CHAPTER 8 #9
His shoulders relaxed in relief at her departure from what he found to be a very uncomfortable subject.
This, he could talk about. “Daily, except Sundays.”
She smiled. “Is that when you hit the sweets hard?”
“A reward day is key to maintaining the regimen. Gotta have some fun.”
“My brothers love to work out.”
“I don’t.” He smirked. “The best part of working out is having exercised.”
“How long did it take you to turn into”—she made a sweeping motion toward his body with her hand—“that?”
His lips twitched. “Define that.”
Her blue eyes narrowed. “Fishing for compliments, Sebastian?”
“Maybe.” The way she said his middle name made something surge inside his chest. She remembered it; he liked this. He’d never cared for it, however, and no one had ever called him that.
“OK, then. You might have gotten handsome.”
“Might have?”
“I can’t tell for the beard.” She took a long sip of her wine, still studying him, and the need to touch her obliterated all else.
He reached out carefully, allowing himself to barely graze her cheek with his knuckles, ending with a soft caress of his thumb along her jaw.
She didn’t pull away, her beautiful eyes glittering with that sheen typical of people who were halfway to drunk.
She ran her tongue over her lips, and his gut clenched at the sight. He was now straining uncomfortably against the fabric of his pants.
Those powerful feelings she always evoked wrapped around his soul, and he was seventeen again, the blood rushing through his chest and echoing in his ears at the mere sight of her.
He badly wanted to put his arm around her and claim those lips again, but there was no way he was taking this further when she had so much alcohol in her system.
He drew his hand away.
The next second, his phone buzzed. He exhaled and quickly pulled it out of his pocket. No photo appeared, but he knew exactly who it was.
Adam Larssen.
Jannie, too, recognized the number. “Why is he calling you?”
Nick shrugged. “Let’s find out.”
For a moment, she looked as if she might protest, but then she nodded curtly and looked away, her lips pressed into a thin line.
He tapped accept and put the call on speaker.
“This is Nick Kent.”
“Hey, Kent. Adam Larssen. Sorry to bother you on a Friday night.”
“No bother at all. What can I do for you, Captain?”
“I can’t seem to get in touch with my sister. She isn’t answering her landline, and her cell keeps going straight to voicemail. I’ve texted, emailed, called everyone I can think of. Running out of ideas, here. Thought I’d call you. Have you talked to her lately?”
Nick cast a questioning look at Jannie, who was scowling.
And then, she rolled her eyes.
It was all Nick could do to keep from laughing out loud.
A moment went by as he thought of an appropriate response.
“Are you there?” Larssen asked.
“Yeah, Ug, he’s here,” Jannie informed him irritably.
“Really.” He sounded genuinely taken aback.
Jannie snickered, and Nick guessed it wasn’t often that her stoic brother was thrown for a loop.
“I was just about to tear his clothes off, but now the mood is totally ruined. Thank you for that. Much appreciated.”
Nick looked at her in bemusement, and she shrugged one shoulder, her face filled with exasperation.
“What do you want?” she demanded.
“Nothing,” her brother grumbled.
“You’re calling for nothing?”
“Just wanted to make sure you’re OK.”
“I’m always OK.”
“Yeah.” Adam’s tone said he didn’t buy that at all.
“Is there anything else you want to bug me with? If not, I’d like to go back to—”
“Nothing else. Glad you’re OK. Talk soon.”
Larssen hung up.
“Tear my clothes off, huh?”
“Shock talk. It always gets him to back off. He’s so uptight, I’m surprised he hasn’t imploded by now. I don’t know how my sister-in-law puts up with him.”
“He just wants to support you.”
“More like suffocate me,” she muttered.
“Your family is still close, isn’t it?”
“Too close. They can’t seem to stop butting into my business.”
He would give anything to have that. For the millionth time, he wondered what his life would be like now if his brother and mother hadn’t been ripped away.
“Where did you go?”
Jannie’s quiet voice yanked him back to the present.
Nick forced a smile. “Somewhere I shouldn’t be.”
She eyed him thoughtfully. “Loss sucks, doesn’t it?”
“It does.” No surprise that she’d guessed. He eyed the second empty wine bottle, glinting emerald in the light of the dying fire, and wished for something stronger.
“How are you dealing?” he asked, posing the question that had been on his mind the entire evening.
