Kaleidoscope (21 page)

“ ’Night, honey,” she murmured sleepily into his chest, giving his stomach a squeeze as she did.

“ ’Night, baby,” he replied, pulling her closer, smelling strawberries.

She was dead weight within minutes.

Deck stared at the ceiling, the vision of Emme holding little Jacob seared in his brain.

So when his eyes closed, he fell asleep with his lips tipped up.

*    *    *

Thirty minutes later…

Forcing my body to stay relaxed just in case Deck woke to find me awake, I stared unseeing at Jacob’s chest.

And I was unseeing not just because it was dark.

All I could see was him holding Chace and Faye’s baby, cuddling him close to his big man’s body with his mighty arms, his head tipped down, his handsome face holding happiness and awe.

So beautiful.

Extraordinary.

Even profound.

Love you too, baby.

There the words came as they had again and again the last half an hour. His deep voice saying those words sounding in my head.

And then,
Wanna build a life with you, Emmanuelle.

I clenched my teeth.

And I clenched my teeth because seeing Jacob holding his namesake in my mind’s eye, hearing his words ringing in my ears, I felt nothing.

Nothing but sheer terror.

Two weeks six days later…

I was pulling the utility knife through drywall when I heard my phone ring in the kitchen.

I dropped the knife, dashed from the makeshift workstation I’d set up in the dining room and snatched it up just in time, seeing the display said “Jacob calling.”

I put it to my ear. “Hey, honey.”

“Where are you?”

He didn’t sound happy.

I felt my brows draw together and answered, “At home, cutting drywall to patch over the electrical work.” I paused before I went on with a smile, “Having Buford around, I’m now determined to become a puppy momma. And that would be to an actual puppy, as in one who’s just been weaned. Not a dog who’s still a puppy to me, he just old enough to know he should no longer chew everything. So I need to do something with this exposed wiring.”

“You’re cutting drywall,” he stated, still sounding unhappy, and I still didn’t get it.

I was cutting drywall, not boiling bunnies.

“Yeah,” I confirmed.

“Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere else doing something else?”

I blinked, cast my mind out, remembered and couldn’t believe I forgot.

But I did. Totally. It didn’t even enter my head from waking up until now. All my thoughts were on drywall and puppies. I’d even woken up to Jacob kissing me before he took off to do whatever Jacob Things he’d been taking off to do recently in the early morning and then I went back to sleep.

He hadn’t said “see you later” but then he probably didn’t think he had to.

How could that be?

My eyes flew to the clock on the microwave, my heart sank and feeling the unhappy vibes beating at me over the phone, I whispered, “Oh no.”

“Yeah,” Jacob bit off.

“I got caught up. I’m so sorry. I need to shower,” I told him. “But I’ll be quick then I’ll be over.”

“That’d be good,” he replied, still angry.

“Are they there yet?”

“Just called. They’re ten, fifteen minutes out.”

Oh no!

“I’ll hurry,” I promised.

“Right,” he clipped. “Later.”

Then he was gone.

He never ended a call like that.

Totally angry.

But there was a reason he was angry. His parents arrived in Denver three hours ago. And I was supposed to be at Jacob’s half an hour ago in order to be there when they got there so we could start bonding without delay.

Now, with shower, meet-the-parents prep and travel time, I’d be way late. In other words, there was no time to waste since there was no time
at all
.

So I did what I promised.

I raced upstairs and hurried.

*    *    *

I opened Jacob’s back door thinking inanely, from the SUV I saw in his driveway, his parents didn’t mess around with rentals. The minute I got the door open, I saw Buford who, as always, came to greet me.

“Hey, puppy,” I murmured, bending and giving him a rubdown, which, out of necessity, had to be a quick rubdown since I had to get my behind into the house to meet Jacob’s parents.

I gave him an extra ear scratch to make up for it, straightened and saw Jacob moving down the hall.

This did not bode well. Jacob never met me in the back hall.

I smiled at him hesitantly. “Hey, honey. Sorry. I hurried as best I could. Did they have an okay trip?”

He stopped, did a top to toe with his eyes, didn’t answer my question and asked his own, “Where’s your bag?”

“My what?” I asked.

“Bag, Emme. Your overnight bag. Did you leave it in Cletus?”

“Persephone,” I corrected automatically, but didn’t get the usual grin that came fast and easy whenever we were talking about my Bronco.

Instead, his mouth got tight.

It was a scary look and indicated he was still angry.

