Page 48 of Blown

“That sounds fantastic,” Jake said, hoping beyond hope that the more time she spent around Hélène, the more Janice would see the woman as the fraud he was certain she was.

“Everything is going splendidly,” Hélène said, stepping away from where Rafe was ready to take the bowl off the pipe and transfer it to the annealer. “Your son is exceptionally talented.”

“Rafe is a wonder,” Janice agreed, batting her eyelashes at Hélène as Hélène moved to retrieve her bag. “His technique is so innovative and his glassware is beyond compare.”

“Thank you for saying that,” Janice said, beaming. “We’ve always prided ourselves on the exceptional talents of ourchildren. Robert and I have raised them to be free spirits, just as the two of us are.”

Rafe grunted as he stood to take the bowl to the annealer. Under any other circumstances, Jake would have found Rafe’s discomfort at the way his mom flirted hilarious.

He followed Rafe to the annealer, but before he could express his concerns again, Rafe turned to him and snapped, “What? Are you here to tell me you think my mum is a corporate spy and that she’s planning to sell the plans for this hot shop to your FBI or something?”

Frustration pounded through Jake, burrowing into his head for the beginnings of a headache. “No,” he said. “I just want you to be careful. That’s all. I care about you and I want you to be careful.”

“Is that so?” Rafe shut the annealer and walked away, pulling off his gloves and goggles.

“Hélène and I are just going to head up to the garden, dear,” Janice called from where she and Hélène were already halfway out the door. “We’ll meet the two of you there once you sort this out.” She gestured around the hot shop, but Jake was certain she was talking about the two of them.

“Alright,” Rafe called after them, returning to his workbench. “We’ll be there shortly.”

Jake raised a hand to wave and smiled weakly. As soon as they were gone, he rushed to catch up to Rafe.

“Please, Rafe,” he said. “Get rid of her as fast as you can.”

Rafe pivoted to glare at him. “First you dangle the possibility of an assistantship with Hélène over my head as some sort of prize for marrying you. Now you’re telling me to run away from her as fast as possible? What next? Will you decide against the UK after all and chase after Hélène so you can get a French visa?”

The accusation hurt enough to blast Jake’s thoughts in a different direction.

“I want to be here with you,” he said, raising his voice. “Screw the visa. All I care about is being with you and keeping you safe. No one has ever made me feel the way you do, Rafe. Yes, I want to stay here, and yes, I need to marry you to do that. But I want to marry you. I want to work with you and sleep with you and spend the rest of my life here with you. But I’d give that all up in a heartbeat if it meant I could keep you safe from a liar and cheat.”

“What, like you?” Rafe asked.

It hurt. It hurt even more when Rafe walked past him toward the door. He was so eager to get away from him that he wasn’t even going to clean up his hot shop.

Jake did the work for him, moving quickly through the shop to put away tools and to secure the furnace. He’d never worked so fast to secure things and he’d probably done a shit job of it, but it was more important to protect Rafe than to have a clean shop.

By the time he caught up with Rafe in the rose garden, the picnic was already underway. Most of the Hawthorne family was there, including Nick and Bax with the kids.

“I never wanted children,” Hélène said, her nose turned up as she leaned away from where Macy was making a mess of her lunch. “They are a distraction and they are too messy for me.”

“I never thought I would enjoy children either,” Rafe said, his focus completely on Hélène to a degree that made Jake nauseated. “But I love Jordan and Macy and I would give my life for them.”

Jake let out a breath of relief as he sat on the edge of the blanket, close to Rafe. At least Rafe hadn’t been completely bewitched by the Frenchwoman.

Interestingly, Janice seemed cooler towards Hélène now than she’d been just half an hour before. “I raised seven children and was surrounded by their cousins as well through all of their childhoods. There is nothing in my life that I’m prouder of than my family.”

“And what about you, Jake?” Hélène asked, turning to him with a cold, imperious air. “What do you think of children?”

“I….” Jake glanced at Rafe, instinctively trying to gauge his mood so that he could figure out what he wanted to hear. Rafe was clearly still angry with him, though, which made it feel like he couldn’t win no matter what he said. “I’ve never really given it much thought,” he said at last, trying to smile at Hélène.

“You seem to give everything else a great deal of thought,” Rafe muttered as he picked up a sandwich from his plate. “One might call it overthinking.” He stared hard at Jake as he bit the sandwich.

The coil of frustration pulled tighter in Jake’s gut. He couldn’t win no matter what he did. If he was charming and fun he was stealing focus and getting in the way. If he was honest and careful, he was overthinking and trying to spoil Rafe’s good thing.

He did the only thing he could think that might possibly help. He turned to Hélène and asked, “So, what are you working on these days, Hélène?”

It felt like the right track, especially when everyone in the family turned to Hélène with interest.

“Oh, you know, this and that,” Hélène said, gesturing to brush the question away. She flushed slightly and avoided everyone’s gazes.

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