Page 51 of The Billionaire Land Baron

Chapter 12

Shelby didn’t have words for Jake on the ride home. What could she say? She hadn’t meant to kiss him in the pool. It started from a place of desperation and jealousy, but moved into something else. She could still feel the way his lips moved against hers. Everything about that brief minute or two seemed like something heavier than a kiss. The way her body woke at his touch felt new, but it was deeper than chemistry. The draw she had toward him now felt like a tie between them, like their kisses somehow made a larger, unspoken commitment.

But now, headed back to her house in Matt’s Jeep with Jake at the wheel, she felt shy and unsure of anything at all. Had Jake felt the same way? He hadn’t said a word. She didn’t know if it was because he was upset or because he was shy or because he didn’t really feel the same way and didn’t want to humiliate her.

Then there were the questions she had about the rest of the evening: why had Jake been shaking hands with Mayor McClure?

Jake’s phone rang and he answered without looking at the screen. There was no way to not listen to a side of a conversation while you were trapped in a car with them, but Shelby at least tried to look disinterested, staring out the window. What she was really doing was trying to piece together the conversation.

“Yep. Fine. No, I’m not.”

She could see his reflection in the window, lit up by his cell phone as he glanced over at her. He listened for another minute or so. The voice on the other end sounded agitated but Shelby couldn’t make out the words.

“He said that? I didn’t think that it should be dependent on that or I wouldn’t have—yeah, I know you wouldn’t either. Is he mad? Did that change things?”

Jake made an angry sound in his throat. “No one should be using their daughter to—yeah.”

Daughter? He had to be speaking about Daisy and her father. She didn’t know much about Jake and his work, but hated the idea of anything that would require working with McClure. He was so slimy and seemed nothing like Jake.

Jake continued on. “Okay. I’m definitely not, but you can talk to him. I’m sorry. Yeah, I’m on my way back. It’s already there? Shouldn’t be a problem. Yep. Later.”

He threw the phone down in the console and ran a hand through his hair. Shelby leaned her back against the door and turned to Jake.

“Everything okay?”

Jake blew out a breath. “Work stuff.”

“Yeah. I got that part. What is McClure using Daisy for, exactly, that has to do with you and your work stuff? You never explained what it is you do.”

His head shot towards here, then back to the road and he took a moment to answer.

“Shelby, I…” He glanced at her, longer this time, and she was surprised at the emotion in his face before he turned back to the wheel. “I can’t talk much about my work. It’s delicate and has to be kind of under wraps right now.”

“Are you a spy?” Jake laughed then and the sound and weight of it filled the car, lifting the tension that had been there. She giggled. “It’s a valid question,” she said. “You’re being very mysterious.”

“I’m hardly smooth enough to pull off a career like that, if you hadn’t noticed.”

“Oh, I think you’re quite smooth,” she said. “A regular James Bond.”

Shaking his head, he said, “Not even close. Not with the spy stuff, and definitely not with the ladies.”

“I have trouble believing that,” Shelby said. She watched for the blush she knew would hit his cheeks and smiled when it did. “You sell yourself short, Jake. That’s something you should stop.”

She loved the grin that took over his face. Loved that she could put it there with a few kind words. They hadn’t talked much about his past other than the fact that he had been picked on for being overweight, something that clearly stayed with him. She wondered if he had family, if they were kind. These were all things she wanted to find out. If there was time.

He reached across for her hand and she placed it in his. Lacing their fingers together, he sighed, as though he could now relax. She loved the feel of her small hand in his. Strong fingers, warm and secure. His thumb moved gently over the skin of her hand, the small gesture making her feel breathless.

“I can’t talk about work, but I can say that Mayor McClure was hoping that working with me would have other benefits. One of which was apparently marrying his daughter. What is with everyone trying to marry everyone in this town? Is that a Lucky thing? You’ve been proposed to a million times and I come for a few days and the mayor tries to marry me off to his daughter.” She sucked in her breath. He squeezed her hand. “Hey. Just so we’re clear, that’s not happening for all kinds of reasons. The first of which is that she’s awful. Also, I just met her. That would be ridiculous to start a relationship with someone that soon.”

Her stomach dropped and she pulled her hand back, leaning farther away toward the door. Shelby wished she could massage the pain from her aching heart at those words. “Yeah, ridiculous.”

“Hey, Shelby. I didn’t mean—”

“It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not. You and I—”

Before he could say the next words that would surely shatter her heart even more completely, Shelby caught sight of a black SUV in front of her house. “Who’s that?”

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