Page 35 of Score to Settle
“Yeah, and I had the added weight of knowing Dad would never have been hit if he hadn’t been saving me.”
“You don’t know that,” I say. “And I bet anything, even if he knew the outcome, he’d still have done it a thousand times over.”
“Mama says the same, but sometimes it doesn’t help.” Tears pool in his eyes and I wonder how this tragic accident has impacted Jake. I wonder who he’d be if his dad was still alive. It’s the same unanswerable question I’ve asked myself about my mom.
We fall silent, listening to the rain hit the path. The thunder becomes distant as the storm moves away. I shiver in my damp clothes. Jake must notice because he lifts his arm and I scooch closer. His body is solid and warm.
“Harper,” he says.
“Yeah?” I tilt my head to look up to his face, now inches from mine.
“About what Gordon said?—”
“I’m sorry,” I blurt. “I did let his comment get to me.”
“I just want you to know I haven’t…” He swallows and my eyes linger on his throat. “I haven’t dated or so much as kissed a woman for over a year. I really have changed.”
The air around us shifts as his words settle in the silence. Suddenly I’m thinking about Jake and kissing and how what he’s told me is important to him. He doesn’t say it, but I think the lack of women is since whatever happened in the parking lot with the cheerleaders. Now isn’t the time to ask, because the mention of kissing has my gaze dragging to his mouth. Our faces are so close. Jake’s gaze burns into me with an intensity that makes my breath catch.
The air between us seems to crackle with an electric tension, like the lightning flashing in the sky. A lock of damp hair falls over his brow. Without thinking, I reach up and gently brush it back, my fingertips grazing his warm skin.
His gaze drops to my parted lips and I feel that look everywhere, desire coiling hot and tight in my core. Slowly, achingly slowly, he leans in, closing the last distance between us until I can smell the intoxicating scent of his cologne mixed with rain and fresh air and pure man.
I don’t move. I can’t. I’m frozen. My heart pounds erratically against my ribs as if it might burst out of my chest. Jake’s eyes are dark with desire. His large hand comes up to cup my jaw. I feel surrounded by him, his solid warmth seeping into my chilled skin. My eyes close as his lips hover a whisper from mine. The anticipation has my nerve endings sizzling.
We’re going to kiss.The thought spins like a tornado in my head. It’s all I can think. All I want.
Then the moment shatters in a spray of shaking fur as Buck leaps out from between us, pushing us apart before boundingfrom the cover of the bridge. The storm has passed—the rain stopped—and we were so lost in each other, we didn’t notice.
“We should get going,” I manage to croak as Jake’s hand still lingers on my jaw.
“Sure.” There’s a huskiness to the one-word reply that has me melting a little more.
I leap to my feet, Jake following a second later. I stare anywhere but at Jake as my face burns with the sudden realization of what we were about to do.
Fuck.
What was I thinking? I’m the journalist and Jake is the story. Kissing Jake would’ve been completely unprofessional. Tim has already warned me to be careful and not compromise the integrity of the magazine. Both our careers are hanging by a single thread. Kissing Jake would snap that in a heartbeat.
I swallow hard and take a step back, putting some much-needed distance between us. Boundaries. That’s what we need. I make a mental note not to visit Jake’s hotel room when we stay in Atlanta on Thursday night after the Stormhawks play the Atlanta Skychargers. Ahead of us, Buck romps happily through the wet grass, oblivious to the fact he just saved us from crossing a line that would’ve ruined everything.
And yet, even without the heated moment under the bridge, something has shifted between us. We walk back to the truck in silence and all I can think is how sometimes the heat between us feels like hate and other times it feels like something else entirely. And how in that moment when I thought Jake was going to kiss me, I wanted it so badly I ached for it.
SIXTEEN
JAKE
CHASE:Unlucky tonight, bro!
DYLAN:Should’ve won. Skychargers have a shit offense.
CHASE:It was close and it was their home turf!
CHASE:Still three more games to go to hit the playoffs!
DYLAN:Against the toughest teams in the NFL.
JAKE:Shit way to make me feel better, guys.
