Twice in a Lifetime (Love Found) (41 page)

Trey spent his days shadowing both he and Nick around the office and out at job sites. He made notes of headway on all their projects, and helped out where needed. He commuted to and from work with Jake, and that was just fine. He loved the kid as if he was his own son. It was convenient to use the time spent stuck in freeway traffic to review the plans and progress of current jobs. Sometimes they merely discussed sports or the hot topic of the day.

Jake set the alarm code and locked the office door. His final errand of the day had been to pick up Allie’s wedding gift. He patted the inside pocket of his jacket as he sauntered toward the parking lot. Still there. The knots he spent the afternoon slowly untangling tried to regain their hold. He took a deep breath. He’d rather not go through that again.

He neared his truck. Trey was talking on his cell in the cab, gesturing with tense, agitated movements. He ended his call and tossed the phone onto the dash as Jake swung open the door, illuminating the interior with a bright glow. Trey’s face was clearly miserable.

“Nick says you’re doing a great job helping him out.” Bouncing and splashing through puddles, he swung the truck onto the main road and flicked his eyes toward Trey. His attention was caught somewhere in the lights on the horizon. Several quiet minutes later he turned onto the freeway. “You have a natural talent for this work, and you seem to enjoy it.”

“Hmm. Yeah.”

Jake frowned. What was it going to take to get a reaction? “Nick and I were talking about putting you in charge of the company this summer.”

“Sure. Okay.” Well, that wasn’t it.

“Your mom and I are moving to Tahiti next week.”

“That’s fine.” The kid was a million miles away.

“We plan to live in a tree house.” Now that was funny. He had no defense against his stupid grin.

Trey’s head snapped around. “What?
What
? Moving
where
?”

Finally.
He gave Trey a long look. “What’s up, Trey?”

Trey frowned. “Um. Nothing. Just… nothing.”

“
Nothing
seems to have you a little preoccupied tonight.” He adjusted the rearview and darted his eyes to the speedometer when a cop pulled in behind him. Yeah, he was safe. His eyes landed on Trey again. “Sure you don’t want to talk about it?”

Trey sunk further into the contoured leather seat and sighed like the weight of the entire world rested solely on his shoulders, Atlas-style. A sigh dredged all the way up from the soles of his muddy work boots. “Yeah, maybe I need to talk about it.” Trey turned toward him, his eyes pleading. “But you can’t tell my mom. She won’t understand.”

He may be a rookie, but he knew better than to promise that. “Maybe. Maybe not. I need to know what you’re up against first.”

Trey took in a deep breath, then let it out on a long sigh. “There’s a girl.”

Jake smirked, then let his tone go dry. “Trey, when a guy’s this jacked up, there’s usually a girl.”

“This girl’s different. She’s special.”

“No need to get defensive.”

Trey’s face whipped his way. “Sorry.”

“We’re good. Go on.”

“She’s in one of my study groups. We started hanging out last month.”

“That sounds normal, nothing your mom wouldn’t understand. I still don’t get the problem.”

Trey’s sigh carried relief as well as worry. “It’s sex.”

Oh, crap.
Now he was ready to slink down in
his
seat. “So the problem is she won’t let you in her pants?” And was there, please God, any way to sound a little less lame?

Uh oh. He could read those squinty eyes. He’d missed the point again.

“The
problem
is I don’t love her. She’s cool and all, we have fun. Fool around a little sometimes. But that’s as far as I want to go right now. We’ve only had four dates—I don’t even know her—and I’m not all over her shit so she thinks I’m hooking up with someone else.” Trey punched the dashboard.
What the hell?
Now the kid was pissed. “She’s blowing up my phone, acting all crazy jealous.”

Jake slid eyes right to the abused dash. Kid better not have cracked it. “You’ve talked to her about this, I imagine.”

“She doesn’t get it. All she sees is she’s not getting any.”

He choked out a cough. Good thing it was dark out. He’d never be able to have this conversation in the light of day. “Talk to Jax?”

