Crashing Into Love (3 page)

Pierce grabbed Jake’s arm and yanked his ass down beside him. “Sit down and have a beer with your family and Dae.”

Normally Jake would tell Pierce to piss off when he was in a mood like this, but something strange was going on inside him. He was too angry and confused to bother. He couldn’t get the image of Fiona’s beautiful face out of his mind.
Goddamn it
. He picked up Pierce’s beer, and when Pierce opened his mouth to complain, Jake shut him up with a fight-me-for-it glare and sucked it down. He should have grabbed the blonde chick and left the bar for a night of no-strings-attached sex. Now he was bound to be up all night, trying to forget the hopeful and pained look in Fiona’s eyes—the same damn look she’d had when she’d kicked him to the curb.

“You didn’t have to be a dick to her,” Wes said. “You look like a rattlesnake coiled to strike.”

“That was an asshole move,” Ross agreed. “You left her standing there looking stupid when she was just trying to say hello.”

Jake looked away from them, breathing harder by the second.

“Jake.” Dae’s dark eyes turned serious. “Weren’t you with her for two years or something? She’s probably trying to mend fences or find closure.”

“Yeah?” Jake rose to his feet and slammed the beer down on the table. “Well, I’m not that guy anymore, and I have no interest in mending a damn thing.” He turned on his heel, stormed over to the bar, grabbed Blondie’s hand, and dragged her outside, chased by the forlorn look in Fiona’s eyes and the clawing ache of wishing it were her he was helping into his car.

JAKE WATCHED THE sun rise over the mountains from a lounge chair on his mother’s deck. It had been a long time since he’d watched a Colorado sunrise, and he bristled against the memories it stirred. He lifted his mug of black coffee to his lips as the glass doors opened and his mother, Catherine, came out to join him. She tightened the belt on her fluffy blue robe and smiled, squeezing his shoulder as she passed. He lifted the mug in her direction.

“Thanks, honey.” She took a sip. “How long have you been out here?”

Jake shrugged and rubbed his unshaven jaw. “Couple hours.” His voice was rough from lack of sleep.

“Have fun with your brothers and Dae?” Catherine had hair the color of Jake’s, and it fell past her shoulders, still tangled from sleep. She smiled, despite the early hour. Jake had few memories of her not smiling. She’d raised Jake and his siblings on her own after their father left her for another woman when she was pregnant with Luke.

“Always do.” His mother had taught Jake and his siblings to be responsible and loyal, and he couldn’t help but wonder what she knew of his lifestyle over the past few years. He was pretty sure his siblings had tried to buffer her from the lascivious details of his raucous personal life, but he didn’t want to know the answer.

She handed him the mug, and he took another sip before setting it down on the deck beside his chair. Catherine leaned on the railing, looking out over the mountains.

“It’s pretty, isn’t it? I’ll never tire of watching the sun rise.” She turned a warm gaze to Jake.

He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees, and sighed. “It is pretty.”

“You okay? Need something for a hangover?”

He lifted his eyes.
I need something for a lifeover
. “Nah. I’m good. Thanks, Mom. Just tired, I guess. How was your night? Did you stay out late with Em and the girls?”

“Oh, goodness, no. I hung out for an hour, then let them have their fun. They don’t need me hanging around, but it was nice of them to invite me.” She took another sip of his coffee. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Emily so happy and settled. She’s usually got an edginess to her, like she can’t sit still.”

Jake had no idea how to respond to that. Women looked at things completely differently from guys. He’d never thought of Emily as being unsettled. She was
Emily
. His little sister, someone he loved and protected, but he hadn’t noticed if she was edgy. She had a ton of energy. Wasn’t it that simple? Was that a bad thing? She seemed happy now, but she’d seemed happy before meeting Dae, too.

“I think Dae’s good for her,” his mother added.

“He’s a nice guy.” His cell vibrated. He pulled it from his jeans pocket and saw the name
Ready
flash above a phone number. He pressed Ignore and set his phone on the deck.

“Everything okay?” his mother asked.

