Jake's child (12 page)

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"Okay, party pooper, I'd still call it sleeping, but Nicholas and I came to do some dedicated fishing. You stay here and solve the world's problems while we go wading."

The boat wobbled, and he heard a splash as they jumped into the water.

"You're not quite big enough to fish like this, Nicholas, but I think we can work out something. The vest will support you, and I can lift you when you cast. Your feet won't touch bottom, but you'll be okay. If it doesn't work, we'll go back to the boat and let you cast out of it."

"I'm not scared or anything, Sarah, but I just wondered if there might be alligators or something like that around here?"

Nicholas's voice had an edge of panic. Jake knew people fished out of the boats, and there were alligators in the lake. And water moccasins. His eyes snapped open and he sat up.

They were a few yards away from the anchored boat. Water sloshed up to Sarah's waist, and Nicholas bobbed on the rippled surface like an orange cork.

Jake's light-dazzled eyes saw a rounded, reptilian snout sliding off the hammock in their direction. He couldn't trust Sarah to save Nicholas. Lunging in their direction, he pitched himself into the water.

Chapter Six

Water splashed into Jake's face. With long, powerful reaches of his arms, he stroked quickly towards Sarah and Nicholas. Swimming was faster than slogging through the weed-clogged bottom. He didn't stop to think about Sarah's astonished yelp as he hauled Nicholas up with one arm and her with the other. He slung Nicholas into the safety of the boat and grabbed Sarah's blouse, throwing her bottom side up over into the boat.

The boat pitched wildly. Jake grabbed its sides. His face was beside Sarah's sopping green shorts and sleek legs as she turned to him. Wet, tanned skin glistened in front of his mouth as he hung onto the boat.

"What in heaven's name do you think you're doing?" She wiggled into the boat, tennis shoes spraying water into his eyes.

"This is fun, Jake! Let's do it again!" Nicholas scrambled to the side, ready to leap into the coffee-colored water.

"Sit down, Nicholas," Sarah said. She glanced at Jake. "I don't think Jake's playing games."

"Damn right I'm not!" Jake thumped into the boat. His heart was pumping full-tilt. He was as furious as he'd ever been in his life.

The explosion of his voice surprised him as much as it did Sarah. "What's the matter with you, getting out of the boat like that? What kind of guide dumps herself and a five-year-old kid in the middle of a snake-swarming, gator-infested lake? One big bull was swimming just over to the right of where you were! My God, what were you thinking of?" He shook water out of his hair and smashed it with shaking hands.

Nicholas's eyes were wide and he was chewing his fingernails. Jake didn't want to scare the kid but, damn, Sarah should have had enough sense to stay in the boat. He should have said something himself. Fear still churned his blood.

Sarah's voice was very quiet. "Look around you, Jake. Tell me what you see."

Jake rubbed Nicholas's shoulder and looked back at the water. Ripples puckered the surface. A blue heron stalked at the edge of the hammock. Not far from the hammock, a brown-gray log swayed with the movement of water and breeze. A fish plopped fatly back under the light water slapping against the side of the gently moving boat. The log swayed again.

Jake looked at Sarah. "It looked like a gator."

"An easy mistake to make, but how could you think I'd put Nicholas in danger? What kind of person do you think I am?" Anger sharpened her voice.

She'd asked the unanswerable question. How could he tell her what kind of person he knew she was?

"I grew up on the lake!" she continued. "I've seen it low and dry, I've seen it when alligators were so scarce they were an endangered species. I know where they are. I know where it's safe to fish and where it's not! This is my living."

*'Gators are all over the place! I saw them in the canals. Didn't you just have an open-season hunt down here?" Damned if he'd give an inch.

Very politely, Sarah answered. "There was a lottery for a certain number of licenses. Yes, there are more gators around than there used to be. People who live around here know to be prudent. I live around here. I'm a prudent person." Sarcasm dripped from her voice.

He'd made a fool of himself.

Sarah knew it, too. Her raised eyebrows expressed her wrath.

He'd been a jerk.

He fidgeted. Waited for heaven to rescue him. Stretched and yawned. Fidgeted.

Sarah's lips twitched. Then a quiver moved across her face like sun on water. He heard her giggle. What was so funny? He hated giggling women.

