Snow Angel (34 page)

Aside from missing her touch, missing her sitting beside him the way she usually did, he really wished they could find a chance to talk about everything. Maybe later, when everyone else was in bed.

Guilt stabbed at him, one sharp jolt. He should have told her about the internships. About Irvine. About all of it, before laying the whole I-love-you thing on her. Their differing goals and plans were the whole problem as far as Melinda was concerned, and he’d backed her into a corner without giving her all the information.

She wasn’t going to be happy with him.

Then again, something surprising had shifted inside him this past week, unrelated to his feelings for Melinda. Something that might end up making both of them very happy, if he could wrap his head around the changes. But he had to be sure he was doing it for the right reasons. Lasting reasons.

He didn’t want to make a huge mistake and wind up locked into a life he’d neither wished for nor considered.

“Did you finally figure it out, son?” his dad asked, sitting beside him.

Jacob stared at him quizzically. Bill only stared back, a meaningful look on his face.

“Figure what out, Dad?”

Leaning in close, Bill spoke for his ears alone. “That she’s the one.”

Jacob sat back, thoughtful now. He’d suspected, hadn’t he, that his dad knew something was up. He never could pull anything over on that man.

Slowly, Jacob nodded.

His dad grinned, nodded back. Slapped him on the knee as he rose.

“Glad to hear it,” Bill said. “Go get your woman, son. It’s about time.”

With that, his dad wound his way into the kitchen, whispered into his mom’s ear. Her smile broke out like sunlight, and she looked his way, her eyes dancing. His parents toasted each other with the drinks in their hands.

Yeah, so much for keeping any of it under wraps. At least they were happy about it, which gave him a pleasantly glowing warmth under his heart. He’d never doubted they would be, but it was good to have some confirmation.

Now if only Melinda would be happy, too…

Tracking her with his eyes, he groaned silently. He knew what he wanted. But what was she really thinking?

Waiting had never been so hard.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Melinda moved around the room snapping her photos, including the one she’d wanted earlier of her parents, who’d luckily been in the same position when she returned from the loft. Her dad squeezed her hand as she moved around the group, taking shots at different angles.

She took part in various conversations as she went, including a heated debate with Eddie over whether or not Melinda needed all of her high-heeled shoes.

By the time the argument ended, she couldn’t even remember how it had started—something Gabe had said about his sister Holly’s shoe collection, possibly—but she’d made sure Eddie was well-schooled on the utter irrelevance of any man’s opinion over the number of shoes owned by any woman.

“Unless your name is Christian Louboutin or Jimmy Choo,” she said, poking him in the chest, “I don’t want to hear about my shoes from you.”

Eddie, his gray eyes dancing, merely grabbed her finger and gave it a friendly waggle. “Whatever you say, princess.”

“Just you remember that,” she said with an elegant sniff.

Shifting to scan the rest of the younger crowd, she found Christian and Wendell seated on the floor by the big window. They’d broken out the chessboard and had it propped on a footstool between them, though she couldn’t see it clearly enough from her angle to tell who was winning. They were both frowning intently, Christian’s straight blond hair falling over his eyes in bright contrast to Wendell’s wild, wavy red mop and crazy sweater.

Melinda lined them up in her frame and inched closer, snapping several shots without them noticing. Checking the last one in the viewer, she despaired over Wendell’s woolen abomination. Seriously, where on earth did he find those patterns?

She moved on.

Danny and Gabe stood in the kitchen, leaning their hips against opposite counters and talking in low voices between bites of whatever was left of the chips and dip, beer bottles in hand. She settled on the arm of the couch next to her Uncle Allan, who gave her an absent pat on the knee while he continued talking with Peter, Bill, and her dad.

Melinda took several quick shots of her cousin and Gabe, liking the way the lights shone on their hair, Danny’s so light and Gabe’s so dark.

Eddie, Rick, and Jacob wandered into the kitchen to join the other two, digging in the fridge for more drinks. That was a whole lot of handsome male in one room. She snapped away, and they mostly ignored her as they talked.

Mentally planning out scrapbooks to give as gifts for each of their mother’s birthdays over the coming year, she was about to lower the lens when Jacob shifted and looked squarely into the camera, his topaz eyes intense. Her breath caught, but she pressed the shutter almost without thought.

