Chapter Sixteen
“I can’t let you go. Don’t you see?” Naomi fought for control, her eyes filling with tears as she reached down into the deepest, truest part of herself.
This was it. If she couldn’t find the right words now, she sensed she wouldn’t get another chance.
“I’ve lived the American dream, Jake,” she said, praying he was listening, really listening. “I’ve been famous and travelled the world and made more money than God, but I would give it all up in a heartbeat for what we have together. There’s only one dream that means anything to me, now. You. You are my dream, and to share the rest of my life with you is all I want in the whole world.”
She swallowed hard and pushed on. “I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone or anything, including myself. I would do anything to make you happy, and I know you feel the same way.” Naomi stood tall, screwing her courage to the sticking point. “So if you let what we’ve been lucky enough to find again slip through your fingers… If you cut me out of your life and walk away without fighting for us…”
She took a deep breath, ignoring the tears slipping down her cheeks. “Well, then you’re the coward, Jake, and every bit as rigid and breakable as Jamison and I thought you were.”
Jake stared down at her, his expression so impassive that only the fact that he hadn’t left gave her the strength to keep trying.
“Please,” she whispered, hoping he could see how much she loved him, how she would do anything to make this right. “I don’t want to go back to a life without you. Let’s put the past behind us, once and for all, and hold on to this. To us.”
She pressed her lips together and curled her fingers into his arm. “I don’t want to wake up tomorrow morning without you next to me. I don’t want to wake up any morning for the rest of my life without you next to me.”
Jake broke their locked gazes with a ragged sigh.
For a heart-wrenching moment, Naomi thought she’d failed, that she’d pushed too far and he was going to walk away from her and never come back. But then, after several long seconds with no sound but the cold wind whipping through her hair and a lonely train whistle in the distance, Jake’s fingers loosened on her wrist.
“Do you hear a train?” he asked.
“I…I think so,” Naomi said, not sure how to take the abrupt change of subject. Before she could think of what to say next, Jake cursed beneath his breath and turned, breaking into a run.
Naomi started after him, but stopped when he circled back around the edge of the bridge, slipping in the loose dirt as he slid down the steep embankment and onto the tracks.
“What are you doing?” Naomi’s heart leapt into her throat as she spotted the long, dark shadow of the train approaching in the distance. “Get out of there, Jake! Get off the tracks! There’s a train coming. I can see it!”
“I will,” he called back. “But I have to find something first.”
“Forget it! Whatever it is, it isn’t worth it.” Naomi ran off the bridge, skidding in the gravel at the side of the road in her heels, almost falling before she regained her balance.
“Stay there,” Jake said, pointing a stern finger in her direction before turning back to scan the ground. “I’ll be fine. I just need a few minutes.”
“You don’t have a few minutes,” Naomi said, pulse racing as she watched Jake walk in maddeningly slow circles, his attention on the ground instead of the train approaching at full speed, now no more than a mile away.
Maybe less.
Naomi remembered how fast the trains came through here. Back when she and Jake were kids, that had been part of the fun—kicking your legs off the side of the bridge as the train approached, feeling the rush as it went from rapidly approaching to charging-past-beneath-your-feet in an instant.
Jake might not even realize how fast the thing was moving, but Naomi did. She could see it closing in, less than two minutes away from cutting down the man she loved. She saw it, and it set off an earthquake inside of her.
Adrenaline dumped into her bloodstream, banishing her awareness of the cold or the rocks digging into her bare feet as she kicked off her heels and went after Jake, determined to pick him up and carry him off the tracks if she had to. She felt strong enough to do it. Terror had lent her power and determination, and there was no way in hell she was going to stand by and watch Jake make a deadly mistake. There was no way she was going to lose him. Not now. Not like this.
As she stumbled onto the tracks, Jake turned to scowl in her direction. “What are you doing? I told you to stay—”
“I’m getting you off the tracks. Now!” Naomi cut Jake off, grabbing his arm and tugging him back toward the embankment.
