Sweet Southern Nights

“Do what?”

“Play football.” His voice was incredulous.

“Not really, but sure.”

Jake put the game on. A couple of announcers were discussing the OSU quarterback’s injury and how with one turn of an ankle, his college career was over.

Yeah, tell her about it. One innocent little misread and things could turn upside down fast.

About mid-beer, Jake looked over at her. “So you wanna talk about why you had to talk to my mom?”

“No.”

“Eva, this is ridiculous.”

“It’s not ridiculous. It’s none of your business.”

He actually looked miffed. Turning his attention back to the TV, he finished his beer and sat the empty bottle on the coffee table littered with health magazines and one copy of Parenting, which she’d snagged at the grocery store yesterday.

Charlie coming to live with her scared Eva silly. She knew nothing about living with a boy. Her half brother, Chris, had already been eight years old when she emerged on the scene, and since he lived with his mom, her father’s first wife, in Belle Chase, Eva rarely saw him. And by the time she could actually interact with Chris during his visits on random weekends, he was too busy for a snot-nosed girl. Not that Eva dealt with sinus issues or anything.

As a teen, she’d rarely babysat. And when her father had married his third wife, Claren, Eva had been in her twenties. The odd time they’d brought Charlie over to visit, she’d been at a loss for how to change a diaper or even how to entertain him. The only time her career put her into contact with kids was when she conducted a field trip tour of the fire station.

Mother material she was not.

She tucked her feet under her, careful not to touch any part of Jake’s naked leg. Unlike Jamison’s very put-together style, Jake wore athletic shorts, a T-shirt he’d cut the sleeves off, and his thick hair looked as if he’d raked his hands through it a million times that day. A five o’clock shadow finished off the gruff, sexy image. Polished wasn’t Jake’s vibe. Rumpled sex god was more like it.

“I guess I should go,” he said. Jake looked uncomfortable, something he never seemed to be. And it was her fault. She’d screwed up, and now she was acting as if things were different. If she wanted to erase the kiss and its repercussions, she had to go back to being herself.

“You don’t have to. The game’s nearly over, and I think Georgia plays South Carolina next. I could order pizza from Gumbeaux’s.”

See? Everything was normal. Just like always. They’d watch TV, share a pizza and never, ever talk about the kiss.

Ever.

“Sounds good but I don’t like this vibe between us. You’re acting weird after the ki—”

“Uh-uh. Don’t say it. Please. It never happened.”

But it did. She knew it. He knew it. But maybe—

“Fine. It didn’t happen. Erased.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. So pizza?”

“Yeah. Get extra olives on my half,” he said, toeing off his sneakers and propping his socked feet on her coffee table. As if he was her brother. As if he’d already forgotten.

Gotta love the single-mindedness of a dude.

Perfect.

“I know what you like.” Eva uncurled and padded toward the kitchen to grab her phone and the number for Gumbeaux’s. After ordering Jake’s extra hamburger, extra olives pizza, she slipped off to her room to change into a T-shirt and some shorts she’d made from an old pair of sweatpants. She even took out her contacts, washed her face and put on her glasses.

She returned to the living room and held out her hand.

Jake moved his head around to catch a play.

“Money.”

He looked up. “For...”

“Pizza. No freeloading.”

Jake reached for his wallet, pulling the pocket inside out and leaving it that way. Yeah, Jake wasn’t anything near Jamison French...other than being good-looking as the devil himself. He handed her a couple bills. “That’s too much,” she said, shoving a ten back at him.

“Keep it.”

“No, this isn’t a date. We go halfsies.”

“I’m drinking your beer. Keep it.”

Eva shrugged and tucked the money into her wallet, plopping onto the wing-backed chair far away from Jake. He watched the game until a commercial came on, and then he turned to her. He wrinkled his nose. “Why’d you change?”

“Because it’s just you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I don’t have to stay gussied up.”

“But you did for Jamison?”

He sounded almost jealous. Weird. “Of course. It was a date. Don’t you take a shower, brush your teeth and douse yourself in cologne when you go on a date?”

“I don’t douse myself.”

Eva laughed. “Well, I guess it’s better than smelling like gym socks.”

Jake faked outrage. “I hope you know my gym socks smell like a summer’s day.”

“Exactly. Ripe.”

A short while later the doorbell rang and Eva answered, taking the piping-hot pizzas and inhaling the deliciousness. Seconds later she grabbed paper plates and set the boxes on the coffee table, lifting the lids. Jake dug in, pulling out several pieces, dangling the stringy cheese into his mouth before taking the first bite.

“Ah, now that’s some good pizza,” he said, chewing and making an orgasmic face. Or at least that’s how she envisioned his orgasmic face. Yeah. She’d fantasized, in the small darkness of her room, snug beneath her down comforter, her mind going where she normally wouldn’t let it in the brightness of the day. “Come sit by me, Eva.”

