A Fair to Remember (9 page)

“Don’t get cocky, yet, Lassen.”

“You just focus on your own girl-toss, Canaday. And I’ll take care of my end.”

A few minutes later, her eyes went wide and she tugged in her line. “Ooh! I got one! I got a fish!”

Oh, no she didn’t.
“Careful,” he told her. “Easy. Reel it in slow and steady.” But she was so excited that the moment she’d pulled it in and reached to grab for it, it shimmied off the line and escaped.

“Ahhhh!” She slapped the water with the rod.

“Oooh.” Jake tsked. “Bad luck.”

“But… but I caught one,” she argued. “You saw it.”

“Yeah,” he said, shaking his head. “Only counts if you land it and take the hook out.”

“That wasn’t in the rules,” she said, testily, “but fine.”

Jake cast his line out and hit the pocket he’d been aiming at for the last five minutes. He glanced up at Deke who was deeply focused on a pool shaded by a leaning pine tree, then at Olivia, who’d moved a few feet downriver from him.

She looked eighteen again, he thought, with her lip caught between her teeth and those freckles still chasing across her nose. He contemplated kissing those freckles, one at a time. But then he thought of other things he wanted to kiss.

Or suck. Or lick.

Sweat trickled down the side of his neck. Where the hell were those damned trout?

Incredibly, not thirty seconds later, both of their lines had strikes almost simultaneously. He didn’t want to think about the fact that she was actually
catching
fish with her lame-ass toss while he had spent years perfecting his own cast.

At any rate, he’d let her worry about setting her own hook while he concentrated on getting the job done. As they wrestled the fish in—his feeling some two pounds heavier than hers looked—he unhooked a net from his belt and scooped his safely in. Only then did he gently unhook the lure from its mouth.

She was still fighting to catch the slippery thing in her hand.

“Need some help there?” he asked.

“Gloating is unbecoming.”

“Yeah, I was gonna say it’s a tie anyway. No gloating. I’m officially impressed.”

She finally managed to grab the fish. “You mean we cancel each other out?”

“Hell,
no
. A wager’s a wager. But to be fair, especially considering you actually caught a fish with that… toss of yours, we both win.”

Which meant they both got a kiss. Which meant the smile tugging at Olivia’s mouth was either her contemplating her choice of location, or trying to figure out a way out of it altogether.

He was hoping for the first case scenario.

Delicately, she unhooked her catch, held the hook up for him to see, then tossed the fish gently back in the water. At his astonished expression, she said, “All you said was I had to land it and unhook it. You didn’t say anything about keeping it. I told you I was a catch and release kind of girl. Besides, we have more than enough fish for dinner.” She jerked her chin in Deke’s direction as he pulled in a three pounder.

“Playing fast and loose with the rules,” Jake observed, his gaze dropping to her mouth. “I
like
it.”

She blushed, then stared at something over his shoulder. “Oh-oh.”

Jake turned to see thunderheads, ominous and steely, spilling over the crest of the mountain. He’d been so intent on winning he’d missed the smell of the electrical charge in the air that always preceded a storm like the one heading their way. It wasn’t unusual for weather to sneak up on the mountains here. This one was coming fast.

By the time they’d packed up and headed back to Deke’s place, a drenching downpour had soaked them through. They ran to beat the lightning and deep rumbles of thunder pounding up the valley toward them. Jake leashed Monday in case she got spooked. But she thought it was a game and had fun trying to trip them as they ran, with the falcons dive-bombing them. They were all laughing by the time they stumbled back into the shelter of Deke’s house and dripping wet.

When Jake’s cell rang, he knew it would be Sammy, suggesting a pass on the return trip back tonight. The storm was here until at least until after dark. Sammy would come for them first thing in the morning.

Jake glanced at Olivia, toweling off Monday, her skin glowing and flushed, her eyelashes, spiky and black with droplets of water, and her clothes clinging to her like a second skin. His heart gave a little lurch at how happy she looked. Away from Marietta and her childhood bedroom and all the hell she’d been through in the last few years, this was the Liv he remembered. Laughing and happy and grabbing life as it came with both hands. He wanted to protect her and keep those shadows dogging her at bay. To be the one who made her smile like that every day.

