Jake's child (11 page)

"You got a point there." Jake tried not to laugh. "No eggs, then."

"How about a jelly sandwich? Here's that guava stuff Sarah makes. It's sticky. I had some yesterday."

"You're really big on sandwiches, aren't you?" Jake squatted down to look in the refrigerator.

"Sure. They're great. Look, Sarah's even got squishy white bread. I love squishy bread." Nicholas squished the bread.

Jake took the bread. "What about cereal?"

"Nah. A sandwich."

"A sandwich, huh. Let me think a minute." Jake poked behind some boxes, opened the meat drawer. The kid was too skinny. He needed a good breakfast. "Okay, but it has to be a Jake's Special. Fair enough?"

"Sure. What you want me to do?" Nicholas pulled a chair over to the counter. "You know something, Jake? Me and you do neat stuff together," he confided, leaning against Jake.

"Yeah?" Jake shifted to make Nicholas comfortable and then lopped off margarine and tossed it into a cast-iron skillet. The lump sizzled and melted.

"Dad didn't do stuff. But he was tired a lot," Nicholas added loyally.

"That was tough." Jake slapped three pieces of bread in the skillet and topped them with ham and cheese before slicing a brilliant red tomato onto the cheese and finishing each sandwich with a slice of bread.

"Jake, I'm hungry. When are these Specials gonna be ready?"

4 'We have to flip them over and fry the top side." Jake handed a spatula to Nicholas. 'Think you can do that?"

Nicholas gripped the spatula in a tight fist and jammed it under one of the sandwiches. Tomato and bread flew sideways.

"Slow down, sport." Jake held Nicholas's hand under his bigger one and showed him how to ease the spatula all the way under while flipping quickly. Nicholas's eyebrows met in concentration.

Jake felt a pang as he thought about leaving Nicholas. He could teach the kid a lot. Nicholas picked up things like a sponge. He couldn't leave him with a mother who disappeared during the night. "Good job. That's the way," he encouraged, as Nicholas flipped the other two sandwiches.

"I know," Nicholas asserted. "It's not hard. I'm gonna get the sodas now, Jake. You can make coffee if you want it, but soda's better."

"Whoa!" Jake grabbed the tail of Nicholas's shirt. "No soda for breakfast, kid. Milk. Or juice."

Nicholas frowned. "Why not?"

"Not good for you."

Nicholas jammed his fists on his nonexistent hips and glared at Jake. "You say that a lot, Jake, but you eat doughnuts and stuff. And you drink soda."

"But not for breakfast. Here," Jake handed him a glass. "Milk."

Nicholas took it and trudged to the refrigerator. "Dumb stuff, milk. You ever think about milk, Jake? You know where it comes from?"

Coming in on the tail end of the exchange, Sarah stifled her laugh.

"Jake's right, Nicholas," she said as she stepped inside. "You need milk. When you get older, you can drink what you want."

"How old I gotta be?"

"Oh, about as old as Jake, I think. That would be old enough."

Nicholas assessed Jake. "I dunno, Sarah, that'd be a long time to wait. Jake's awful old."

Jake grunted. 'This old man's ready for something to eat. You know how us old folks are. We get cranky if we're not fed on a regular basis."

"So do pit bulls." Sarah wrinkled her nose.

"And you know how dangerous they are when they're riled, don't you?" Jake noticed how Sarah's lips dented in when she tried to hold back her smile. Her lips had been silky warm He frowned. "Sit down and eat, Nicholas."

Nicholas giggled. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, Jake." He turned to Sarah. "When we going fishing?"

"Don't push it, sport." Jake cut Nicholas's sandwich into quarters.

"No, it's all right. I promised I'd take him. Just let me wake up a bit and we'll see what we need, okay?" She smiled when Nicholas looked relieved. "Were you worried?"

He chewed a nail. "Sometimes people forget promises. Jake doesn't, though."

Jake's hard face softened as he spoke to Nicholas. "Promises are important, kid. I told you that."

"Do you keep all your promises?" Sarah took out milk and a tall glass.

"I don't make promises." But of course he had. He'd promised to take care of Nicholas.

