Twisted Up (Taking Chances #1) - Erin Nicholas Page 0,111
HOME, and that was, amazingly, still intact in spite of the wind and rain. There were a dozen long tables on the lawn under the trees by the main house. Tomorrow night they would be draped in red-and-white gingham tablecloths and laden with plates and bowls and Crock-Pots of food.
But Wes kept going past the driveway.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“You’ll see,” Heidi told her.
Two miles later, Wes turned the car off the paved road onto a gravel road, but Avery barely noticed. She was texting Jake. And not getting answers.
Avery worked on not panicking. “Have you seen Jake?”
Heidi looked back. “Not since Frank’s office.”
“So you don’t know where he is right now?” Avery asked.
“Well, actually . . .” Heidi pointed out the windshield.
They pulled up in front of a huge two-story house with a single light burning in one of the windows and a truck sitting in the drive.
Jake’s truck.
Heidi turned in her seat to look back at Avery. “He was going to wait to bring you here until this weekend when he had it all inspected and cleaned up. But I think you need to see this tonight.”
“Jake wanted to bring me here?”
What was going on?
The front door opened, and Avery’s attention was pulled from Heidi to Jake as he stepped out onto the porch. He braced both hands on the railing that ran the length of the huge front porch and just watched them.
“Come on,” Wes said.
He and Heidi got out of the car, and Avery had no choice but to follow.
“Mom, Dad,” Jake greeted, “thought we had a plan.”
“We did. But then Avery started talking about plane tickets to DC,” Heidi said.
Jake’s gaze swung to Avery, and she felt the force of it even across the twenty feet separating them.
“Is that right?”
Avery nodded.
He’d changed since she’d last seen him. He was dressed in faded blue jeans, an even more faded T-shirt, and work boots.
Okay, so obviously he’d packed up his truck with tools and supplies—not to head to Iowa or to Kansas City or DC or wherever his next stop was—but to come out here. Why?
“What did you think you were going to do in DC, Avery?” he finally asked, straightening away from the railing.
“I was going to see you.”
“You looking for a personal tour guide for the national monuments or something?”
She took a deep breath. “Just you,” she said simply. “I’d just be there for you.”
She watched him swallow before he asked, “And how long were you thinking about staying?”
Avery felt her heart pounding so hard she could swear her body shook with each beat. “For as long as you’d let me.”
Jake slid his hands into his front pockets. “Well, now, that would have been forever.”
His words washed over her. She felt tears sting her eyes. “That sounds like the perfect amount of time.”
He was quiet for a moment. Then he asked, “You would really say good-bye to my mom and dad, just when you’re getting close again?”
They were pretty far apart to detect a note of gruffness in his voice, but she was sure she heard it.
Jake knew what Heidi and Wes meant to her, what family meant to her.
She nodded. “And Kit and Bree. And I’d give up my job as chief, and I’d sell the house that I’ve put so much time and money into.”
“Your family, your house, your job . . . that’s everything.”
God, she really did love that he referred to them as her family. “But it’s not.” She took a step forward. “Those things are part of my happiness, yes. But my family will always be here, and there are other houses and jobs. You are the only you. And you, Jake Mitchell, in spite of it all, make me happy.” She took another step forward.
He moved to the end of the railing but didn’t say anything, just stared at her from the top of the steps.
“Believe me, you being the source of my greatest happiness is a bit of a shock to me, too,” she said.
Finally, he pulled in a long breath and shook his head. “It’s not a shock to me at all. Of course I’m the source of your greatest happiness.”
There was the Jake she knew . . . and loved.
She was at the bottom of the steps now. She was taking a risk here—the realization flashed through her mind. He could shoot her down. He could say he was leaving and didn’t want her to come. He could break her heart.