Forever's Embrace (Forever In Luck Series Book 2) (3 page)

Her
nervous system was working double time now. She was in a full fight or flight
mode and she needed to get out of here, quick. “Ahhh, gosh…well, umm, I should
probably stay here and help Linnie,” she answered in a rush, while looking at
Linnie in an all-out panic. Grasping for anything that would divert the
conversation, she blurted out, “Isn’t there, like, football games on tomorrow?
I thought you’d all be watching those.”

Just
then, Jake’s thumb, the one on the arm lying across her chair, began to slowly
massage the back of her shoulder. The action caused her to take a stuttering
breath, then a deep one, followed by another. Turning her head a little, she
searched for him on the periphery. What was he doing? Did he even know he was
doing it? Should she ask him to stop? Or was he trying to comfort her?

It
did seem a little comforting, but what she really wanted to do was crawl on his
lap and
hide
her face in his neck. Whoa, did she
seriously just think that? Had that honestly bubbled up from her subconscious,
or was her brain’s neo-cortex shutting down and taking all rational thought
with it? All things considered, her official diagnosis was that she was losing
it. Taking another deep breath, she tried to relax and let herself lean into
his touch a little.

Kris
cleared his throat to get her attention. “You like football?”

“Kind
of, some,” she answered hoarsely, her throat parched. This wasn’t dinner, it
was an interrogation.

Kris
smiled in delight.
“Really?
Well, I’ll save you a spot
next to me on the couch then. If you have questions about the game and what’s
going on, all you have to do is ask. I’ll explain everything.”

Please
don’t, she wanted to say.

“How
come when I ask questions, you tell me to be quiet?” Linnie asked with a smirk.

“Because
your questions aren’t about football,” he answered perturbed.

“Oh really?”
Linnie
responded in feigned confusion. “Because the last one I asked, I wanted to know
what a tight end was, and you said it was a cheerl—”

“Ask
Nate, he’ll answer your questions,” Kris snapped, cutting her off loudly.

“They’re
multipurpose,” Jules said, answering Linnie. “They can be blockers or receivers
depending on what’s needed at the time, smaller than a blocker, but bigger than
a wide receiver.”

All
four of the guys snapped their heads around and stared at her with scrutiny,
while Linnie and her dad chuckled. Jules quickly dropped her head. Oh look, her
napkin was in shreds and she now had a handful of confetti. Surprise! She
should’ve stayed quiet.

“Thanks,
Jules,” Linnie said clearly amused.

Looking
up, Jules nodded and said, “Sure, no problem, anytime.” If she had another napkin,
she could make a batch of confetti for Linnie too.

“Who you rooting for tomorrow?”
Nik tested.

“Cowboys,
Chiefs, Dolphins,” she answered, still not thinking. She needed a dunce hat.

There
was hootin and hollerin all around, making her jump with fright.

“Wooohooo!
Gotta love a woman who speaks the language of love!”
Kris
exclaimed as he clapped his hands loudly, then pumped his fist in the air a
couple of times, giving it a loud “Whuh, whuh, whuh!”

“I
think I’m in love,” Nik cooed, as he gifted her with moon eyes. “Jules, you
wanna get married?”

It
was instantaneous. She blushed from the roots of her hair to the tips of her
toes. She knew it. She could feel it. She was as red as a beet! Planting her
feet on the linoleum, she braced herself from sliding right off the chair and
onto the floor. Shaking her head slightly, Nik gasped and grabbed for his
heart, like she’d broken it and he was left devastated. She couldn’t help but
laugh a little at his theatrics.

“Hey,
how come you guys don’t get all excited when I get into football?” Linnie asked
dejected, while throwing a bun at Nik and hitting him in the chest. “She won’t
marry you cause you’d never let her out of the kitchen.”

Nik
laughed taking a bite of the bun, then added saucily, “Sure I would, every night.”

“I
get excited when you talk football,” Nate answered, putting his arm around
Linnie and giving her a kiss.