He’d patted the couch next to him, offering her a nonwolfish smile.

“Why?” she asked, pulling out a slice of the classic pepperoni with extra cheese pizza that was her favorite.

“Because it’s stupid for you to sit in that uncomfortable chair over there. Your couch is squishy and comfy, and I won’t bite you...even after the event that shall not be named.”

Eva realized she was being silly. This was Jake. And even though he said he’d forgotten the kiss they’d shared...and even if he’d already brought it up as a shall not be named happening, she couldn’t see the TV all that well from the scratchy chair she’d inherited from her grandmother.

She got up and slumped down on the cushion next to him, chewing her pizza thoughtfully as the Notre Dame quarterback ran the ball into the end zone for a touchdown. “I don’t want to refer to that thing yesterday as anything. You said you’d forget it.”

For a few seconds Jake chewed. Finally, he said, “What if I don’t want to forget it?”

Eva’s belly flopped and it had nothing to do with the pizza. “Why wouldn’t you?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t expect it, but it was interesting.”

She sat her half-eaten pizza on the plate, rubbing her fingers against the paper towel she’d placed in her lap. “Interesting? No, it was insane. I don’t know why...ugh, you know, this is why I didn’t want to discuss it. Why I wanted to forget about it. Makes everything so weird between us.”

Jake tossed his empty plate on top of the pizza box. “Yes, it does, but still, I have questions that need answering.”

Eva sat up. “It was a dumb kiss. I don’t know why I did it. Just drop it.” Of course she knew why she’d kissed him. She’d dreamed about it for three years, yearning for his body against her, almost desperate to take one little taste of Jake.

But he didn’t have to know that.

“No,” he said, wiping his hands on a napkin.

“No?”

“See, thing is, that was a crappy kiss. How can I let you walk around thinking that subpar kiss was indicative of what I’m capable of? That would be...a travesty.” He reached over and dragged her into his lap, turning her so she tipped à la Scarlett O’Hara into his arms.

“Jake,” she said, struggling against him even as something way deep down inside her screamed “hell, yeah.”

His eyes held devilment, humor and something deeper. Almost tender. He lowered his head, rubbing his soft lips against hers. She immediately stilled at the sweetness, the hand she pushed at his chest turning to knot his T-shirt.

He lifted his head and crooked an eyebrow. “That comparable?”

Eva didn’t have words so she nodded.

“Not good enough,” he said, dipping his head again, settling his lips against hers with gentle but insistent pressure.

Open to me.

His tongue traced the top of her bottom lip as his free hand slid up to her face, thumb tracing her jaw. Eva let go of his T-shirt and moved her hand to wrap around his neck. She opened her mouth and Jake delivered, his tongue sliding against hers.

He tasted like pizza—warm, yeasty and so damn good. Desire unwound in her belly like a hose slipping from the fire engine, spiraling low in her pelvis. That sweet, achy throb pulsed as he shifted her in his arms, his kiss softening before becoming demanding. Finally, after several seconds of kissing the daylights out of her, he used his teeth to nip at her lower lip, tugging it before lifting his head.

Their eyes met, their breaths mingled.

Jake gave her a triumphant smile.

Then he tipped her up, setting her in her original spot. He grabbed his beer and took a swig, throwing an arm over the back of the couch. “There.”

Eva knew her eyes were as wide as the pepperoni pieces on the pizza slice she’d abandoned. “What the hell was that?”

Jake opened the box and set another two slices on his plate. “That was correcting what happened yesterday.”

Eva pulled the plate from his hands.

“Hey,” he said.

“You can’t just kiss me like that and then pretend it wasn’t anything more than blowing your nose.”

“It was way better than blowing my nose, babe.”

“Don’t call me babe. I’m not one of your bimbos. I’m not the sort of girl you can casually tip into your lap and maul, you arrogant, self-centered...ass.”

“Eva,” he said, holding up his hands in surrender. “Now, don’t go getting mad. It was merely payback. You kissed me. I kissed you. Now we’re even.”

“Even?” she repeated, her hands still shaking even as the desire shriveled up like the fern his sister had given her as a housewarming gift. “You are insane.”

Jake laughed. “Maybe so, but at least you won’t walk around town thinking I’m bad at kissing. I mean, if we’re gonna kiss, we might as well do it right. That’s all I was thinking.”

She pressed her hand against her lips and then slugged him.

“Ouch,” he said, ducking her next swing.

“Get out,” she said, feeling overly dramatic, but not caring enough to stop or calm herself.

Jake thought the kiss was no big deal. Of course he did. He went around having sex if the wind blew right—a kiss might as well be a handshake to him.

But it wasn’t to her. That kiss hadn’t been anything like the chaste, embarrassing thing she’d given him yesterday. No, that kiss had been toe-curling, panty-dropping, pure ecstasy, and it had awoken a hunger that hadn’t even poked its head out of its cage yesterday.

