Forever's Embrace (Forever In Luck Series Book 2) (9 page)

He
smiled as he shook his head. “Okay, see, I’m not even going to try that one,
but whatever it is, you sound very sexy saying it.”

With
a softness in her voice, she translated for him, “I’ve missed you so very much,
Jake.”

He
closed his eyes and put a hand to his heart. “I’ve missed you too,” he
answered, trying to swallow the lump in his throat. “You doing alright, you
need anything?”

She
let out a long tranquil sigh. “I’m doing well, thank you for asking.”

“How
are things at the office, anything new and interesting happening?”

“Yeah,
we hope to have approval to market one of our medications for fibromyalgia
treatment soon, hopefully in the next few months. So that’s good, and I’m up
for a promotion. One of the managers is leaving, and I’ve been asked to
interview for the position. So, we’ll see.”

He
was happy for her, but his heart sank. “That’s great. Good for you. What else
have you been doing?”

“Painting,
drawing, going to the bakery from time to time, putsy stuff.”

“Fixing
your sweet tooth, huh?”

“You
got it,” she responded, with a smile in her voice. “Was there today, had a few
ginger cookies, and a slice of cake.”

His
head spun. She’d taste sweet and spicy. “What’ve you been painting?” he asked,
feeling curious.

“Mmmm,
can’t tell you, Novio, can only show you,” she said with a laugh.

Novio…“sweetheart,”
wasn’t it? Yeah, it was. Damn, he’d used that line on her in the kitchen when
she’d wanted to know what the royal treatment was. “Not fair,” he responded. “I
have to wait to find out. You, on the other hand, received an immediate answer
to your inquiry. However, the silver lining in all this is that it implies I’ll
see you again, so I still win.”

She
laughed, “I was so glad I asked, plus it was the best chocolate milk I’ve ever
had.”

“There’s
more where that came from, bebis,” he growled.

She
laughed, then answered, “I’m impressed, you’re a quick study.”

His
smile wouldn’t leave his face. “How many languages do you speak?”

“Well,
let’s see, I studied Latin in depth, so I can communicate fairly well in Latin
based languages like Italian, Spanish, Portugese, and French. They’re
considered the romantic languages, and I like Italian the best. Then of course
Nana taught me Swedish, which shares a lot of similarities with other Nordic
languages, so I do fairly well there also. I guess you could say I speak four
or five fluently, and then another four somewhat decently.”

“Wow!
That’s impressive. You paint, draw, speak different languages, and let’s not
forget you know football, and then that trivium, quadrivium thing. What else?
What else do you know?”

She
laughed again. “I don’t know, just stuff. I just know a bunch of stuff. It’s
hard to say. How about you, where do your interests lie?”

He
took a deep breath. “Well, it always used to be cheese making, but now its
animal science, farming, sports, stuff like that.”

“Animal
science? Really? Tell me what it’s all about for you? It sounds intriguing.”

He
shook his head. “Yeah, I don’t know about intriguing, but I have an interest in
breeding stock, along with the general care and health of animals. I suppose
you could talk on the lines of a veterinarian, but I don’t want to go that far
with it. I’m singularly interested in dairy farming and producing top quality
stock, so we give our customers the best product we can.”

“I
love that!” she responded. “So animal husbandry and selective breeding is where
your interests lie. Has your experience been mostly hands on, or have you
received formal instruction?”

“Right
now, hands on, along with some internet research, but I’ve applied to the
University of Wisconsin, and hope to finish up there with a major in Animal
Science and a minor in Veterinary Technology. I took some college level courses
my senior year of high school, and then started college right away after, so I
have a few years under my belt already.”

“Good
for you. I’ll cross my fingers. It’ll go fast once you get started. What
breeding technique do you prefer?”

Holy
hell, she was speaking his language! None of the women he’d dated in the past
knew or cared about this stuff. He couldn’t believe he was able to share this
part of his life with her and have the discussion be meaningful. “Well, dad’s
always had a bull on the farm, but I wonder about artificial insemination and
what we could accomplish there.”

