Page 30 of A Lonely Road (Spruce Hill #2)

Chapter Twenty-Six

Nora

W e drove the rest of the way in silence, but Jake kept hold of my hand the entire time, occasionally lifting it to his lips.

How was it this man could convey so much with a single glance, a simple brush of his mouth over my skin?

Though I suspected I knew the answer, I forced myself to set emotional declarations aside for the time being and tried to reflect instead on my relief that I wasn’t being stalked by a ghost from my past.

It was stupid to be so grateful, I was fully willing to admit that, since I knew next to nothing about the man from the bar. Getting cocky because I’d taken him down once in a thirty second altercation would be a mistake. He could very well be even more dangerous than Shawn Milton .

There had to be a reason people said the devil you know is better than the one you don’t, but the devil I knew was utterly terrifying.

What were the chances that this guy was worse?

Putting a face to the recent incidents had sapped the fear right out of me and left behind a sharp edge of anger. By the time we pulled into Jake’s driveway, I'd replayed that scene at the bar in my mind a dozen times, struggling to recall as much about the man as possible.

Spiked light brown hair, wiry frame, clean-shaven.

Almost as tall as Jake, but not as broad or well-muscled.

I couldn’t remember the color of his eyes, only the slimy feeling they’d left on my skin as he looked me up and down.

The keening sound he made when he dropped to his knees reverberated inside my skull, along with his friends’ taunting laughter when he returned to the bar.

At the time, my only concern had been getting the hell away from him, but now I recalled the furious humiliation sparking from his frame as he slunk away. Was that why he wanted to scare me now? Would he ever make a direct move, or was he satisfied with dancing around in the shadows?

Part of me had undoubtedly been annoyed to learn Jake had gone back to confront the man, even as I tried to look at the situation objectively.

Jake’s interest in me had been perfectly clear almost from the start, but there'd been nothing really between us when it happened. He hadn’t reacted to the situation under the guise of lover or boyfriend or whatever it was he might be by this point in time; he’d responded as a business owner who had every right to tell a guy off for hassling women in his restaurant.

My reverie was interrupted when Jake opened my door and raised a quizzical brow. “Daydreaming?” he asked.

“What did you see in me when we first met?” I leaned my head back against the seat, studying his features.

“You mean besides the obvious fact that you’re drop dead gorgeous?”

My cheeks heated a little, just as I was sure he’d intended, but I continued to stare at him until he coughed up a real answer. With a pensive look, he set one hand on my knee and braced his other forearm against the doorframe.

“I saw a beautiful woman who looked so lonely it made my chest ache, who seemed afraid to even shake my hand. And then, underneath that bristling exterior, I saw a woman who was clever and curious and so full of life, it practically broke my heart to think about what might have caused her to be so skittish.”

My eyes widened slightly. Though I hadn’t been sure exactly what his answer would be, it was far more insightful than I ever would've guessed.

“You’re a perceptive man, Jake Lincoln,” I replied, my chest tight with emotion.

He bent down to brush his lips across mine. “I’m a patient man. And you, Nora Cassidy, are most definitely worth the wait.”

Before he could draw back, my arms shot around him and I buried my face against his neck.

Jake clasped me tight and we stayed there in the driveway for several long minutes.

For someone who’d been insisting I could take care of myself barely an hour ago at the police station, I was profoundly glad that for once, I didn’t have to.

“Thank you,” I murmured finally. “I needed that.”

Jake kissed my forehead before lifting me down from the truck. “I am more than happy to hold you anytime you need it. Day or night, Nora, I’m here for you. You’re not going to scare me away. Got it?”

That simple affirmation caused my breath to catch in my throat. It took a moment before I could nod and whisper, “Got it.”

“Good. Ready to install your brand-spanking-new front door?”

Hand in hand, we went up and checked over the interior of the apartment again.

The broken pane on the door had been boarded over and the glass swept tidily away, but everything else looked exactly as we’d left it.

Jake eased his way around me to enter the bedroom and toss the skirt into the bottom dresser drawer.

“Now that is a crying shame,” he grumbled. “I liked that skirt almost as much as the blue dress.”

