Believing Again (20 page)

“Are you going to stand there looking or are you going to join me?”

“I’ll never get enough of looking at you. You are beautiful. But there was a request for a martini. Why don’t you relax for ten minutes while I go get that taken care of?”

Before she could object he was gone. She turned on the jets and slid further down into the warm water and let them work their magic. It was glorious. The tension of the past weeks floated away as the water pulsed against her muscles.

She was almost on the edge of a cat nap when she heard Jake say, “If I join you, can I get the groveling out of the way real fast before I get too distracted by the sea goddess who’s sharing the hot tub with me?” He was taking off his shirt as he spoke. He’d pulled a small stool next to the tub and on it were two cocktail glasses containing their martinis.

Holding out her hand, she said, “Come grovel away.”

In what seemed like only seconds, he finished undressing and was sitting beside her, his arm around her, her leg over his, her head on his shoulder.

He picked up a glass, handed it to her, then picked up the second one and raised it in a toast. “L’chaim.”

“To life, indeed.” She touched her glass to his and then took a sip. “Okay, finish the groveling so we can get to the good part.”

He took a big sip of his drink. “I finally get it, Danny. What you did with Kaylea and Barbara Black, handling that without ever putting anyone at risk, was a revelation. I’m sorry it took a crisis to make me understand. But I do. I am now officially in love with every bit of you. The woman, the cop, the person who can rebuild a VW engine, who can impress my parents in less than an hour. The whole beautiful package. What you do is a huge part of you and I’d never change that.” He kissed the top of her head. “If you forgive me, I promise I’ll never do anything like that again. I was a jackass and I’m sorry.”

She turned his face so they were looking, staring really, into each other’s eyes. What she saw was what she needed to see — his sincerity, his regret, and, most of all, his love. “I’m sorry, too. I should have known what was going on. The Bureau’s shrink got me to see that. If I hadn’t been so afraid I’d lose who I am in a relationship with you, maybe I’d have seen it sooner. And you’re not a jackass. I’d never be in love with a jackass. So you can’t be one. Because I love you, Jake.”

She heard his breath stutter. “As long as I’ve wanted to hear that, now that you’ve said it, I’m not so sure I deserve it, deserve you.”

“Hey, you’re stealing my lines again,” she said.

“I’m serious, Danny. I still feel like I … ”

“When I told you I didn’t deserve you, you said I should be with a super hero or some star athlete. Well, back at you. You’d be better off with some movie star or Nobel laureate who’s beautiful, brilliant, and accomplished. But you’re not gonna find out what that’s like. Because I have you and I’m not letting you go. I think that was the gist of your response and I’m stealing it.”

He threw his head back and laughed, a deep, belly laugh. “Damn, baby, do you remember every conversation that well?”

“Yup. Keep that in mind for the future. I’ll always remember what you say.”

He took the now empty glass from her hand and put it, along with his, back on the stool. “Now, groveling over. Let’s get to the … what did you call it? The good part?”

“Actually, the groveling isn’t over.”

“You mean I need to do more?”

“No, I need to do some. I’m embarrassed by how I talked to you in the hospital. You’d been injured, hauled out of my kitchen on a gurney, had your head stitched back together, and I yelled at you so loud the nurse had to intervene. I wasn’t sure I could face you again after I left. I’m sorry. Can you forgive me for that?”

“Didn’t bother me a bit.”

“Really? I was a bitch. Weren’t you pissed at me?”

“No, I wasn’t. You were angry, that was obvious. But it was a relief. I figured you wouldn’t have been that angry if you didn’t care about me. It gave me hope we could work this out between us.”

“Then why the hell didn’t you call sometime in the past week? I kept hoping you would.”

“And you couldn’t do the same?”

“I did. I called the hospital but you were already discharged. And I called the clinic to see if you were back to work yet.”

“Hmm. But not me.”

“No, not you. I told you, I was too embarrassed by my ranting.”

She heard the sound of his ringtone coming from the jeans he’d dropped on the floor. “Bet that’s your mom wondering why you didn’t call her back.”

“Oh, hell, I forgot. She was calling about dinner.”