“Ohh,
here we go,” Kris said, getting up from the table. “They’ll be going at it for
the rest of the night. I’m leaving.”

“Yeah, me too,” Nik said, getting up and
flashing his business at Jules again.
“I’ll be up late if you want to talk
football, Jules, or anything else.” Looking at her, he wiggled his eyebrows,
and then chuckled low when she quickly looked away.

CHAPTER
2

Jake
was annoyed. Nik and Kris were fawning all over Jules, teasing and embarrassing
her, while making asses of themselves, and damned if he wasn’t jealous because
they’d had her attention and he hadn’t. She’d let him dish her up though, and
he was fairly certain she’d leaned into his touch when he was rubbing her
shoulder. He wished she would’ve looked at him some, and it would’ve been real
nice if she had talked with him a little. Oh well, there was always tomorrow,
he thought, feeling kind of bummed.

If
nothing else, he’d enjoyed getting to know her. She had a beautiful name, and
that she liked football was a huge turn on. He wondered what else she liked,
what kinds of things she liked to do. As he made his bed up on the couch, he
wondered if she was comfortable downstairs. Did she need anything? She hadn’t
eaten much. Should he check on her?
Probably not.
With
his luck, she’d get hurt when she fainted at the sight of him, and then
Linnie’d kill him.

“Hitting
the hay?” Nate asked, as he walked through the room.

“Yeah,
I’m beat,” Jake answered.

“Thanks
for taking Linnie into the cities, and for getting Jules today.”

He
nodded.
“Yeah, no problem.”

“She’s
a cute one, you interested?” Nate asked, leaning against the wall.

Jake
didn’t answer, just kept making up his bed. Then the two looked at each other
for a spell, before Jake turned away and answered, “Maybe.”

“Maybe
as in, hell yeah, or maybe as in, if something happens that’d be okay?” Nate
delved deeper.

Sitting
on the couch, Jake rested his elbows on his knees as he sat forward. “Okay,
here’s the skinny. I like her, a lot. I met her several years ago when we were
in Chicago checking on Linnie. I knew I was attracted to her back then, but I
was young and not into relationships. Given the distance and so on, I never did
anything about it, figured it would blow over.

“But
today, when I saw her, it was worse than ever, and I’m not sure what to do
about it. Distance is still a problem, and she’s so shy it’d be hard to get
anything going in a matter of days. It’s not like I can go camp out in Chicago
for a month or two trying to get her to look at me. If she knows I exist, she
doesn’t show it.”

Nate
nodded as he listened, then responded, “It’s a pickle for sure, she’s a shy
one. Linnie talks about her some, says she’s super nervous with guys because
she hasn’t been around them at all. She’s led a pretty sheltered life, you
know. It’s like that in other parts of the world, women not being allowed to be
around men who aren’t part of their family. I saw it first hand when I was
overseas. Fear’s a factor for them. They aren’t just nervous, they’re scared.”

Jake
nodded and Nate continued.

“Maybe
the way to get noticed is to make her feel safe, cared for. She is all alone.
It would make sense that this could be a huge issue for her. She can’t go
around advertising she’s all alone in the world and looking for a relationship.
That would put her in danger from every lunatic out there, so she needs to be
extra careful.”

Jake
thought about it. This is where the other imbecile had gone wrong, when he
froze her to death. “Yeah, you may be on to something. So, skip the romance and
look for ways to make her feel safe and cared for.
Great.
At least you and Linnie were on the same page when it came to attraction, it
was just the details you needed to work out. This…this is something altogether
different.”

“Maybe,
maybe not,” Nate pondered. “Let her know you’re aware of what’s going on around
her by doing things for her. Open the door for her, pull out her chair, hold
her jacket, do whatever needs to be done to make her feel safe and comfortable,
and then feather the nest a little while you’re at it. It may be a lost art for
a man to behave like that, but the concept isn’t foreign. These days, it’s
generally the romance first, then protecting what you have. In your case, it’ll
be the other way around, showing her you can and will protect her, followed by
the thrill of the chase if she accepts you. It happens that way much of the
time in nature, so it may very well work that way for you too.”