An undignified snort escaped Sarah. "If you could have seen yourself!"

"Yeah?" He shifted uncomfortably, energy still coursing through him.

"You came barreling out of the boat like a cannonball! I couldn't imagine what in the world was happening. And the look on your face! You moved so fast and the next thing I knew I was hanging face down in the boat. Not that I don't appreciate the gesture, but the boat bottom stinks like fish bait."

"Yeah, well, sorry." He started thinking about how he must have looked thrashing towards her. "A moose in the water, huh?"

She pulled her mouth together, but her eyes gave her away. They sparkled. And then she lost it. "A whale!" Whoops of laughter shook her. "I couldn't believe it! And it was just a log!"

The joke had been on him, but she didn't have to be enjoying it so much. After all, he'd been worried about them.

Worried, hell. He'd been terrified. "You okay, sport?" Nicholas nodded.

But they were safe. That was the important thing, and a giggling Sarah was more appealing than was good for either one of them. Jake's adrenaline and fear found their own outlet. He needed to release his tension. He knew he shouldn't touch her, meant only to startle her a little.

He reached for one slim leg. "A whale? I think I've been insulted. Didn't you ever learn what happens when you don't pick on people your own size?" He pulled her inexorably toward him.

"Definitely a whale!" Sarah whooped again, helpless with laughter. "Oh, help!"

Jake snagged her other ankle. "A cannon, a whale. I get no respect, at all," he mourned, grasping her elbows. Her legs were tangled with his own densely muscled ones, and the slide of her skin against his thighs changed the game for him.

Her mouth opened slightly as she sensed his arousal. For one charged moment, she looked at him with such mischief and sweetness that his fingers clamped around her arms as desire stirred. He'd meant to keep the mood light. She pivoted, and her knee slipped inside his legs. The brush of her soft skin against his burned.

"Turn me loose," she laughed, "or you'll be sorry. I was wrestling champ in fourth grade!"

"This isn't fourth grade, sweetheart. And I've been out of school a long time."

Her laughing face was shiny pink.

Nicholas leaped into the fray and the boat wobbled. "I'll help you, Sarah!" He swatted Jake.

"Cry uncle?" Jake murmured.

"I'm not afraid of you," Sarah scoffed.

"Maybe you should be." He wanted her afraid of him so he could remember how treacherous she was, not warm and funny like this, bewitching him.

"You're all bark, no bite. Or should I go for a whale of a comparison?" She laughed again, but then he slid his palm under her calf and pulled her closer. Her eyes darkened.

Jake gathered Sarah to him with one arm and fended off Nicholas, who was butting him in the chest, with the other. "No fair ganging up. One on one is the rule, right, Sarah?" Around her waist, his fingers brushed a damp curve. He wanted to leave his hand there. His arm tensed.

"Uncle," Sarah whispered, no dummy.

Her mouth trembled. Jake wanted to touch it, but instead he grabbed Nicholas up and dangled him over the water.

"Help, Sarah!" Nicholas shrieked. "Jake's gonna throw me to the sharks and stuff!" Delightedly screeching, he wriggled in Jake's secure grasp.

Sarah pulled at Jake's arm and pushed him backward.

"I thought you said 'uncle'?" He let her press her slim hands against him and yielded. As Sarah fell on top of him, Jake hauled Nicholas in close. Two pairs of identical blue eyes gleamed roguishly at him. One softly rounded chin and one pointy one dug into his chest as mother and son observed him. For a long moment he watched them, and his heart turned over.

"Hied," Sarah teased.

That was the problem. Clutching Sarah and Nicholas, Jake finally identified the aching pain in the vicinity of his ungovernable heart. He couldn't trust her, but he kept wanting her. He wanted her and liked her, and didn't trust her. Yet he wanted to stay here with both of them wrapped in his arms. He grimaced.

"You got a stummick ache?" Nicholas patted Jake's belly sympathetically.

"No, sport, not a stomach ache."

Sarah rubbed Jake's chin. "Poor old Jake. He's not as fierce as he pretends."

Her smile gently mocked him. She'd seen his confusion. What would she do if he told her everything? Could he trust her explanations?