“Yeah, fine.”
Ready
. He had names like that for many of the women he hooked up with. Ready happened to be a buxom blonde with two similarly built friends he’d spent a few hours with.
Willing
and
Able
. Jake liked to work hard and play harder, to keep his mind off of the fact that he never played for keeps. But the sight of Ready’s name on his phone after seeing Fiona only made him feel shittier. He needed to go for his morning run. Pounding out a few miles always cleared his mind. He’d had the same workout routine since he was fifteen and he never missed it, no matter what condition he was in from the night before. He glanced at his mother and decided to visit with her for just a few more minutes.

Being home brought a dichotomy of emotions that never failed to shake him up. He loved seeing his family, but he’d lost a big piece of himself after Fiona had broken up with him, and coming back home brought discomfort akin to walking around with sandpaper scraping against his skin.

Jake’s phone vibrated again. His mother’s eyes dropped to it. “Isn’t it before dawn in LA?”

“Yup.” He picked up the phone and saw Emily’s name on the screen.
Damn
. He had no desire to deal with what he knew would be the third degree. He handed the phone to his mother and leaned back in his chair.

“Emily? What would she want this early?” Catherine answered the phone, and before she could say hello, Jake heard Emily’s voice. “Is it true? Tell me it’s not really true.”

Jake scrubbed his hand down his face and held his hand out for the phone.

“Good luck.” His mother handed it to him.

“Good morning, Em.”

“Jake.” She said his name like an accusation. “Is it true? Did you go home with Sarah Chelsum last night?”

Jake imagined Emily’s brows drawn together as she paced her living room, arms crossed, a scowl on her pretty face. She was as protective of her brothers as they were of her, but what he was hearing wasn’t protective at all. It was disgust.

“It’s the ass crack of dawn. You got up to ask me that?”

“Jake!”

“Chill, sis. No. I didn’t go home with her.” He shifted his eyes away from his mother.

“You left with her. Apparently everyone in Trusty saw you.”

“You mean Dae saw me leave the bar, and he told you.”

She blew out a loud breath. “No. Dae and three friends who all texted me last night. I
waited
to call until now.”

“Christ,” he mumbled.

“Christ? Is that all you can say? You know everyone in town is going to be talking about this, and Fiona is home, so she’ll find out.”

Jake gritted his teeth. “Do you think I give a rat’s ass about what anyone thinks of me, much less what
she
thinks?”

“Jake…”

“Emily…”

She huffed into the phone.

“I gotta go for my run. Good to talk to you, sis.”

“Wait, Jake—”

He handed the phone to his mother. “I’m going for a run. Want to talk your daughter off the ledge?”

She took the phone and covered the mouthpiece with her hand. “Jake. Sarah Chelsum? She’s ten years younger than you.”

Jake rolled his eyes, then kissed his mother’s cheek. “Have faith in me, Ma. You didn’t raise an idiot.”
Just an asshole
.

FIONA GAZED OUT at the overlook on the side of Old Hill Road. She was wearing a tank and running shorts and was thinking about how often she and Jake had run along that route. They’d run together nearly every morning before school and most weekends during the two years they’d dated. She’d calculated it once and knew it was more than one thousand hours of easy conversation and heated innuendos. More than one thousand hours of running side by side with the only guy who’d ever really understood her. And she’d spent thousands of hours since then thinking about meeting him here and hoping they could rekindle their relationship, because once she’d been with Jake Braden, nothing and no one else measured up. Not geology, not family, and sure as hell not any guy.

Fiona bounced from one foot to the other in anticipation of seeing him. She checked her watch, though she wasn’t sure exactly what time he might go running. Especially since he’d left the Brewery with Sarah Chelsum last night. The thought made her sick to her stomach, but not sick enough to give up on him. He used to be as much a creature of habit as she was, and she knew from friends that he’d been running their trail in the mornings since he’d been home.

She looked out over Trusty, thinking about how many times she and Jake had kissed in that very spot and how many times over the years she’d come back and revisited the memories. Sometimes she wondered how she could have been so stupid to break things off before college—and other times she didn’t have the strength to question it, accepting that it might have been the right choice.