She raised her chin. “I’m OK.”
“Are you really?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Her voice, however, was hoarse. She looked away, and he caught a glimpse of tears brimming before she blinked them back.
Something wrenched in his chest, and he patted his shoulder. “It’s here if you need it.”
He hadn’t expected her to scoot closer, nor did he anticipate her laying her head on his chest. Before he knew it, she was leaning into him, the scent of her floral shampoo filling his nostrils, the warmth of her body causing his own to heat up once more.
It felt good. Really good.
For a while, neither of them spoke; the only sound was the constant croaking of frogs in the lake.
“I’ve never done death very well,” she finally said.
He inhaled deeply of her sweet scent. “Does anyone?”
“I have a friend who is a nurse. She accepts it as a part of the cycle, a consequence of living, and she sees it as natural and inevitable. She says it doesn’t bother her.
I should be like that. I should be used to it by now, but I can’t …
” She swallowed. “I can’t think that way.
I’ve never been able to wrap my head around people being here one minute, and the next … ”
“Gone forever.”
She nodded. “Yeah. Disappeared. And those left behind have to deal with what’s left of them. Like … their belongings, clothes … and …”
“I know that feeling well.”
“Do you?”
“Remember you asked me why I left Fargo so suddenly?”
She nodded.
He’d never told a soul. Stashed it in the back of his mind, leaving it in the past where it belonged. But now, something compelled him to tell her.
“I had to go live with a cousin in Bismark.”
She studied his face intently. “Why?”
“A week before graduation, my mom hadn’t been feeling well because she was … She was expecting a baby. Boy.”
Her eyes widened. “You have a brother?”
Nick bowed his head. “I was going to.”
“Oh.” Her voice was barely audible. “She lost the baby?”
“Yeah. And I lost her, too.”
“I am so very sorry.”
For several heart-stopping seconds, she looked straight into him, and then her gaze dipped to his lips. Then she leaned in, and Nick stopped breathing.
Boom!
The explosion came from across the lake. Jannie didn’t flinch, but Nick instinctively pulled her closer, his head turning toward the direction of the sound.
A burst of glittering color filled a large portion of the black sky over the water.
“Fireworks?”
She nodded. “That’s Disney.”
“Oh.”
Another burst of light and color, this time streaking slowly up and up, to separate into a green shower of sparkling stars.
“It’s their nightly fireworks show.”
“You have fireworks in your backyard every night?”
“Yeah.” She smiled. “I guess I’ve grown immune. I don’t pay them much attention anymore.”
One after another, the fireworks ascended in the sky and exploded into a riot of glittering colors.
For the next fifteen minutes, Nick watched the display in silence, observing how the lake shimmered with reflected light and different colors.
He wasn’t sure if Jannie was watching, but she leaned into him more and more, and he could sense her breathing pattern changing, gradually becoming even and deep.
She really wasn’t kidding about not hearing them. The fire before him was dying, deep orange embers glowing at the bottom of the pit. He glanced around. How could he make her more comfortable? He thought to carry her inside, but that would wake her, and he didn’t want to do that.
So, as carefully as he could, he leaned away until she settled gently on both cushions, then turned to grab the large two-person one from the nearby chaise. Placing it on the ground alongside the others, he stretched out beside her. Immediately, she rolled over and snuggled close.
Nick stared up at the wood plank ceiling. What the hell should he do?
Stay? Go?
He couldn’t very well leave her out here alone, though he pitied the fool who would show up and try anything if he let Rolf out to guard her.
Nick rubbed his cheek gently over the top of her head. Would she want him here overnight?
He shifted a little, and the answer to the question came swiftly in the form of Jannie throwing a leg around him and making a little humming sound, as if protesting his attempt to put space between them.
The next second, she buried her face at the base of his throat and inhaled deeply, exhaling in a long sigh.
She gripped his shirt front, holding tight.
“Smell … good,” she mumbled.
Yeah, he wasn’t going anywhere. Truth be told, he didn’t want to. He looked up at the stars, and in the distance, he spotted the unmistakable green and red lights of an airplane.
Usually, the sight of one triggered the desire to be up there, flying it.
But not tonight.
He gazed down at the sleeping woman in his arms, and as he allowed himself to press a soft kiss to her silky, light blonde hair, Nick realized there was nowhere else in the universe he’d rather be.