Sarah opened the silverware drawer and removed an iced tea spoon. She put the spoon in the glass and poured coffee in as she thought about Jake's comment. "You never make promises?"

He tilted his chair back. "Very seldom." He frowned as he watched her.

Sarah wondered if he remembered what he'd said before he sent her from the room. Hadn't that been a promise? "That's a hard way to live. People need promises and com-

mitments from other people. They need to know they can count on each other." She added three spoonfuls of sugar to the hot coffee and then poured in cold milk to the top of the glass. Vigorously stirring, she sank into a chair.

"Most people make easy promises that aren't worth a hill of beans. So what difference does it make if I don't make any?"

"I'm not sure." She ran her finger around the chilled rim of her glass. Jake sounded annoyed. What kind of life had he had to make him so distrustful? Even in her darkest moments, she'd never been that cynical. "Don't you get lonely?"

"No." But she noticed that his eyes slid to Nicholas.

"What happens when you do make promises?" Sarah persisted, wanting to hear the words. She drank her iced coffee and watched as Jake chewed his sandwich.

"Then I keep them." He scowled and answered her question before she asked it. "Always."

"Then you're a person people can depend on." Sarah didn't like the shadow that moved over his face. He looked as though he wanted to argue but couldn't. She let him off the hook. "That's enough serious talk for the morning, right, Nicholas? Don't you think we need to head out to the lake before the day gets away from us?"

"Yeah!" Nicholas shoved his plate away and leaped up.

"Wait a minute. Sarah and I need to talk about some things first. Why don't you go outside and wait for us?"

The screen door thwacked behind Nicholas, and Sarah laughed just as Jake spoke. "Maybe Nicholas and I should—"

"I know what you're going to say, but I've been thinking." Sarah leaned forward. "I'd like for you and Nicholas to stay for a while. If you want to."

His glance was wary.

Sarah hated her awkwardness, but she wasn't used to hiding her motives. Did he think she was making some kind

of pass or something? She was attracted to him, but that wasn't why she wanted them to stay. "I mean, Nicholas is having such a good time and I like having him around." She tried to hide her embarrassment. "There's a wonderful festival coming up next week, Chalo Nitka. It's Seminole for 'big bass.' There's a midway, hay-diving, kids' games."

As Jake continued to stare at her, she grew more uncomfortable.

"I've been going since I was a kid. You know the Semi-noles wrestle alligators." She realized she was babbling and didn't know how to stop.

"I don't think—" A false note twanged in his hesitation.

"If you're short of money or anything, well, you could help me out for a few days to pay for room and board," she interrupted. She'd have offered to let him stay for free, but she wasn't sure how he'd react. She didn't want him going off in a huff because she'd wounded his male pride.

Jake was caught between a rock and a hard place. Sarah's face glowed with excitement. He was in a no-win situation. He didn't want to leave Nicholas, but he didn't see how he could take him. He didn't know if he wanted to rip free of the delicate web Sarah was weaving around him, and he didn't even know if he could.

Sarah continued. "Stay for a week? You don't have to take Nicholas home yet, do you?"

The situation was almost funny. "No."

"Stay, then."

He wanted to.

"Pretty please with cream and sugar?" She tipped her head as she laughed self-consciously. "That's what we always said as kids. It usually worked."

Jake knew he shouldn't leave without knowing, really knowing, what kind of woman she was. He still had questions about her. It wasn't that he wanted to stay, not really. He ignored the little voice that told him he was lying. "Okay. We'll stay. I'm not short of money, but I'm not used

to being waited on. You don't run a resort, so we'll help out. But just until Cholley Nitka—"

"Chalo Nitka."

"Whatever. Until then. Thanks." Jake picked up the plates. "Put me to work." Her smile was so warm and open he almost grabbed her and kissed her. He sighed. Staying was never going to work.

"Oh, c'mon," she teased. "It's not going to be that much work."

"The work's the least of it," he mumbled, thinking they were talking at cross-purposes.

Sunlight caught in the shining brown strands of her hair. "No?" For an instant he glimpsed awareness in her eyes, and then she withdrew. "Tell you what. I'll let you do the easy work—the dishes—while I get the boat ready. After all—you cooked, you need the rest."