He just needed to find a way in.

O
livia wouldn’t go
so far as to say the weather had conspired against her, personally, but she couldn’t help but imagine someone up there laughing at the idea of her and Jake sleeping under the same roof tonight and trying to keep everything copacetic.

By that, she meant friendly. With a capital ‘F’.

This…
proximity
was not in her game plan. In fact, it was so far out of her game plan that her pieces had fallen off the board entirely, with the heart-thudding prospect of the kiss he’d promised her.

After calling home to let her parents know they didn’t have to worry about her flying in a helicopter through the storm, she’d changed into one of Deke’s old shirts and sweatpants while her clothes dried in the drier. Jake had requisitioned a pair of khaki shorts and a too-tight T-shirt that clung to every ripped muscle in his torso and curved around his well-defined shoulders and biceps, as they’d helped Deke get dinner on.

Really, Jake? Is there
anything
you don’t look good in?

Just contemplating the sleeping arrangements for the night was scrambling her brain. She’d actually put the olive oil away in the freezer after dressing the salad. Deke had gently retrieved it without a word.

Embarrassing.

It was the kiss, or the prospect of the kiss, that had her all hot and bothered, even though, just to torture her, Jake had made no mention of it since the river.

Except in every look, or accidental touch, every gaze that lingered on her mouth.

What if that’s not what I want?

What if it is?

A rush of longing twirled her insides. She’d agreed to his stakes because… well, because… she was an idiot. Only a fool didn’t know where a kiss like that might lead. The one they’d shared at the river had exploded like a summer wildfire. Kissing him again was juggling lit matches and gasoline—a recipe for disaster.

She stared out the picture window at the rain slanting against the driveway and forming little puddles. A jagged streak of lightning ripped across the sky, followed by a swell of thunder.

She’d told him she’d sworn off men and that was true. The thought of dating strange men—or rather, men who were strangers—made her want to crawl in bed and throw the covers over her head. Case in point—God’s gift to law, Peter Moreno. And she supposed there were girls who actually fell for men like him. And who was she to talk? Not so long ago, she’d fallen for someone equally self-involved, though much better at disguising it.

Oh, yes, there was heartbreak aplenty out there for anyone in the market for it, but she felt like she’d already had her share.

And yet, here was Jake. Beautiful, amazing Jake, busting in on her quiet, arranged retreat from life on his own white horse. Jake—with his own wounds from the war still sabotaging him when he was least expecting it—possibly believing he could repair what was broken inside her.

But
she
was the fixer. The good girl. The one who didn’t cause trouble or need help. She always had been. It hadn’t occurred to her until much later in life she couldn’t fix anyone. First, there’d been her drunk of a father who couldn’t be saved and had died in spite of her best attempts to rescue him from himself. Then Jake, who she’d driven away into the army out of pure fear. There was the U.S. Equestrian Team and, of course, Kendy, most of all. And, finally, Kyle, whose obsessive nature demanded perfection, something she most definitely couldn’t deliver.

Her real failure with Kyle was not being able to see what was happening until it was too late. Her judgment had been skewed by her need to please him—her mentor. A pathetic weakness she vowed never to indulge in with a man again.

The accident with Kendy seemed merely the culmination of all the bad decisions she’d made, a place for her to point and say, “See there? That’s exactly what you deserve for failing every single person in your life.”

But she’d given Jake fair warning, hadn’t she? She told him she wasn’t available, hadn’t she? Was it so wrong for a thirty-year-old woman to crave a kiss? A touch? To be held by a man who gave a damn about her?

Yes, oh, yes, when the man was Jake
.

But as he leaned close to her to add silverware to the place setting, her temperature shot up and her will to be reasonable floundered. He smelled like rain and sweet mountain air and something indefinable—a scent that inspired thoughts of sweaty sheets and long, slow kisses in the dark.

Stop right there
.

Too late.