When he looked away again, she checked the shot.

It was a one-in-a-million photo.

Jacob stared back at her from the viewer, his bronze hair gleaming and lightly tousled, his carved cheekbones highlighted by the overhead lamps, his mouth unsmiling but lifted ever-so-slightly in a sensual curve, with only the barest hint of his dimples. His expression was serious, direct. Sensual.

Powerful.

By pure chance, she’d framed him perfectly against the tall, cream-colored kitchen cupboards, as though he’d posed before a professional photographer’s backdrop. She noted some minor distractions on the counter beside him, but she could edit those out.

The photo was all about the man, and Jacob looked amazing.

Pursing her lips, Melinda returned to the family room area and sat next to her father, studying the photo. Stan entered some of his photographs in the LA County Fair’s art exhibit every year, and she’d already planned to enter the one she’d taken of her parents and Jacob’s on New Year’s Eve.

If she could get Jacob to agree, she wanted to enter this one in the portrait division. She might be an amateur, but as deceptively simple as Jacob’s photo was, she thought it might win.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

They broke out the champagne at midnight and toasted each other’s health and happiness, as if it was New Year’s Eve for real.

Jacob and Melinda clinked glasses along with everyone else. He restrained himself from dragging her into a serious lip lock in front of the rest of the group.

Just barely.

He had plans for later, though.

Wendell and Christian, both underage, complained good-naturedly over getting stuck with sparkling cider, as usual.

By the time the party ended more than two hours later, after the occupants of the second condo headed next door, and his and Melinda’s parents went to bed, Jacob felt like he’d run a marathon. His body had been in a constant state of sexual frustration, and even though he and Melinda had slept late that morning, they both were going on relatively little sleep given the late hour they’d gone to bed.

Coupled with the emotional frustration, it was no wonder he was exhausted.

Muscles aching, fuzzy-headed, he wanted nothing more than to haul his ass upstairs, fall into Melinda’s bed, wrap his arms around her, kiss her senseless, then sleep for twenty-four hours.

Christian and Wendell had already crashed in the sofa-bed, and Melinda had gone to brush her teeth. Jacob sat at the kitchen table waiting his turn. Despite the fatigue, he hadn’t quite trusted himself to leave her alone if he’d gone in to brush his teeth at the same time.

And still, the weight of her not giving the words back to him hung between them.

He would wait, and she would think. There wasn’t much he could do to alleviate the pressure, aside from treating things as normally as possible.

When she came down the hallway, all minty-fresh and ready for bed, her smile bloomed by slow degrees, and the deep, glimmering blue pools of her eyes never left his. She didn’t stop, only stroked the underside of his jaw with a slender finger as she walked toward the stairs, that one subtle touch waking up every nerve and neuron in his body.

She said, “Pineapple chunk,” in a deliberately teasing, deeply sultry whisper she cast over her shoulder, her chin lowered and her eyes heavy-lidded, staring at him seductively through her lashes.

He felt every one of those wide-awake neurons fry and die.

Melinda put one foot on the bottom step, one hand on the railing, and her pajama top lifted an inch, enough to show an enticing ribbon of pale, velvety skin.

Jacob opened his mouth like a fish out of water. Where did all the oxygen go?

He meant to say, “Curly-fry,” in response, but his mind had simply wiped clean with that one little glimpse of skin, with her scent twining around him, and the only word that came out of his mouth was a whispered, “Beautiful.”

Melinda stumbled a bit on the stairs in surprise. Her head jerked up to meet his eyes, and hers went wide and dark and so very blue. Her lips formed a small ‘o’ as pink rushed into her cheeks.

The two of them held there, frozen, staring, and then she laughed, and it lit her entire face.

Her smile dazzled.

Blowing him a saucy kiss, she continued up the stairs. Jacob didn’t even bother trying not to watch the sway of her ass as she climbed. He licked his lips.

That girl—he pounded a fist on his chest over his speeding heart. She’d poleaxed him, as his grandfather liked to say.

At least he knew one thing for certain. The heat between them was not even a tiny bit one-sided. Their future might be uncertain, but their bodies had no doubts.

