Jump Start (13 page)

“Everything was perfect until we decided to get married,” she said. “Now it’s a mess.” She sipped her wine and set it on the nightstand. “If I need to stay here until I find a place, you won’t mind, right?”

“You won’t need a place to stay,” Jennifer told her, “but, of course.” She took Marcie’s hand. “It’s going to work out.”

Marcie studied her. “It didn’t for you and Bobby,” she said. “And you wanted it to. You still do. But it won’t happen. You know why? The same reason Bobby and I are friends. Because we both have enough baggage to sink a warship. We aren’t the forever kind of people. You and Mark picked wrong. There is no happy ending.”

Jennifer had a moment of clarity. She’d spent seven years looking for an ending. Bobby had run from an ending. Marcie was running from an ending. She reached out and took Marcie’s hand. “Love doesn’t have an ending,” Jennifer said. “We both need to stop trying to find one.”

She loved Bobby. She would always love Bobby. Closure didn’t mean she stopped loving him. In fact, it meant she’d stopped denying she loved him. It meant she had to figure out what kind of spot that love filled in her life.

Bobby sat down on the steps, not worried about the wet concrete, considering he had been dried and drenched several times over that day. “She thinks you hate her. She thinks you don’t want to marry her.”

“I love her, man,” he said. “I love her so much it hurts. But she can’t have babies, and she thinks that is somehow going to destroy my life. I told her we’d get a dog. Heck, if that doesn’t satisfy the paternal instinct, we’ll get a cat, too. We’ll flipping adopt, if necessary. But she can’t get over this. Or maybe she doesn’t want to get over it. I pressured her into setting a date, into putting the baby thing aside. Well, no more pressure. Like I said. I’m done. I get that I’m not important enough to her to get by this thing. That I’m not ‘the guy’ or we’d fight this battle together. I have to let her go so she can find the person who is ‘the guy.’ I love her enough to know I have to let her go so she can find that person.”

No more pressure. That was what Jennifer had said to him. Mark believed Marcie didn’t love him enough to overcome her fears. Mark planned to let Marcie go. Just as Jennifer planned to let him go, unless Bobby convinced her otherwise.

“Wimp,” Marcie said, unwrapping another candy.

“What happened to herbal tea and granola?” Jennifer asked.

“They help maintain a healthy life,” Marcie said, holding up her now bare-naked, ready-to-eat, chocolate kiss. “But chocolate heals the soul and the soul is the window to everything else.” She popped the candy into her mouth.

“Unless you get sick first,” Jennifer said. “Which apparently would be appropriate in my case because my soul doesn’t feel one bit healed and my stomach is pretty angry about the situation.”

Marcie pushed the candy bag in Jennifer’s direction. “I was sick ten kisses ago. Eat more. It gets better.”

“No, thank you,” Jennifer said emphatically. “No more for me.”

Marcie stared at her, the somber look slipping back across her features. “You should call Bobby,” Marcie suggested. “He’s been gone a long time.”

“Let them have their guy time, Marcie,” she urged gently as she had several times already.

“What if Bobby hasn’t even found Mark?” Marcie said. “Maybe he’s looking for him and doesn’t want me to know. What if Mark is off at some bar hanging all over some new woman? What if—”

“Marcie,” Jennifer interrupted. “Don’t. Stop. You’re making yourself crazy. Imagining things that just aren’t so. Mark loves you.”

“Yeah, well, you and Bobby are living proof sometimes love isn’t enough.”

Jennifer flinched as if slapped. “That was low.”

“Oh, no,” Marcie said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be thoughtless. I didn’t mean it as an insult at all. Just the opposite. I know how much you and Bobby love each other and still you’ve been apart the past seven years. Love doesn’t necessarily remove all obstacles. I know you know that. Love isn’t the easy answer.”

Jennifer grabbed a chocolate. Suddenly, her stomach didn’t hurt as much as her soul needed healing. “Maybe you should just have sex with Mark,” she suggested dryly. “Isn’t that what you suggested I do with Bobby?”

“I do have sex with Mark,” she assured Jennifer. “You weren’t having sex with Bobby. There’s a difference.” She picked up Julie and hugged her. “I love this cat. She is so sweet.”

Jennifer might have agreed but the chocolate hit her stomach hard. “Okay, for the record. Sex hasn’t solved anything. Chocolate makes me sick. Love isn’t always enough. I’m not sure where that leaves either of us. I don’t know what to do, Marcie.”

A knock sounded on the door. “You get it!” Marcie whispered, scrambling wildly to fix her hair and straighten in her chair. “That’s what you do.” She waved Jennifer on. “Hurry!”

“I’m trying,” Jennifer said, unfolding her legs from where she’d tucked them beneath her and rushing to the door about the time she heard, “Jen, it’s Bobby.”

She yanked the door open, to find him clean-shaven and showered, the spicy scent uniquely him, making her wonder how she ever thought chocolate held a candle to sex—at least, sex with Bobby. The rain had stopped and he was dry, but his eyes were weary, heavy-lidded. Even the macho hot soldier couldn’t hide his exhaustion.