Full-on, body-quaking desire.

Absolute, bone-jarring lust.

Something she couldn’t hide with a man like Jake.

“I’m sorry,” he said, leaning away from her. “Stop making it something it’s not.”

“You stupid, big-headed idiot,” she said, pushing off the couch, standing over him.

“Come on, Eva. Calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down,” she growled.

“God, you’re acting like a normal woman.”

“I am a normal woman, you creep. You can’t do what you just did.”

“Why?” he asked, his eyes focused on her hands.

“Because.”

“Because?”

Eva backed away from him. “You and I both know why I’m pissed. Because you turned that into something. You...” She couldn’t say it.

A few seconds ticked by.

“I made you want me,” he finished, the teasing gone from his voice.

“Yes. Why did you do that? God, Jake.” Eva backed away, shoving her glasses up her nose, feeling as if she wanted to run to her room, slam the door and lock him out. Physically she could do that, but that would be childish...and he’d still be in her head anyway. She’d still taste him on her lips.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying... I don’t know why I did that. I’ve been feeling strange when I’m around you lately.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. You’re Eva. I shouldn’t feel uncomfortable around you. I shouldn’t notice your lips, the way your boobs look in a tight T-shirt. I shouldn’t think about...” He stopped, his face registering that he hadn’t meant to be so honest.

“What are you saying?”

“Nothing. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets and getting off the couch. “I’ll go.”

She watched him, not knowing what to do. Things had gotten out of control.

Jake set his hand on the doorknob, turning back to her. “I’ll see you Monday, right?”

Eva shook her head. “Dutch is covering for me. I have to go to New Orleans for family business.”

“Then tomorrow? Hilda’s birthday party?”

“Maybe.” She wasn’t sure if she was going. She had to go to Baton Rouge and get some things for Charlie so she could turn her girly guest bedroom into something a little boy would feel comfy in. Plus, the lady from CPS was coming over to do an inspection and meet her.

So much in her life was about to change, and to top it off, so had her relationship with Jake.

And that scared her because now he knew...somewhere deep down he had to know how she felt. It had been in her kiss.

“Don’t be mad at me, Eva. I didn’t know it would turn into that.”

And then Jake slipped out the door into the fading day.

Leaving her wanting...leaving her knowing that she could never be the same woman she’d been just days ago.

CHAPTER SIX

JAKE WALKED INTO his cousin Hilda’s house and nearly stepped on his sister, who looked to be hiding in the foyer’s coat closet.

“What the hell?” he whispered, righting himself against the door frame of the closet.

“Shh!” Abigail said, putting a finger to her lips. “Cal’s mother is in there—” she jabbed a finger toward the formal dining room Hilda rarely used “—telling Violet I was the one who made Cal leave in the first place.”

“What?”

“Shh!”

“But—” he started before Abigail cupped a hand over his mouth.

“I know, but I still want to hear the conversation since it’s about me.” Abigail cocked her left ear toward the dining room. Jake grew still and listened, too.

“Well, after working on the Laurel Woods Art Fest committee with her, my opinion has certainly changed,” someone said. Jake was almost certain it was Violet Joyner, the Magnolia Bend First Baptist Church’s pastor’s wife. Sounded like someone with a stick up her ass, and Violet always fit that description.

“What do you mean?” Minnie Orgeron, Abigail’s former mother-in-law, asked.

“Well, you’ll never believe how crassly Abigail behaved, running around with that hippie guy, acting positively like a heathen. Never would have thought it of the daughter of a minister, but you never know with people. Of course they are Presbyterian.”

Abigail’s eyes widened and she stifled a laugh.

Minnie sighed. “I agree, Violet. What a person sees on the surface is one thing, but the inside is quite another.”

Jake whispered, “Jeez, don’t they know heathens have more fun?”

“I thought that was blondes?” Abigail whispered back.

“Yeah—blond heathens have double the fun.”

“I know,” Abigail said, wiggling her eyebrows obviously because her new fiancé was very blond and quite possibly a heathen.

“Why are you letting those old hussies get away with talking bad about you?” he whispered, trying to peer out behind the door.

“Because I don’t give a rat’s ass,” Abigail said with a giggle. Then she stepped out of the closet and shut the door loudly before sashaying into the dining room.

“Oh, hello, ladies,” Abigail trilled. “Have either of you seen Hilda? My mama wants to cut the cake soon.”

Jake could almost feel the two old gossips’ guilt slink past him. Five seconds later the ladies themselves slunk past him, giving him a quick hello, before trotting off toward the back patio, where Hilda’s seventieth birthday party was in full swing. Of course, no one would mention that they’d been celebrating her seventieth birthday for the past three years.