I laughed, and suddenly those threads of tension winding their way up the back of my neck and into the base of my skull began to loosen their hold. “Fortunately, your sister is an expert shopper. I’m sure she’d be happy to help me find a replacement. ”

Jake gave an exaggerated groan. “Great, now I’ll be thinking about what you brought home from the last shopping trip while I’m trying to frame in the door.”

“Well, if you work real hard and get all your chores done, maybe there will be a reward for you later.” I batted my eyes at him and slid my hand seductively across his chest as I walked past.

While I sashayed back toward the front door, he muttered, “Okay, just gotta talk myself down from this hard-on. If I don’t get blood flowing back toward my head, I’ll probably end up drilling through my own hand.”

“We can’t have that. I quite like a number of things that require the use of your hands, so an injury would definitely interrupt my future plans,” I teased over my shoulder.

When he finally walked into the kitchen, I handed him a cold bottle of Coke.

Jake flashed a smile of thanks and we sipped in silence for a few minutes before he planted a hard kiss on my lips and got to work.

As with the car repairs, I stood by to hand him tools, hold the flashlight when needed, and generally keep him company.

“Renovating is a lot more fun with you around. Not even an unhinged stalker can dampen your spirit and, shit, I really love that about you,” he said when we had successfully installed the new door and locks.

I flushed scarlet at the casual way he said it, but he just opened and closed the door a few times before peeking out the peephole .

“You definitely can’t see my driveway.”

“Considering I haven’t slept here much, I guess I can just look out the window from your front hall if I want to spy on you out in the driveway,” I replied.

While he put his tools away, I slid a new key onto each of our keychains. It wasn’t really meant to be a statement, but when I handed his keys back, he gave a slow smile, unfettered and sweet in a way that made my heart trip a little faster.

“I didn’t think it was lonely when I was working on this place by myself, but now . . .” He trailed off, watching me for a moment. “I sure like having you around, Nora.”

“I sure like being around, Jake,” I replied.

The simplicity of the statements seemed to underscore the depth of our feelings rather than gloss over them.

“Now that your door is fixed, will you be staying here again?” he asked. His tone was light, but I caught the look in his eye that said he was hoping for a particular answer—and I knew exactly what it was.

I leaned my hip against the porch railing and studied him. “Why don’t you tell me what you’re really trying to say?”

Jake grinned a little. “I can always trust you to cut right to the chase. I’d like it if you’d keep staying over at my place.”

“Because . . . you want to keep an eye on me? Because you’d feel safer knowing I’m protected by your security system? Because you like snuggling with me every night?” I arched a brow ever so slightly in challenge.

“Because, Nora Cassidy,” he said softly, placing his hands on my waist, “I fell a little bit in love with you that very same day.”

The words coasted over my skin, warm as the summer sun. Emotion clogged my throat and I had to take a moment to bask in the way he made me feel—treasured, protected, impossibly happy—so I could respond without letting tears of pure joy mar this moment.

“Is that so?” I breathed, echoing his earlier response.

His blue eyes glowed with pleasure and I couldn’t stop myself from leaning forward to kiss him. With his fingers digging into my hips, he tugged my body against his, surrounding me with every beautiful thing that made up the man I was falling in love with.

“Now, let’s get these cameras installed so I can take you home and claim my reward for getting my chores done,” he growled against my lips.

Once the cameras were up, we sat on the loveseat with our heads together as we connected an app on my phone to the feed.

There on my screen was a clear view of the landing at the top of the stairs.

To test it out, Jake jogged over and went outside, causing an alert to chirp.

The tiny black and white image of him waved up at the camera and offered a goofy smile.

The other camera was focused on a side door leading into the garage, even though there was no access from there to the apartment. Jake didn’t want to risk anyone lying in wait for me to venture out, either .

He had just joined me back on the loveseat, where I was still admiring the system, when my phone rang, startling us both into a chorus of expletives.

“Oh, crap. It’s my dad,” I said, pressing a hand to my chest to slow my pounding heart. Clearly, my father had some kind of sixth sense for knowing the worst possible moment to call.

“Go ahead and talk to him. I’ll go take the rug inside and be back in a few minutes.” Jake kissed the side of my head and left me alone.