Chapter Seventeen
S age’s phone rang on the nightstand. She didn’t have to worry about waking anyone up. She was sleeping alone and not happy about it. It was her fault. Last night when Jake suggested they celebrate their fresh start, she’d mistakenly assumed it was a euphemism for them having sex.
And she’d been ready to have sex with him, more than ready, truth be told. And it wasn’t just because they’d had fun feeding each other the chocolate cake or she’d laughed more with Jake than she could remember laughing in a very long time.
Yesterday had been a turning point in their relationship.
They’d shared things about themselves, important things.
Things Sage had never talked about to anyone else.
He wasn’t who she thought he was. She admired and respected the man he’d become.
It didn’t hurt that he was gorgeous or that he’d apparently had a crush on her growing up.
She’d thought she’d seen signs that he still did, but maybe she’d been wrong.
Her door opened as she reached for the phone. “Who’s calling you at this hour of the morning?” Jake asked, coming over and picking up her phone. “Your sister. Do you want me to tell her you’re still sleeping?”
“No. If you answer my phone this early, she’ll think you’re in bed with me.” What was wrong with her? She sounded disappointed. Dammit. How early was it? Too early for Jake to notice the subtle whine in her voice, she decided.
He angled his head. “Are you disappointed that I’m not in bed with you?”
“No! Why would you ask a stupid question like that?”
“Uh, maybe because you sounded like you were.”
“Of course I’m not.” She raised herself up on the bed, puffed up her pillows, and leaned back against them. “You can give me my phone now. Earth to Jake.” She made a gimme motion with her fingers while following his gaze.
She smirked. “I think you’re projecting, Jake Walker.
It’s you who’s disappointed you aren’t in bed with me.
” Assuming they were going to have sex last night, she’d chosen the sexy, siren-red lingerie that she’d never worn but Willow had packed for her when Sage was in the hospital.
Come to think of it, her sister had been the one who’d bought the lingerie for her.
When it became apparent sex wasn’t on the table, Sage couldn’t be bothered to hunt down a T-shirt and sleep pants.
“The day’s still young,” he said, casting her a cocky grin and walking out with his long, loose-limbed stride.
“You can’t just say something like that to me and walk away,” she called after him, hearing the rumble of his deep, sexy laugh in response.
She glanced at her now-silent phone. It was five in the morning! She called her sister back. “What is so urgent that you couldn’t wait until a decent hour to call me?”
“Oh please, you rarely sleep. Besides, this is my normal wake-up time.”
“Hello, it’s not mine. And I’m supposed to catch up on my sleep while I’m here—or have you forgotten that I’m burned out?”
“No, but I figured you weren’t following doctor’s orders anyway. You’re not really an order follower. But I’m sorry if I woke you up. I really need to talk to you about this, though. I’ve been up half the night stewing about it. You can thank Noah for me not waking you up at two this morning.”
“Thank you, Noah. Now, what are you worked up about this time?” Usually at this point in the conversation, Sage would be going over a brief while listening to her sister vent.
It wasn’t that she found the things Willow vented about trivial; it was just that it took her sister a while to get to the point.
Sage put the call on speaker and pulled up one of the online newspapers she subscribed to.
“Okay, so I’ll give you a little background info first,” her sister said.
“Of course you will,” Sage said under her breath while reading an article about lane closures in the city.
The one benefit of not having to go into work was not fighting traffic.
She looked up from the article when her door opened and Jake once again walked in, only this time she smiled. He’d brought her coffee.
Thank you , she mouthed, reaching for the mug.
He frowned. “Is there a reason you’re mouthing your words?” he asked at the same time her sister said, “Did Mom ever mention Spicy Eggplant to—Wait, is that Jake? Is Jake in bed with you? What is going on with my family? You’re all having sex, and no one tells me!”
“Drama much? I’m not having sex, and Jake just brought me a cup of coffee.”
“But you want to have sex with him, don’t you? I can hear it in your voice.”
“What? Did I moan his name or something? And if there was a moany sound in my voice, it was over the coffee, not Jake. He makes really good coffee, and he’s standing right here, by the way, and I have you on speaker, so he’s heard everything you just said.”
“What’s a spicy eggplant?” he asked as he walked around the bed and climbed in with her.
“Uh, what are you doing?”