He finally got the phone from where he’d stashed it and looked at the screen. “Good call, baby.” He answered. “Hi, Mom? Sorry. I was waiting for … Yeah, that’s who I was waiting for. Uh-huh, she’s here. Okay.” He handed the phone to her. “My mom wants to talk to you.” He raised an eyebrow and smirked. Mouthing, “Good luck,” he settled back in the tub and tweaked her nipple trying, she knew, to distract her.

“Hi, Miriam,” Danny began, swatting away his hand.

“Danny, I’ve been thinking of you so much over the past ten days. I should have called to thank you.”

“You don’t need to … ”

“Of course I do. You saved my son. I’ll be forever in your debt. A mother’s debt. If you ever have children, not that you have to but if you ever do, you’ll understand.”

“I was doing my job.”

“And thank God you do it so well.” She paused for a breath finally. “Has my son fed you dinner yet?”

“No, we … ah … we’ve been talking.”

“Oh, is that what you call it now? It used to be called making love. Or having sex. Or that other word I never use.” Danny had to move the phone away so Miriam couldn’t hear her laugh. When she got herself under control, she went back to the conversation. Jake’s mom was saying, “ … drive you here. I made enough food tonight for my whole family and it turned out my granddaughter has an ear infection, so David and his family didn’t come and Jacob was apparently waiting for you. So he could apologize, I hope, for being fool enough to let you go.”

“Miriam, I … ”

“Let me talk to him, please.”

She handed the phone back to Jake who said, “Uh-huh” a couple times then said, “I love you, too,” before hanging up. “She expects us there for dinner in an hour. Do you mind? She says she wants to thank you in person.”

“Dinner’s fine,” Danny said. She settled back against his shoulder. “She thinks she interrupted us having sex, you know.”

Jake drew her onto his lap so she straddled him and began to caress her breasts. “In that case, we better do something about it. I’ve always tried to live up to my parents’ expectations. Although it took me a long time to find the nice Jewish girl they always wanted me to find.” He reached over the side of the tub and felt around. “I think there’s another condom here from the last time we were in the tub.” He brought up a foil packet.

“How convenient,” she said as she tore it open.

“It’s been waiting for you.”

“Wait’s over, lover.”

I hope you enjoyed Believing Again, book number five in the Second Chances series. If you liked meeting Jake and Danny, you might enjoy Beginning Again (Liz and Collins), Loving Again, (Sam and Amanda), Together Again (Tony and Margo), or Trusting Again (Cynthia and Marius). Oh, and book six in the series (Nick and Fiona) will be released early in 2014.

If you’d like to keep in touch, here are a few places where you can find me:

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www.peggybirdwrites.com

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One last thing: I always like to know what readers think of my books. So if you’d write a review on Amazon or Goodreads with your honest opinion, I’d appreciate it. Thanks so much.

“I love it when she has the men in the audience sing the chorus to ‘Eight Miles Wide,’” Liz Fairchild said. “Hearing deep voices sing about the size of their vaginas never fails to amuse me.”

Cynthia Blaine had known Liz for years and, although she wasn’t surprised by anything the other woman said, she was sometimes still astonished by where Liz chose to say it. However, shushing her was a waste of effort. So was pointing out the startled expressions of the people who’d heard the comment. Liz had never learned to care about keeping her voice down or her opinion to herself.

“You like saying that out loud, don’t you?” Cynthia said.

“No one objects to that word anymore, do they? And if they do, maybe it’ll clear out the place so we can get a table. Otherwise, we’re out of luck. The bar’s full,” Liz said.

They’d just come from a matinee of the Oregon Symphony featuring Storm Large, a performer with a great voice and an amazing repertoire of songs, not all of which were appropriate for the faint of heart, a category which included Liz’s favorite, her signature song. Now, standing at the entrance to the Heathman Hotel bar, the women were hoping to find a table so they could have a glass of wine.

This girls’ afternoon out also included Amanda St. Claire, who was doing a recon for a table in the back. Amanda hadn’t been out much since the birth of her baby and Liz, whose art gallery exhibited both Amanda’s art glass and Cynthia’s designer jewelry, had, as she described it, “arranged the excursion to rectify that.”