Trey snorted. “She’s a straight-up bitch to him. Guess what he says.” He stared through the windshield, at the wipers steadily slapping the raindrops away. “I’m trying to decide if I should cave or ditch her.” Jesus. Back to miserable. Good times.

He exited the freeway, nearly home. Time to wrap this up. “Got to remind you, Trey. There are a whole lot of hot girls out there. And you don’t want to hear it, but you’re young yet. Remember to let your intellect keep instinct firmly in check.”

Trey turned from staring through the windshield. Looked at him in confusion. “Huh?”

Allie was definitely cooler than her son realized. He grinned. “Make sure the big head’s doing the thinking for the little head.”

Trey smirked. “Yeah.” The word escaped his mouth slowly, like resin seeping through new pine. “But she really knows which buttons to push.”

It probably wasn’t Trey’s buttons they should be concerned about. More like his zipper. “If she doesn’t respect the way you feel, if she doesn’t respect
you
… I’d say she’s really not that special.”

Again a long, slow breath. “Yeah.”

Jake’s finger tapped the wheel as he steered through traffic. It was time to raise the stakes. “Trey, can I ask you something? It’s kind of personal.”

Trey’s lips curved. “What have we been talking about that wasn’t personal?”

He blew out a huffing laugh. “You got me there. But seriously, is this the first girl? I mean… have you ever… um…
been
with a girl?” Oh my God, how
ever
did fathers do this?

The little shit had the nerve to laugh at him. “Are you asking if I’m still a virgin?”

He tightened his hands on the steering wheel. He was all in now. “Yeah I am.”

“Not really.”

Well, what the hell did that mean?

Then again, did he really want to know? He needed out of this conversation before he died of mortification. He pointed his eyes forward as he turned onto their street. “Well, remember… in this day and age… if you’re going to play the game you’ve got to suit up. There’s more at stake than just an unwanted pregnancy.”

“I’ve got it covered.”

His eyes flew to Trey. “Yeah?”

Trey smirked. “Yeah.”

Oh thank God. “All right then.” He pulled into the driveway and killed the engine. Pushed the button to open the garage. “And you’re wrong about your mom. She’s a pretty amazing lady.”

Trey stilled with his hand on the door pull. “You’re right. She is.” He looked like he might say something else as he met Jake at the front of the truck, but then halted. “Thanks for talking to me tonight, Jake. Sometimes I really miss my dad.”

Jake dropped an arm around his shoulder and headed toward the house. “Yeah kid, so do I.”

“So… looks like the Cardinals are gonna make the playoffs, huh?”

Jake padded into the kitchen in his socks and leaned against the counter. Allie lowered the knife she was using to chop tomatoes for salad. “Everything okay?”

Yeah, it really was. Her arms wrapped around him as he pulled her against him, burying his face in her sweet-smelling hair. “I think I grew up tonight.”

She nestled against him. The motion of her smile tickled his chest. “Care to tell me about it?”

He smiled into the soft silk floating around him. “Not this time, babe. But I
can
tell you, Trey is one great kid. You did a helluva job raising him.”

She lifted her face and beamed. “Thank you, sweetheart. I didn’t do it alone, you know.”

He pulled back and looked into her eyes. “No, everything else aside, Ben was a damn good dad.”

“He was, but I was talking about you. I couldn’t have made it through those first years alone without you. You’ve always been there for Trey. He looks up to you.”

She’d told him that many times over the years, but tonight it really hit home. “I never realized what a responsibility that was. It’s rather awe-inspiring.” And more than a little scary.

Grinning, she smacked her lips against his and patted his chest. “There’s nothing to be frightened of. You’re a natural.”

Dinnertime with his ready-made family was his favorite time of the day. After spending most of his adult life eating solitary meals, this interaction at the end of a good day was peacefully satisfying. Trey’s presence was an advantage he hadn’t foreseen. He would miss him as much as Allie did when he returned to school.

