Chapter Twenty
Summer
Talk about a restless night.
After Jake passed out, I’d lain there for hours thinking about what we’d just done. How amazing it was. How amazing he was. How amazing his body was. I was in a full-body blush again just remembering the feel of his skin and the rounded curve of his muscles as they melted perfectly into one another. And his penis… it was truly a behemoth, a monster. I had to imagine it was the biggest one within a fifty-mile radius. Shit, maybe even a hundred.
I glanced out the window from where I stood in Rue’s kitchen. Jake had left before I’d even woken up. He’d given me a kiss on the forehead even though he thought I was asleep and then he’d headed out on Breezy, probably to check on the cows.
And now, the sun was easing its way up the backside of the mountain but the rain was still falling and a thick coating of clouds was covering everything. If the guys thought this storm was going to blow over during the night, they’d been mistaken. And unless Brady had made some sort of miraculous recovery during the night, he wasn’t going to be in any shape to go out.
“This rain just won’t let up,” Rue said as she turned to face me with a sigh.
Just then the back door opened and Jake trudged in, looking disheveled, wet and disappointed. “I couldn’t get them rounded up on my own,” he announced, his voice frustrated.
“Of course you couldn’t!” Rue responded as she threw her hands in the air and reached for a mug, pouring him a cup of coffee. “And what in the world made you think you could?”
“Thought it was worth a shot,” he answered as he accepted the cup with a nod of thanks.
“I could help you,” I suggested with a hesitant smile. My cowhand talents weren’t exactly stellar, so I wasn’t even sure if Jake wanted me to help, or if I’d just be a nuisance. But I wanted to offer all the same.
“Hmm,” he answered as he took a sip of his coffee. His response wasn’t exactly encouraging. But at the thought of having to keep five kids entertained inside again, I really wanted to help him with the cows. I exhaled and wrapped my fingers around the doorknob, steeling myself for whatever I was going to face that day. As nervous as I was about working the cows, I was feeling more than a little trepidation about being stuck inside with everyone all day long.
Or at least one of them.
Yes, Jake was definitely making me nervous because I couldn’t read him at all. I had no idea what he thought of last night—did he regret it, was he angry that I hadn’t told him I was a virgin? Was he worried I was going to get too attached to him? Did he wish it hadn’t happened? Did I regret it? I wasn’t sure yet. I figured a lot of that depended on him.
My fingers tingled and I clenched them into my palms as visions of the night before rattled around my head and made it hard to concentrate.
Rue cleared her throat and I glanced over at her, surprised to find her looking at me with her eyebrows drawn. “Well?” she asked.
“Well, what?” I answered, flushing because I’d been so invested in my own thoughts that I’d totally missed whatever she’d just said to me. And that was in a word… embarrassing.
“I was saying that we should set the breakfast up in the main dining room so we can keep the noise to a minimum because Brady is trying to relax on the couch.”
“Oh, sure,” I answered.
“Why isn’t he relaxing in his room?” Jake asked, frowning at Rue.
“Because he says the bed isn’t comfortable,” Rue answered with a shrug. “You and I know the real reason is that he wants to be as involved with the goings on at this ranch as he can be and he’ll miss everything if he’s stuck up in his bedroom all day.”
“Exactly,” Jake answered with a smile. When he turned that beautiful smile to me, I immediately felt my cheeks heat and I turned around, trying to remember what Rue had tasked me with. Ah yes, setting the table in the dining room.
I hurried out of the kitchen and into the dining room, quickly rearranging the furniture so it would work for our family-style breakfast. I rummaged through the sideboard drawers and found a few serving dishes and set them out. There were two pretty glass candle holders with green pillar candles that caught my attention so I grabbed them and a handful of napkin rings. Just because we were eating in a ranch house didn’t mean we couldn’t fancy it up a bit.
If there was one thing I was good at, it was setting a table. Thanks to Daddy’s parties and Mother’s disinterest in party planning, I’d taken up the mantle of party-planner extraordinaire. And now I was putting that art form to use.
It would still be a half an hour before anyone woke up, so I took on the job with gusto, digging to the back of drawers and cabinets that looked like they hadn’t been touched or organized for years.
Even though there were a lot of us, the table was so big that none of us would be cramped. I hurried into the kitchen and quietly grabbed a stack of plates and silverware so I could better judge how to lay out my blank canvas. I avoided the everyday placemats. I liked the cute Navaho print and the vinyl made them easy to wipe off, but I wanted to go with something a little different. Something a little more formal.
I brought the plates and platters, silverware and silver-rimmed water goblets to the table and started setting them out. Everything I used was some shade of gray and white and silver, perfectly mimicking the thundering clouds outside. I opened the drapes wide and tied them back with silver cords I’d found in one of the sideboards. For a brief second, I worried that I was overstepping my bounds since we’d never eaten in this room before. But since Rue had told me to set us up in here, I figured I was free to set the table however I wanted to.
When I was all finished, I stepped back to admire my handiwork. I’d done a good job. I’d somehow managed to carve out a little bit of fluffy decadence in the middle of a storm cloud. The candles shone like lightning, and from the right angle, they were one big long stream of light streaking down the center of the table like a bolt from the dark windows beyond it.
I felt proud of what I’d put together. And that was an emotion I hadn’t encountered in years. It fit me like a sweater that had gone too many rounds in the dryer, but it still fit... barely... like if I kept wearing it, the threads would stretch enough that it would be an old, comfortable favorite again.
“Oh my!”
I spun around to find Marlene standing in the doorway.
“Good morning.” My voice trembled and I was surprised at how fast my pride deflated like she’d just stabbed it with a needle. I suddenly felt incredibly dumb for wasting so much time in here.
“It looks beautiful!” she said as she faced me with a wide smile. “Like something I’d see back home!”
“Thank you,” I answered, relieved to know she approved. Why, I wasn’t sure.
“Not that you would know this,” Marlene said as she wandered around the end of the table and visibly admired my handiwork, touching this and that, smiling and nodding in silent agreement with my choices. “But I’m an interior designer.”
“That must be a fun job?” I didn’t know what else to say.
“It has its moments.” She shrugged and continued to walk around the table, paying close attention to every single detail of my choices and arrangements. “You definitely have an eye.”
“Yes, she does,” Jake suddenly answered from behind us. I whirled around on my toes to see him admiring the table settings. “Wow, are you expecting the president for breakfast?” he asked me with a laugh. “Or did you do all this for me?”
“Ha ha, very funny,” I answered with a pretend frown. He just laughed at me, his chuckle deep and melodious. He was so close, I could almost feel the heat rolling off his body. I was still completely nervous about the night before and I worried that it was showing even now.
“I’ll go get the kids,” Marlene said over her shoulder as she walked out of the room, leaving me with Jake and my nerves.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he smiled down at me.
“Okay?” I repeated, my heart pounding.
“About last night,” he continued.
“Oh, that,” I answered, sounding like last night was the last thing on my mind which was about as far from the truth as it was possible to be. “Are you okay about it?” I turned the question over to him, feeling like I didn’t want to answer without first knowing how he felt about it. Yes, it was cowardly of me but when it came to men and relationship and sex, it wasn’t like I was seasoned so I was okay with acting cowardly.
Before he could respond, Rue came in with breakfast, Marlene and crew in tow, and the room was suddenly full of chattering and admiration over my table setting skills.