Chapter 10
STEEL
Feather-light kisses followed his gentle caress down the sensuous curve of her spine.
Jenna shivered, despite the heat in the room.
The double doors to their hotel balcony were open, allowing in the warm breeze and the rush of the ocean waves below.
They arrived on Tuesday and had yet to leave the room.
It was now Sunday.
Yet there was not an ounce of desire to leave this room, this bed, or this woman. Jenna was naked, and Steel? Fucking hell, Steel couldn’t remember the last time they were free of responsibility, free of children, friends, and family, free of, well, everything.
The Bahamas was just an excuse. He could have taken her to Timbuktu, and it wouldn’t have mattered.
God, he loved this woman. Jenna was more than his world, she was him. There was no Steel without her. People talked of moving on after the death of a loved one. But Steel knew the truth. The moment those words had come out of her doctor’s mouth, he’d known.
Jenna would not be leaving this world without him. There was no part of him that would survive without her. Call it selfish, call it true love, he didn’t give a fuck. The moment Jenna stopped breathing, so would he.
Forty years wasn’t enough. The moment he’d looked into her eyes on that sidewalk, his entire world had changed. Every priority, every purpose, had changed. He was put on this earth to love her.
SEPTEMBER 1984
Jack was opening his mouth to tell Lilly his plan when someone shouted, “Wait!” from behind them.
He glanced over his shoulder, so certain that whoever was speaking wasn’t calling out to them—and did a double take.
Running towards them in a cute, long dress was the most beautiful girl Jack had ever seen.
She had flaming orange hair, piercing hazel eyes, and a dusting of freckles over her nose and cheeks.
As she skidded to a halt in front of them, Jack noted that she was only a few inches shorter than he was.
Maybe five-seven. The yellow dress revealed just a teasing amount of cleavage.
Her arms were covered by a white sweater, which Jack desperately wanted to take off of her to see if those freckles could be located there too.
Though fifteen, he’d never had a girlfriend before.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t noticed the girls in his class or around him.
He’d had crushes before, and the occasional eye contact with one made his heart—and other things—jump to attention, but never enough to actually follow through or commit to anything.
But this girl…
Just…wow.
She was a flame in the darkness, as mesmerizing as the beauty of a flickering fire. And that smile. It stole his breath.
Her hair was in an intricate braid that looped around the top of her head like a crown. It seemed fitting in a way. Queen of Hearts. Then he corrected it to, Queen of my heart. Maybe even clichéd, but damn if Jack cared.
The girl smiled at Jack before turning her attention to Lilly. “I really hope I’m not overstepping, but I have a rule to do one kind thing a day.” She held out a brown paper shopping bag to Lilly.
Lilly looked up at Jack, unsure of what to do. It was rare that townspeople talked to them or engaged them in any way. Small towns talked, and it was widely known that John Duncan did not believe Lilly was his daughter. No one wanted anything to do with the illegitimate child, not even John Duncan.
Cautiously, Jack nodded down to Lilly. He didn’t know what was in the bag, but instincts—or maybe his lizard brain—was telling him that he could trust this teenage girl.
Lilly let go of Jack’s hand to grab the handles of the bag with both of hers. It was heavy enough that she had to place it on the sidewalk. The girl watched in expectation as Lilly reached into the bag. With a gasp, Lilly pulled out the lion stuffed animal from the bookshop window for Jack to see.
His eyebrows raised in surprise.
Lilly tipped the bag enough for him to see inside. Sure enough, there was the box set of Narnia books. Ribbon and all.
“Wow!” Lilly looked up at the teenage girl with flaming orange hair. “Is this for me?”
She nodded down to Lilly. “Of course! I saw the way you were looking at the books in the window.” Glancing up at Jack, she added, “I hope I didn’t overstep.
I just was so busy today that I hadn’t had a chance to do something special for anyone and I knew as soon as I saw your sister look at the books that that was the one kind thing I wanted to do today. ”
They stared at each other for a long moment, gunmetal-gray eyes to hazel. There was…something in her eyes that told Jack she was studying him as much as he was her. Jack had never before considered what it would be like to fall in love. It wasn’t as if his parents had been an example to him.
The saying ‘falling in love’ had just been something corny to him until this moment.
Something romance books and poets used. One didn’t actually fall.