Well,
he had wanted to act like King Kong when he saw her at the airport, and he
wouldn’t be surprised if he howled at the next full moon. Hmmm, that had him
thinking. Maybe he’d spend this visit making her feel safe and protected, and
then he’d try and get her to come back so he could work on the romance piece.
That might work. He also needed to get rid of Kris and Nik, or he could just
let them continue making asses of themselves and the problem would take care of
itself. He smiled.

“Got
a plan?” Nate asked amused.

“I
need to figure out a way to get her back here, soon.”

“Make
her feel safe this visit, and then get her to come back for the romance?
Maybe…or you might have to go to her,” Nate said, standing and moving in the
direction of his room. “One thing I know for sure though, is if you wait for
her to give you encouragement, it ain’t ever going to happen. Let me know if
there’s anything I can do to help, Romeo. See you in the morning.”

Jake
sat back thinking…she was tall for a female, five seven or five eight, and
slender. It was her hair and eyes though that garnered attention. Her hair was
thick, long, and the rich color of clean fresh straw, and she always kept it
pulled atop her head in a messy hold. He was willing to bet she was a natural
blond, through and through, as her lashes and eyebrows were of the same hue,
and her eyes were a stunning azure blue.

Romeo and Juliet.
Juliet was a
pretty name.
A pretty name for a pretty girl.
Juliet,
Jules…
A precious jewel, something beautiful and all together
unique.
Hmmm, now that gave him something to think about.

*****

Crawling
into Jake’s bed, Jules sighed in relief. She was exhausted. It’d been a busy
day, and her nerves were shot. Behind the relative safety of the bedroom door, her
nervous system was finally able to switch to standby for the night. Of course,
the adrenalin flowing through her blood was like high octane fuel, and despite
being exhausted, it caused her to toss and turn. She wasn’t alone though, her
brain’s hippocampus and frontal cortex was wide awake going over every detail
of the day, again and again, storing as much of it as possible in her long term
memory for future reference. Yippee! As if living through it once wasn’t
enough.

The
stress of dinner took the cake though, because she’d had to deal with all of
them at once, and she felt like Nik was overly interested. He was nice enough,
but too forward for her. She wasn’t completely certain, but she had a feeling
he liked to be the center of attention, and she wasn’t into that, at all.
Meeting Linnie’s oldest brother, Kris, for the first time was nice because she
could put a face with the name, but she’d felt like he was staring too much,
his gaze forward and direct as he went over her from top to bottom, making her
realize the merits of wearing a burka.

Jake,
on the other hand, was there, but hanging somewhere on the periphery. She felt
his presence, but couldn’t really see or hear him because he sat back and
didn’t talk much. They’d touched though, when his arm was on the back of her
chair, and when he’d rubbed her shoulder. It’d made her nervous at first, but
then he was so aloof and relaxed, it made it seem less awkward. Then there’d
been that strange desire to leap into his arms and hide in the crook of his neck.
She wasn’t going to think about that though. It was quite simply a momentary
lapse of reason from all the stress.
Right?

Nate
was really nice, and completely devoted to Linnie. After everything Linnie’d
been through, Jules was glad to see her so happy.

Rolling
onto her side, she adjusted the pillow, and as she did, she caught a scent. It
was Jake’s. Turning her face into his pillow, she took a deep breath.
Then did it again.
He smelled…divine. Is this how he’d smell
if she were to put her nose to his neck? She felt her insides tighten at the
thought of what she was doing, what she was thinking. She felt herself flush at
the illicitness of it all. Rolling onto her stomach, she mashed her face into
his pillow, breathing deep and tingling within. If she had to spend the whole
night in his bed, she was darn well going to enjoy it! Then she laughed at how
scandalous that sounded. Snuggling up with his pillow, she relaxed and closed
her eyes.

