Page 49 of A Lonely Road
We’d get to that later.
I laughed. “Does that mean we’re going steady, Jake Lincoln?”
“Hell yes, it does.”
“Good, I do appreciate knowing exactly where things stand,” I said primly.
Jake’s arm stretched out along the back of the seat so he could toy with my hair. When I relaxed my head into his palm and closed my eyes, he said, “You’re like a cat, the way you lean in and purr every time I touch you. It’s terribly sexy, you know.”
I didn’t open my eyes, but I smiled. “Well, I guess being compared to a sexy cat is better than a porcupine.”
“I should have known you wouldn’t let that comment slide,” he replied with a laugh. “You’re too soft for a porcupine, anyway, but you’ve sure as hell got claws. It’s one of my favorite things about you.”
He parked outside the restaurant but didn’t make any move to leave the truck, just kept playing with my hair. With a soft sigh, I opened my eyes and rolled my head toward him so that his hand cupped my cheek.
“I appreciate you sticking around long enough to get past my prickly side. I’m not sure what you saw in me to make you think it was worth the trouble, but I’m very glad that you did.”
“Well, I’m sure my position on ignoring a woman’s signals has been made pretty clear by now, but I would've backed off in a heartbeat if you’d wanted me to, Nora. I do hope you know that.”
His gaze was as soft as the way his thumb brushed over my cheek in a tiny, hypnotic arc. I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat and nodded.
“I know you would have. That’s probably why I couldn’t bring myself to give you the boot. No matter how many hurdles I threw out there, you cleared every one of them.”
“And I’ll clear any more that come my way.”
I sucked in a shaky breath. “You see me in a way no one else ever has.”
“I like what I see,” he whispered, then leaned over and kissed me. By the time he drew away, I was dazed and a little bit ruffled, which was probably exactly what he intended. “There’s more where that came from when we get back to my place.”
My lips twitched up into a smile. “So your plan is to just hole up at your house and fool around all day until the police solve this mystery?”
“Well, I was planning to replace the door at your apartment and set you up with a security camera somewhere along the way, but as for the rest of the time, I’m not opposed to your plan.”
There were definitely worse things than hiding away with Jake Lincoln, at least until we knew what was going on. The break-in by itself would've been easy enough to explain away, but the text?
That was intentional.
Just like the bar and the shopping incident, my thoughts had immediately gone to Shawn Milton when we found the apartment door open, even though I’d already decided it was highly unlikely that he was the one at the bistro.
Now I was thinking about the guy from The Mermaid, the way his eyes slithered over me, the way he shrieked when I twisted his arm. After learning that Jake had gone back to threaten him, it was obvious that guy had a reason to want revenge on both of us.
In truth, I wasn’t sure what bothered me more—Jake getting tangled up in something because of me, or the niggling feeling that whoever was behind all this would be more thanhappy for me to continue my usual pattern of moving on after a few months.
What would it be like to stay for once, to put down roots instead of running away? To rely on someone else and be relied upon, to weave my existence into a tapestry of others?
Those questions echoed through my mind until I realized Jake was still watching me, quiet and patient as ever.
I shook myself from my tangled thoughts, keeping my tone intentionally light as I said, “Let’s get this over with so we can hole up at your house.”
“Excellent plan.”
With a wink and that beautiful dimpled grin, he opened his door and led the way into the restaurant.
The Mermaid was eerily quiet at this hour of the morning, but Jake’s friend Casey was waiting for us at one of the tables near the door. Her short hair was dyed a brilliant shade of red that bordered on burgundy, and she had bright hazel eyes and an easy smile that somehow made me feel immediately at ease.
And she was beautiful in a sharp, edgy way that made me wonder if this was who held Sam’s heart.
“This must be the infamous Nora Cassidy,” Casey said as she stood to offer her hand.