Seated at the dinner table, Trey’s phone buzzed and he glanced at the screen. Shooting a wretched look toward Jake he put the phone to his ear and left for the privacy of his room. Thirty minutes later the dishwasher was busy whirring and sloshing. Allie relaxed against him on the sofa, flipping through television stations.

She clicked off the television and tossed the remote onto the table. “This is silly. It’s the night before our wedding. There must be something better to do.”

He straightened when she stood. “You want to play cards? Maybe a little strip poker?” He easily dodged the throw pillow she threw at his head—a typical female response to his wolfish smile.

She rolled her eyes. “How about Monopoly?”

“Yeah. That’s what I meant to say.” He stood. Got the board game from the closet shelf. “I get to be the dog.”

She lifted a brow and followed him to the table. “You don’t say.”

Perusing the game board, Allie held the dice in her hand, cocking her fist to make her first roll when Trey ambled in and plopped onto an empty chair.

“Can I play too?”

“Of course. What piece do you want?” She lowered the dice to the table and passed him a stack of play money.

He grinned. “The wheelbarrow. I’ve gotten quite familiar with those lately.”

She placed his token on the board, picked up the dice again and rolled a six. She paid the bank and scooped up the card for her new property.

Jake raised the dice and rolled double fives. He slid into the
Just Visiting
space as Allie turned her attention to Trey. “So, are you going to tell us who you’ve been talking to on your phone?”

Trey’s eyes flew to him.

He shrugged. “I didn’t say anything.” He made his play and nudged the dice toward Trey.

Trey rolled then turned to Allie. “I had a girlfriend. Dylan.”

“Had?”

“Yeah. It’s over now.”

Looks like the kid made a decision. He arched his eyebrows, got Trey’s attention. “Everything okay?”

Trey smirked. “Sure. Just had to get my head on straight.”

She’d been watching him for nearly an hour already, afraid to touch for fear she’d wake him. She smiled and let her gaze follow the fluid motion of his bare chest as it lifted and fell in breaths as steady and sure as the man himself. Jake was every woman’s dream, tender and devoted, passionate and determined. And today he would become her husband. The idea coursed through her, lighting every dim corner of her soul.

From time to time he snorted, and the slow, even breaths were replaced with a snuffle and a sort of stuttering movement that interestingly enough caused his work-chiseled abs to ripple clear down his front.

Propped on an elbow, she hadn’t taken her eyes from him for nearly an hour now, just to see it happen again.

She’d never before had an opportunity to explore him fully as he slept. Temptation finally won and she let her free hand wander. His firm skin was sleep-warmed under her meandering fingers as she mapped the smooth ridge of his collar bone. Starting at his near shoulder, she worked her way across the hollow of his throat, stretching to reach his far side. She smiled as a lone finger traced the misshapen angle of the bone there. He’d broken it in high school. A hood slide gone bad, if she remembered the story correctly.

He snuffled again, his breath catching before smoothing out again, a rolling wave of muscle fading into the covers. Remarkable. Raising to her knees she hovered over him and captured his wide jaw in her hands. Captivated, she studied her movements as the pads of her thumbs smoothed the softness of the cultivated stubble masking the lower portion of his face. The same smooth rasp he brushed across her sensitive skin until she exploded in ecstasy. A shiver of anticipation chased up her spine.

Following instinct, she used the tips of her fingers to outline his full, sensuous lips. They parted at her touch and his tongue peeked through the gap. Her face warmed. Jake was amazingly adept at causing her to moan—both shamelessly and with great regularity—using only that tongue.

Lifting her hands, she followed the slope of his nose and then let the range of her exploration widen until the blades of his cheek bones were hidden beneath her fingertips. His eyelids fluttered and she stilled. The etched corners of his eyes creased as his face scrunched, and then smoothed out as he yawned and his ebony eyes opened fully.

He yawned again. “Good morning.” Every muscle in his arms bunched and then lengthened as he stretched.
Fascinating.