hooked up with his ex. That’s changed now; you’re all grown up, and he’s available again. From the gossip I’ve gathered over the last couple of years, he’s been wrapped up in his career, and according to People magazine last month, he’s not in a serious relationship.” Carly turned to Catherine and added, “He’s an international correspondent, kind of like Anderson Cooper, only hipper, which is pretty amazing since Anderson Cooper is hip.” She looked at her sister and placed her hand on her upper arm. “Kim, come on,” Carly said encouragingly, “he’s not involved with anyone. This could be your chance to?—”

“Um, excuse me,” interrupted Catherine with a nervous laugh. “But if the subject of our discussion is still the guy who is about six-foot-two, sun- bleached hair, and a body that could definitely offer mind-blowing sex, and a lot of it, then I’d say we have about two minutes before he’s standing in front of us!”

Kimberly gasped. There was a flock of butterflies partying down in her stomach, and it felt as if a few of them may have made their way to her throat and were looking for an exit. A quick check over her sister’s shoulder confirmed her worst fears. Jake was headed in a path that led him straight to them.

So much for escaping before he noticed our trio, she thought glumly. If she hadn’t spent so much time trying to defend herself, she could be inside George’s house right now, hiding in a bedroom closet, or better yet, making a beeline for the front door. She chewed nervously on her bottom lip. Had she remembered to put on make-up this morning? What about deodorant? Had she remembered to put on deodorant before darting off to run errands before the party? Yeah right, sure she did. She bent her head and discreetly sniffed each armpit. Why me? She groaned inwardly right before a voice from the past shot through her, sending every butterfly in her stomach into massive chaos.

“Hello, ladies.”

“Jake!” Carly scrambled out of her chair and into his arms as fast as her very pregnant body allowed her. “I didn’t know you were coming! When did you arrive? Have you seen George yet?”

“Carly, you haven’t changed at all, have you? Still shy as ever.” Jake laughed in a deep, thick, sexy tone that replaced the earlier pin pricks with chills, skating along Kimberly’s skin. “Except, maybe, for that little basketball you’re now sporting.”

“Due next month.” Carly smiled proudly with a pat to her protruding stomach. “Jake,” she continued, “I would like to introduce you to Catherine Sinclair, Rick’s wife. They married last year.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Catherine.”

Carly tilted her head toward her sister. “And, of course, you remember Kimberly?”

Kimberly watched the warmth of his smile spread across his lips, and she licked her own in response. He was more handsome than she remembered, his sun-bronzed skin smooth with only thin creases at the corner of his eyes when he smiled, his hair a shade lighter than brown, thick and pulled back from his face by a leather band at his nape. She looked into his eyes and found him staring at her, the honey-colored irises reflecting something close to amusement. Her eyes grew wide, and she quickly moved them to the region of his chest.

“Of course, I remember Kimberly.” His playful grin, widened. “Just because you have dominated everyone’s attention your entire life,” he said to Carly, “doesn’t mean I forgot you have a sister,” he teased.

Kimberly glanced up at him again from her seat at the table, and still he stared at her. She swallowed, twice.

“It’s nice to see you again, Kimberly.”

“Um. Hi, Jake?” She twisted her hands together on her lap. “How are you?” she croaked in barely more than a whisper and then inwardly cringed. She tried to cool the blush that stained her neck and cheeks with several discreet waves of her hand, but she failed miserably. She glanced at her sister, and Carly’s eyes glared back an unsubtle threat: make your move, sis, or I’ll do the moving for you. Beneath the table, Kimberly wiped her damp palms on the front of her sundress and squeezed each of her trembling knees. All she wanted to do was dive under the table and pretend that she was invisible. Holy crap, she inwardly moaned, if Jake really knew her feelings for him, how could she ever look him in the eye again? Especially when she wore the words hopelessly in love with you stamped on her forehead?

“Jake, please, have a seat. Have you eaten anything yet?” Carly shot a glaring look at Kimberly again and then diverted her attention back to Jake.

“Yes, I did. More that I should have.” He patted the base of his abdomen, and his hands revealed a tight, flat stomach. “Five minutes after I walked in the door, Linda made sure I piled my plate high.”

“That’s Linda for you,” Carly responded.

Kimberly pushed the pasta into a mound on her plate until a jolt of pain shot through the middle of her shin. “Ow,” she muttered and rubbed her leg. Had her sister really just kicked her under the table with the tip of her Jimmy Choo platforms? She stole a glance at Carly, who responded with a meaningful glare.

“I’m glad you made it to the party. It has to be at least three years since we’ve seen you. The last I heard you were in Central America?” Carly prompted.

“South America, actually.”

“It’s been four years,” Kimberly softly corrected, immediately causing the other three heads at the table to turn swiftly in her direction. “I, ah, went through some of George’s Fourth of July photo albums not too long ago,” she fumbled through the explanation despite the flush that crept up her neck and over her cheeks.

How Jake, and only Jake, had been able to capture her heart and then fluster her to the point of embarrassment because of it, had caused her more than one headache. She had met a lot of men in college, and later at various jobs, and never did any of them cause her heart to throb erratically the way Jake did. She would ask herself why, only to be reminded of the numerous times she had witnessed him going out of his way to be kind to someone, or how he always thought to bring flowers to her mother when invited to dinner, and she would know all too well the answer. He was probably more successful than most of his friends, yet he never bragged, and he always made everyone feel special, that whatever you did was of equal importance to the world. Why did he have to be so perfect for her? She would ask herself this whenever she thought of him, which was most days, and every night, which was something she would never admit to anyone.

“South America, how exciting,” Catherine interjected, jarring Kimberly’s wandering thoughts back to their conversation.