I didn’t know what to do with this. I didn’t think Jacob had ever been angry with me. Not real angry, as in we weren’t fighting about gun control, which he didn’t really care what I thought about, he just liked fighting about it. But instead, he was actually upset with me.

It did not feel very good to have him upset with me, not at all. More so because he had reason.

And further, I didn’t understand why he was asking about my bag.

“I, well… didn’t bring a bag,” I admitted.

His mouth got tighter.

Then he muttered as he reached out and grabbed my hand, “Doesn’t matter. You got enough shit in the bathroom here to work with and you can sleep in one of my tees.”

I did have enough “shit” in his bathroom. That was, if he was referring to shampoo and moisturizer and stuff. I’d doubled up on a few things so I didn’t have to lug so much around all the time.

But sleep in one of his tees?

I wasn’t spending the night with his parents there. I may have forgotten about meeting them but I didn’t forget about us making plans for me to spend the night. I would have remembered that, as in discussed it and declined the option.

It was okay for Jacob to spend the night at my house when Mom and Dad were around. They knew him.

His parents didn’t know me.

They might think I was a floozy. The last impression a girl wanted to give the parents of the man she loved on first meeting them was that she was a floozy.

I wanted to tug my hand to stop his advance in order to explain this to him as he was now dragging me down the hall, but I didn’t figure that would better his mood. So I let him drag me down the hall.

We moved through the opening to the great room and I saw Jacob’s dad sitting at a stool at the bar and his mom standing behind it. Both of them were sipping coffee.

Even though I met them only once and spent maybe ten minutes with them, I remembered them vividly. This was because Jacob meant a lot to me so meeting his parents would too.

This was also because they were a surprise.

He got his coloring from his mother. Same hair, same eyes, same olive skin tone.

She was, however, relatively petite. She couldn’t be over five foot five. And she was rounded. It was in a pleasant way that she obviously liked because she didn’t try to hide it. She also didn’t hold herself like she wasn’t comfortable with it.

His dad, however, was the big surprise.

Although there was a hint of his strong, handsome features in Jacob’s face, Richard Decker was fair. His blond hair had still been mostly blond when I met him over a decade ago. Now it was a silvery white. He also had blue eyes. He was tall and built, now slightly soft, and that would be slightly soft in a way he clearly liked his beer because he had a relatively large beer belly. He was way taller than his wife but he was nowhere near as tall as Jacob. Maybe six foot.

I knew Jacob had a brother named Shane who I’d never met. But I’d always wondered if Shane looked like his dad or mom or if he was like Jacob, a best of both but even better kind of offspring.

“Hi,” I greeted, pinning a smile to my face.

Returning my greeting, I saw Karla Decker eyeing me closely but her expression was friendly and welcoming.

Not returning my greeting, Rich Decker was also studying me, doing it closely, but there was speculation in the back of his eyes. It wasn’t that he didn’t look friendly. It was just that, with one look, I knew I was under review and needed to pass inspection.

In order to do that, I pulled my hand from Jacob’s and moved to his father first since he was the closest. I lifted my hand and made my smile bigger.

“I’m really sorry I’m late. I have a project I’m in the middle of that’s so far lasted three years,” I tried to joke. Rich didn’t crack a smile. This made me nervous, so I kept going. “Sometimes when I’m in the throes of it, I lose track of, well… pretty much everything,” I told him, still smiling.

Rich took my hand, his grip firm, his eyes never leaving mine. “Deck’s told us about your house, Emme. But good you could finally make it to his.”

That wording wasn’t the greatest.

And he still hadn’t said hi or anything close.

Even with that not-so-good start, I persevered when he let me go. I pulled my purse off my shoulder, dropped it on the bar and moved around to Karla, hand up.

“Hi. So nice to meet you. And again, I’m so sorry,” I murmured.

“That’s okay, honey,” she murmured back, her eyes also never leaving mine and her grip was warmer. “That’s a pretty sweater,” she remarked when she let my hand go.

Well, that was better.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, stepping back and running into Jacob.

I instantly got an arm around my chest at the same time I felt a wet nose on my hand. Jacob and his dog, both claiming me.

Instantly, I pulled away from Jacob to bend to Buford, explaining, “Poor puppy. He didn’t get his usual rubdown when I got here. Best see to that.”

If his tail wagging was anything to go by, Buford approved of my choice.

If the look I caught when I glanced over my shoulder at Jacob as I straightened away from his dog was anything to go by, I’d made a big mistake.

I bit my lip and Jacob’s arm again came around me, this time at my belly, whereupon it clamped tight so my back was snug to his front, so I decided my best bet was to go with it.

