“So, is this how it’s going to be? We meet up at weddings and funerals?” Jake realized how stupid and insensitive that sounded and quickly backpedaled. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that. I’m sorry to hear about your sister and brother-in-law. I’m not really good at funerals, so just pretend I led with my sympathies.”

It wasn’t technically the funeral yet, just the visitation. Jake had watched the news a few days before and saw the pictures of the couple killed when a semi lost control on 95. He’d immediately recognized Kelly’s sister, and just to be sure he wasn’t hallucinating, he’d read the obituary in the paper a day later.

It was stupid on his part to show up. He felt out of place but had seen both Curtis and Brady with their wives in the line to speak to Kelly before him. He’d wanted to say something about being there for anything Kelly needed, but instead, vomit soup spilled out of his mouth, and he looked like an even bigger idiot.

Hannah had given him a little glare after she’d noticed him, but he brushed it off. Jake had been sure he’d never see his mystery woman again. He didn’t like the fact that it took a death to find her, but he jumped at the opportunity. Standing in front of her, he braced for whatever reaction she had. Part of him said he would get slapped. He’d probably deserve it for being presumptuous.

He was a little surprised to see that her eyes were more black than silver, as her pupils filled almost the entire space. The whites were red, and her eyes were puffy, no doubt from crying. He did his best not to rake his gaze over her body, and how the black dress she wore clung to it. Someone had died, and he was checking out the grieving party. There was something majorly wrong with that. He knew that and tried to keep his mind focused on the task at hand.

He took a deep breath, trying to get a hold of himself. It wasn’t like he had plans of hooking up with Kelly, but if he let his mind wander, like it had a few times since the day they met, he could easily picture his pants getting tight. A visitation wasn’t the place for that, and he felt like an ass for letting his mind wander in that direction.

“You really need to work on your sense of humor, Jake.”

There was a slight tenseness in her voice, but no anger. She reached over and tucked his hair behind his ear. Her hand lingered on his neck, causing his body temperature to elevate. He hadn’t really thought about how she’d react to him showing up, but he certainly didn’t consider caressing being in play.

“You may be surprised to hear that you aren’t the first to say that.”

He smiled, trying to relieve some of the tension he felt showing up to total strangers’ visitations. Everyone else in the room probably had memories of the deceased, while all he had was a sliver of a connection to the grieving woman in front of him.

“I bet,” she said as her tongue slipped out of her mouth, and she licked her lips. “Why don’t you stick around after the visitation? We can finish that conversation we had the other day.”

Her tongue again made an appearance in a slow trip around her lips. Something seemed off. He didn’t know Kelly well enough to say for sure, but as her hand ran down his chest before returning to her side, he got the feeling something was wrong. Obviously, the woman’s sister was in a coffin about ten feet away from them, so something was definitely wrong, but the minimal actions he’d seen didn’t coincide with someone at a visitation.

She’d been hesitant to touch him at the reception, but had no problem reaching over to grab his hand. Squeezing tightly, as if to will him to say yes.

Jake had come towards the end of the two hours listed for the visitation, so there weren’t a ton of people left. He wasn’t sure what was going on with Kelly, but he had no problem sticking around to make sure she was okay.

“Sure. I’m going to go over and say hey to Curtis and Brady.”

He looked over his shoulder to verify the guys were still around. It took him a second, but he found them up front by the caskets. Nina was talking to a group that had gathered around her. Jake had forgotten that she was a relative as well, and he should probably say his condolences.

“Great. Don’t go too far. I’ve got my eye on you.”

Jake scrunched his face slightly as he heard the flirty tones in her voice. It was rude to ask if she was drunk, so he just smiled and pulled away to make his way over to his teammates.

Curtis and Hannah were on the outskirts of the circle around Brady and Nina, so he settled with asking them if they had any idea what was going on. Hannah still didn’t look happy to see him there, but he figured she’d get over it.

