It Took a Rumor (11 page)

Dallas said, “Thank you, Pop.”

“You’re welcome. You’re right welcome.”

Jake got up and left the table.

“Honey, where are you going?” Clara shouted. “You didn’t eat your supper!”

The screen door slammed on her last word. He skipped the two porch steps, his boots landing solid on the gravel driveway. He followed it to the county road toward his house. The gravel crunched beneath his feet. The sun hovered over the tree line, gradually dipping, taking its summer heat with it.

Jake stopped, turned around, and started walking the other direction. He passed his parents’ house without incident and followed the county road all the way to where it intersected with a small highway. Three miles didn’t slow down his heartbeat or his intentions. The farmhouse came into view, big and beautiful, way more house than the two people living in it needed. Even when Mrs. Turner had been alive, she’d had to hire help to keep it clean. Three stories tall with a two-story wrap-around porch. Mrs. Turner used to talk about turning it into a bed and breakfast, but Jake doubted her introverted husband and daughter would do any such thing.
 

Jake jogged up the steps to the double doors and rang the bell. Ivy would open the door and he’d grab her and kiss her good and hard. He’d do it fast before her brain had a chance to ruin the moment. He’d kiss her so wildly that she’d beg him to take her to her room. Then he’d make love to her way longer than two and a half minutes. He’d blow her mind. Rock her world. Conquer her so thoroughly that she’d never want to leave his side.
 

The door swung open and Jake choked on his next breath. “Uh, hey, Mr. Turner.”

“Good evening, Jake. What brings you by tonight?” Jared, as amiable as ever, stood comfortably in his doorway, holding the screen door open.

“Umm…” Jake couldn’t help glancing past Jared’s shoulder to the interior of the house.

“Are you looking for Ivy?”

“What? No, of course not. Why would I be looking for Ivy?” He laughed nervously, cleared his throat, and schooled his expression. “No, sir, I came by to, um, to…to warn you. Right. About the thing on Myra’s blog.”

“What thing?”

“Myra caught me at the diner the other day and, well, at the time, she was asking about Ivy and Dallas. And I thought she’d done enough to poor Ivy, so…I suggested to her there might be some rivalry between you and my dad.”

“I see. You thought that would take her attention off Ivy.”

“Yes, sir.”

“In that case, no apology necessary. Ivy’s a strong, self-confident young woman, but the gossip was really beginning to get her down.”

Jake swallowed and nodded.
 

“I don’t suppose you happen to know how the rumors got started in the first place?”

Jake gulped again and shook his head.

Jared chuckled. “Son, if you wanna see her, she’s just upstairs.”

“See who? Ivy? I don’t even know her. I just came by, like I said, to apologize.” He started backing down the steps even as his eyes wandered upward. Somewhere up there in one of those rooms was a smallish girl with blond hair and warm skin and soft lips and a loud mouth…

“She isn’t doing anything important. I could call her down.”

She’d grown up up there, just a few miles from him. He’d spent all his life on that one patch of land and here she was, all the time. He remembered seeing her as a baby. A toddler. A little girl with braids. She’d grown up and gone to school with Boone. One summer, when she was sixteen, he’d seen her swimming in the river with her friends, climbing up on rocks and jumping off. He did remember that—her lean, bronzed body glistening in the sun; her smile big and innocent and unspoiled. He’d seen her in passing at church every Sunday, in the grocery store, at the diner, socializing at fairs and carnivals and parties. All this time. “I wouldn’t want to bother her,” he said, barely conscious of having said it.

“Jake.”

Jake’s head cleared and he met Jared’s gaze. “Yes, sir.”

“Are you in a relationship with my daughter?”

“No, sir.” That was an easy question to answer.

“Do you want to be?”

Not an easy question to answer. Jake laughed nervously. “No. Of course not. I don’t, like I said, even know her. I just…”

Jared blinked and folded his arms over his chest. “Just what?”

“I just never noticed her before, that’s all.”

“But you’re noticing her now?”

“No. I mean, yeah, but…but you wouldn’t want that, I’m sure. Right?”

“Well, for the most part, I want Ivy’s happiness. Do you intend to make her happy?”