The moment the thought occurred, she caught him staring at the pulse in her throat which seemed to have gone rogue, clamoring against her skin like a firehouse alarm. Then his gaze slid up to hers and lingered for a moment before he smiled and picked up his conversation with Deke.

Dear Lord.

At dinner, she discovered Deke was, indeed, a gourmet cook. What he did with the fish was every bit as good as anything she’d tasted in downtown Manhattan, at some of the best restaurants in the city. Everything was exquisitely done and delicious, from the souffléd baby potatoes he’d grown in his garden to the heirloom tomato, mozzarella, and basil salad, and key lime pie. Olivia moaned over it all and decided then and there she needed to attend cooking school.

They drank excellent wine and talked about everything from solar roadways, to the Middle East and everything in between. Olivia enjoyed watching the two men debate, occasionally adding her two cents, which was a big step for her, considering her two cents had been so devalued over the last half a decade.

At moments like these, she understood exactly how much of herself she’d shoved down while being with Kyle. And how much she loved the freedom of speaking her own mind again. The slow, insidious loss of her very self to her marriage was something she was only now beginning to grasp. What still troubled her was how she’d allowed it to happen at all.

“That garden is doing well,” Jake said. “You might need another quarter-acre dug at the rate you’re going.”

“There’s only one of me, here. I’ll have to open a vegetable stand soon as it is. With the short growing season, I’ve learned to put up what I can’t eat.” He turned to Olivia. “Did Jake tell you he dug out that whole garden for me when he stayed with me after he came home?”

There was so much she didn’t know about Jake. It didn’t surprise her that he’d taken refuge here after leaving the army. Deke was his only living relative.

“He’s very lucky to have you, Deke. And a place like this to come home to.”

“That’s a fact,” Jake said, smiling at Deke. “Now if we could just find you a nice lady for you to share it with. I met a woman up in Livingston named Maria who cleans houses and she’s looking for a position—”

Deke sent him a look she imagined had passed between them many times. “I made my choice years ago, my boy. I’m not about to change courses now.”

“I suppose not,” he said, “but I keep trying.” Monday came and laid her head in his lap. “I think this is her polite way of saying she’s had enough conversation.” He got up and clipped her leash on and slipped a rain slicker over his head “You two stay dry. We’ll be back in a few.”

Olivia began clearing the dishes with Deke, sad that the evening was ending. It had been a long time since she’d shared good food and company like this, outside of her family.

She studied Jake’s uncle as he puttered in the kitchen, rinsing dishes. He looked content. He’d made his peace with aloneness. Was this what she had to look forward to someday? A life alone? No one to share it with? No children to love?

“How long have you lived out here?” she asked.

“Better part of fifteen years,” he said. “I know. It’s not for everyone. It was even hard for me at first, though I craved the solitude. I was married once. Did Jake tell you that?”

She shook her head.

“Her name was Emma. We were married eight years. I loved her very much. She was beautiful, like you.” A thousand memories slid by him as Olivia watched and each one seemed to catch him off guard. “She wanted children. Would have been a magnificent mother. But… she… passed away one day while I was otherwise occupied, developing microchips or some other foolish thing. She fell on some ice in front of our home. Hit her head and that was that.”

“Oh, I’m… I’m so sorry, Deke.”

“I could never replace her, you see.” He took a stack of plates from her and set them in the sink. “Now, I have my birds and my work and my cooking. I might even buy a goat or two in my old age. Learn to make cheese.” He laughed, then glanced at her expression. “Sounds lonely to you, yes? Sometimes,” he confessed, “it is. I look at you and Jake and I think, it was only a moment ago that I was your age with my life in front of me. But in fact, it’s mostly behind me now. It seems to spin by faster and faster each year. I suppose it’s none of my business, you and Jake. And you can tell me so, because I can be downright nosy, considering how I protect my own privacy.”

She bit her lip. “Go on.”

“He is like a son to me. All the family I have left.”

Olivia lifted her glass of wine and took a gulp, sure he was about to warn her off Jake, beg her not to break his heart.

“Has he told you why he left the army?”

She shook her head. “He doesn’t want to talk about it.”