“Damn it, Naomi,” Jake said, resisting her efforts. “I thought I saw it, and now you made me—”
“Come off the tracks!” Naomi screamed, panic making her voice shrill. “Now, Jake, please,” she said, hauling frantically on his arm, terror making her palms sweat and her fingers slip off the fabric of his tuxedo coat.
“Okay, okay,” Jake said gently, but loud enough to be heard over the approaching train vibrating the wood slats beneath their feet.
“Come on, I’ll help you up,” Jake said, following her off the tracks.
He boosted Naomi up the steep bank and climbed up after her. As soon as he was on solid ground beside the bridge, Naomi flung her arms around his neck with a sob of relief and held tight, burying her face in his coat.
“It’s all right,” Jake said, running warm hands up and down her back. “It’s okay, babe. I’m fine.”
“I thought you were going to die,” she said, sobbing harder, relief making the tears come faster. “I thought you were going to get run over.”
“I wasn’t. I was fine,” Jake said, with a soft laugh that made Naomi suddenly livid.
She pulled away from him, punching his chest with one tightly rolled fist. “Don’t laugh! It’s not funny! You were risking your life!”
“I wasn’t risking my life,” Jake said, motioning over his shoulder at the tracks. “We’ve been up here for over a minute and the train hasn’t even reached the last turn. I had plenty of time.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Naomi said, refusing to feel stupid. “There’s no good reason to go onto a train track when a train is coming. No matter how far away it is.”
“I don’t know,” Jake said. “An engagement ring I spent half my life savings on seems like a pretty good reason to me.”
Naomi’s jaw dropped. “Wha…what did you say?”
Jake ducked his head. “I was planning to propose tonight, but after I talked to Jamison I threw your ring onto the tracks.” He glanced up, eyes meeting hers with an intensity that took her breath away. “But now I’m thinking I’d like to have it back.”
“You would?” Naomi asked, smiling even as tears continued to stream down her face. “Does that mean you forgive me?”
Jake brushed the dampness from her cheeks with his thumbs before cupping her face in his hands. “It means I believe you. I believe you love me, and I love you like you’re a part of me. I don’t like the way I felt tonight, but I like the thought of losing you even less.”
“Me too,” Naomi said, sniffing. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, and I don’t ever want to find out.”
Jake’s fingers slid around to the back of her neck, threading into her hair. “And if love like that isn’t enough to get us through, then I don’t know what is.”
“Thank God.” Naomi’s lids slid closed with a sigh as the tension finally seeped from her shoulders.
“But I’m still angry,” he said, making her eyes fly open.
“You are?” she asked, brows knitting as she nodded. “I mean, of course you are. You have every right to be. But as long as you’ll give me a chance to make it up to you, I know I—”
“You can make it up to me right now,” Jake said, raising his voice to be heard over the train, which was now so close Naomi could smell diesel in the air. “All you have to do is say yes.”
Naomi shook her head. “What?” she shouted as the train rushed beneath the bridge, sending a gust of warm air up the side of the embankment, making Jake’s tuxedo coat fly up in the back as he sank down on one knee.
Naomi’s lips parted, but her sound of surprise was swallowed by the roar of the wheels.
“Will you marry me, Naomi Whitehouse?” Jake shouted, taking her hand in both of his. “You drive me crazy sometimes, but I’d rather be crazy with you for the rest of my life, than spend another day without you.”
Naomi nodded, fresh tears filling her eyes as she leaned down to hug him and press a giddy kiss to his cheek. “Yes!” she shouted before kissing him again. “Yes, yes, yes!”
She clung to him as he stood, drawing her up his body until her feet dangled, wrapping her so tightly in his arms that she knew this time he would never let her go. He held her close as the train rushed by and was still holding her when the chug of the wheels had faded to a distant rhythm and the smell of metal and diesel had been replaced by the sharp winter scent of rotted leaves and frozen earth.
“Think there’s any chance in hell I’ll be able to find that ring box now?” he finally asked, making Naomi laugh.
She pulled back to look into his face, relieved to see his eyes shining with love.
