Twisted Up (Taking Chances #1) - Erin Nicholas Page 0,29
back to work. But they didn’t speak, they didn’t share even a smile, they certainly didn’t touch, and Jake found his nerves and patience wound tighter and tighter as the night went on.
By midnight, everyone who was supposed to be in Chance, and the eight guests who had been visiting, had been accounted for. There were six head wounds, two broken bones, multiple other minor injuries, and countless bruises, but relatively speaking, everyone was safe and healthy.
Everyone in town had a meal, clean clothes, and a place to sleep—even if it wasn’t their own food, clothes, or beds.
All in all, a successful initial recovery effort.
Jake lounged at one of the long tables in the social hall of the Lutheran church with Max and Dillon, all of them working to decrease their adrenaline levels before trying to sleep. He was nursing a bottle of water and wishing for something stronger.
“You and Avery in the shed, huh?”
Jake glanced at Max. He was surprised his cousin had waited this long to bring that up.
“Avery?” Dillon repeated. He’d stayed at the ER helping with injuries until everyone was bandaged up and taken care of. “You get your kiss already?”
Jake, Dillon, and Max had spent nearly every important moment of their lives together. Their mothers were triplets, and the boys had been born within two months of one another. They’d gone through everything from kindergarten to Little League to basic training together. They knew all about his history with Avery, and if there was anyone he was going to spill his guts to, it would be these guys.
Jake glanced over at the cot where Avery had fallen asleep, her friend Liza on the cot next to her.
Avery had sent the firefighters all home with instructions to report back at eight a.m. She had eventually agreed to go home to shower but had been back within the hour, and it had taken another hour before she would finally lie down.
Jake knew he shouldn’t know all that. He didn’t know if the other firefighters or EMTs or cops or city workers had showered or eaten or were sleeping. But he was acutely aware of Avery.
She lay facing him, and he was grateful for the few minutes to study her like this. She was so damned beautiful, always, but asleep she looked sweet and peaceful. Those were two things that he rarely saw on her face. Of course, when he was around she often looked irritated or turned on—or both. Jake grinned to himself. He liked her sassy. He liked her hot and greedy, too. Even annoyed. Anything but indifferent. That was the one thing he couldn’t take from Avery. There had to be emotion between them—any emotion. He knew he was kind of like a strong-willed four-year-old in that way, but yeah, negative attention from Avery was better than no attention.
“We went out to get more streamers,” he finally said with a shrug. “And . . . things happened.”
“Things?” Dillon cocked an eyebrow.
“Things,” Jake told him. “Like a tornado. For instance.”
“You kissed her,” Max said. He sat forward, leaning his forearms on his thighs and grinning. “During a tornado. Again.”
“She kissed me, actually.”
They both raised their brows at him.
“Seriously. She initiated it.”
“She walked out wearing only sweatpants and your shirt,” Max added.
Yes, he was aware.
“That’s a . . . long story.”
“Are you satisfied now that you got her naked again?” Dillon asked. He was slumped in the chair across from Jake, his elbow propped on the table beside him.
Satisfied? That was definitely not what he was feeling where Avery was concerned. “What do you mean?”
“This obsession with her,” Dillon said. “Now that you’ve been able to seduce her again, are you over it?”
Jake frowned. “I’m not obsessed.” And he didn’t feel over a damned thing.
Dillon and Max laughed.
“I’m not.” But he could admit that it might seem like he was.
“Dude, you romanced her at prom and took her virginity on graduation night, and you thought that was something amazing and special. Then she told you she was sorry for the whole thing. That’s been driving you crazy for years. Then last summer you kissed her again, and you’ve spent the past year obsessed with proving to her that she’s crazy about you.”
“Come on. It’s not an ego thing.” It wasn’t completely an ego thing, anyway. “I like her. She’s beautiful. Why wouldn’t I want to sleep with her?”
The guys just grinned.
Jake looked from one to the other. “She is beautiful.”