She wanted him every bit as much as he wanted her.

Still recovering from the effect of her smile, Jacob wobbled a little when he stood to make his way down the hall. He took his time changing into his pjs, brushing and flossing, then brushing the knots out of his hair.

The scruffiness on his cheeks reminded him he hadn’t shaved since early yesterday, so he took out his razor, dealt with it. Swiping a hand over his smooth cheek, he nodded. At least now he wouldn’t scrape Melinda’s soft skin when he kissed her.

And because the mere thought of kissing her sent an arrow of pure lust zinging to his gut, he took an extra moment to settle himself back down.

When he got back to the kitchen, he snapped the last light off, plunging the lower level of the condo into the mostly-dark of one small nightlight, the upper level into solid ebony. He glanced toward the tall windows. It was pitch black outside, impossible to tell if it was snowing.

Christian, he noted, had already thrown his covers off and had his top leg wrapped over Wendell’s.

Jacob shook his head and continued toward the stairs. Rick fought, Christian cuddled—forcefully—and Danny, he knew from experience, talked in his sleep. Loudly. He also walked once in a while, which had scared Jacob to death when they were kids, to wake finding Danny standing over him, sound asleep and chattering away, in the middle of the night.

What was it with Aunt Pat’s kids? He felt sorry for their future wives. But… He shrugged. At least he didn’t have to sleep with any of the three anymore.

Not his circus, not his monkeys.

Making his way to the head of the stairs, Jacob fumbled toward his bed in the dark loft. He tossed his clothes in the general area where he believed his laundry bag to be, then sat on the edge of his bed facing Melinda’s.

Wanting her so much it hurt.

Patience had never been his strong suit, but he’d promised to give her time.

Even though he wished she didn’t need any.

Regardless, tonight he looked forward to snuggling up with her, sharing a few hot kisses, maybe a caress or two, even knowing it would remain mostly innocent. She wasn’t ready for more, and as turned on as she made his body, his brain wasn’t functioning at full capacity. He could sense it trying to shut down, like an appliance on the verge of a power outage.

Yawning hugely, Jacob leaned forward and stroked his palm down Melinda’s arm from shoulder to wrist, then laced their fingers.

“Mel,” he whispered.

No response.

“Mel?”

Leaning a bit closer, Jacob placed his ear just above her nose and mouth.

Sure enough, the deep, even measure of her breathing announced what he should have predicted. She was sound asleep.

Jacob mentally smacked himself. Of course she was. The girl was even more exhausted than he was and needed a good night’s sleep. And he’d taken his time getting ready for bed. The combination of a couple glasses of champagne, sheer fatigue, the quiet, and the nice, dark loft had worked their magic and lulled her under.

Disappointed that he wouldn’t get to sleep with her tonight, he nevertheless was glad she’d get some rest.

Still, he was unable to resist the siren call of her lips, and pressed his, feather light, to her mouth for a good night kiss.

She said, “
Mmmm
,” and shifted toward him in her sleep.

“Goodnight, Mel,” he whispered. And because he could, he added, “I love you.”

Climbing into his own bed, Jacob pulled the covers up under his chin, automatically turning on his side and tucking his knees up to keep his feet from hanging off the edge all night long. He matched his breathing to Melinda’s effortlessly, the steady rhythm soothing in the peaceful quiet of the dark condo.

Just before he dropped off to sleep, he thought he heard her murmur, “’Night, Jakey.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They woke early to leaden skies and winds already kicking the icy cold into every tiny crevice and crack on the building. The whole condo seemed to shiver.

Oblivious to the cold, relieved that Jacob seemed determined to keep everything easy and normal between them, Melinda stared into his eyes across the small space separating them, their hands linked. Not speaking, not yet, but enjoying the slow waking together.

From downstairs, Melinda heard her dad complain, “I don’t know why I bothered checking the weather reports before we left. They haven’t been right above ten percent of the time.”

Melinda and Jacob chuckled quietly. Karen answered in a soothing voice, her words unintelligible. No one else seemed to be awake yet, though her parents had clearly been after coffee, as the rich, dark scent filled the loft.

“It’s hard to believe today’s our last day,” Jacob said, breaking the silence but keeping his voice low.