Amanda rejoined them just in time to catch the last part of the conversation. “It’s full there, too,” she said waving toward the other room. “There are three empty chairs at a table for four, but there was a guy sitting there. I guess he’s waiting for people to join him.”

“Did you ask?” Liz said.

“No, it seemed rude.”

“If he has the only empty chairs in the place, it’s not rude. If you can’t do it, I will.” Liz headed to the area that served as overflow bar, tearoom, and place to lunch for the hotel restaurant.

In a few minutes, she reappeared in the door to the back room and motioned to the other two to join her.

“Oh, my God. Did we get lucky,” she said in a low voice. “And not just by scoring a table. The man we’ll be sitting with is one of the most beautiful creatures ever to walk the planet.”

“So, Liz, when did you say Collins will be back in Portland?” Amanda asked, trailing behind Cynthia.

“I didn’t and you’re usually more subtle than that. I love Collins but I’m not blind. You’ll understand when you see this man,” Liz said. “And to answer your question, however rhetorical it may have been, this is his week in Portland. He should be home now. With any luck, he’ll even have dinner — ”

“Holy hell.” Cynthia stopped so suddenly, Amanda ran into the back of her. “Is that the guy you’re talking about?” She nodded toward a man sitting alone at a table for four, a glass of red wine in his hand.

“Yup, isn’t he gorgeous?” Liz asked.

“I know him,” Cynthia said. “He commissioned a piece of my jewelry a month or so ago for his girlfriend.”

“Damn. There goes my plan to set you up. I figured I might find a way for Amanda and me to leave without you so he’d ask you to dinner.”

“Don’t you dare do anything like that,” Cynthia said, raising her voice slightly and emphasizing the “dare” part of the sentence. The last thing she needed was Liz’s heavy-handed matchmaking. It was uncomfortable enough when Liz tried to fix her up with one of her artists. Cynthia definitely didn’t want any attempts to get her together with this man.

Not when he woke up a hatch of butterflies in her stomach every time she thought about him. Ever since he’d walked into the Erickson Gallery, she’d been full of fluttery things on a regular basis. As she was now.

She smoothed the skirt of her plain lavender linen maxi dress, trying to get rid of the wrinkles, then tied the ends of the deep purple shrug she wore over it a little tighter around her waist. It was too late to wish she’d worn something sexier. Or had put her tawny blonde hair up in some intricate roll, rather than a simple braid down the middle of her back. Worn fuck-me shoes instead of the flat sandals she had on. Put on a little more make-up; put on any make-up at all.

Oh, for God’s sake. Wearing something else wouldn’t have made any difference. He has a girlfriend. One he spent big bucks on for a birthday present. And what the hell was she thinking, anyway? Even if he wasn’t attached, he was way out of her league. After the whole Josh disaster last year, she’d vowed never to get herself in a similar situation again. She’d barely gotten out of that relationship with any shred of ego intact.

As the three women approached the table, the subject of her fantasies stood to greet them. Cynthia was sure his picture was in the dictionary next to the phrase “tall, dark, and handsome.” Cliché it may be but, in his case, true. He was well over six feet tall, with skin the color of a latte, and thick, black-brown hair that curled around his ears and at the back of his neck. The first time she’d seen him in Seattle, she’d immediately wanted to thread her fingers through that hair. Lick up the side of his neck until she got to his jaw line, an earlobe, his full-lipped mouth, whatever she could reach to kiss. Put her arms over those broad shoulders. Earn one of those sensuous smiles.

Everything about the man was burned into her brain including what was, she was pretty sure from watching it walk away from her, the best ass in the Northwest. So she knew if she wasn’t careful, before this little unexpected encounter in Portland had ended, she’d likely be drooling all over him like a St. Bernard.

When the man recognized Cynthia, a broad grin spread over his face and lit up his brown eyes. “If I’d known you were one of the women who were table-less, I’d have carried it out to you. With a bottle of champagne.”

“So, the birthday gift was a success,” Cynthia said.

“Absolutely,” he said. “It was the hit of the evening. I’ve been out of town on business or I would have let you know how much my friend appreciated it.” He turned the smile on the other two women. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to be rude. I’m Marius Hernandez. Cynthia created an amazing piece of jewelry for me to give a friend as a birthday present.”