“What brings you back to California, Jake? Do you live here? Or are you here for an assignment and, if so, please share the sordid details with us. Hopefully, there are some!” Catherine teased.

“No sordid details, sorry.” He grinned, and it emphasized the strong lines of his cheek bones and chin. “I live in New York, or should say, that is where I pay to keep my belongings stored, considering the amount of time I spend on the road,” he answered with a brief smile and then continued in a more serious tone. “While I was in South America on a job assignment, Zane tracked me down. Our grandfather recently transferred to a rehab center to recuperate from a broken hip. I’ve taken a temporary leave of absence to be with him since Zane committed himself to an assignment in Asia for the next ten weeks. Until he’s better, it looks as if I’m a resident of northern California again.”

Jake shrugged and a grin curled the corner of his lips. “Once he finally agreed to move into a rehab center, Gramps insisted on returning to the San Francisco area. He claims that although his heart is in Texas, he wanted to be closer to at least one of his grandsons when he finally passes. We told him he’d be a long way off from dying if he would just do the physical therapy that the doctors prescribed. Unfortunately, he’s more stubborn now at eighty-five than he was at sixty-five.”

“I had no idea. I hope his recovery goes well. I always loved Grandpa Zack,” Carly replied sincerely.

Kimberly returned her attention to the pasta on her plate. Despite the disheartening news about Jake’s grandfather, she didn’t miss the sparkle in her sister’s eyes when Jake announced his plans to stay in California. Carly wanted to see she and Jake together, and that meant there would be no end to her sister’s matchmaking schemes. If only she could figure out what went on in Carly’s conniving mind, Kimberly might be able to prevent her heart and ego from any further damage.

She’d bet money, even now, that the longing she felt for him was written all over her face. More than anything, she wanted to curl up in a tight ball and cry when she thought about Jake’s knowledge of her feelings for him. Why had she not realized it before now? Kimberly stared down at her plate and wondered how long it would be before Jake got bored and left them alone. “Thanks, Carly,” he answered with a swift grin.

Kimberly glanced up and found that Jake’s gaze had drifted back to her. She smiled politely at him despite the tremble that ricocheted over her skin in record time. He held her gaze and Kimberly squirmed under his intense scrutiny. He couldn’t possibly know how one look from him caused her hands to tremble and her brain to turn to near mush.

“Jake?”

Kimberly breathed a sigh of relief when Jake released her gaze and turned his head toward Carly. “I’m sorry. What was that?”

“No problem, Jake,” Carly replied slyly. “I asked where you’re staying while in town? With Zane? Is he still living in Sausalito?”

“He is, but I’m in a hotel,” he answered with a grimace. “Zane’s out of the country until sometime in October, and he committed his place to some friends who are having their house remodeled, before he knew Gramps was coming back and that I would be taking a leave of absence to be with him. Zane’s friends are staying at his place for the entire time he’s gone. I dread the idea of living in an extended stay hotel for two or three months, so I’m going to check out Airbnb. Although, truthfully, I haven’t gotten that far in my plans yet.”

“What a coincidence, Jake!” Carly exclaimed and pushed herself to the edge of her chair. “Kimberly just told us about her plans to sublet a room in her house, maybe even on Airbnb!” she quickly added. “Kimberly has the cutest bungalow; she remodeled it herself. Wouldn’t that be great, Jake? You could sort of be Kimberly’s Airbnb-guinea-pig. You know, see if she really likes renting out a room or not?”

Kimberly popped her head up so quickly she was afraid she might have strained her neck muscles. “Carly, I don’t think Jake would be interested in staying with me.” Kimberly’s gaze darted back and forth between Carly and Catherine, before finally landing on Jake. “I mean, I live in Sunnyvale. Your grandfather’s rehabilitation center is probably in San Francisco or Sausalito, isn’t it? ”

“Actually, his rehab center is in Los Altos Hills,” Jake replied.

“Oh,” Kimberly replied, and she shot Carly a distinctive glare that she doubted Jake missed. He cracked a grin and Kimberly wasn’t sure if she wanted to crawl under the table or run screaming into the house.

Jake leaned back in his chair, folded his arms in front of him, and his grin was still in place. “Thanks for the offer; this is great Kimberly. I’d like to move in tomorrow, if that works for you?”

She should have ran screaming into the house when she had the chance. “What?” Her head darted back and forth between Jake and Carly. “You, ah, my, a?—”

“Really?” interrupted Carly. “This is great!” She turned toward Kimberly, her eyes wide, and her eyebrows arched to their highest heights. “You should go home right now and get the place ready. I’ll come with you.”

“Oh, boy.” Catherine’s gaze darted to Kimberly before she turned and glanced at Jake. To Kimberly’s horror, Jake smiled back at Catherine, and she watched him return her friend’s worried expression with a wink.

Jake unfolded his arms and rested his hands on his thighs. “Kimberly, I’m joking. I really do plan to check out some Airbnbs next week. Besides, I wouldn’t impose myself on one of George’s little sisters. I do have some redeeming qualities.”

“Oh.” Kimberly sucked in a deep breath and then quickly exhaled it. She looked away from Jake and Catherine right before she realized that she had dumped half a bottle of ketchup over her salad, instead of the burger on her plate. Why hadn’t she ducked out of the party when she had the chance?

“Hey Jake! We’re getting a game of football together, and we need another player. Still able to run old man?” George yelled from over the heads of a huddled group of guys gathered across the yard from them .

“I can, but can you?” Jake called in return. “Excuse me ladies, but I think I need to show a few guys how soft married life has made them.”

Jake trotted away from their table without a backwards glance, and Kimberly was grateful because she was about to have one of the fiercest arguments that she’d ever had with her meddling sister.