I looked between his parents.

“How was your trip?” I asked.

“Over,” Rich answered, his eyes on Jacob’s arm around my waist.

Then they came up to my face.

I gave him another smile but it was shaky.

He did not smile back.

“I’m just glad we had good weather,” Karla noted, and I looked to her.

She didn’t look speculative or angry. She was calmly sipping coffee.

“I am too,” I agreed.

She stopped sipping coffee and gave me a genuine smile then said, “Let’s just pray we keep that good fortune and don’t have snow while we’re here. Not real fond of the white stuff.”

“Forecast is good for that,” I shared.

She smiled again then took another sip of coffee.

Everyone fell silent.

It was not comfortable. What it was was surprising. This was because it was the kind of thing Jacob would normally forge into in order to make everyone comfortable, including, and maybe especially, me.

I hadn’t been nervous about meeting the Deckers.

Now, because I’d been an idiot, I was.

Stupidly, I decided to break the silence.

“Have you all had lunch?”

“We’ve been waitin’ for you,” Rich informed me then his eyes lifted to his son. “Starved, boy.”

At his words, I quickly jumped away from Jacob, headed to the fridge and announced, “Right. Lunch is my domain. I’m killer with cold cuts and Jacob’s always stocked up. He’ll have everything. I’ll take orders.”

“Lunch is your domain?” Rich asked.

I stopped with hand on the handle of the fridge and looked at him. “Jacob is a master with things that require pots, pans and broiling, so he gets dinner. I’ve got a mean hand with a spreader so I get cold cuts.”

“Can’t you cook?” Rich asked.

“Dad,” Jacob murmured.

“Uh… yes, I can. It’s just that Jacob is better at it,” I told him.

Although I thought this was a compliment to his son, it was clear by the look on Rich’s face this was not the right answer, seeing as his jaw got hard and his eyes went to his coffee mug on the counter.

“Actually, if we’re just having sandwiches,” Karla waded in, moving toward me, “I can take care of that.” She caught my eyes. “Since you’ve been working on your house all morning, and all. I wouldn’t know but my guess is, that’s exhausting.”

“And you’ve spent your morning journeying from southern California,” I reminded her. “I’m fine, Karla, I can make lunch.”

“How ’bout someone slaps some meat between some bread so we can all eat?” Rich suggested, giving the impression sandwiches was not his chosen lunch but at this point he’d take what he could get.

“Dad,” Jacob repeated but this wasn’t a murmur. It was a growl.

One could say things were not going smoothly.

Karla got close and said softly, “We’ll work together. Get these men fed.”

I gave her a relieved smile and replied, “Good idea.”

I pulled out the stuff from the fridge. Karla pulled out chips from the cupboards. And when I was at the counter, I chanced a look at Jacob.

He was studying me but he seemed lost in thought. When he felt my eyes on him, he focused and I gave him a nervous smile.

Then I mouthed,
I’m so sorry.

He watched my mouth then looked into my eyes.

Finally, I watched the skin around his eyes go soft and his lips tip up. Better, he moved to me, leaned in and touched his mouth to mine.

When he pulled back an inch, he murmured, “It’s all cool, baby. Yeah?”

I nodded.

He lifted a hand to my neck, swept his thumb along my jaw and moved away.

I took in a breath, let it out and caught sight of Rich when I was looking to the packs of deli meats on the counter.

His eyes were on me and they were still speculative. The good news was, now they didn’t seem annoyed. Just thoughtful.

I tried another smile.

It took him a second, but he smiled back.

The problem was it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

*    *    *

Eight hours later…

Sitting next to Jacob and opposite his parents on Jacob’s couches in the great room, Jacob tried to curl me into him with an arm around my shoulders.

He failed because I stiffened.

Therefore Jacob stiffened.

Suffice it to say, the day had not gone great.

Lunch seemed to appease his father and we hit a happy spell that made me somewhat relax.

Things degenerated when we sat down at Jacob’s table for a game of euchre, boys against girls. This was when I discovered that Rich was highly competitive even though neither Jacob, Karla nor I were.

Competitive people always rubbed me the wrong way and I usually extricated myself from those situations.

This one, I had no hope of extricating myself from, so I did my best to ignore it.

It was difficult when Rich questioned nearly every card I threw even though I wasn’t his partner, finishing the fifth game they won (and thankfully the last game we played) by saying, “Thank Christ we didn’t switch it up, boy girl, boy girl.”