“Fantastic.
Great minds and discoveries always start by wondering and asking questions,
then seeking out the answers. So what’s this about cheese making?”

Settling
back on his pillows, he answered, “For many generations my family made and sold
specialty cheeses. My dad’s mom, my grandma, taught my mom how to make several
of the cheeses before passing on. My dad helped some with the heavy stuff, but
was never interested in making cheese, and therefore never learned how. I, on
the other hand, always wanted to make cheese, and carry on our family’s
tradition. My ultimate goal was to get my master’s mark.

“So,
the plan was for mom to teach me. I helped here and there while I was growing
up, but it wasn’t until I started working towards my dairy science degree that
we became serious about my learning the trade. She started me out in the
ripening rooms, because she felt the key to making great cheese was in the art
of affinage, or maturing cheese. We were just getting into it, when she struck
a deer coming home one night and was killed. We lost it all with her death.”

“Oh,
Jake, I’m sorry, I know that must’ve been difficult for you.”

“Yeah,
it was.”

“So,
you know how to ripen cheese, but not how to make it, is that right?”

“Yes,
to some degree, I was learning the ripening process, and have a decent
foundation of knowledge where that’s concerned, so that part’s good. But it’s
more like we don’t know our family’s trade secrets, what it was we did to make
our cheeses better than the rest, not to mention several of our cheese recipes
were for rare types of cheeses that are not easily found outside of Europe.
It’s been four years since we sold the last of it, and people still call
looking for what we used to make.”

“Interesting.
How rewarding it must be, having people call looking for one of your products.
It demonstrates the reach and affect your family’s had on other people’s lives.
I love that, I think that would be rewarding.”

Huh?
Something was off here, they were talking about milk and cheese. “Well, yeah,
but ah, Jules, I hate to point this out, I’m just a dairy farmer, a glorified
milkman you could say, depending on who you talk to. But you, well you’re on
the verge of great discoveries in medicine. Your job is the rewarding one.”

She
laughed a little. “I disagree. The stuff I’m working on in the office is the
culmination of studies done over years, none of it my work, and the stuff I
contribute now, the data from the studies I run, won’t be truly significant for
years to come. And who knows, with today’s medical advancements, it may all be
moot, as they map the human genome and discover the genes and chromosomes that
can be problematic, and then find ways to fix them.

“There
will always be a place for pharmaceuticals in people’s lives, but only if they
can afford them. If people had to choose between food or medicine to survive,
food would win, hands down. You’re not just a farmer, you’re more than that.
You feed and nourish the hungry, Jake. Your contributions and its results are
immediate. That’s way more rewarding than sitting behind a desk in an office
studying data.”

It
was official, he loved her. “If you were here right now, you’d be getting the
royal treatment for sure.”

“Really?”
she responded, with a smile in her voice. “I like the royal treatment.”

“Mmmm,
me too,” he answered, taking a deep breath and letting it out. “What are you
doing for New Years? You could always come here, hint, hint. Please come to
Luck.”

“Gosh,
ahh, I have a prior engagement, a commitment I have to keep,” she responded,
sounding disappointed. “Of course, I’ll be watching the Bears stomp all over
the Packers, and then there’s work again. What about you? What’ll you be
doing?”

Dejected,
he took a deep breath. Pouting, he thought. “Same old, same old. Being a dairy
farmer is a twice a day, every day of the year commitment, and of course, I’ll
be watching the Packers kick some Bear ass. So that’ll be my highlight, unless
of course I get to talk to you, then that’d be my highlight.”

“Charming
me are you?”

He
nodded enthusiastically, even though she couldn’t see him. “Yeah, is it
working?”

“You’re
making me blush.”

“Mmmm,
I love it when you blush. You’re so beautiful when you do.”

“More
blushing, mister. You’re a charmer and a romantic.”

He
pumped his fist in the air. Yes! He was nailing it. “I’m missing you. Seven
weeks seems like an eternity.”

