Page 80 of An Unexpected Turn
“I wouldn’t fight you.” I stood and wrapped my arms around his waist.
He cupped my cheek, shaking his head.
“You should have been here sooner.”
We’d only been together a couple of months, despite the instant attraction from that first day. But it seemed long enough to resent the simple things we hadn’t enjoyed yet.
“I’m here now, so I’m willing to make it count if you are.”
Jake and I might have been secret, but we were permanent. The certainty thrilled me as much as it frightened me.
He insisted on making breakfast, shooing me out of the kitchen until he was done. After we ate, I ambled around the living room, scanning the pictures along the wall. I recognized his sister, Kristina, as she beamed at the camera with a baby girl in her arms and an older child at her side. Mike’s school pictures lined half of the living room, his blue eyes almost translucent in each shot. I stilled when I recognized my uncle, standing next to Jake in a tuxedo.
“Mike hates that I still have his baby pictures up,” he noted behind me. He handed me a cup of coffee when I turned around.
“Where was this from?” I asked, pointing to Uncle Keith.
“Prom. My mother found it a long time ago. My father took it before we got into the limo, and he called us gangsters.”
“I don’t see any friends from high school, other than when they pop up on Facebook and wish me a happy birthday. I met Claudia in college, so I guess she’d be my oldest friend.”
“I met Keith when I was Mike’s age.” He folded his arms, still staring at the picture. “My mother and your grandmother used to joke that they shared custody of us since I was always at his house or he was at mine. I’ve basically known him my entire life,” he mused before letting out a long sigh.
Bringing up the familiar undercurrent of guilt between us was pointless. It was always right there, a given just as much as the combustible chemistry. We pushed past it, but we didn’t ignore it. We couldn’t. Uncle Keith was important to both of us.
Even if my greatest fear was realized and nothing was the same between me and the only father figure I’d ever known, we would still be family. He’d always be in my life, even if he decided to distance himself from me.
If Uncle Keith cut Jake off, even if Jake swore he would still choose me, regardless, it would break his heart. The closer we got to coming clean, the more I prayed it wouldn’t come to that.
I nodded and headed for the couch, snatching the blanket from where it was spread over the back and pulling it over my bare legs as I held my coffee mug.
“If I can’t put pants on, can I at least crawl under a blanket if I’m cold?” I scoffed.
“You can, if you let me crawl under with you,” Jake teased, grabbing my ankles and draping my legs over his lap as he settled next to me.
“I hate this for you. For both of you.” I rested my elbow along the back of the couch.
“I told you, I love your uncle like a brother, but I won’t give you up for anyone. I tried and I almost lost my mind.”
“I remember.” I nudged his thigh with my heel and set the mug on the side table. A moan rolled through me when he pressed his thumb into the ball of my foot. “Stop distracting me.”
“Like you haven’t been a huge distraction since the day we met. Well, since the day we met again.” He grabbed my other foot and held them both in his lap. “I believe that it may be bad at first, but he’ll come around. Can we not think about that this weekend? Be us? The world is out there in the snow. All that matters until Sunday night is this.”
I yelped when he grabbed my thighs and planted me on his lap.
“Okay, I can do that. Try to, anyway.” I cupped his chin, scratching my nails along his extra day of stubble. “I can get into this, the rugged mountain man keeping me captive and pantsless.”
“Same here,” he whispered, brushing my lips before bringing me to his chest.
“I didn’t go to my prom. A bunch of us were single and didn’t want to feel pressured to get a date, so we took a limo into the city instead. I always wondered what I missed out on.”
“Not much.”
I rolled my eyes.
“You’re a guy, of course you think not much. We had fun, I guess, came home drunk as hell thanks to our friend’s twenty-one-year-old sister who was supposed to ‘watch us.’” I held my fingers up in air quotes. “I think the dress and monkey suit are rites of passage. But I get to go to the Kelly Lakes prom.”
“See? Never too late to make a dream come true.”