“You keep talking about me being in bed with you, and I wanted to hear about spicy eggplant.” He shrugged, propping a couple of pillows behind his head. “Two birds, one stone.”
Before she could object, he pulled the comforter over her chest and tucked her in, rendering her speechless. Once she’d recovered, she was about to make a suggestive comment just to show him how blasé she was about him being in bed with her, but he beat her to it.
He winked. “You looked cold.”
It took Willow approximately fifteen minutes to fill them in on Spicy Eggplant and his online comments.
“She’s very detailed,” Jake whispered, and Sage had to work to keep from laughing out loud.
But then Willow told them about Spicy Eggplant stalking her mother and Aunt Eva and Cami, and Sage’s amusement dried up.
She sensed the change in Jake right away. It was no longer fun and games. He was hyper-alert. “Willow, do you have a make and model on the car?” he asked.
“Mom took a photo. The police have a copy. She couldn’t get the license plate, though. It was blacked out. Hang on. Honey, can you send Sage the photo Mom took of the creeper’s car?”
A moment later, Sage said, “Got it,” and pulled up the photo. She turned the screen to Jake.
He nodded, his expression grim. “I recognize the car. It was parked outside the restaurant last night for about half an hour.”
He’d gone out front to take a call just before dessert was served. She hadn’t asked him about it. She thought it might have something to do with his mother and figured he’d tell her if he wanted her to know.
“They drove by Alice’s place too.”
“Really?” Sage asked.
“Yeah. When we went back to lock up. They slowed to a crawl as they drove by, but I thought it was related to something else.” He held her gaze.
His mother. She nodded her understanding.
“You or your cousin notice the car around your places?” Jake asked Willow.
“No, and we’ve all been more vigilant since Sage told us about the guy at the Smoke Shack asking about the family.”
“That’s good.” He got off the bed. “I’m going to talk to SBPD, add my information to your family’s. I want a timeline too. I’ll drive over to Alice’s. A couple of her neighbors have doorbell cams.”
“Jake, it’s just after five in the morning,” Sage reminded him.
“By the time I head out, it’ll be closer to eight. I’ll wait until Kendra shows before I go.”
“I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Didn’t say you did.”
“You didn’t say it, you implied it.”
Willow interrupted their staring contest. “Uncle James has a doorbell cam, and he goes for a run every morning around six.”
“Good to know. Thanks, Willow,” Jake said, and left the room.
“No problem.” There was a long pause and then her sister said, “He’s left the room, right? ’Cause just to say, he totes thinks you need a babysitter, and he’s totes into you.”
“I heard that,” he yelled from down the hall.
Nothing got past the guy. He had the hearing of a bat. She thought it had something to do with his special forces training, and she had a feeling that if anyone found creeper guy, it would be Jake. It was nice to know she could let that worry go and leave it to him. Which reminded her…
“So, if Spicy Eggplant, also known as creeper guy but could be creeper gal, was the background info, what kept you up all night?”
“Okay, so obviously major excitement with the police arriving at the restaurant, sirens blaring and lights flashing, and this will make you laugh…”
Sage sighed and pulled up the Boston Globe , half listening to her sister as she gave her a play-by-play of the night’s events.
It wasn’t until Willow said, “I can tell I’ve shocked you.
I was stunned too. I can’t believe Mom would do this.
Without even talking to me. It’s no wonder I couldn’t sleep last night. What are we going to do?”
Crap. At least Sage knew it had something to do with her mother.
She tried to come up with a leading question without giving herself away, but Willow kept talking.
Prolonged silence was one of Sage’s favorite interview techniques; clients were typically unable to resist filling the silence.
She realized then that she’d probably learned the technique from dealing with Willow.
“You have to talk to her, Sage. I’m too close to the situation.” Willow groaned. “Can you imagine me sitting down with Mom and talking about her having sex with my dad?”
Sage sent Jake a text. You win. My mom and Flynn are romantically involved.
To her sister, she said, “Honestly, I don’t know what the big deal is.
You’ve never had an issue talking about sex with anyone.
You recently did a segment on Good Morning, Sunshine!
about sex positivity and the importance of open and honest conversations about sex, didn’t you? ”
“Wow, you really do watch my show. But this is different. Put yourself in my position. How would you like to talk to your parents… Okay, so it’s not like you can put yourself in my position, but you know what I mean.”