Chapter Twenty-Six

The sun began setting as Jewell walked by Blake’s side, her hand in his, sounds from his old neighborhood their background music.

“I have a lot of fond memories from living in this neighborhood,” he told her, seeming far more mellow than ever before.

“Yes, growing up with good people can do that. Before my mother died, she was my best friend. I don’t understand how people can so easily dismiss their parents these days.”

She instantly wanted to take the words back after she said them and his fingers tensed while holding her hand. Before she could apologize, he spoke again.

“Not all parents deserve honor or respect,” he said. “And not all parents are those who gave you their DNA.”

“Do you consider Bill and Vivian Berkshire as replacement parents?” she asked as they stopped in front of the home Bill still occupied, though it didn’t appear as if she and Blake were going inside.

“No. Bill was best friends with my grandpa, so they were far more like grandparents to us, but they had all of our respect. It hurt when Vivian died. And there’s nothing we wouldn’t do for Bill today. If he’d let us. The man is stubborn as hell,” Blake said with a rare laugh.

“That’s a bit of the pot calling the kettle black, don’t you think?”

“Yes, I know it. But there’s stubborn and then there’s stubborn,” he said with a roll of the eyes.

“If it makes you feel better, I’ll let you think Bill’s more stubborn than you,” she told him.

Then they were moving forward. She was a little disappointed not to stop in and see Bill, but she wasn’t sure what Blake had planned for the night. He’d parked at the coffee shop around the corner and they’d been walking through his old stomping grounds since. It was actually pretty dang close to perfect, if she were to be honest with herself.

“What made growing up here so special?” she asked as the two of them approached an empty playground.

“I don’t know. Maybe it was the normality of living here. Tyler broke his arm over there on that baseball field when he was five, and Byron and I got into a fight with a couple older kids over a girl Byron had kissed behind those bleachers,” he said, pointing to a set of bleachers that appeared to be in pretty great shape.

“Who won?” she asked as they approached a swing set.

“I would love to say us, but we got our asses kicked,” he told her as he got behind a swing and motioned for her to sit down.

“What are we doing here?” she asked, looking pointedly at the swing, but not quite trusting him enough to sit.

“I’m giving you a date,” he told her.

Her eyebrows rose. “This is a date?”

“Yep.” He patted the seat of the swing.

“Whose idea was it?” she asked, but found herself moving forward and sitting down.

He gripped the sides of the swing, and she felt herself being pulled backward before he released her. Her legs automatically went out and then tucked in as she returned back toward him.

The feel of his hands against her lower back as he pushed her and she flew forward again sent a surge of awareness through her.

“I’m not divulging my secrets,” he told her.

And then, miracle of all miracles, Jewell found herself relaxing as she went higher and higher with each push Blake gave her. Soon, she was giggling like a young girl on a playground — which was exactly the way she felt.

After several minutes, he stopped pushing her, and Jewell came to a stop in front of him. Turning, she could barely see him under the dim lights, but she couldn’t miss the smile on his face.

“I can’t remember the last time I’ve had so much fun,” she said.

“Then the date’s a success so far,” he told her before he sat came around the front of her, and pulled her from the swing and straight into his arms.

“The date’s most certainly a success,” she replied breathlessly.

Bending down, he ran his lips gently across hers before drawing back.

“I want you right now,” he said in a growl that sat low in her stomach.

“I always want you, Blake.”

If only she could see his eyes better, but the final rays of light from the sun faded and the lighting around the playground was inefficient at best.

“Come on,” he told her.

But he didn’t drag her off to the nearest cave and have his wicked way with her. They filled the next half hour with their laughter as the two of them moved through the growing shadows of the park, swinging across the monkey bars, trying out the teeter-totter, and even taking a turn on the merry-go-round. Blake nearly flew off it when he put out his leg to spin them around faster.

“I might have to have one of these installed in the backyard. I see definite possibilities with it,” Blake told her when the spinning stopped and she lay back on it. He leaned over her, and her laughter died as passion quickly took its place.

“Hmm, we might be a little old for playground equipment,” she told him, but there were a few of her own ideas popping up in her mind.

“We’re only as old as we allow ourselves to be, Jewell.”

She didn’t get a chance to reply, because then he was covering her mouth, and this time the kiss wasn’t nearly as gentle, and with the hardness of his desire pressed against her core, she began to think seriously about adult playtime.

Minutes passed and Jewell was ready for Blake to take her right there on the playground when they heard voices closing in on them.

Blake lifted his head and groaned in frustration. Then he sat straight up and pulled her up beside him.

“Let’s go home.”

And then they were flying away from the park. Still, they didn’t make it home for quite a while. They made it only as far as the shed behind Bill’s house.

And Jewell still couldn’t get enough of Blake’s touch – she knew she never would.