Sow your oats
her mother had told her that summer, right after her father had moved out.
Experience life.
The advice had helped her do well in school, because if she’d stayed with Jake, she would have been sidetracked by him. Once they’d broken up, she’d thrown herself into her schoolwork and into drowning her doubts. But it hadn’t taken her long to realize that while her mother’s advice had helped her academically, it wasn’t good advice for her heart. She’d partied hard and dated a handful of guys, which was enough for her to know deep in her heart that Jake was the right guy for her. The
only
guy for her.

She kicked at the dirt and glanced down the road, wondering if she would have known he was the only man for her if they’d stayed together after high school. Or when they ran into rough spots, would either of them have had second thoughts? The day her father came home and announced that he was leaving because her mother didn’t
get
him and he’d found someone who did had sparked a whole new set of worries. How many relationships actually lasted forever? Jake’s own father had left his mother for someone else. No matter how all consuming their love had felt, would it have been enough to stand the test of time? Her mother’s advice had come on the heels of her father’s leaving, making it seem even more sound.

Strangely, she’d never worried Jake might cheat on her. He’d been as loyal as a person could be, and he’d never once questioned her fidelity to him. But once her mother began urging her not to tie herself down so young, she’d become scared. She trusted her mother’s judgment, and after her father left, her mother had shared stories of how much they’d loved each other when they were Fiona’s and Jake’s age. That had scared her even more. Could a person’s feelings change so much over the years that their values changed?

Fiona had taken her mother’s advice and dated in college and she’d slept with a few guys, but her heart was so full of Jake that it was a futile effort. It had taken Fiona years to get up the courage to approach Jake again, but she didn’t care how long it had taken. Or that she’d spent years agonizing over her feelings for him. At least now she’d done it. It was a start, even if a rocky one. She was as sure of her love for Jake as she was that she’d needed that time after high school to figure it out.

Some mistakes
had
to be made.
Didn’t they?

She heard the even cadence of his footfalls coming up the road, and it sent a storm of worry whipping through her. He’d barely been able to look at her last night. Maybe this was a bad idea. She looked at the hill on the other side of the road and the bank at the ridge behind her. Short of hurling herself down the side of the mountain, there was no escape. She had no choice but to go through with her plan and hope for the best.

She took a few tentative steps toward the center of the road and drank him in. He was running in nothing but a pair of black running shorts, a sheen of sweat glistening off his insanely defined muscles. An armband was secured to his bulging biceps. A wire ran to a pair of earbuds. She’d thought he looked delicious last night in his low-slung jeans and tight T-shirt, but holy cow…Jake had always had an athletic build, but the man barreling up the hill was a bronze god. Pure, unadulterated power.

He lifted his eyes and met hers.

A very angry god
.

Crap
.

Jake’s brows knitted together. His hands fisted, and the muscles in his arms flexed as he sped up and ran right past her. Fiona was momentarily stunned. She shook it off and sprinted up the hill after him.

“Hey.” He probably couldn’t even hear her with those damn earbuds in. She touched his elbow to get his attention. He stared straight ahead and kept up his pace as they rounded a bend at the top of the hill.

Really? This is how you’re gonna play it?

Fiona knew just how stubborn Jake could be, although she had never been the target of his efforts. Oh wait. Yes, she had. The mere fact that he’d avoided her for more than a decade proved that. Her stomach was tied in knots, but she wasn’t going to back down just because he was ignoring her. She sprinted ahead of him and turned around, running backward in front of him.

Jake tore his earbuds from his ears. “What are you doing?”

She noticed he had yet to say her name, and it annoyed her. “Running.” They’d trained this way in high school. Jake had taught her that she used different muscles running backward, and it helped her hone her other senses. As Jake picked up his pace and circled around her, those other senses kicked in to gear, telling her that she might have stumbled across a hornet’s nest.

She wasn’t allergic to bees.
Bring it on
.

She spun around and caught up to him.

He shoved one of his earbuds back in his ear. When he went to do the same thing with the other, she grabbed his wrist and stopped him. Jake came to an abrupt stop, nearly sending her tumbling onto the pavement. She used his wrist as an anchor.