Jake stood there in the dirt at the foot of the porch steps looking up at Jared leaning against the front door. What was he doing? He wasn’t a teenager asking to take the guy’s daughter to prom. He was a grown man who wanted a grown woman. He’d never realized before how much he cowered on a daily basis. He’d always called it respect. He respected his father, therefore he did as he was told. But that was wrong all along. He knew this now because he wasn’t afraid of the man who stood in front of him. He respected him.

So Jake climbed the steps and faced Jared Turner like a man. “I’d sure like to try, sir.”

Jared grinned. “How long’s this been going on?”

Jake thought back. “I guess two weeks or so? Happened when you sent her to meet with me at the diner that first time.”

Jared nodded.
 

“Mostly she just yells at me, though. So, I’m not sure if she’s interested.”

“No time like the present to find out. I’ll go call her down. Can I get you something to drink? Iced tea? A beer?”

Jake grinned at the word “beer,” and Jared nodded, disappearing inside. There was a porch swing at the end of the porch, facing inward. Jake sat and rocked slowly. A couple minutes later, Ivy came out, carrying two beers. Her hair was loose. She had on shorts and a thin, flowing tank top, no bra…clearly clothes to be worn when settling in for the evening. Jake stood as she approached, sat when she sat, and opened her beer for her. He rested one arm along the back of the swing, framing her with it, making her a part of his space.
 

“I’m sorry about all of this,” he said.

“All of what?”

“All of the drama.”

She shrugged and drank deeply from her beer. “Why are you here?”

“I don’t know. I was going home. Turned around and came here instead. Missed you.” He brushed her hair aside so he could watch her blush.
 

“We don’t even know each other.”

“I was remembering, just now, all the times I noticed you in the past. Just brief moments where you made an impression on me. There’s a lot of them. You were a little kid for the longest time, though, so I don’t think I ever made that transition in my mind to looking at you as a woman.”

She looked up at him. “I guess my jumping on you down by the creek fixed that for you.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She scooted closer and relaxed into his side. How she could be so casual was beyond him. The mere feel of her warmth had his heart racing. With her body pressed against his, he was dangerously close to cardiac arrest. “I’m calmed down from earlier,” she said, “but I haven’t changed my mind. Dating is one of those basic steps into adulthood, and if you can’t even break away from your father enough to do that, then I’m not going any further down this road with you.”

“I know. I get it.” A breeze blew in. Her hair tickled his neck. The scent of it filled him deeply.

“So? What’s your plan?”

He blew out a breath. He really hadn’t thought this through. “You need a plan right now?”

“I need an intention right now.”

“Okay, well, I intend to give you what you want. I just don’t quite know how, yet.”

She brought her feet onto the swing and curled against him, his reward for saying the right thing. No, that was the wrong way to look at it. What he’d done, was earn a bit of trust. Enough trust that she was willing to relax against him for a while.

“I’ve been doing some remembering, too,” she said. “I remember I had a crush on you when I was twelve.”

Caught off guard, he momentarily forgot his lust and laughed. “Really?”

She shook her head. “I used to lie in bed at night, hug my pillow, and cry over how much I was in love with you. Stupid teenage girl stuff, but still…it’s kind of funny.”

“How’d you come to even notice me?”

“I tripped and fell running around in the church parking lot. You picked me up, helped me to the bathroom, stood by while Mrs. Harper applied antiseptic. Then you walked me to my car.”

“Twelve. That would have made me, what, twenty-two? I didn’t realize I was so gentlemanly back then.”

“You had a girlfriend. I was heartbroken.”

“Oh, yeah. Melissa, I think.”

Suddenly, she sat up and swung around, straddling him. She reached to set her beer on the porch rail, then took his and did the same. Jake just focused on breathing. Her knees hugged his hips. He had no idea where to put his hands. “You don’t have a girlfriend now,” she said with a sly grin.

“No, ma’am.”

She ran her hands up his neck and into his hair. His eyes rolled shut and a low groan escaped his throat. When he felt her breath on his lips, he opened his eyes just long enough to watch hers close, and then melted into her kiss. In so many ways, he lost consciousness of the outside world as all his senses turned inward, attuned to all the nerve endings in his body that were now lit up like Christmas lights. In other ways, he was more fully aware than he’d ever been. He felt the vertebrae of her spine shift with her subtle, seductive movements. Through that touch, in his mind, he visualized her moving, undulating against him. His other hand cupped her jaw and felt its movement and its fragility. How could something be so delicate yet so strong?