Rising
early the next morning, she and Linnie had a grand time preparing breakfast and
wrestling with a huge tom turkey as they stuffed it. It was twenty-six pounds,
and if she hadn’t witnessed the amount of food these men consumed, she’d never
have believed they’d need one so large, but now she knew they did.

She
liked this, the preparing and cooking of food, she always had, but it was too
much work for one person, so she rarely ever cooked. It didn’t stop her from
pouring through cookbooks though, and watching cooking shows, or taking classes
to learn how to cook. She loved books on cooking, the older the better, and she
had quite a collection of them.

As
Linnie and Nate worked to get the turkey in the oven, she began peeling a
mountain of potatoes. Gosh, she’d never seen potatoes this big before, she
couldn’t even get her hand around them, and she had long fingers. Do they ever
do anything small on this farm, she wondered. There had to be a zillion cows
out there, and that wasn’t a barn, it was a complex center. These potatoes had
to be from Sam’s club, she thought. Hmmm, she looked at the bag, Premium Idaho
Bakers. Well, the good thing about them, there’d be less surface area to peel
using these whoppers.

Her
mind wandered, and she worried about sitting next to Nik again. He’d been just
as enamored this morning, if not more so than the night before, and she was
concerned there could be problems down the road as her feelings for him were
not mutual. Soon she was joined by Linnie, and they made quick work of the
potatoes.

“We’re
done, let’s go snowmobiling,” Linnie suggested.

Jules
felt her stomach turn. “Ah, is it okay to leave with all the food cooking?”

“Sure.
It’ll be hours before the turkey’s done, and we can ride until it’s time to
start the potatoes and stuff.”

Just
then Jake and Nate walked into the kitchen.

“Hey
guys, Jules and I have pretty much done all that we can do for now, and I was
thinking it would be fun to take her out snowmobiling. She’s never been on one
before. Plus, I’ve given them each a tune-up and I’d like to see how they’re
running.”

Jules
wasn’t convinced this was such a good idea, she didn’t know a thing about
riding a snowmobile. Her heart started to pound and her breathing sped up. Not
this again, she thought.

“I’m
up for that,” Nate said.
“How about you, Jake, you in?”

“Sure,
I could use some air.”

“I’ll
help Jules get ready and we’ll meet you outside,” Linnie responded, as she
patted Nate on the buns.

Nate
leaned over and said something in Linnie’s ear, and then she turned and really
gave him a smack on the rear, while telling him to behave. Jules couldn’t help
but smile as she looked away, feeling like she’d invaded on a moment.

“Come
on Jules, let’s get ready. It’ll be fun.”

Ten
minutes later, as they were coming up the stairs and heading towards the entry
closet, Nik came out of the kitchen.

“Where
are you two going?”

“Snowmobiling,”
Linnie answered.

“Sweet,
I’ll be ready in a minute,” he said, inviting himself. Then he turned and
headed up the stairs two at a time.

Linnie
groaned.

“Is
something wrong?”
Jules asked, feeling worried.

“We’ll
see,” Linnie answered. “Just try not to get too nervous if things get a little
tense, okay?”

Jules
paused, thinking over what Linnie said. “Okay,” she answered weakly,
then
asked, “What is it? What am I missing?”

“If
there’s a problem, just let the guys work it out, okay?” Linnie responded,
handing her a hat and mittens.

Her
heart started pitter pattering. Hesitating, she answered, “Alright.” She was
already nervous because she was going to ride a snowmobile for the first time,
but now something else was going on, and it didn’t sound good. Great, her
brain’s limbic region just checked in, and brought along his best buds, Fear
and Panic. She wanted to kick herself for coming here. Why hadn’t she just
stayed in Chicago, she wondered for the millionth time. Trying to calm herself,
she took slow deep breaths.

Nik
came barreling out of the house just moments after them, heading straight
towards Nate and Jake. Jules watched as he started saying something to Jake,
and as she and Linnie approached it was clear there was a heated discussion
going on. Except it was one sided, because Jake simply sat on the snowmobile
and didn’t say or do anything.