Her face was smooth and soft and he wanted to touch her. "Did anyone ever tell you that you have a sassy mouth?" Jake scraped the garbage into a sack.

"Never!"

"Real sassy," he grumbled. "Going to get you in trouble one of these days," he added. He couldn't help looking at her sassy mouth.

"Promises, promises," she taunted and then blushed a brighter pink.

Jake was remembering, too. Remembering the ache he'd felt near her, remembering how he'd wanted her, remembering how he'd promised that it would be nice. That was a promise he couldn't afford to keep.

"So go on out before the kid makes himself dizzy enough to throw up. He runs in circles more than any living thing I ever saw." Jake opened the dishwasher. "Any tricks to this gizmo?"

"Nope." She looked back at him over her shoulder. The long line of her throat disappearing into her blouse led his

eyes to her breasts. He saw her swallow before she looked away.

"Now you're starting to sound like me." If he couldn't control his thoughts any better than his eyes, he was in deep trouble.

"Yep." She laughed as she let the back door slam behind her. "Hey, Nicholas. Let's go down to the dock."

Jake watched her long legs eat up the distance between her and Nicholas. For a small woman, she had the longest legs. He couldn't turn away when he saw her arm go around Nicholas, who leaned against her.

Angrily Jake scraped and rinsed the rest of the dishes. Where was the little squirt's loyalty? Was he so hungry for a mother's love that he'd go to any female? Jake slammed the dishwasher door shut and locked it.

Hell. He'd forgotten the soap. He yanked the door open and dumped in the powder. What had made him agree to stay? Stupidity, that's what. He felt like pounding on something, preferably his own thick skull. In a silent stream of oaths garnered from dives and hellholes around the world, he cursed himself for being every kind of ass before he followed Sarah out the back door.

"Do you lock up around here?" he bellowed.

"I suppose you might as well since we'll be gone a while," Sarah called back. She and Nicholas were already in the bass boat. Engulfed in a fluorescent orange life vest, Nicholas was holding the tie-up rope in his hands while Sarah held on tightly to him.

Jake muttered under his breath and strode back to the house. A pit bull was just what he felt like. He'd like to chomp down on something and chew it to ribbons. What made him the angriest was that he couldn't figure out what was sticking in his craw so bad. Kids. Women. Who wanted them? Who needed them?

Sarah sat back near the motor and Jake put Nicholas on the middle seat and faced them. Mid-morning sun sparkled

% JAKE'S CHILD

off the water as they headed away from land. Nicholas pointed his nose into the wind and Jake stretched his legs on either side of Nicholas, keeping him close.

'Taster, Sarah!" Nicholas's shriek whipped away from Jake.

"Okay, hang on!" Sarah sped up, but Jake noticed that she minimized bumps by keeping the boat angled to the chop.

The sun warmed the chill of the air and Jake leaned back, watching Nicholas enjoy the splashes of water and the boat ride. Sarah and Nicholas sported identical grins. The kid loved it. He'd love living here. Jake gritted his teeth.

They roared out and then circled over to a barely visible hammock. Egrets rose in a cloud around them.

She killed the motor and the boat silently settled into the water. Nicholas's eyes were huge and Sarah's face shone with joy.

Jake leaned back and shut his eyes against the sight of them together. Orange blossoms carried over the darker smell of the lake. Since they were sheltered from the wind by the hammock, the sun was hot. The peaceful rocking of the boat as the waves slapped it, and the woman and boy opposite him, filled up the world for Jake at that moment. He could almost put a name to the feelings tumbling inside him.

"C'mon, lazy bones." Sarah nudged his leg with her sneakered foot. "Wake up. I'm the one who should be falling asleep."

"Hush, woman, I'm busy doing man-type work."

"What's that," Sarah jeered, "sleeping?"

Her foot nudged him again, but he refused to open his eyes. The moment was too peaceful.

"Of course not. Man was made to decide the fate of the world. That kind of serious thinking requires elimination of all outside distractions." Jake folded his arms under his head. "And that's what I'm doing. Serious thinking."

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