“You guys notice anything up with Kelly? She was friendlier than I thought she’d be.”

His words didn’t cut the daggers coming out of Hannah’s eyes. He’d heard rumors she used to be shy, but evidently living with Curtis had done something to break her shell open. In the moment, Jake was wishing she wasn’t as generous with letting her feelings echo in her eyes.

“She’s high,” Curtis whispered as he leaned towards Jake.

Jake looked back over to Kelly and thought about the idea. He’d thought she was drunk, but drugs could explain the behavior. When he’d been around people on drugs, they were a bit calmer, and their eyes had pinpricks instead of saucers.

“Really?”

The one word was stupid, but he was trying to rationalize a different reason for her behavior. It wasn’t like she was swinging from the chandelier or anything, but compared to what he’d seen at the reception, she might as well have been.

“Yeah. Nina says there’s a history from back when she modeled. She did a couple stints in rehab and supposedly has been clean for years but fell back into the habit when she heard about Kirsten.”

There were many things in the statement that popped up questions, but Jake stuck to the first one that fired. He’d thought of her body as modelesque. He hadn’t considered she’d actually been a model.

“She’s a model.”

Hannah reached around Curtis and pushed on Jake’s shoulder. His voice was a little louder than their conversation warranted, but he thought the action was more for the fact he couldn’t take his eyes off the woman they were talking about. She smiled and laughed at something someone said. Judging from the look on the other person’s face, nothing funny had been said.

“She was one, about four years ago or so. Nina’s shared plenty of information since we all noticed the change in behavior, but she didn’t mention why Kelly left the industry.”

Curtis relayed the information. Jake wondered if Hannah knew more, since she’d probably spent more time with Kelly during the bridesmaids’ duties throughout the week. Jake had heard Nina kept the women close and busy.

“What are you doing here, Jake?” Hannah asked, quickly clearing any idea Jake had of asking for more information.

She didn’t sound totally pissed at him, but there seemed to be some disappointment in her voice. Jake wasn’t sure why that bothered him. With Curtis as the team captain, Hannah sort of took on the role as team mother. Jake hadn’t spent enough time with the team as a whole, but he felt the dynamic.

“Same thing you’re doing,” Jake replied, taking his eyes away from Kelly to look over at Hannah.

The redhead shook her head and rolled her eyes. She made it seem like Jake showed up expecting to get laid or something. That was the furthest thing from his mind. Although, he had noticed that the boyfriend didn’t seem to be around. He expected to show up to see a guy plastered to Kelly’s side. Unless the guy was taking a long piss, he wasn’t there.

“My best friend’s cousin is in that casket behind us. If you were here to support your teammate’s wife, that would be one thing. You’re not, though. You’re here to support a woman you’ve spoken to for five minutes.”

Jake thought about correcting her and saying it was more like fifteen minutes, but the fire in Hannah’s green eyes told him it was best he kept his mouth shut. She was right. It had been stupid for him to think showing up at the funeral was the right move.

He couldn’t get Kelly out of his head, though. He’d considered asking Brady to see if he could get some contact information from Nina, but the couple was supposed to be on their honeymoon, so he hadn’t gotten to that point. He knew there wasn’t a chance for anything with Kelly living halfway across the country, but he wasn’t over the way she just disappeared without giving him a chance to get to know her.

Women didn’t do that around Jake. They cooed and purred out answers to every question he had. If nothing else, it was refreshing to find a woman who didn’t.

“From what I’ve seen, that woman needs all the support she can get. If she’s high because of her grief, it’s clear she’s not getting it.”

The words were a little harsh, but Jake challenged Hannah with a glare to contradict them. Curtis clearing his voice between them stopped a standoff that presented itself.

Jake didn’t know why he was being so defensive about his actions. He didn’t like Hannah’s clear accusation that he was only there because he wanted to get in Kelly’s pants.

“Jake’s right about Kelly needing support right now.”