But then, why did it feel like he was standing on the edge of a cliff with no parachute?
Like he could fall into those hazel eyes and drown?
Like she was the only girl in the entire world?
“Thank you!” Lilly’s high-pitched, excited voice seemed like background noise.
But it was enough to break the moment on the girl’s part. She blinked rapidly, as if coming back to herself. When she looked away, Jack’s entire body rebelled, wanting to demand her attention again.
“I’m so glad you like it,” she told Lilly. Her smile widened on his sister and a jolt of jealousy hit him. Fuck, he wanted her to smile at him like that.
“Jackie, look! They’re all there. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven! All seven books!”
Jack forced his eyes away from the girl’s face to look down at his sister’s request. “That’s great, Lilly.”
“I’m glad I caught you. I thought I was going to be too late when I saw you were gone by the time I left the store.”
Jack noticed that the girl didn’t have any other packages with her. That meant she hadn’t bought any books for herself. Just Lilly.
As sweet as the gesture was, a churning in Jack’s stomach left him with a feeling of inadequacy. This girl, as beautiful as she was, was a stranger. She’d bought Lilly a gift that was Jack’s responsibility to give.
“Hey, Lillypad, could you go wait by my bike for a minute?”
Lilly looked up at him with wide eyes. “You’re not going to make me give them back, right?”
He shook his head. “No. They were a gift to you. They’re all yours.”
She let out a long sigh of relief. “Thanks, Jackie!” She hugged the stuffed lion to her chest. This close, Jack could tell it was also used. “Thank you!” Lilly said to the girl.
“You’re very welcome.”
“Leave the books there,” Jack told her. “I’ll get them in a second.” He knew how heavy they would be for her. He still had to figure out how he was going to get them back with them on his bike.
Lilly walked over to his bike, where it was leaning up against the brick wall. She was running her fingers through the lion’s mane and whispering to him.
Jack made sure she was at his bike and then turned back to the girl. To his surprise, she had a bit of a defensive posture.
“Is this the part where you scold me for buying her a gift or saying that you don’t accept charity?”
Jack raised an eyebrow. Why was her hostility such a turn on? “No, this is the part where I sincerely thank you.”
“Really?” She looked skeptical. “You’re not going to chastise me for wounding your pride or some other man-bullshit?”
The curse word falling from her pretty mouth was unexpected but also a delight. “My sister’s joy is worth more than my pride,” he informed her. “If you’d bought me the books, we’d be having an entirely different conversation.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, studying him for a moment. “Huh. You actually mean that.”
He nodded once. “I don’t say anything I don’t mean. Just like,” he added, “me saying I’m going to pay you back for the books.”
“It’s not necessary—”
“It is. She doesn’t need to know about it, but I’m going to do it anyway.”
“It was a gift—”
“Gift to her,” he interrupted again. “But I don’t want you to be out the money.”
She waved that off. “Really, don’t worry about it. Like I said, I like to do one kind thing for a stranger per day. Your sister just happened to be today’s recipient.”
It was at those words that Jack took note of just how nice her clothes were.
He was used to most people having better or nicer things than him.
It was just a part of his life and circumstances, but her clothes were nicer than nice.
Her clothes were extremely well made and fit her in a way that made Jack wonder if they were made for her.
Money.
Her entire appearance, from her pretty hair to her dressy yellow shoes, screamed money.
Fuck. She was way out of his league. Beyond his league. They weren’t even in the same ballpark.
“How long are you in town for?” he asked.
“I’m officially a local,” she replied with a smile. She held her hands out, gesturing to the town. “My daddy just moved us here from the city. He thinks the small-town life will have a better influence on my sister than Seattle did.”
“You’re attending the high school then?” It wasn’t like Port Townsend had any private schools or academies, which he assumed was what she’d been enrolled in previously.
“I am. Sophomore.”
“Same.”
She smiled. Not as brightly as when she’d smiled at Lilly, but he’d take it. “Well, it’ll be nice to see a familiar face on Monday.”
“Same.”
She took a step back. “I’m glad your sister likes the books and I was serious about not paying me back.”
“I was too.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly. “How about this? Instead of paying me back for the books, you can help me get the lay of the land on Monday. I don’t know anyone here and will need help navigating the ways of your high school.”