“I seriously doubt it, but we could spend a few hours looking,” she said, letting her fingers play up and down his lapel. “Or…we could head home, and be naked in your bed in twenty minutes. I certainly know which I’d prefer.”
Jake made a low, rumbling sound that sent tingles shivering up Naomi’s spine. “Tempting, but I wasn’t kidding about that ring costing half my life savings.”
“And I wasn’t kidding about having more money than God,” Naomi said, with a grin. “And what good is that money if we don’t use it? Not to mention that I’m freezing to death out here with no coat on and will probably catch pneumonia and die if you don’t take me home and make love to me right now.”
Jake smiled as he set her on her feet. “Pneumonia is pretty serious,” he said, kissing her neck as his hands slid lower, cupping her bottom in his hands.
“It is,” Naomi said, breath coming faster as Jake’s hands urged her hips closer to his. “So let’s get out of here. I’ll follow you back to the ball, we’ll drop off Jamison’s car, and be at your place ten minutes later.”
Jake pulled away with a curse. “I hit him. I popped Jamison one right on the mouth.”
Naomi’s nose wrinkled. “Yeah, I saw that.”
“I should go into the ball and apologize,” Jake said, running a hand through his hair.
“As long as it’s a quick apology,” Naomi said, taking his free hand in hers and starting toward the car.
“But I’ve never hit him like that,” Jake said. “Not even when we were kids. He’s got to be pissed.”
“I don’t think so,” Naomi said, turning to him as they reached the car. “Honestly, I think he’ll just be glad to have this all behind us.”
Jake nodded, glancing down at the ground before meeting her eyes in the cool, blue moonlight. “Thank you,” he said softly. “For coming after me.”
“Thank you for hearing me out,” she said, brushing his hair from his forehead, so grateful that she was still free to touch him that she couldn’t seem to stop. “And for letting me in.”
“I didn’t have much choice,” he said, wrapping his arm around her waist. “Like I said, I’m crazy about you and… Well, once you started talking about your reasons for keeping quiet, I realized I’d kind of been doing the same thing.”
“How so?” Naomi asked, cocking her head to one side.
“Mick let it slip at the holiday party that you’d lost your baby,” Jake said, hugging her closer. “But I pretended not to know because I didn’t want to hurt you, or push you to share something so private before you were ready.”
Naomi nodded. “I understand,” she said, then added in a relieved voice. “I’m just glad something I said made sense to you.”
Jake smiled. “You make a lot of sense, Whitehouse.”
“Not for long,” she said, leaning into him with a happy sigh.
Jake laughed. “Giving up cookies and making sense for the New Year?”
“No, I’m giving up Whitehouse.” She hooked her wrists behind his neck. “I’m planning to become a Hansen as soon as possible.”
“As soon as we can get a ring and book a preacher,” he said, and then he kissed her, banishing her awareness of the cold, eliminating every last shadow of doubt.
Jake Hansen kissed her like a man who knew who he was and where he was going, like a man who worked hard and loved harder, who believed in second chances and forever, and who would never let the woman he held in his arms slip away.
Naomi closed her eyes and opened her heart and kissed him right back, every doubt melting in the warmth of Jake’s love, her homecoming now feeling absolutely complete.
As long as she was with Jake, she would be home, for now and always.
****
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Other sexy, contemporary romances by Jessie Evans
The Summerville Novels
Always a Bridesmaid Series
(Always a Bridesmaid Book One)
(Always a Bridesmaid Book Two)
(Always a Bridesmaid Book Three)
(Always a Bridesmaid Four-Short Story)
(Always a Bridesmaid Five-Novella/Short Novel)
Fire and Icing Series
(Fire and Icing Book One)
(Fire and Icing Book Two)
(Fire and Icing Book Three)
(Fire and Icing Book Four-Short Story)
(Fire and Icing Book Five-Novella/Short Novel)
Cupid Island Novellas (Short Novels)
(Cupid Island Two)
by Jessie Evans, Lila Ashe, and Ruby Laska
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…or keep reading to enjoy an excerpt from HOT FOR YOU, Book Two in the Fire and Icing Series.