“I know.”

“What do you want to do today?”

Contemplative, Melinda didn’t answer right away.

It was her last day to challenge herself on the expert slopes, to push herself past her comfort level on the lifts. If Jacob would go with her, she could handle it. Even though he might not be totally happy with her this morning, despite how normal he seemed at the moment, he’d take her if she asked him. He was always encouraging her to ski with the guys.

She bit her lip. Did he know she was afraid? She hoped not. She didn’t want him to think she was a coward.

More importantly, she didn’t want to
be
a coward.

Did he think her cowardly for not telling him she loved him right back?

There were only two things in her life that truly scared her. Heights. And Jacob, and what it was going to take for the two of them to really make a go of this budding relationship between them.

She’d gone to sleep last night thinking about those fears. And missed opportunities, which had made her think of Seth, who would never get another chance to conquer a phobia, tackle a challenge, or jump for the gold ring.

And she’d thought about bravery.

Her dad always said cowards let their fears hold them back. The brave might still fear, but they met their fears head on.

Melinda intended to meet hers, and she could start on at least one this very day. The lesser of the two, perhaps—facing down a mountain didn’t hold a candle to her fear of losing Jacob and their friendship—though it still ranked high on the list.

Mind made up, she lifted her gaze to Jacob’s. He watched her, waiting patiently for her to speak.

“Will you take me on the black-diamond trails with you today?”

Jacob’s eyebrows hit his hairline.

“Seriously?” he asked, the beginnings of a grin stretching his mouth wide. When she nodded, he said, “Yeah, of course. Are you sure?”

She nodded again before she could change her mind. “Only the black-diamonds, not the doubles.”

One step at a time, she reminded herself. She could tackle the doubles wherever they went next year.

“You got it,” he said enthusiastically, and bounced out of bed, slapping her on her rump. “It’s about time. Come on, let’s get ready.”

When she stood, he pulled her in for a kiss that lifted the top of her skull straight off, then bounded down the stairs, whistling.

She had to wait, fanning the heat from her cheeks and the dazedness that had to show in her eyes, before she could follow without risking a parent or cousin knowing exactly how Jacob had started off her morning.

He made her ache in places she hadn’t known she could ache.

Unfortunately, Melinda’s bruises had come into their full array of colors and looked worse than ever. She hoped her layers and goggles would disguise the worst of them. She tested the goggles in the bathroom to make sure they didn’t press too uncomfortably on any still-sore areas, relieved when they seemed fine. She could always tell people she’d smacked into a tree.

Though their whole group had been up late the night before, last-vacation-day fever had infected them all. Everyone was ready to head to the shuttles uncharacteristically early.

“Sweet Jesus, it’s freezing,” Bill said, stamping his feet while they waited for their transportation.

Even their excellent gear wasn’t enough to keep the wind-chill out completely, especially when standing still, and the sky seemed to get lower, darker, and heavier by the minute.

“Definitely another storm coming in,” Peter said, scanning the clouds. Nancy had burrowed into his chest, seeking what little warmth she could find. “Looks like a bad one.”

“According to the weather people, it’s supposed to blow in and out fairly quickly,” her dad put in, his arms wrapped around her mother, “but I’ve lost all faith in those people, so who the hell knows.”

Melinda shivered and hoped the weather people were right. She wouldn’t last out there very long if the weather worsened too much, and she wanted time to acclimate to the higher lifts and tougher slopes.

“Let’s hope the winds don’t get too much worse,” Danny put in, doing partial jumping-jacks in place, along with Gabe, to keep his blood moving. “They’ll close the lifts.”

The shuttle finally arrived, to general relief. Melinda and Jacob sat together, as they usually did, and held hands covertly while the others made plans for how to get the most out of their final hours of vacation. There would be no night skiing that evening, since they’d need to get the cars loaded for the morning’s drive.

When Jacob announced he was sticking with Melinda for the day, the guys grumbled and rolled their eyes, but otherwise didn’t remark on the change, though Rick and Christian both winked at her. Melinda had to fight a blush. Jacob’s dad grinned, and all four women gave them speculative glances, but thankfully kept quiet and continued on their way.