When she kissed her way to the base of his jaw, he opened his eyes to see as much of her as he could. Her hand on his chest, fisting in his shirt. Her bare thigh against his jeans. She was all soft curves and mouthwatering flesh.

He touched her reverently, cupping her shoulder and sliding down to her elbow, watching the light from the sunset filter through the fine hairs on her arm, giving her a soft glow. He kissed her shoulder softly.

“Oh, Jake,” she whispered. She nipped at his ear, and he hissed in a breath. She did it again, this time licking along the outer edge.

“Ivy,” he groaned, and wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her tightly. This was such a dense concentration of want and need that he thought he might burn up in the heat of it. “You’re trembling,” he whispered.

“I think that’s you.” She pulled back and smiled at him, her cheeks flushed pink. “Look how turned on you are. It’s no wonder you don’t last very long.”

“Don’t make fun of me, Ivy,” he said, because she was right. He was so turned on it hurt, and he only wanted her kindness and her body, just now.

Her expression sobered, her lips still parted from the smile. “I wasn’t meaning to. I just think it’s strange…”

“What?” He stroked her hair. Tucked his hand in the small of her back beneath her shirt, bare flesh warm and damp with sweat. “What’s strange about it?”
 

She laced her fingers behind his neck and hung on. Her smile faded. Her lips were swollen and wet. For a moment, he saw her as a tousled, uncertain girl. He knew she wasn’t a virgin. Obviously. But in that moment, she looked like one. “It’s strange to see you…”

“See me what, Ivy?”

She shifted on his lap, and he hissed in a breath, still on edge and not sure how long he would last with her sitting on him like this. Her wide eyes sparkled. “To see you such a slave to desire.”

He grinned at that. “I try not to be. You’ve caught me unawares.”

“I’m glad. I like it. I like seeing you weak.”

This time he laughed and brought her against him in a firm embrace. The moment changed, no longer blistering with heat, but rather warm and soft. She rested her cheek on his shoulder. He rubbed her back up and down. “I like you like this,” he said.

“How’s that?” Her voice was barely more than a whisper.

“Quiet.”

She laughed and squeezed him tighter. “This relationship is going nowhere.”

“Mmm. We’ll see.”

“You’re not usually passionate. I’m not usually quiet. Clearly this is just a fling.”

He turned and kissed her hair. This wasn’t just a fling. “I’m passionate when it counts. And it happens I like you when you’re loud, too.”

She sighed. “Can we just stay like this forever?”

They couldn’t.
 

Later, as he walked home in the dark, he tried to remember how the time had ended. It seemed as though one minute he was high as a kite, holding her, swaying in the swing with the evening breeze cooling their skin, and the next, he was trudging down a gravel road in the dark. She hadn’t invited him inside. He hadn’t asked. At some point, they’d separated, and they’d stood, straightened their clothes, and parted.
 

Now, here he was, halfway home, his head clearing at last, and reality slowly returning to the forefront of his mind. He’d run away, is what he’d done. Run off on an impulse and done something that made him happy. But the plain fact was, dating Ivy was going to cause strife, and for a peacemaker like Jake, that prospect didn’t sit well.
 

He arrived home, grabbed a beer out of the fridge, and sat on the porch, vaguely wondering where his brothers were, this time of night.

If anyone had the right to storm out, it was Dallas. But since Jake did it first, Dallas was obliged to sit through the rest of the meal with his food burning in his belly and a volcano of rage in his soul on the verge of erupting. As soon as Clara called Boone to help with the dishes, Dallas took off.
 

He cut through the field as though he were headed home, but rerouted when he was out of sight of the house.

Dumb. It was the reason for everything. Gideon wouldn’t pay for a college degree because it’d be a waste on someone so dumb. Dallas would never get a respectable woman, since he was too dumb.
 

Maybe if he’d been born first, being dumb wouldn’t matter so much. It sure didn’t matter in Jake’s case. Jake was dumb as shit and the old man didn’t seem to care. Boone wasn’t dumb, but he was a damn idiot. Dallas had never done a thing to earn his father’s prejudice. It was just a box that he stuck Dallas in back when he was a five-year-old boy who accidentally lit his momma’s curtains on fire, and now he was stuck in it.