Page 69 of The Kiss Keeper
She stilled and caught her breath. “I get it, Jake. That was kind of insane, but I couldn’t let this place go. I couldn’t let it get sold off because that’s exactly what my cousins or any other family member would do. You get it, don’t you? This place gives people…”
“Hope,” he answered.
She blew out a tight breath, then spotted what she’d headed up the beach to find. “Yes, that’s it exactly, but now, I need to think. I may have made the craziest decision of my life, and I have to figure this out on my own.” She touched his chest as the last wisps of light warmed his features. “As sweet as you’ve been, agreeing to play the part of my boyfriend, and God help me, the sex has been mind-blowing, but I need to be alone, and I need to work this out all on my own because we both know that, at the end of the day, you’re just another Jake who’s going to leave me.”
She turned away from him and stared out at the water, listening to the ocean. The unbroken ebb and flow she could never forget, night after summer night, falling asleep to its calming lullaby when Jake came up behind her and whispered in her ear.
“What if I’m not the Jake who leaves?”
9
Jake
Sweet Jesus! He’d said it—said he wanted to be her Jake, her real Jake. And he knew he’d spoken the words because Natalie’s jaw had nearly dropped to the sandy beach.
She closed her mouth, shook her head, then headed toward a cluster of bushy pines, casting long shadows in the setting sun.
“I don’t think you know what you’re saying,” she whispered over the sound of the water.
But he did. He knew exactly what he was saying. After his conversation with Hal, it had all become crystal clear. Staring out at the vast ocean of Natalie green waters, it seemed so simple. He’d lost his way. He’d forgotten what mattered. But there was a way out of his empty life, and it was right in front of him.
Choose hope.
Choose love.
Choose Natalie.
She was his kiss keeper. Since he was a boy, she was the constant reminder that there was good in the world, and now he had a chance to be with her—to be loved and to give love, real love like what his parents had shared.
He and Natalie had a spark from the moment they met. A connection that bound them together. He knew it every time he touched her, and she felt it, too. He could see it in her eyes each time she smiled at him.
He wasn’t just another Jake to her.
But, holy shit! What was he supposed to do now? She’d volunteered to take over the camp. The very camp he was tasked with acquiring.
His thoughts spiraled as he tried to piece it all together.
Did his conversation with Hal set in motion this idea to offer the camp to his family? And not in a million years would he have imagined that Natalie would volunteer to run the show all by herself. But isn’t this what he wanted—to have her and to be able to experience the magic of Camp Woolwich?
He wanted to come clean and tell who he was and what he was really doing there, but now, with her taking over, what would she think of his con? Her ruse had been so innocent. She merely wanted her family to think she had it together. But his deception meant uprooting everything she loved and stealing the camp out from under her family.
He couldn’t tell her—at least, not until he could figure out what the hell to do with Charlie. And what was up with his boss? Text after text, asking for updates. It was like the guy was obsessed with this place. Then, as if the old man could sense it, his damn phone chimed an incoming text.
He pulled his phone and, sure enough, it was from his boss.
Where’s my update? I expect an answer.
He shook his head and pocketed his cell. When he looked up, he found Natalie tugging a weathered, half-beaten to hell rowboat from behind a cluster of trees.
“What are you doing with that?” he asked.
She looked down at the old boat. “Not flying.”
He glanced at the calm waters, glittering with the last rays of sunlight. “It’s getting late. The sun’s almost set. You can’t take that thing out on the water.”
She dragged the boat past him and edged it into the ocean. “I know this coastline like the back of my hand, Jake. I need to think, and being on the water helps me put things into perspective.”
But he needed to keep her on dry land because he had to talk to her.