Abigail sauntered by, slapping him on the butt and giving him a knowing grin. Jake laughed.

To think his once socially conscious, uptight sister got a thrill about being gossiped about made his heart warm. Yeah, Leif Lively and love had made Abigail a lot more pleasurable to be around.

“Hey, there, Jakey,” his father said, coming around the corner, holding a glass of fizzing, fussy punch. “Your mama’s been looking for you. She said something about Eva.”

His stomach fluttered. “Is Eva here?”

“No, she sent her apologies and a gift for Hilda. She already opened it. One of those kinky firefighter calendars. Eva sure has a strange sense of humor.”

And beautiful eyes. And soft lips. And breasts that would... Jake stopped right there. Because that’s where his thoughts had kept tripping for the past twenty hours. Okay, seven of those he’d been sleeping, but still. He was in trouble.

’Cause he’d upset the apple cart.

He’d lifted the rock and looked beneath to find the creepy crawlies.

He’d spun the chamber and pulled the trigger.

Too late now because every shade of gray muddled his thoughts. Yeah, no more black-and-white with him and Eva. And it was his own damn fault.

Or at least most of it was.

“Son?”

“Oh, sorry. My mind went somewhere it shouldn’t.”

His father frowned. “Everything okay? You haven’t been yourself these past couple of months.”

“Nah, I’m fine. Did Mom say where Eva is?”

“I think she had to go to Baton Rouge. No, maybe it was New Orleans.”

Jake didn’t know whether he was sorry Eva wasn’t there or relieved. He had to get his feelings under control, and as of 3:11 p.m., which was the current time reflected on Hilda’s antique clock, he’d failed to get a grasp on that damn kiss.

He had thought it would be funny to kiss Eva like he’d kissed almost half of the eligible female population in Magnolia Bend, but it had backfired and blew up in his face.

Because it hadn’t been amusing in the least.

On the contrary—the kiss had been hot.

And it had rocked him to his core, even though afterward he’d pretended it hadn’t.

Three years ago when Eva had strolled into the station with her no-nonsense braid and her chin jutted in determination, he’d drawn the line. Black-and-white. But now everything was gray. Like concrete. Slam-his-head-against-concrete gray. That should be a new Sherwin Williams paint color.

Hilda appeared at his elbow. “Hello, Jake, dear. Something to drink?”

Jake dutifully kissed her cheek. She smelled like Paris...the expensive part with the fancy perfumeries. “Happy seventieth, cuz.”

Hilda blinked and then smiled. “Yes, I can’t believe that many years have already passed. I feel positively twenty years younger.”

Dan barked out a laugh. “I hear seventy-five is the new twenty-five, right?”

Hilda sniffed. “As if I’d know.”

Jake looked over Hilda’s shoulder for his mother. He had no idea why Eva would be in either New Orleans or Baton Rouge. She was a homebody and hated the traffic that plagued both cities. Must have something to do with her brother Chris. Or maybe something else in her past? Worry wriggled into his gut. She’d been secretive over the past few days. Could have to do with her mother. Eva’s mom was in a constant state of fragile health paired with financial ruin. But why would Chris be involved? They shared a father, not a mother.

Maybe it was something to do with their father’s estate.

Or not.

“Now, Jake, since your brothers and sister have found love and marriage, it’s time to work on you,” Hilda said with a gleam in her eye.

“No, thank you,” Jake said, stepping away from Hilda’s long fingers as they grazed his forearm.

“Oh, don’t be silly. You’ve played around long enough. I’m very happy to help you out. After all, I practically gave your sister that delicious man on a silver platter.” She nodded toward Leif, who stood next to Abigail, absentmindedly rubbing the small of his sister’s back.

Dan could hardly hold in his laughter. He slapped Jake on the back and choked out “good luck” before slinking off toward the kitchen and the no doubt elegant cake bought at Swiss Confectionary in New Orleans. Jake’s father was known for his enormous sweet tooth. In fact, his mother always told people she’d landed the handsome new Presbyterian preacher after he’d tasted her caramel cake she’d baked for the Ladies’ Auxiliary fund-raiser.

“Now, let’s start with your clothing. You canter about town wearing sloppy T-shirts and gym shorts that should have seen the bottom of the rubbish pile years ago. I have some lovely catalogs I will loan you. Don’t worry, I’ll mark up the selections I think will suit you best. You’re a handsome man beneath all that scruffiness.”

Jake bristled. “I’m not scruffy.” He rubbed his recently shaved face.

“Darling, it’s not just about your hygiene, it’s the whole look.”

“I like my look. I don’t want to come across like—”

“Jamison French,” Hilda said, pointing toward the dapper man chatting with Shelby and John. Jamison wore a pair of pressed trousers and a long-sleeved shirt with a blue sweater vest. He looked like a rich prissy pants. “Now, that’s a man who knows how to play up his best assets.”

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