“Come in,” she urged for the second time in a night.

He took a step forward and passed her and, to Jennifer’s surprise, Mark followed. “Mark!” Marcie yelled and charged forward into his arms, all but knocking Jennifer and Bobby into the wall.

Mark kissed Marcie, long and hard, and then they disappeared into the bedroom. Jennifer’s bedroom. “That went better than expected,” Bobby said, chuckling as he pulled her off the wall where she’d leaned to avoid collision. He directed her toward the living room.

“At least until the chocolate and sex wears off,”

Jennifer said skeptically.

Bobby sat down on the couch and took her with him. “Why did you say that like chocolate and sex were bad things? I think we’ve proven otherwise.” He tugged off his boots.

“The chocolate and sex are great,” she agreed. “But when they’re done, when it’s over—then what?”

“They’ll figure it out,” he said, and then pulled Jennifer and the blanket down on top of him as he lay on his back, head on the pillow cushion. “Just like we will.”

He molded her close and she settled against him. The effect was warm and intimate. “Until you leave again.”

“Why would I leave, Jen?” he asked softly. “I finally came home.”

She lifted her head at that, opening her mouth to ask what that meant but his eyes were shut, his lips hinting at a satisfied smile. Slowly, she slid back down, resting her head on his chest, letting his heartbeat thrum beneath her palm. His strong shoulder cradled her head. Her lashes lowered, and she, too, felt the hint of a smile on her lips as she drifted off to sleep.

Marcie huffed, no longer whispering, “It’s yellow—”

“Green,” Jennifer finished. “I know. Which isn’t a real color by the way—but are you two happy now and I get to wear the yellow-green dress?”

“Yes,” Mark said, wrapping his arms around Marcie from behind. “You are most definitely wearing the dress. And if you’ll excuse us, I’m taking my soon-to-be wife home. Oh, and no skydiving for me. You two are on your own today.”

Marcie smiled and turned to Mark, planting a kiss on him before they left. The door shut and Jennifer settled down on the couch, resting on one elbow, her hand on Bobby’s cheek. “Whatever you said to Mark seemed to work. I just hope the baby thing doesn’t become an issue in the future.”

Julie stretched and walked over the top of Bobby before plopping down on his stomach.

Jennifer laughed and picked her up, cuddling her and then setting her on the ground. “She likes you.”

“I like her, too,” he said, reaching down and stroking Julie’s back a moment before leaving the cat to its own entertainment as an idea came to him. He slid his hand behind his head and propped it up. “I know how to solve the baby problem for Marcie and Mark.”

Jennifer’s brows dipped. “How in the world would we do that?”

“We’ll get them a Julie.”

She laughed. “You want to get Mark and Marcie a cat?”

“Or a pet,” he agreed. “Whatever kind you think will make them happy.”

“Well,” Jennifer said thoughtfully, “Marcie does love Julie and Oriental cats are very loving. They tend to become the babies of the house.”

“So a ‘Julie’ would be perfect,” he said. “We’ll go get one today.”

“It’s not that easy,” she said. “You don’t just go get an Oriental shorthair. There’s likely a waiting list and down payments on new litters.”

“You’re a vet,” he said. “Surely you can pull strings.”

She sighed. “I don’t know. I could make some calls, but we might have to drive several hours.”

“I’m willing if you’re willing,” he said.

She studied him. “I can’t believe we’re going to do this.”

He smiled and rolled Jennifer beneath him. She was small and soft, and warm in all the right places. He was hot in all the right places, too. “You know what I think?”

She wrapped her fingers together behind his neck. “I’m almost afraid to ask.”

“I think,” he said, “we should make love, then go to Waffle House like we used to every Sunday morning and eat until we are miserable happily overstuffed. After that, we’ll go in search of an Oriental shorthair.”

“You do realize,” she said slowly after a brief pause, “what you suggest completely breaks the ‘only sex’ rule I set.”

“I dare you to break the rule,” he said, his lips lowering, lingering above hers. “Say you’ll have more than sex with me for the day.”

She laughed. “You’re crazy.”

“For you,” he promised and kissed her. It was long minutes later when he sat on the couch, Jennifer on top of him, gloriously naked, the wet heat of her body wrapped around the hard length of him. Her breasts were high and full, her nipples rosy-pink pebbles pressed against his palms, taut against his tongue. Her kiss even sweeter than the addictive honey flavor he’d never get enough of, because he could taste the change in her, he could taste the unbridled passion—and he knew the walls were coming down. But as he spilled himself inside her, felt her spasm around him, cling to him, hold him, he knew she hadn’t given herself fully to him, nor would she until she knew he’d done so to her. She deserved nothing less and he was trying desperately to find his way there.

For long seconds, they sat together, bodies merged intimately, foreheads together until Bobby noticed the cat was sitting on the arm of the couch watching them. “Okay, now,” he said. “This is like some sort of weird voyeurism. We have to train the cat not to watch.”

Jennifer laughed and kissed him. “I’ll tell her to turn her back next time. Now. Take me to breakfast.” Bobby stood up, still inside her. “I’ll take you in the shower first. Waffle House does breakfast all day.”