Jake was happy to hear someone back him up, but Curtis’ next words set him down a peg. He should’ve known he’d side with his wife.

“I don’t think the support should come from you. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with your motives, but she’s in a fragile place, and a new guy thrown into the picture won’t help her.”

Sighing, Jake ran his fingers through his hair. Curtis was probably right, though, Jake wasn’t sure a change in relationships wouldn’t help things. The dumb fuck she was with wasn’t there, so he obviously wasn’t helping the situation.

“Fine. I’ll go. Since she asked me to stick around, I trust I can count on you two to explain the reason I had to take off.”

He wasn’t sure he trusted Hannah, given the triumphant smile that spread across her face. It wasn’t like she won an award or anything. Jake was drawn to Kelly for some reason, but not enough to cause a rift between himself and his teammates.

“We’ll tell her someone called and needed you to come take care of something,” Curtis said.

It was a mundane excuse, which made it completely believable. He shrugged in acceptance. His eyes drifted back to the woman he was even more worried about than when he’d first met her.

Her sexy body had a lot to do with the attraction, but he kept going back to the lost look in her eyes. It hadn’t been there when he offered his condolences, but the fact that it wasn’t because she’d taken something only seemed to make it worse.

He shook his head. It wasn’t like him to seek out women who seemed in desperate need of help, not that she was necessarily that. If she’d been a model, she surely had plenty of people who wanted to be there for her. They probably didn’t have the best motives, but maybe they were what she needed to get through the grief.

“I’ll see you at the gym tomorrow?”

Jake tried to brush off the morose feeling running through him as he asked Curtis the question. If he wasn’t sticking around the visitation, Jake was heading to the gym. He figured it would be empty, so he could take his frustrations out on a treadmill instead of falling into a bottle of something.

Curtis smiled and nodded. “I’ll be there bright and early. Try not to overdo it today.”

The man clapped his hand on Jake’s shoulder and gave him a knowing smile. Between Curtis and Hannah, the two of them seemed to be mind readers, which gave Jake the willies. He didn’t like the idea that he was that easy to read.

He took off before they could say anything else creepy and only gave Kelly one last parting glance. He wished there was something he could do for her, but his friends – he supposed they could be called that – were right. He didn’t know her and had no idea what she was going through. He’d lost friends over the years, but never a sibling.

There was a light mist coming down outside when he exited the funeral home. He stood there, just outside the door, for a few moments with his head tilted up to let the water hit his face. It was cool, helping to ease the headache threatening to make itself an issue.

Jake pulled his keys out of his pocket and hit the button to unlock his car on the other side of the parking lot. Coming late had limited how close he could get to the door, which wasn’t an issue, since he wasn’t sure he should be there in the first place. That was probably why it was so easy to let Curtis and Hannah talk him out of sticking around.

He didn’t belong there. At least eighty percent of his reasons for talking himself into coming boiled down to wanting to see Kelly again. That wasn’t a good enough reason to follow through, but he’d convinced himself it was a good idea.

Slouching down into his seat, Jake hit his hands on the steering wheel. He quickly apologized to the sports car for the abuse and stroked the steering wheel. It wasn’t her fault her owner was an idiot. He’d just bought her after the trade, so he was still getting used to the new car smell and zero-to-sixty in five seconds.

He put the key into the ignition and turned it to hear the engine purr to life. It was closer to a growl, but either way, it made Jake pet the steering wheel again. He wasn’t usually a car guy, but it was taking his mind off other things to pretend he was for a few seconds.

A draft of cool air flowed through the car as the passenger door opened, startling Jake. He looked over and was surprised to see Kelly climbing in. He opened his mouth a couple of times to say something but wasn’t sure what to say.

He’d just been admonished for thinking he could help the woman. There was no scenario playing out in his head at the time that included her letting herself in his car. And there definitely wasn’t an idea about her reaching over and grabbing the lapels on both sides of his jacket and pulling him in for a wet kiss he was too shocked to avoid.