“I
know,” she said softly. “But as Nana would’ve said, absence makes the heart
grow fonder.”

“That
it does, that it does.” He heard her yawn. “You off tomorrow?”

“No,
I worked today, and will again tomorrow. I’m on call for the office this
holiday.”

He
didn’t want to hang up. “You ready for bed?”

“Mmmhmm.
I’m already in bed. I was up early.”

 
He wished he was there with her. “I’ll let you
go so you can get some sleep. Merry Christmas, Precious.”

“You
too, Jake. Thank you for calling.” She yawned again, and then said softly,
“Buona notte, amo, dormire bene…Good night, love, sleep well.” Then she ended
the call.

Closing
his eyes, he listened as the last trail of her voice drifted through his head.
It was official, he was in love. He readied himself for bed, but before getting
in, he went to the box from the liquor store and took out the shirt she’d sent.
Putting it to his nose, he inhaled deeply. She was there. Taking the shirt, he
crawled into bed and thought of her. He wanted her for his own, and she was
destined to be in Chicago tied to her job. She’s going to get that promotion,
he thought. What was he ever going to do?

*****

Looking
out the window of the plane as it circled the airport, Jules felt her
excitement grow. She couldn’t wait to see Jake. It’d been five weeks since she
left, but it felt more like forever. Jake “Elvis” Albrecht. She laughed aloud,
thinking back on that morning in the kitchen with all of them, then quickly
looked around to see if anyone had heard her. Letting out a deep sigh, she went
back to looking out the window. Her mind started churning. Oh, not this again,
she thought closing her eyes. Alright, she was excited to see Jake and Linnie,
but there was something else, something more and it made her feel sick to her
stomach. Why? Why do I feel scared, she wondered. Scared, worried, nervous… I
need to stop this. She willed herself to stop before she gave herself a
headache again.

But,
she couldn’t. She knew Jake felt something for her, for sure, but to what
magnitude? Is this—gosh, she didn’t even know what to call it—
whatever
they had going on, something
casual to him? It didn’t feel casual to her, but then again, what would she
know. Maybe he isn’t interested in anything serious. Maybe he just wants to
date some and have a good time. What if I’m making this into a bigger deal than
what it really is? What if it isn’t all roses and rainbows, and the depth and
breadth of my impressions are simply a figment of my imagination? She took a
deep breath, trying to calm her restless heart, then asked herself in all
honesty if she could truly trust her judgment in this? She looked down at her
hands as the plane made contact with the ground, feeling certain of the answer.

Nana…
Nana, I’m lonely. She began to blink rapidly, then closed her eyes when they
began to burn. But I’m afraid…afraid I’m counting on them too much. Linnie’s
leaving Chicago, coupled with the glimpse of family life over Thanksgiving, and
then these weeks away from Jake, has made me realize how very lonely I am, and
how much I’ve missed in life. Nana, I miss you so much, and wish you were still
here every day. It nearly killed me to lose you, and now here they all are,
filling this tremendous void in my life, Linnie’s the sister I always wished
for, Kris, Nik, and Nate are the protective brothers any girl would want, and
Karl—oh, how her heart ached—the father I never had, and Jake… Well, he’s
everything, Nana. He’s everything to me, and yet, what if I’m nothing more than
a trifle to him? Her eyes continued to burn. Oh, this could hurt, this could
really hurt.

She
didn’t want to be a trifle. She didn’t. She wanted to be important. But if
whatever this was fizzled out, she’d have to give them all up. She couldn’t
imagine her life ever being the same, and she didn’t know if she could go back
to the way things were. Her heart cried.

Nana,
I know I was young, but I wish we had talked about men and the affairs of the
heart. I feel so lost, and I don’t know what to do. Work’s transferring me,
Nana. Promotion or no promotion, I have to go to Connecticut or be out of a
job. I’m not sure what to do? The only things we ever talked about were my
safety, and my ability to provide for myself. So, do I go to Connecticut and
leave this all behind? Or do I stay, risk it all, and see what happens? Oh
Nana…