Page 58 of His Best Friend's Baby

Jesse stretched out the measuring tape. He pressed it against the wood, took a pencil from behind his ear and made a small mark on the oak.

A small, beat-up, paint-splattered radio was playing a Johnny Cash tune and Jesse hummed along with it for a moment.

Julia felt aglow, relieved and happy in the way of a person finally setting down a burden. “I got a job.”

“Good for you.” He obviously meant it. There was no sarcasm in his voice.

“Out at Petro, the truck stop. I start on Saturday.”

“I used to dream about their meat loaf.”

“You’re kidding.” Julia laughed.

“God, I wish. The big secret about life in the military is that most of the time all you’re doing is dreaming about food. And sex. That’s it.”

“Did you like it? The military, I mean,” Julia asked, wondering at what point all of Jesse’s walls would go back up and the relaxed, laughing man in front of her would revert to the cold solider she dreaded.

He selected another piece of wood and measured it. “Some of it. Some of it I loved.”

That was all he said. She made a humming noise and let the subject drop.

“What about you?” he asked. “What did you do before you ended up being a helicopter pilot’s wife?”

“I moved to the coast, got a job waiting tables. One day I went for a run on the beach and ran into Mitch.” She shrugged. “That’s my whole life story.”

Jesse wiped his hands on a cloth from the bench. “Mitch used to talk about you nonstop. But I could never know what was real and what was bullshit.”

“Most of it was lies I bet.” She laughed, feeling awkward under his sideways gaze. “I never wanted to go to college and I never wanted to be a dancer—”

“Really?”

She glanced up at him but not for long. “Well, maybe for a second or two out of high school. I took some classes, but nothing serious.”

He smiled. “You look like a dancer. You move like one.”

Julia blushed like a schoolgirl and loved every minute of it. She felt as though she were being wooed.

“So, what do you want to do now?” he asked. “If not college, if not dancing, then what?”

She bit her tongue against putting her wish into words for fear of jinxing herself. But this was Jesse, the man who’d seen through to the best parts of her from the moment they’d met.

“I want to work with plants,” she confessed. “Landscape or horticulture or something.” She waved a hand as if to say, “it’s no big deal.”

“You know Holmes Landscaping—”

“I applied. They’re not hiring.” She looked away, embarrassed by wanting something she couldn’t get.

Worth. She reminded herself. You are worth more than that job. It’s their loss.

“Mitch never mentioned that,” Jesse said.

“He didn’t know.”

She met his eyes and suddenly him knowing her aspiration was more intimate than then kiss in the kitchen.

“Mitch talked about you all the time, too,” she said, changing the subject in a rush. “Same thing, though. Didn’t know what was real.”

“Well—” he scowled and searched through the clutter on the bench “—I never went to jail and I never beat up a kid for his shoes and—”

“Until I met you,” she interrupted his tirade. “The second you stepped into my house in Germany I felt like I knew what was real and what wasn’t.”

He stood still, his hands hovering over the workbench, as though waiting for something.

“I knew you were smart, but didn’t do so well in school. I knew you were a good athlete. I knew you liked books and music. I knew you never lied.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far.”

“I knew you were one of the good guys, no matter what Mitch said.”

Jesse stared at her and somehow she knew he needed to hear this, he needed to be stroked and patted. His ego was as battered as hers, she could see it in his eyes. “I feel like I’ve known you all my life, Jesse. Doesn’t that sound crazy?”

“No,” he murmured. “It doesn’t sound crazy at all.”

He cocked his head and watched her. The air suddenly changed. Became electric, dangerous. The core of Julia’s body, simmering for days now, erupted and she felt her face flush.

---